Charley's Blog

I watched  two TED talks about stories and storytelling . One of them was about the dangers of a single story. It talked about how it is bad, and how many of us get our information and formulate ideas around a single story. It talks about how it cheapens the people or the subject matter of that single story, and makes the very one dimensional. it is important to know the complete story, or at least be aware that a single story is not the whole story. I am in a psychology class about skepticism, and we talked about this to a degree, it is important to seek out what the entirety of the literature says, rather than just one study that may be providing you with a very biased and unbalanced view of the subject matter. The other video that I watched was about fictional characters and how they effect our emotions. I really enjoyed this video because it was very interesting, and also because it was tackled from a psychological perspective. She talked about how we can become very emotiona...

  A fish fairy Link A young man went on a journey to find fear. He ran into bandits, pestered by zombies, nearly strangled by ghosts, and had to fight off a goddess of the sea so she was not to sink a ship. none of this caused him fear, not even an attempt on his life. The king hid a life bird inside the dish that the young man was about to eat, and when he opened the dish the bird flew out andstarteled him, to that, the king told him that was fear. A fisherman caught a beautiful fish, so he dug a pound behind his house, so he could keep it and gaze upon it. The fish turned into a beautiful maiden and the fisherman wanted her hand in marriage. she agreed, but the king heard of this maiden and claimed her as his own. the king said that the fisherman could keep the maiden if he could complete an impossible task. the fisherman told the maiden this and she had it done. The king kept giving him impossible task after impossible task, until the maiden and fisherman completed them...

A picture of shazam Link a man was told that his son would be torn to pieces by a dog. so, the man locked his son away so this could not come to be. the son got married and the wife came to live with the son in his chambers. she turned into a wolf and ripped him to shreds. fate will find a way. An unlucky brother went on a journey to find his luck. along the way, he was asked by a wolf where he could find food, by a female queen as to why her subjects would not obey her, and by a gardener as to why his crops would not grow. The man found his luck and the luck gave him all the answers to the peoples questions. He told the woman and in response she asked to marry him, but he declined. he told the gardener that there were four gold jars and all he had to do was dig them up. the gardener told him to stay and share in the wealth, and he declined this as well. he went to the wolf and told him to eat any fool that passes by, so the wolf promptly ate the man and declared that he had ...

 Percy, greatest marksman in all the land,  he who can strike down two great beasts with a single blow  Link Al, Ray, and Percy, three farm hands, were chucking rocks at the field mice. Percy grabs the closest rock to him and takes real careful aim. He closes one eye and raises his thumb to be in line with his target, then he closed his other eye, adjusted his aim a bit, and then hurled the rock with full force through the air. Percy, with both eyes still shut, asks “did I hit em”. Both Al and Ray were in bewilderment, for not only did Percy hit a mouse, he managed to strike down two with a single blow. Al and Ray cheered at the site of the two mice struck down by Percy’s rock. Al said to Percy “you are the champion of rock throwing, the greatest marksman in all the land”. Ray laughed as soon as he heard that and chimed in himself “Percy, greatest marksman in all the land, he who can strike down two great beasts with a single blow”. Both Al and Ray were cracki...

   out of control man with a horse Link a wolf cleverly stole the children of a goat. the goat went to rescue her children and demanded that they fight for them. They each took some time to prepare for the fight. The goat gathered up a bag full of fine butters and cheeses, and gave it to somebody to sharpen her horns. The wolf filled a bag with air, so it looked like it was full, and gave it to somebody to sharpen his teeth, but instead, the dentist pulled out all of his teeth and replaced them with cotton, that looked sharp. The goat was able to outsmart the wolf, kill him, and get her kids back. A girl went to market to buy some ointment for two eggs, but she supposedly lost the eggs and started describing what sounded like some crazy fever dream, the more it went the more she lost, and the crazier and crazier ways she went about finding it. sounded like me when I'm really trying to embellish a story. A man had a wife and seven children, and they were all strugglin...

 Ak, the goblin king Link a king was tasked to retrieve a body that was hanging from a tree. The king went to do this and he cut the body down from the tree. The body made a noise when he did this, but when the king went to check, it was only a goblin that was inside of the body. as the king was carrying the body to wear it needed to go, the goblin offered to tell him a story for their journey. there were three men who all wanted to marry this one beautiful lady. she agreed to marry one of them, but died before she could make her decision. one of the men became a monk, and through his wanderings he found a way to bring the dead back to life.The monk brought the girl back to life, but each brother thought that they had claim to her, for they also helped. the goblin asked the king who should get her, and the king said the one who slept with her ashes, that is what a husband would do. it ends by saying that great minded people do not waiver until they keep their promises, eve...

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This week, I decided to do the story laboratory. I watched the crash course videos over mythology, and I really enjoyed them. They make some really good videos that are always fun and easy to understand. The first video focused on operationally defining what a myth is. I enjoyed that they did that, for it is difficult to understand anything when we are all working with different definitions. The two main components that make up a myth are staying power and significance. A story can be called a myth if it is able to withstand the test of time. A story also needs to have a lesson or an explanation of the world, in order to be significant. My largest take away from the videos is of the purpose of myths. Myths are used as a way to explain the world around us. Nowadays we have science to explain the world, but before science there was myth. Making a story in order to explain any phenomenon could be a lot of fun.

A cute little bat Link a crow could not reach in a bucket to drink, for the water was too low. it had an idea and through in a pebble. the story repeated the same line many a time, and i found that charming. eventually, the crow got a drink, little by little eventually does the trick. maybe goal setting theory an eagle got shot with an arrow that was made with its own feathers. we often give our enemies the means for our own destruction. same story later on, but with trees and an axe. a chicken found a shiny pearl in the yard, but has no use for this. he said that he would gladly trade it for even a morsel of food. a bat claimed neither bird nor beast, thusly was accepted by neither as well. A snake bit and killed the farmers son who stepped on his tail, so in response the farmer chopped off the snakes tail. when the farmer tried to make amends, the snake declined and said that injuries can be forgiven but never forgotten.  a man prayed to a wooden idol that was ...

  Aesop's Fables story book Link the lion thought himself better and more powerful than the other animals, so he claimed all of the spoils for himself. He was later shown no pity in death, rather taunted by all those that he had once walked over. maybe a story of karma would be fun, haha, perhaps about a chameleon. The lion made friends with a boy who saved helped him by removing a thorn from his paw. They became friends, but then they both were captured. The boy was thrown to the starved lion and the lion recognized him, thus he did not eat the boy. I could possibly do a story like this, but with maslow's hierarchy of needs.  Our stories are shaped by the one's who tell them. The victor gets the chance to make history. One of my favorite things is that perception is greater than reality, perhaps a fable pertaining to that. A fox was being eaten by mosquitoes, but declined help to get rid of them, for more that were not already full were sure to come. a wol...

   Skinwalker/Black Dog Link I really enjoy the idea of a choose your own adventure type story. It makes the story more immersive and just more fun in general. I do not really know how to go about creating one, so I think it would be worth my while to spend some time on the extra credit tech tips page . I would be able to learn how to use twine, and that could give my stories a real chance to come to life. I think I will spend the next couple of weeks or so going through the twine section of tech tips and become well acquainted with the software, as well as earning some extra credit along the way. Ooh, I enjoyed the suggestion of possibly combining all of my previous ideas and see what the outcome may be. I could have a native American and a Scotsman or Irishman, exchanging stories or warnings of creatures from their culture. They could possibly happen upon a person or creature and get real spooked from the stories that they have been telling. An argument could arise a...

 Ways to give good feedback Link The two articles that I read were How to Provide Great Feedback When You're Not in Charge and What Kinds of Messages Help Kids Grow? . The article about feedback offered some very good suggestions. It suggested that it is always a good idea to give praise and make others feel appreciated. This is one that I was already aware of and I have put it into practice into my own life. I love when somebody tells me that I am doing a good job, so I try and tell everyone else that they are doing a good job. One important thing that the article talked about was how to give advice. With praise, your focus should be on the person, but with advice, your focus should be on the task. It is important to tell them specifically what they did right, and then tell them what could possibly be improved upon. The article ends with saying that you can ask others for feedback yourself, that way you create an environment of people that seek out feedback. The most impor...

   The cyclops eating Odysseus's men Link Odysseus and his crew had been out at sea for days now. They were beginning to run low on supplies and needed to find a place to restock soon. They were in great luck to happen upon an island. They promptly set sail in the direction of the island and arrived in no time at all. Upon reaching the island, it was clear how prosperous this land was, and how it would be the perfect place to rest and refill their supplies. Odysseus and roughly half of his crew set out to explore this lushes island. It was not long when they realized that this island was inhabited. They spied a giant cyclops, but more importantly they laid their eyes upon the bountiful amount of livestock and sheep that he had.   Cyclops are not known for their hospitality; in fact, they are known to smite any who come to close to their land. Knowing this did not detour Odysseus and his men in the slightest. In fact, they were invigorated by the amount of res...