Week 6 Storytelling: Walking Down Memory Lane

I'm wandering through the streets of a little town. Everything seems to pass me by, almost as if I'm not there. But I feel as though I have been here before... Once upon a time... I'm looking down the road and I feel myself being drawn to this small house. I look through the windows and I see an old couple. Looking at them stirs an odd sense of melancholy, as well as familiarity. Who are these people that affect me so...? I focus harder on remembering my past and it all comes rushing back to me at the speed of light.

~~

I loved them and they, too, loved me. They were my masters and they treated me as they would their own children, although they did not have any. There was a day when I smelled something strange in the garden, something that smelled metallic. I was cautious as I sniffed it and called my master over. He dug up the object and carried it into our home with mistress. It turns out it had some weird rocks in it, but the couple seemed very happy. Who knew that humans liked rocks that much? For some odd reason, from that day on, I dined like a king. They gave me meat at every meal and life was great. 

Later on, I was in the house minding my own business until I sensed a fleeting feeling of murderous intent. I searched for the source but I couldn't pinpoint it. I gave up looking for it and went to check on my masters. It turned out that the neighbor was over. From first sniff, I could sense that he was smarmy. Apparently, he wanted to borrow me to look for some more rocks. 

And so I went with him for a day or two. I basically just lazed around for a bit and one day, I found the BEST treasure in the world. It was a bag of bones. I was so excited. I was about to grab it until I heard the swing of axe and a loud thump. Darkness.

I didn't know what happened but all I remember was running away and trying to get the attention of my master, but he didn't reply. It turned out the neighbor man killed me and pretended it was a natural death. I was livid and wanted revenge.

Over the next few days, I found ways to pay back my master before I left. I helped him obtain gold and treasures from a tree and the great Daimio. Luckily, the villainous neighbor was stupid enough to try to get the same treasures. He ultimately failed and was thrown into jail. Whilst he was in jail, I haunted him each and every day and nearly drove him mad. After he was released, I found him homeless under a bridge. I turned myself into a venomous snake and bit him to death. Good riddance. 

It looks like I fulfilled my goals on this earth.

~~

I took one last glance at my master as a tear fell from my eye. My conscious is slowly fading and a bright light is growing behind me. I have done what I needed to do. Goodbye, my precious master. 

Ghost dog.

"Ghost" by Kitchiki. Source: DeviantArt.

Extra Reading Diary: Indian Fairy Tales

Indian Fairy Tales Half-Unit Reading

READING A:
1. The Lion and the Crane

• This is a story about a lion who, while eating, got a bone stuck in his throat.
• As a result, his throat became sore and he was suffering.
• A crane decided to help him by pulling out the bone.
• The crane wanted a reward for being so helpful, but the lion said the rewards was his life.
• I feel like I may have read this story in one of my past reading diaries, but this story was more detailed
• I think this story paints a very good picture of how being grateful, especially if someone goes out of their way to help you, is important in life. It builds relationships and in the future, if you ever need help again, they will surely be there for you.

2. The Broken Pot

• To be quite honest, I don't think I like the message, if any, from this story
• From what it looks like, there was a man who collected rice and hung a pot of it above his couch
• He then started daydreaming about his "future riches" if he were to sell the rice, leading all the way up to him having a wife and a son
• Then it just went downhill from there and he was thinking about kicking his wife??
• He acted out that daydream and ended up kicking his rice pot instead and spilled all of it
• The wife kicking part was not very appealing to me

3. The Magic Fiddle

• Reading this story, I felt sorry for the "Bonga girl" 
• I'm not sure what Bonga means and I tried looking it up, but there was not much of an explanation
• However, although it says that there was a "revenge" at the end, it didn't feel like there was much of a revenge in the plot
• Was the revenge that she came back and married a chief? 

4. The Cruel Crane Outwitted

• I believe I have also read this story in one of my past reading diaries as well, but from another unit!
• Here, a crane deceived an entire pond of fish by telling them he would bring them to a larger pond since the water in the one they were in is very low
• It turns out that he was going to eat them instead
• Once he finished off the last fish, he found a crab that he tried to trick, but the crab saw through it and killed the crane
• I think I could definitely write a story about this if I ever were to decide to since there is so much material that I could use. This story is simple enough that my imagination can go wild, but it still has a moral that I can stick to.

5. The Tiger, The Brahman, and the Jackal

• In this story, a tiger got stuck in a cage and was freed by a brahman
• the tiger ended up wanting to eat his savior and only granted him "a promise to abide by the decision of the first three things he chose to question as to the justice of the tiger's action."
• all of the objects he questioned said that he should accept his fate
• however, a jackal came along and tricked the tiger into getting stuck in the cage once again
• I liked this story very much. I felt it was very clever, the jackal.

6. Harisarman

• Harisarman was a poor man with many children
• he worked for a wealthy family and decided to deceive them by saying that he possessed "knowledge of magic" 
• To be honest, this was based entirely on his luck
• Nonetheless, I enjoyed this story. If only real life was like that.

Drawing of Harisarman.

Source: UN-Textbook.

7. The Charmed Ring

• there was a man who was given 300 rupees by his father to try becoming a merchant
• he ended up using all of his money on buying a dog, cat, and a snake
• as a result, his father disowned him
• it turns out the snake was the son of a king and so the young man was rewarded for saving the snake's life
• he obtained a right hand ring and a pot & spoon that would provide him eternal food
• the right hand ring gave him a mansion and a wife
• one day, the prince of a neighboring country happened to obtain the hair of the young man's wife and desired her to be his
• so the father of the king hired an ogress to steal the wife
• she did so and the young man was distressed his wife was gone. his cat and dog vowed to find her and bring her back in a month's time.

8. The Charmed Ring (cont.)

• the cat elicited help from the rats to get the ring from the stomach of the ogress
• the cat succeeded, but upon the journey to bring the ring back to their master, the dog kept dropping the ring
• wow dog wow
• eventually the cat, with its wit and kind of aggressive temper, got the ring back multiple times
• the young man was eventually reunited with his wife

Reading Diary B: Japanese Fairy Tales (LANG)

Japanese Fairy Tales (Lang) Unit

READING B:
1. Schippeitaro

• Interesting how once men "become of age" and reach manhood, they have to leave their home in search of adventure back then. Sort of like a rite of passage.
• So this young man set out on an adventure to make his name known to all the peeps
• He traveled for a while and found nothing much until one night, he heard a group of ugly cats dancing around and saying "don't tell Schippeitaro"
• who is shippeitaro?
• It turns out that nearby, there was a family who was in distress because she was to be sacrificed for the "spirit of the muntains" to eat
• He wanted to help the girl so he went looking for Schippeitaro (who is actually a dog)
• He put the dog into the casket that the girl was supposed to be put into to be carried away 
• once the time came to "eat" the girl, the dog came out and bit the cats and killed quite a few of them along with the "spirit of the mountain" 
• yay, victory

2. The Crab and the Monkey

• Did I just read that a crab was a good housewife??
• the mean monkey beat up the crab?! that's so terrible. 
• violence is not the answer, children.
• I'm glad the monkey got what he deserved. 
• And the crab lived happily ever after!

3. The Magic Kettle

• there was once an old man who found a kettle that could transform into a tanuki
• he thought it wreaked havoc so he sold it to a man named Jimmu
• Jimmu found out that it was a magic kettle that could dance and transformed
• he opened a booth to showcase the magic powers of the kettle and made a lot of money
• in the end, he returned the kettle along with some money to the old man
• what a kind man to give some money back to the seller

4. How the Wicked Tanuki was Punished

• Wow. Hunting all of the animals...
• the fox was married to the tanuki? cute.
• they concocted a plan to play dead in order to get money
• wow he betrayed his wife by truly getting rid of her so he and his son could have more food.
• but she's your wife..
• the son soon made plans to avenge his mother
• he made a wager with his father by saying he was better at magic and tricked him into getting caught by the king and his guards

5. The Slaying of the Tanuki

• there are a lot of tanuki stories, surprisingly.
• This one was hard for me to read and found it to be uninteresting unfortunately.

6. Uraschimataro and the Turtle

• uraschimataro sounds like a really nice name and a mouthful haha
• he was brave and ventured out to sea where no other man would go
• people warned him that if he went too far, one day he would be swept away at sea
• One day, he found a turtle and captured it but eventually let it go because it begged him to set it free and so he did
• Years later, he got caught up in the storm and the turtle saved his life
• the turtle took him to the palace of the sea god and told him that it was the subject of Otohime, the sea god's daughter
• the daughter saw uraschimataro and fell him love with him. she begged him to stay and so he did.
• A long time passed and he eventually felt homesick. The princess eventually let him leave with a box he was to not open, but it turned out that he had stayed in the palace for 300 years. All of his friends and family have passed away.
• He ended up opening the box which caused him to lose his youth and the turtle never came back to get him and he eventually died
• how sad... but a really good story nonetheless

Source: UN-Textbook.

Reading Diary A: Japanese Fairy Tales (Lang)

Japanese Fairy Tales (Lang) Unit

READING A:
1. The Two Frogs

• There were two frogs that lived in different parts of Japan, Kioto and Osaka.
• They both decided to travel the country to explore the places they have never been before. 
• The went along the same road, one at each end. 
• They met each other and were delighted. 
• Determined to see the world together, they decided to have one stand on top of the other so that they could be "bigger"
• It turns out that one was looking one way and the other was looking the other way towards their homeland and they thought they were looking at the "other side" 
• I thought this was kind of funny and sad at the same time
• They were foolish and missed the chance to see the world because it didn't occur to them that they were looking in the direction they came from

2. The Stonecutter

• there was once a stone cutter who was very good at his job. he had lots of customers
• it just so happens that around the mountain where he cut stone, there was a spirit that helped grant wishes and riches
• he never met the spirit before, but that was only because he never wish for anything
• one day, he saw a rich man's house and wished that he was rich and the spirit granted that to him
• over time, he wished for more and more only to realize that he never felt content
• he then realized there was nothing better than to just be himself
• i feel like this was a good story about greed, but it kind of teaches people they shouldn't try to reach for their dreams and be more than they should be
• i suppose this makes sense because Japan is more of a collectivistic culture and "the nail that sticks out gets hammered back down"

3. The Maiden with the Wooden Helmet

• the story starts out with a family who used to be well off and had a beautiful daughter
• they eventually lost everything and became very poor and moved to the countryside
• out of depression for his loss, the father died
• over time, the mother grew ill as well and feared that her daughter would be taken advantage of due to her beauty
• she told her daughter to wear a wooden helmet over her head to hide her beauty
• the daughter heeded her advice, and even after the mother died, she would still wear the helmet. 
• One day, the young master of the family that she worked for accidentally saw her face and wanted to marry her
• she eventually said yes and they got married.
• I felt like this was just a story to tell a story. There were no morals or lessons to be learned.
• I felt like this story was kind of anticlimactic just because they were building up the mystery of the helmet just to have it end with her marrying the guy who saw her without one, kind of cliche.
• Nonetheless, it was a pleasant read.

4. The Envious Neighbour

• This family had a dog that was very loyal and loved. 
• One day, the dog found a treasure and the neighbor found out and wanted to borrow the dog
• he got to borrow the dog and the dog only found him bones. out of rage, he killed the dog.
• wow anger management problems.
• the family was saddened but the spirit of the dog came back and brought the man more riches
• the neighbor found out and got mad and tried to steal his fortune 
• this happened continually and he eventually got caught and got thrown into jail
• serves him right

5. The Sparrow with the Slit Tongue

• The title is kind of creepy
• So far, I enjoyed this story the most out of all the ones in Diary A
• There was an old couple who lived together. The wife was very mean and the husband was kind. 
• The husband rescued a small sparrow from a hungry raven
• The wife began to feel jealous that all of her husband's attention was being stolen from her (wow, lady, it's just a bird!)
• She caught it and cut a slit in its tongue. The bird flew away and ended up escaping.
• The husband then came home to find his precious bird gone and set out to find it. On his way, he came across a cottage and a little girl claiming to be the little sparrow greeted him.
• She sang and danced for him and eventually gave him two treasure chests full of gold and precious metals to bring home.
• his wife, being the greedy woman she is, saw it and demanded to know where the sparrow girl lived. 
• She ventured to the sparrow girl's house and she also obtained to chests, but instead of treasure, the chest had two snakes who came out and bit her. She died.
• Once again, serves her right.

The Old Woman Opens the Box

Source: UN-Textbook.

6. The Cat's Elopement

Source: Tumblr.

• What a cute and happy story
• This reminded of a cat I saw on Tumblr once. It was gorgeous.
• This was a story of two beautiful cats who fell in love with each other, but they couldn't be with together
• They ended up eloping and were separated for quite a while
• In the end, they were able to be together
• yay!!

Week 5: Review

My favorite item from the current announcements page this week is:

Shapes of Stories by Kurt Vonnegut from Sunday, September 27.

I thought this was a great visual representation of our feelings when we read these types of stories. Taking a look at Cinderella and Boy Meets Girl, I have to admit that was exactly how I felt when I read them.

Week 5: Growth Mindset

Growth Mindset Memes

Meme from GrowthMindsetMemes.

Here is a meme that really hit home for me. Most of the time, we don't do things out of fear of failure or rejection and that's okay because the human mind is hardwired to be scared of those things due  of the cultural aspects of our lives. But when we really think about it, this fear really is irrational, is it not? Failure is what teaches us new things, so why do we we fear it? We should all take that leap of faith and take action instead of running away from our problems. Maybe once we get started, we realized it wasn't so bad after all, and finally... maybe we will learn something new.

Thoughts About Comments

The most helpful comments on my stories are the comments that focus on both the positive and negative aspects of my story. I like it when people tell me what they liked about it as well as what I can do to improve it. Most of us here are pretty timid when it comes to commenting because we don't really know each other, so we tend to leave nicer comments. I would like to focus more on what I can improve, you know?


As for the introduction comments, I feel like it's best if the person could find something that he/she has in common with the person who wrote the introduction and talk about that; that's mostly because we build a connection by having things in common.


As for myself, I already know that I'm guilty of being that "nice commenter" but I am working towards critiquing more. I tend to focus more on what I like about the story and that doesn't help the writer develop his/her story so next time, I will try to provide suggestions for sure!

Extra Reading Diary: Japanese Fairy Tales (Ozaki)

My Lord Bag of Rice

• Why was he called My Lord Bag of Rice? 
• He must have been strong to carry two sword and a bow that was larger than himself.
• It was a dragon?!
• He was fearless to walk across the dragon. 
• He dragon transformed into a man. 
• Why is a centipede the dragon's enemy? He could crush it and be done with it.
• I feel bad for the dragon king's family. That's terrible.
• Yay for Hidesato coming to the rescue.
• I wish there was a picture for these goldfish dancers. like.. were they human-looking or plain large goldfish because that would be really creepy.
• What? Centipedes are vulnerable to human saliva? That's the first time I have ever heard that.
• Yay he killed the centipede!!
• I still don't get why his name was so long..
• I wish I could have that bag of inexhaustible rice, to be quite honest.

Digital art of My Lord Bag of Rice vs. the Centipede.

"My Lord Bag of Rice" by breakbot. Source: DeviantArt.

The Adventures of Kintaro, the Golden Boy

• First off, the Kintaro doll looks very creepy
• I wonder how his father died, was it grief/stress or was it murder? 
• Why did she name her son the Golden Boy? 
• How did this boy become so strong while they were living in the mountains? Is there a lot of nutrition there?
• His ability to speak with animals is pretty amazing. 
• Yaaay! He became a Chief and build a house for his mom. 
• What a good son.

The Man Who Did Not Wish to Die

• What an ironic last name to be called "Millionaire" but not be one.
• He lived without working until he was 32? He did not do a good job of planning for future..
• He didn't want to work to live but he wanted to live forever
• He sought out the elixir of life
• He was sent to the country of Perpetual Life by Jofuku
• Apparently all of the people there will never die, and at that point, all they did was want to die.
• Everything was the opposite there.
• People ate poison instead of normal food just to suicide, but they got healthier instead.
• He lived there for 300 years and got bored of it and decided to leave.
• Upon leaving, he regretted it and wanted to return,
• On the way back to Japan, he nearly drowned and got eaten by the shark. 
• It all turned out to be a dream to show Sentaro what it would have been like if he really went to the island. 
• An angel then handed him a book of how to live life and from then on, he gave up his vain ways and his family prospered.

Bibliography:

"Japanese Fairy Tales" by Yei Theodora Ozaki. Source: Un-Textbook.

Week 4 Storytelling: Story Time

Aiden was ready for sleep. If he closed his eyes this very moment, he would be off in the land of dreams, but he fought this urge because he wanted to wait until his mother came. Every night, his mother would come upstairs and tell him a story. His eight-year-old self always thought his mom was the best storyteller ever!

He waited a little before he heard her soft footsteps come up the stairs. "Ready for story time, Aiden?" his mom asked as she walked in his room. "Duhhh, mom!" he replied. She sat down next to him on the bed, tucked him in, and so she began…

Once upon a time, a little prince was born in India by the name of Siddhartha Gautama. When he was born, the world rejoiced and he was a beautiful baby. It was said this little boy would walk the path of enlightenment and save the world. As this boy was growing up, he was loved by the people and lived a life of luxury. Just his mere appearance would bring a smile and happiness to the people who saw him. “Just like you, honey!” she interjected. However, the gods felt jealous of the people’s reverence of the boy. They intended to destroy Siddhartha’s happiness by showing him the truths of life.

She stopped the story and ask Aiden, “Do you know what the truths of life are?” He thought for a bit and couldn’t come up with an answer, but he wanted to say something anyway. “Is it lots of ice cream and video games?” he asked. His mother laughed and said, “Why not?” She then continued on…

When he was older, Siddhartha went out to see the world to sate his curiosity of what was out there. Little did he know that his father wanted him to see a world of happiness rather than a world of poverty and suffering. His father would send people to take the old and sick people away from the city so that Siddhartha would not see them.

“What a nice daddy!” said Aiden. His mother thought for a moment and replied, “He was a good daddy, but he held his son back. How would you feel if daddy took away your books because he thought they taught you bad lessons?” Aiden thought about what his mother said and realized that although the father in the story had good intentions, he held back his son and showed him a false view of the world.

The gods transformed themselves into an old man, a sick person, and a corpse. Siddhartha saw these scenes and was no longer happy. He then left his home and renounced his claim to his father’s kingdom to become a hermit. His ultimate goal was to learn the true law of life in order to beat suffering, sickness, and death. He almost died during his journey but he eventually found the true law of life under the Tree of Knowledge.

“Well, are you sleepy yet?” she stopped to ask. “I am, but I want to know what the true law is. Don’t do this to me, mom!” he said. His mom was always like that. She loved cliffhangers and it was almost like torture when she didn’t finish the stories. She chuckled and said, “Alright. The truth that Siddhartha discovered was that in order to escape the cycle of birth and death and our own suffering, we had to suppress our desires and lead a moderate life.” “Oh, that’s it? All I have to do is not eat ice cream and I won’t die?” asked Aiden. “No, there’s much more to it than that, honey. All of us living in the world have a long way to go.” she told him as she got up to turn off the lights. “Good night, Aiden.”

Digital art of a statue of Buddha.

"Buddha Sky" by hanciong. Source: DeviantArt.

Author's Note: For this week, I retold the story of The Life of Buddha. In the original story, it told about the life of Buddha: how it began and the path that lead him to become the Buddha. 

I kept the story of the Buddha the same and shortened it a little while keeping the main parts of the story. This is in order to make the story easier to read because although I loved reading it, the original story got very word-y. I also framed my story as a bedtime story for Aiden. I added in some dialogue from Aiden and his mom to help the reader possibly answer some unanswered questions. I think this story had a good lesson to teach about life. 

Bibliography: 

"The Life of Buddha" by Andre Ferdinand Herold. Website: Un-Textbook.

Reading Diary B: The Life of Buddha

Unit: The Life of Buddha

Siddhartha Leaves

• Siddhartha leaves with the horse
• The Gods made Chandaka disobey the king's orders and gave Siddhartha the horse
• The Gods are really adamant about making Siddhartha leave 
• He took his dad's horse? Is this like rebellious teenage stage? jk
• Siddhartha vows to never return to the city of Kapila

Siddhartha the Hermit

• Kanthaka the horse carried him and he spoke to him like a person 
• I think that's good because we're all animals as well, why are other animals beneath us?
• Siddhartha's reason for leaving was to destroy old age and death and to be rid of unhappiness due to his desire to learn more about old age/death/suffering
• He had a son? And he left? I kind of question that..
• He exchanged clothes with a hunter for something more plain. 

Gopa and Suddhodana Grieve

• Gopa wakes in the middle of the night to find her husband gone and blames the maids for letting him go
• Everyone that Siddhartha left behind mourned his departure
• Mahaprajapati left the castle
• Kanthaka died due to sadness or was he exhausted? I'm not too sure.

Arata Kalama

• Siddhartha went into the hermitage of Arata Kalama
• Taught the doctrine of renunciation
• His knowledge became as great as Kalama's and soon he began teaching the disciples
• He then realized that the doctrine was not right and left the hermitage to go to the city of Rajagriha

Siddhartha and King Vimbasara

• His beauty was noted by the people of Rajagriha
• He lived on a mountain and the king told him to come to his palace but he refused
• He doesn't care about desire, he just wanted to seek the true law
• He sought out Rudraka, one of the famous hermits in the city, but found out that Rudraka didn't know about the "true law" so left
• Five of Rudraka's disciples left with him

Siddhartha Deserted by His First Disciples

• He was meditating one day and then fell over, not breathing
• Maya lived amongst the gods, and after she heard their worries, she descended to see him
• It turns out he did not die and that it was almost time that he was to attain supreme knowledge
• He remained at the same spot for 6 years, meditating
• He found out that starving himself wasn't the right way of going about things and eventually ate
• His disciples saw that and left him because they thought he was a fool and mad

The Tree of Knowledge

• He took a shroud from a dead body
• whut.
• He went to the tree of knowledge and meditated since that very day was the day he was ready to become a Buddha

Mara's Defeat

• Mara is the demon that tempts the Buddha

Siddhartha Becomes the Buddha

• He learns that to suppress desire, we can suppress birth, which suppress death and old age
• We must lead a life of holiness, where desire is stifled in order to stop being reborn and to end our own suffering

Art of the Buddha by Minh Nguyen, June 2015. Source: Pinterest.

Tech Tip Website

My choice for the project was a storybook! Here is the link!

Reading Diary A: The Life of Buddha

This week, I will be reading The Life of Buddha.

Maya's Dream:

• Queen Maya has a conception dream of her son as a white elephant with six tusks and thousands of gods appeared before her
• What kind of gods were they?
• What an amazing premonition of birth of the Buddha
• The power Maya gained while bearing Buddha was great as well 
• I can see why they had to check if the palace has been visited by good or evil because evil spirits can be tricky
• You get to choose what family you want to be born into? 

Birth of Siddhartha:

• How was Maya able to know that her son was to be born on a particular day?
• She had birth in a flower garden?! How unsanitary
• That was the easiest sounding birth I have ever heard of. Smiling while giving birth?
• His birth brought joy to the world and they named him Siddhartha
• "He will be the one to see the truth" I feel like that will be an important quote

Asita's Prediction:

• Asita was one of Sakya's great hermits
• The king became Buddha's father because his lineage is pure and he is kind of heart, which makes sense
• You wouldn't want the Buddha growing up in a bad environment, right?
• Asita cried because he wouldn't live long enough to hear the words of Buddha when he grows up

Siddhartha at the Temple:

• If Siddhartha was to renounce royalty, who would rule kingdom? 
• The birth of Siddhartha brought great things to the kingdom such as prosperity and fertility in all things
• MAYA DIED on the 7th day. NOOOOO.
• Mahaprajapati, Maya's sister, was given the task of raising Siddhartha after his mother's death. 
• Why was she only almost Maya's equal?
• The "light" that Siddhartha diffused was so great that precious stones looked dull
• That is one heck of an aura! 
• The Goddess of the garden is hilarious. Woman remove those necklaces and give them to slaves and his thoughts will be his adornments!
• Why does he call Mahaprajapati his Mother?
• All of the gods fell at Siddhartha's feet and paid homage to him

Siddhartha's First Meditation:

• Siddhartha got a teacher to learn the art of writing, his name was Vasvamitra.
• It turns out that Siddhartha already knew all of the 64 scriptures, so Vasvamitra told him there was nothing left to teach
• He left Vasvamitra and came to meditate under the shade of a tree
• A group of hermits saw him and predicted he will become the Buddha
• It turns out that the tree that Siddhartha sat under did not move its shadow so that he could meditate in peace
• How is that done? 
• The king really worships and loves his son

Siddhartha meditating under a tree.

Art from David Grubin's film, "The Buddha." Source: Los Angeles Times.

The First Encounter:

• Siddhartha wanted to leave the palace to see the world
• The king wanted to shield Siddhartha from the evils and sadness of the world, so he had his people remove the beggars and suffering from the sides of the road
• The king didn't really want his son to leave, didn't he? Because of reasons mentioned before, of course.
• The Gods interfered with the king's plan to shield Siddhartha by sending an old man his direction because they were jealous of the happiness that was around Siddhartha
• The old man was suffering from old age and looked bad
• Siddhartha learns that old age will steal strength, mind, and beauty from everyone
• Because of this incident, his heart had no more joy

Two More Encounters:

• The second man the Gods sent was a man riddled by sickness
• Siddhartha learns that everyone gets sick
• This made Siddhartha even sadder
• The king notices and tries to cheer him up with happy things like kicking out the sick and old people from the city and changing out his charioteer
• The third encounter the Gods made was a corpse that was carried by four weeping men
• Siddhartha saw that scene and found out about death and how it comes inevitably

The Fair Maidens and Gopa's Dream:

• Oh no, here comes the girls!
• Siddhartha was lead to a group of girls who would try to marry him
• He shunned their advances because his mind was still on death 
• His wife dreamt that she was stripped of her title and wealth 
• Siddhartha replies with happiness that this is because he will grant the light of wisdom to the world that is ignorant and blind

The Great Truths:

• Siddhartha was very unhappy with all of his encounters with old age, sickness, death, and suffering. 
• He muses that it is a shame that others look down on these types of people
• After meeting a God disguised as a monk, he decides to become a monk himself
• I've always thought being a monk was interesting. You can shed yourself of all your worries.
• He asks his father to leave the palace, but his father wants him to stay and reign in his stead and reminds him the importance of family to prevent him from going
• I can see where the king is going with this... but he knew his son would eventually leave and go on the path of enlightenment
• In the end.. he left anyways

Week 4: Review

My favorite item from the current announcements page this week is: 

Seven Steps to the Perfect Story from the Saturday, September 19 announcement:

I wish I had this when I was younger to help me write stories!

Week 4: Famous Last Words

The reading for this week went really well. There were so many short stories to read for both diary A and B, but I enjoyed the majority of them, so it wasn't a problem. I noticed that the Jakarta stories focused a lot on morals, especially greed.

I think I did some good writing this week. I also cut my writing time down to about an hour to write a story. Before, it took me at least 2 hours to write something decent because I'm very particular and I do my proofreading while I write (which is weird, I know, but I always read and reread while I'm writing, so I can't help it).

As for my other classes... This week was a very hard week. I had two exams on the same day and I really struggled to balance studying for both because they are fairly difficult classes--Introduction to Biochemistry and Cell Biology. Not to mention the biochem professor is known to have very very very hard exams and the cell biology exam is entirely free response (which is bad because you already know I take forever to write). It was hard, but I'm glad that I made it to the weekend with an optimistic outlook for this semester and a desire to make sure I am able to balance work, school, and activities even better.

Meme by me. Made using Imgflip.

Google Timer Tech Tip

When I'm working, I really like to establish time limits for myself. I feel like this Google timer would be useful, but I'm used to using my phone for alarms. For example, if I have 5 assignments due in a day, I guesstimate how long I think it would take me to finish them. Then I set a timer on my phone to make sure I meet that deadline so that I get everything done in a timely manner. I think this timer will be really useful for people who do the same. 

I also set time limits for my "free time." When I'm studying, I limit myself to 30 minutes of free time to just relax and browse Facebook, YouTube, or Tumblr because it is very easy to get off track and then I can end up browsing for an hour without even realizing it. 

Even if I don't make my "deadlines" sometimes, the timer helps me stay on track! :)

Flying ball cat. That is all.

Meme by me.

Week 4: Curation

My three favorite items from this week are:

The God Checker Website.
I thought it was so cool that there is an entire website dedicated to information of mythological gods! There are gods from a plethora of cultures--such as Oceana, Tibetan, Celtic, and so many more! You can find out information such as how to pronounce the god's name, alternative names, location, power, and even a good/evil rating (which I thought was hilarious). Here is a screenshot of one of the "facts and figures" charts! It doesn't have just this though!

Screenshot of information on Loki. Website: Godchecker.com.

Made Mythos by Ed Kwong.

This is a Tumblr blog by Ed Kwong that is dedicated to making art of various mythological creatures such as Leviathan, Cipacli, etc. I liked the artwork style and I think it would be useful for a classmate's storybook or portfolio.

Pinterest.

I found a gorgeous picture of Yuki-onna for my own storybook and I wanted to share that. This digital art is so elegant and detailed and the artist captures the ghostly aura that Yuki-onna gives off all the while maintaining her infamous beauty.

Digital art of Yuki-onna.

Posted by PFU *. Website: Pinterest.

Week 4: Growth Mindset

For this week, I used AutoMotivator to make some growth mindset memes that I think convey very good messages.

"Not Yet" meme created by me using AutoMotivator.

 I chose this quote for this meme because I remember how Dweck showcased the importance of the words "not yet" because they don't impose a limit on you, they just explain why you can't do something in this very moment... but if you work at it, you can.

"Challenge Yourself" meme created by me using AutoMotivator.

I thought this quote was good and it went really well with the picture.