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Showing posts from April, 2021

Week 14 Story: Three Little Birds

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 There was once three little birds living in a forrest far away. The three birds had names which were: kind, most kind, and kind-less. The birds acted the same way their names described. One day during hunting season, most kind was flying around warning other birds to stay hidden and far away from the popular hunting forests. Kind would remind every bird that flew by that it was hunting season. Kind-less would fly to the other birds nests that evacuated and steal their seeds they were saving.  While most kind was patrolling, looking for any birds left, he saw kind-less flying from tree to tree stealing seeds with a big chunky belly. Most kind said, "Stop! What are you doing? Those birds will need their food when they return!" Kind-less ignored most kind and kept stealing seeds from other birds' nests. Kind-less was so self absorbed that he did not see the hunter aiming his rifle at him from under the trees. Most kind saw this and began to worry, "Oh no! Kind-less is

Reading notes: The Three Fishes (B)

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 Source: The Three Fishes By Ellen C. Babbitt A far away river, so cute! Like a fairytale usually starts with in a land far away! I liked the names describing their thoughtfulness: Thoughtful, Very Thoughtful, and Thoughtless. Very-Thoughtful was the only fish to worry about fishermen catching them when they went to the river part close to a town. So of course, thoughtful and thoughtless get caught in a net and very thoughtful feels like he must save them. So the fish makes it seem like the net had broke. The fisherman pulls the net in from just one corner so the other fishes could swim through. Once the other two fish were free, they were willing to go back to the country land to live safely. This story is interesting because it shows how sometimes one will not think of other outcomes unless they experience it first. One should try to think of all outcomes before they do something, which can be hard with lack of experience. I think wisdom can come from truly learning from others exper

Reading notes: The Elephant Girly-face (A)

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 Source: The Elephant Girly-face by Ellen C. Babbitt The elephant's name is girly-face, which I do not love so much because it was used to describe the elephant as gentle, and not all girls are gentle! The elephant overhears robbers talking about being cruel and evil, and thinks that they are telling him how to act. So the elephant kills the keeper when he came to feed him. Then killed another keeper. So no one would go to see the elephant anymore out of fear of being killed. So a wise man was sent to see what was wrong with the elephant, and he saw nothing wrong so assumed the elephant heard bad men talking and those bad men influenced his actions. So the solution is to send good men to talk near the elephant so hopefully the elephant will be influenced by them as well. The best and kindest men were sent to talk near the elephant, saying one must be kind and gentle and not hurt others. The elephant hear this and returned to being the sweet elephant it was. This story had a powerfu

Microfiction: Two Psychic Stories

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 I was in bed late one night and for some reason, could not fall asleep. I have a deep fear of spiders, I mean really deep. I am laying in my bed when a frightening thought popped into my head. "A spider is going to fall from the ceiling." I frantically get up, turn on my lights, and start observing the ceiling but see nothing. Then I hear my mother scream and my father ask, "What is wrong?" She replies, "A spider just fell from the ceiling! I sat in shock. One time I was dating a guy who had not met my parents yet. My parents were visiting me one weekend and I was excited to introduce him. I went to dinner with my parents one night and a scene popped into my head. In the scene I was in the parking lot next to my house with my parents and we ran into the man I was dating. I giggled and thought how funny. We left the restaurant and sure enough, I see him walking through the parking lot we were in. Author's note: I did not have inspiration for these stories b

Extra Credit Reading Notes: The Measure of Rice

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 Source: The Measure of Rice by Ellen C. Babbitt A dishonest king with a valuer to decide prices of things, I can only imagine that the valuer is dishonest as well. However, the valuer was a just man who gave good prices for the goods being sold. The dishonest king did not appreciate his just valuer and wanted more money, the greedy always get greedier. The king finds a peasant in the village to make the new valuer. Since the peasant did not know the price of any of the goods, he just chose a random price. In which all people would have to pay. The valuer would price 500 horses to the measure of rice, so the king would get 500 horses and the horse owners would only get the measure of rice. This upset the horse dealer (as it should), so he sought out the true valuer who understood the prices and told him what had been happening. The valuer tells the horse dealer to give the peasant a present and ask him to defend the measure of rice. He also told him to have the peasant do it in front o

Week 13 Story: The 3 Princesses

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There was once a kingdom in a fairytale land with a kind king who cared for all he reigned over. He was happy with his wife who bore him a daughter, whom he adored. One day the queen got very sick, and the king told her that, "if she died, I would never be happy again." The queen replied, "you must remarry and have a motherly wife to replace me and take care of our daughter." The queen passed away that night, and no one in the castle had ever seen the king so upset. He broke every dish, glass, and mirror in the castle. He was so upset that his love died, but even more upset that her dying wish was to marry another woman. The next few days he met a few women to be his next wife. While the king did not want to remarry, he decided to marry the first woman he met because he knew he would not love any of them. The king and his new wife had one daughter, whom the king never loved and rarely even spoke to. Over the years the king became more upset, drinking more and more e

Reading Notes: The Princes and the Water Sprite (B)

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 Source: The Princes and the Water Sprite by Ellen C. Babbitt  The king had three sons and instead of names they had titles like Stars, Sun, and Moon. The king promises the queen any boon, which she remembers forever. The queen wants the king to give the kingdom to their youngest son, which is not the usual way the kingdom is passed down. Usually the eldest son is the next in line for the king. The king refused the boon and was afraid the mother would do something to the other sons so that the youngest could become king. The king sadly sends the two older sons away to the forest until he dies, so that the mother could not hurt them. The youngest brother wants to join them, so they all do into the forest. The youngest son goes to the pond to bathe and get water for the brothers, however the water sprite than reigned over the bond had a question everyone must enter before touching the water. The question: "What are the Good Fairies like?" The prince did not know the answer so t

Reading notes: The Sandy Road (A)

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 Source: The Sandy Road by Ellen C. Babbitt Once again Ellen does a fantastic job of setting up the story, she gives a clear image of a merchant with many things on his way to the other side of the desert, a long journey that calls for many things. She gave a very relatable description of how hot the sand was by comparing it to the top of a stove, showing how people could only travel at night while it was cool. The pilot guided the men because he knew the stars, it was cool to relate an occupation to why they are in charge of a part of a journey. The men camped at daybreak, which is interesting because normally camping is done at night. The men decided that only one more day and they were out of the sand, so they decided to throw away the water and firewood since they would be in the city. The pilot falls asleep while he was supposed to guide, you can tell the trip is about to go awry. Their path was lost and they had no water or food. The merchant decides to look for water so they may

Week 12 Story: The Goodest Boy!

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 There once was a dog who had an owner that loved him very much. The owner saved the dog when he was only a stray pup shivering on the streets alone. However, this wasn't any old man. He could turn anything he wanted into gold. But he never used his power, because he believed it was unfair. The old man took care of the dog until the day he died, and his favorite thing to do was play fetch with the dog. They played fetch every day, until the last day the old man lived. The man knew he was about to die, so he got a giant bucket of tennis balls. He turned these tennis balls into gold for the dog, which seemed unnecessary but he knew they would help the dog one day. After that the dog would try to play fetch with other people with his golden tennis balls, however every time he gave a ball to someone. They would get very excited and walk away. So the dog never brought his gold out to play with anyone.  One day the dog was walking around, and saw a young man taking care of a little boy.

Reading Notes: The King's White Elephant

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 The King's White Elephant by Ellen C. Babbitt I chose another story by Ellen C. Babbitt because I really like her writing style and how she manages to fit so much information and emotion in such a short version of the story. I am going to take notes on my thoughts as I read through the story, incase there is a plot twist. I want to record how I was thinking before I know what happens. The carpenters cut trees down every day, I wonder if this will create problems later in the story. When the elephant came by the men immediately helped it, the elephant had a splinter in it's foot so maybe it came from the trees they cut down. The elephant wants to return the favor, even though the splinter could have come from the carpenters. The elephant then became a helper to the carpenters and did everything to help them. The carpenters took care of the elephant in return, it was a good relationship. The elephant had a gorgeous white son, which he brought to help the carpenters after he no l

Reading Notes: Jataka Tales part B

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 How the Monkey Saved His Troop By Ellen C. Babbitt I like the different places the fruit fell, I could make a story based on where the fruit fell and how it influences the story in latter areas. I think it was interesting how the author compared mangoes to another fruit, the peach.  The monkeys took what the tree gave, but also climbed the tree to take what wasn't ready to fall or not. The mango was discovered by the king on accident, and the king found out about the fruit from foresters. The king decides to take all of the mangoes, and kill all of the monkeys, which has a greedy theme to the story. The chief of the monkeys worked to save them all, there is a theme I relate to the modern world of humans wanting what animals have so they wipe out both. Similar to a new documentary I watched called seaspiracy.  The chief had the monkeys cross his back, so he literally carried his loved ones on his back. The ending of the story is the absolute best part. The king sees how the chief m

Reading notes: Jataka Tales Part A

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 The Golden Goose By Ellen C. Babbitt This story opened really well to set up the characters and their situations, I also really enjoyed the pictures and the way they looked. They were silhouette pictures with the matching background of the website, it looked really cool! I really like how the goose immediately thought of how to help the family, without knowing them. I will want to use something like that in one of my stories. "So away the Goose flew" I am not sure how to describe this but I love the way the author worded this action. I also like the theme of giving without the expectation of receiving. It makes me so sad to think the mother felt the need to take everything from the goose out of fear from not having the comfort of the goose always returning. I like that the daughters did not want to take from the goose. However, it did not matter. The mother's fear of not being able to care for her daughters overcame right and wrong. The mother did what she felt she neede

Learning Challenge: Desk Yoga

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 I learned a lot of new ways to stretch while studying at my desk from the Harvard Business Review I suggest you visit this site to learn some new ways to stretch while you study or work! It's not good to sit at a desk all day, especially with a majority of classes (at least for me) being online. Making an effort to stretch through out the day gives your body that little boost it needs. First fav, the open chest stretch. I often close off my chest and hold my breath when I am stressed finding sources are typing reports, so I'll try this stretch whenever I notice it happening. Neck Stretch, I can be so rigid sometimes without realizing it. My neck ends up sore every time I do homework so I'll this stretch every 15 minutes of sitting at my desk. Shoulder rolls will be an easy go-to so that I can de-tense my upper body. So I am going to try to relieve those lil' stressed muscles with some shoulder rolls. Do a lil' stretch