Syd's Thoughts

I decided to do this section for the reading today because it included stories like Cinderella (which is called aschenputtel) and Snow White.  This unit actually had 4 different units in different languages which is exactly like Europe with the many different places and cultures. I really enjoyed the Europe readings and this is probably one of my favorite units we have done this far. It had imagery, personification, magic, and lots of creativity.  I love fairytales, so I figured this would be a fun reading to do. Aschenputtel was very easy to read, but did contain some words that I was not familiar with like kirtle. This is definitely because of the European culture that these stories originated from.  These stories were also very fairy tale oriented which I did not mind. This Grimm unit really had it all when it came to stories which would make it really fun to write a story over. It had humor, romance, and the classics.  I will probably end up doing Part B for the ...

Everything has been successfully backed up on my spare hard drive just in case anything goes wonky.  I currently have 342 points in this class so far and I am still a little behind. I have been working really hard to try and get that up because I want to make an A so badly in this class!  The blog stream really caught my attention in the announcements and I actually added to the Padlet which was fun! The sleeping baby clip was my favorite because I definitely need to catch up on some sleep myself. I really liked this image because it holds such a powerful message. You can find the image here

 I was so excited to hear about Duck Duck Go because it does not track you or sell your information! I am so sick and tired of advertisements popping up for things I have recently looked at and honestly it just makes me feel uneasy. It looks similar to Google in the way that it pulls "web, images, and news" and things like that. I was very interested when it mentioned bangs. It basically causes the website to look for that keyword which can be super handy when you need information fast! Overall, Duck Duck Go is now a favorite tab on my laptop and I will be using it way more than Google now! 

 As we are coming to a close on this semester I really wanted to do this assignment and just take a step back to reflect on this class in general. I really have loved this class and the assignments for it. When I first saw the work load I was a little overwhelmed and it took me a couple of weeks to figure out how to balance all of the assignments. However, I did run into a speed bump with my business trip halting some of my work in this class and I am disappointed that it had to happen that way because this class was never one that felt like a chore like my biology and psychology classes have. I am genuinely thinking about trying to take the Indian Epics class in the future because I know it would be awesome. However, it would not be the same teacher and if it is not run the same way I am afraid I would be disappointed. Overall, I am proud of the work I have done for this class and I have really allowed myself to be creative and explore that side of me that never really gets to com...

What started this trail was reading Wesley's story about Kronos and I realized I had no idea who that was. This lead to my first website. first website:  Age of Mythology: The Titans - Wikipedia This article told me that Kronos was actually based upon a video game which is what's called "Age of Mythology" where they have quests to complete and missions. The game is based on Roman and Trojan Wars which lead to my next website. second website:  Age of Mythology - Wikipedia This article talked about the Trojan War which I had no idea about (sorry I have never taken a Greek or mythology class before). It was really neat to learn about and I ended up learning that Greeks are also known as Achaeans which lead me to my last website. third website:  Trojan War - Wikipedia This website really talked about Greeks and really how old their history was. I found the picture in this article on this website and I just liked how old and creative it was. I feel like I really learned a ...

When Robin Hood turned nineteen years old, He stumbled upon a man named Little John. John was a jolly man with lusty eyes and a smirk on his face. Though Little John was not so little, His arms were bigger than some trees, And he stood high in the sky; Where-ever he went people stared, And they looked with curiosity. But how did Robin Hood and Little John become friends, If you stay a while and listen close I'll tell you all the rest. I'll be brief, but nevertheless this story will surly cause a smile. Robin Hood approached Little John and said, "I see you there in the grove, And I see that all who observe you respect you; I am Robin Hood, the one and only and you shall be my accomplice." Then they shook hands, And Little John let out a loud bellow. They left the long bridge where they had met, And off they went to Nottingham. The people of Nottingham were quite poor, They barely had shoes for their feet. Little John grew weary and dim, His smirk was not so wide...

For the second reading this week I have chosen to do it over Through the Looking Glass.  This reading was basically one long story broken up into what you could call "chapters". The story is basically continuing off of Alice in Wonderland. There was a continuous theme because most of the characters were chess pieces like "the red queen" and the "white king".  Most of the "chapters" were linked which means the stories were longer than normal, but they were so fun to read that I did not mind.  This reading also included the famous Humpty Dumpty and Tweedledee and Tweedledum. This reading had a bunch of personification and imagery in it which made reading it so fun. The creativity of the entire story was evident, and I found myself wanting to read more and more!  I think it would be fun to add my own twist to some of this story to make it my own. Perhaps I will do that for the project this week!  This photo is by Uncorked Canvas Bibliography: Author...

I chose this story because I wanted to see if these rhymes were the same or similar to the ones I heard as a child growing up!  I was very pleased to find The Man in The Moon, The Crooked Man, Little Bo-Peep, and many others that I grew up with! The structure of these rhymes were of course riddled with rhymes, but there were also many rhymes in one page because they are so short. I noticed that at the end of each line there was either a comma or a period. I was a little surprised to notice this because I just assumed that if the sentence was not finished on that line it just would not have any punctuation.  There were also many rhymes that I was not familiar with and I am not sure if this is because they are British and not "American" but I would think they originated from the same place. Maybe my parents just simply did not know these. Either way, it was really fun to read these rhymes that I did not know and I really enjoyed doing my reading over this unit. I am not sure ho...

I decided to do the story lab TedEd Videos: Language because most of the corrections that I have had to make on my stories have involved some sort of grammatical error.  I really liked the semicolon video because honestly I graduated from a small town where we never even discussed the proper formatting of writing and grammar. I learned that the semicolon can be used to join two complete sentences. I honestly thought that the semicolon was used for one complete sentence and one incomplete one. I'm not really sure why, but I am happy to be corrected.  I also learned something cool about apostrophes. They can actually be used in 3 different ways. The first way is to mark possession of something. For example when I say Chloe's purse. The second way is to mark contraction. This is what we do when we say "don't" or "can't". The last way to use apostrophes is to mark plural of single letters. I had no idea they could be used this way but apparently they ca...

I chose to read Beowulf for the second reading this week. This is a hero story (which I love). All of the small stories from this category were written as poems which made them pretty easy to read and fun. My favorite part about Beowulf was his battles. He first had to battle a monster named Grendel who was terrorizing his home. Beowulf bravely went and tore his arm from his body (that is one strong man), but then Grendel's mate came to avenge his death so Beowulf once again had to battle to protect his people. I thought the story was over when he then defeated Grendel's mate, but then a dragon came into the story because someone stole his treasure.  You can tell in these older British and Celtic stories that battle or war is a very common theme with them which makes sense because that is exactly what was happening in the real world around these authors. The whole world was at war with each other; constantly fighting over land and resources. It seems like the only issues in the...

The section I decided to read from the British and Celtic unit was Robin Hood. I feel like a lot of people probably picked this story section because most of us have grown up hearing about the Robin Hood stories. These were very different than the ones I grew up hearing however.  Honestly, the only enemy that I recognized was the Sheriff of Nottingham. The others were brand new to me which was a nice surprise. I did not know what a ballad was before reading this unit. A ballad is basically short stanzas that tell a story that are passed on orally from one tradition to the next. It really gives a structure and a rhythm when reading. I really liked the ballad shape of writing over some of the other things I have read for this class. I also noticed that some of the stories had capitalized words or italicized words kind of randomly. Of course they were not random, but at first they seemed like it. They were really used for emphasis to show something important.  I also noticed that...

The last couple of weeks have been super chaotic for me. I went to Denver for 2 weeks with my boss where I was working open to close every single day. With the time difference too I was unable to do most of my homework in my classes including this one. I already reached out to Laura about this though and she was very supportive in telling me not to worry and that I can still get back on track for this class. I want to earn an A in this class, so I will do everything I can to get back on track so that is possible. I am going to make sure to do all of the assignments for each week and do all the extra credit that I can. I should be able to reach my goal when I do everything. In the past I have been lazy in doing all the readings, but now I cannot do that if I want to be successful. I am a little worried about being consistent and doing all of the assignments, but I know that if I put my mind to it I can do it. I look forward to the challenge and to working hard. Hopefully I can be succes...

I failed to do the reading for this week so I am taking this extra credit reading to make up for the one I did not do. The Native American unit is the one that I used for this reading.  This story was from the Tejas Legends. I had no idea that there were Tejas Legends that originated from Texas! The Tejas Legends were very simple, but I liked that about them. The simplicity of these stories makes me think they are geared more towards children or young adults. These would be something that I think adults would tell children before bed. My favorite short story from this unit was How The North Wind Lost His Hair . The title of this one really grabbed my attention (although I do not like that the wind is masculine but not the point). These stories had a lot of personification which gives life the things that are not human. This is also what makes me think they are made for children to hear or read because it contains so much personification. I really like that about them and it made th...