Showing posts with label Week 4. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Week 4. Show all posts

Monday, September 21, 2015

Week 4: Review

Favorite Thing From Today's Announcement:
(Image from: Laura Gibbs)

Why It's My Favorite:

I like to think there are lake monsters in the USA, let alone the world. It makes reality more interesting! If you're wondering, yes I do believe in the Loch Ness Monster!

My Quote of the Week:
"We all have our time machines, don't we. Those that take us bck are memories...And those that carry is forward, are dreams."
-H.G. Wells
(Quote source: GoodReads)

Sunday, September 20, 2015

Famous Last Words: Rare Moon Event!

My Reading This Week:
I was happy with my reading this week. I tried to slow down and really pay attention to each story! I do think I could improve my Reading Diaries though. A classmate of mine told me that I should separate the notes into the different sections of the myths, and I thought that was a great idea! To be honest, I'm not sure why I haven't been doing that all along!

My Best Writing this Week:
My best writing this week was my storytelling post this week. Unfortunately I have been too tired, and too busy to write my novel.

Other People's Writing:
I am reminded to check for typos, which is something I always seem to miss--even if I look over it a couple of times!

I did notice people's stories are shorter, and that goes in with my Growth Mindset post this week. So, I'm going to try to write more concisely. My literary idol, Ernest Hemingway would certainly approve.

My Other Classes:
My other classes are stressful, as always, but I'm hanging in there. There's just always something to do, no not just something, someTHINGS. There is always something to do, and even if my homework it done, I still have my novel to write! Oh, and then that little thing called spare time. Something that I am forgetting about more and more.

Something Cool I Found:
On Sunday, September 27th there will be a Full Moon. But, not just any Full Moon. It'll be a Supermoon (bigger, and higher in the sky.) That's not all! It'll also be a Lunar Eclipse. So,  there will be a Supermoon and a Lunar Eclipse on the same night! This only happens every 30 years, and the last time was in 1982

I encourage you to go check it out! After All, it won't happen again until 2033! Read more about this awesome astronomical event here.

(Image from: PixaBay)


Tech Tip #4: Revamping My Google Site

(You will soon see the pun in the title.)

This week I made my Google Site for my Storybook, and I was very excited! I've never made a Google Site, and I thought it was really cool.

I'm also really excited about my Storybook theme: Vampires! (Now do you get the pun in the title.)

Anyways, so for this week's Tech Tip, I played around with my title and headers!

My biggest challenge was with making a logo! I used QuotesCreater (an app on the iPad, as I do all of my work on my iPad.)

I had to do a lot of messing around and such to figure out how to get the logo perfectly placed, but finally got it working.

It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be to fix up the page! It's not perfect, but I'm really happy with the result so far! I can't wait to do more work on my Project!

Here's how my page looks so far:



Week 4: Growth Mindset

This week for my Growth Mindset I practiced something that I struggle with! This is something that is usually the opposite of most people's problems when it comes to writing. The problem? Writing too much!

This week I turned in my Storytelling post, and did not realize until Laura e-mailed me, that I had written far over the word count!

So to challenge myself, I cut the story down to a little less than 1,000 words! I'm actually really proud of myself that I was able to do that, since I think every word is precious in a story, and it's literally a bit painful to cut the words out!

This is an important thing to learn however, especially since I am a Professional Writer. There will be times that my Editor will tell me to cut certain things out of my novel. Or if I want to publish a short story I'll have to go by their required word count.

The point is, that this week's Growth Mindset was extremely helpful for me, and I may have to do this challenge a few times!
(Image by: Laura Gibbs)

I was definitely out of my comfort zone this week, when I tightened up my story--but I have to admit, the story was better after editing!

Week 4 Curation: My Mythology Finds

This week I found a couple of really neat things, that I wanted to share with you! I am thrilled about all three of my finds, and I hope you will be too!

1. Norse God and Goddess Cards

I found these on Pinterest. These pertain to the Norse Gods, I haven't seen ones for other pantheons--do let me know if you find some!

Check out my Pinterest Board for all the Norse God cards!

The way I used these is, I printed them out, cut them out, and then each day I select a God or Goddess and read about them! It's a bite-sized way to learn about a particular God or Goddess each day!

If you really want to learn about Gods or Goddesses of a particular culture, then I highly recommend doing something similar.

2. Mabon: the holiday, the God, and the Myth!

The Autumnal Equinox is this Wednesday (9/23), which means it is also the Wiccan or Pagan holiday of Mabon!

The interesting thing about Mabon is that Mabon is actually a Welsh God. In fact, he is basically a male version of Persephone!

I found a little guide on Pinterest to the holiday, Mabon, including the interesting (and little known) myth of the Welsh God, Mabon:
(Image from: Nature Bound Pagan

Check out this website and this website to learn more about the myth of Mabon.

3. Mythology Memes

I was so excited to find more of those Mythology Aesthetics! Apparently they are now being called Mythology Memes, how awesome is that?

Here is one I found on Pinterest of the lovely, to say the least, Goddess Freya:

(Image from: Disa)
I have confirmed that if you search for "mythology memes" on Tumblr or Pinterest that you will find MANY of these for all different Gods and Goddesses of many pantheons.

I'm so excited to have found this, because they are just truly stunning and they capture the essence of the Gods or Goddesses depicted.




Thursday, September 17, 2015

Week 4 Extra Reading Diary: Ovid's Metamorphosis Books 5-7 Reading B

Ovid's Metamorphoses Books 5-7

(Madea, by Evelyn de Morgan)
I read Reading A last week for my Extra Reading Diary, so I decided to finish that unit up, with Reading B! (Can you tell that I'm enjoying reading Ovid?)

READING B:
  1. Tereus Married Procne
  2. Tereus Rapes Philomela
  3. Procne's Revenge
  4. Medea and Jason
  5. Jason and the Golden Fleeze
  6. Medea's Spell
  7. Aeson Rejuvenated
  8. Medea and Pelias

Reading Diary:

  • The whole Tereus business was very strange. There just didn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to it. In fact it read like the point of view of a murderer from a crime show or something! I mean, that's literally what he did. He committed a sexual misconduct, and then murdered, and dismembered her body, it sounded just like something I've seen on the Investigation Discovery Channel (a channel that only plays shows about true crime.)
  • "The sun god has circled the twelve signs, and a year has passed" GREAT line.
  • "Now is not a time for tears, but for the sword" Another great line.
  • Procne and Philomena turning into a Nightingale and a swallow
  • The idea of Gods opposing you
  • The part with Madea was cute. It reminded me of a Young Adult skewing younger (like 12-13), of a girl's first crush. The whole "do I tell him or don't I?" I think I liked it the most because it felt like such a modern concept, but apparently even in the Ancients struggled with this dilemma!
  • Calming a dragon (which I am under the impression is most definitely not an easy task!)
  • The incantations and invocations of the spell was really cool. 
  • How the spell brought down a chariot that she could ride to collect the right herbs.
  • Concept of giving your years to someone else.
  • Using a cauldron.
  • I am assuming that Madea is some sort of witch? (or was using magic more common in the Ancient days?)
  • Maenads are the female followers of Dionysus, very cool.
  • Another Modred and King Arthur sort of situation, also very Game of Thrones!
  • Draining their blood and filling it with new blood sounds so much like vampires, and how they create new vampires.

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Week 4 Storytelling: Matty Was Missing

(Spellbook by: Eclipse_ETC)

WARNING: This story is mystery/horror. There is some graphic violence, a bit of gore, and it deals with some difficult themes. --If that's not your cup of tea, please don't read. I don't want to upset or trigger anyone.

**If it's required that you read my story, but don't want to read it, THEN read last weeks story, or the story from the week before.


Matty Was Missing

Matty was missing.

For someone who was missing, I couldn't run away from him, even if I wanted to.

We lived in a small town, where everyone knows everyone and everything. So, when Matty went missing, the missing person posts went everywhere the next day, was all the local news talked about.

Everyone had their idea of where he was. That he ran away. That he killed himself. That the serial killer, the Night Wriath, got him. Afterall, he'd killed teenage boys in the counties near us.

I shook my head at each speculation, because Matty was still alive for all we knew. 

He had to be alive...

Afterall, there was no evidence to say otherwise. All anyone knew was that Matty's blue Volkswagen Beatle was found, abandoned, in a mall parking lot. That he hadn't made any purchases since he's been missing. That I was the last person to see him.

He was happy then. It had been a full moon, and as we were both Wiccan, we did Full Moon Rituals for happiness and prosperity, and he left my house with his big smile on his face. Yeah, it was late, midnight or so, but he always left late like that.

I held onto the pentacle Matty had given me, it was on a black string, with letter beads that spelled out, "Willow", my name. 

I relied on the white magic behind Wicca. I tried every spell I could think of. I begged my Patron Goddess, Isis, to find him.

But Matty was still missing and it had been a week.

One night I fell to the ground, and I cried out, "If there is anyone out there, good, evil, help me find Matty!"

I cried a long time, and I guess I eventually fell asleep.

When I dreamt, I was in a forest that I'd never been in. I felt ike there was a string attached to me, and someone was pulling me along through the forest, until the pull stopped in a clearing.

When I looked in front of me, I screamed. 

Matty was looking at me with lifeless, white eyes, his head on the ground. The rest of his body was in pieces, scattered around me.

I jolted awake, and started to get out of bed to turn a light on, as if that would chase away the nightmare. But, when I did, I saw dirt in my bed, and covering my legs. I jumped onto the floor, and stepped away from the bed, but I wished I stayed in bed.

When I looked down, Matty's lifeless head was looking up at me, and his body was spread around him. There was a brown book next to him.

I look at Matty again, so I pushed him under my bed. I picked up the book, and saw that the title was, "Spells."

There was a piece of paper wedged in it like a bookmark, and I turned to that page. The page said, "A Spell of Resurrection." 

There was no way that this was white magic, it couldn't be.

I saw that the piece of paper read, "You're Welcome. ~Asmodeous." A demon. This was black magic.

But Matty wasn't missing. Matty was dead, and he was under my bed.

Matty was my first love, and we had two amazing years together. I needed Matty.

I had to do the spell. I had to use black magic.

The spell read, "Requirements: needle and thread, chalk, knife, five candles, and one soul."

But, if it took my soul to bring Matty back, then I would do it.

I looked down at Matty, and I closed his white eyes. I gritted my teeth as I picked up each body part and sewed Matty's body back together. 

I drew a pentagram, along with the required symbols around it. I then placed the candles on each point of the star. I lit the candles, and cut my palm, dripping blood on Matty.

In a shaky voice I read the spell outloud.

After I spoke the words, nothing happened. I sighed. I was feeling numb all over. I was like an empty shell.

Suddenly Matty's fingers twitched, and then his hands closed and opened, and then his eyes opened, no longer white, but blue and full of life!

He groaned and started to sit up.

"Matty..." I whispered. But, I saw that I was no longer in my body. I was next to my body, but when tried to touch Matty, my hand went through him.

He sat up, and the thread I had sewn him together with faded, and he was completely back to life.

He looked in horror as he saw my lifeless body. He cradled my body in his arms, screaming, "Willow!" Over and over again.

I was screaming, but he couldn't hear me.

My parents ran in, shocked, and rushed to my now, lifelfess body, being held by the now, full of life Matty.

I screamed, but no one could hear me.

The floor suddenly cracked open, with fire crackling. Matty didn't seem to see it.

A grey-skinned man with long black hair flew out of the crack on black wings. He tipped a wide brimmed hat. "Nice to meet you."

"Asmodeous," I said. "What have you done?"

"Me?" He said and laughed. "That was all you. You asked, and you received."

"But what's happened to me?"

"Well, let's see..." He snapped his fingers and the Spell Book was in his hands. He opened it to the Resurrection Spell page. "Requirements: Needle and thread, blah, blah, blah, and…OH,, and what's this? A soul."

"But, doesn't that happen when I die?"

"It happens when I want your soul, and I want your soul..." He said softly and slowly, but in a furious flap of his wings he was in front of me. His eyes were ablaze with a orange fire and he roared, "NOW!"
                                                                     END

Author's Note: First of all, sorry if this was too creepy and dark! I guess Halloween coming soon is on my mind! Secondly, Matty was murdered by the serial killer, the Night Wraith. I didn't really have room or a chance to fully explain that.

Anyways, you're probably wondering how on earth I got all of this from mythology, right? 

I chose the reading unit: Ancient Egyptian Myths and Stories

I borrowed the idea of cutting one's head off from The Tale of King Rhampsinitus. That got me thinking about how the head was going to be re-attached, and I thought of a Frankenstein sort of concept. 

The Spell Book was borrowed from The Book of Thoth. I don't know if The Book of Thoth is supposed to be good or evil. However, thinking about spells and magic made me think of good and evil magic, and the consequences of using black or evil magic. 

And, if you noticed, I snuck in that Willow's Patron Goddess is Isis, who I learned about from this week's reading unit!

This story is mostly a moral story about being careful about what you ask for. As a second moral, it warns against using black magic. I was happy that my story actually had morals, as my stories don't usually. I didn't even mean for it to have a moral--it just ended up that way!

ALSO, I was in the mood for something different today, but there will be more vampire or faerie stories soon!

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Reading Diary B: Ancient Egyptian Myths and Stories

Ancient Egyptian Myths and Stories

(Baroque of the Sun-God, Ra)
READING B:
  1. The Two Brothers: Part One
  2. The Two Brothers: Part Two
  3. The Two Brothers: Part Three
  4. The Two Brothers: Part Four
  5. The Book of Thoth: Part One
  6. The Book of Thoth: Part Two
  7. The Book of Thoth: Part Three
  8. The Tale of King Rhampsinitus
  • Being imbued with the spirit of a God (What if they just have the spirit of a God, sort of like a spirit  animal. They don't possess great powers, but their souls are part God. What sort of advantages would this person have?)
  • Soul going into the blossoms of an Acacia (I love this concept. There was something similar to in in Reading A, where someone's soul was put into a tree. I like the soul being in the top blossom of the Acacia more. It's  wonderful imagry. So instead of tree people, it's like flower people.)
  • When the tree falls, so will the soul of that individual (since their soul is in the tree)
  • Not being able to leave the house, a conditional sort of like that story in The Bible where if the woman turned around she would turn to stone.
  • A perfumed lock of hair being the reason that the woman,  of whom the hair belongs to, is desired. This was an interesting concept. He knew he wanted her as a wife, just from the smell of her hair. (I do know Ancient Egyptians had many perfumed oils that they applied, and I'm assuming that was in her hair.
  • Sending messengers, and all of them are killed off
  • The Acacia being destroyed
  • Turning into a bull
  • Trees growing where blood has fallen (this imagery is AMAZING. So if a tree person is killed, their blood drops down and where the blood falls, trees grow.)
  • Getting pregnant from swallowing chips of a tree (Perhaps this is how tree people are born as well?)
  • Book of enchantment (The whole idea of the Book of Thoth, the spell book, was really cool!)
  • Parting rivers
  • A book of spells
  • A book that has to be kept secret
  • When the spells are written, they are erased
  • Magicians
  • Bury the book with the dead
  • Something keeps getting stolen, and diminishing each day
  • Having head cut off in order to not be recognized (I hope it can be reattached? Makes me think of some kind of Frankenstein story!)
  • Pardoning criminals because they are so clever.
I

Sunday, September 13, 2015

Reading Diary A: Ancient Egyptian Myths and Stories

Ancient Egyptian Myths and Stories:
(Anubis by Ben Lin)

READING A:
  1. Creation
  2. The Secret Name of Ra
  3. Ra and Hathor
  4. The Sun's Journey
  5. Osiris
  6. The Death of Osiris
  7. The Journey of Isis
  8. King of the Dead
  9. The Wax Crocodile
  10. The Green Jewel
  • Nut is Goddess of the firmament. I didn't know what a firmament was, so I looked it up, and it's a fascinating concept! Firmament is the belief that the sky is a stone dome.
  • The eye of Ra! I had heard of this, but didn't know what this meant. Beings were conceived from the eye of Ra. An interesting way that creation of living things came to be.
  • Ra had a secret name that gave him divine power, Isis sought for his name. She wanted to be equal in power.
  • Antagonist poisoning someone, and using the antidote as leverage. A timeless trope, perhaps it is originated from this myth.
  • The Ankh as a symbol of life. (which is interesting because I had always associated the Ankh with Gothic fashion and such. I always thought of it as a dark symbol.)
  • Underworld having a river
  • A gate opened with incantations
  • Apep, the great night serpent
  • The Jackal God, Anubis
  • Osiris, divine judge of the dead
  • Set, full of evil, liked warfare over peace. (The land is at peace in this time)
  • Having "jealous eyes"
  • A beloved chest becoming a coffin
  • A feast of merrymaking becoming a feast of sorrow, once beer flowing turned to blood
  • In grief, cutting off hair (I've seen the cutting of hair during a time of sadness done many times in film, and even in some books)
  • Set takes the throne. Feels very King Arthur and Modred. Like how Set took the throne from Osiris when Osiris died, is much like how Modred took the throne from King Arthur when King Arthur died.
  • Usurper of the throne, the true queen is exiled. This is very Game of Thrones, how the Queen of the Dragons is exiled and the Lannisters (who have usurped the throne) remain in power.
  • A coffin washing up on the sides of a river, a tree growing in it's place, the body of someone inside of the tree trunk. Cutting the tree open, and finding a chest within. This would make a neat story with faeries, like involving tree people. The origin of tree people (like the tree ents in Lord of the Rings.)
  • Flapping of wings bringing one to life.
  • I do not like the storytelling device of telling a story within a story unless it is done exceptionally well, and the person telling the story is interesting. It was done well in Cupid and Psyche and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.