MYTHOLOGY & FOLKLORE BLOG, SPRING 2021

 My plan for my project is to write untold stories of sea monsters and creatures. Instead of one long story, I plan on doing multiple tales revolving around different monsters. While I have not decided yet if I want to fully revolve every story around of the cast from Pirates of the Caribbean, I will definitely involve them in a couple stories using  monsters directly found at deep sea . If I decide to write about creatures not only found in the ocean, I will hit close to home with the tale of the  Oklahoma Octopus . Through these stories, I want to show the readers how vast the world is, and how eerie things could be in the unknown below water. Sea Monster, via  PetLife

  The Untold Tales of the Great Deep Sea Monster, via  Pinterest Thanks for dropping by and thanks for the feedback!

  Homer's Odyssey - Rewritten      With heavy hearts and many long days at sea, Cyclops and his one-eyed posse sailed upon to the land of the Humans. The land was good, but the conditions made the hungry sailors unable to find crops. However, they were guided by Nymphs to goats that filled their bellies for the time being. They rested for the night, deciding in the morning that Cyclops and 12 of his crew would explore the island of the Humans.      The next morning, Cyclops took his men and headed onto the island. They came upon a cave, which they could tell belonged to a human. They ate cheese from the cave and burnt an offering while they waited for the human to return, hoping to reason with it. However, the return of the human caused more harm than good. The human, who introduced himself as Odysseus, mocked Cyclops and his mates in the cave and ate two of them. They were trapped. Odysseus closed the stone behind them and completed his chores fo...

 Main characters: Odysseus The Cyclops Circe Secondary characters: Odysseus' men Hermes Important things to remember: The Land of the Cyclopes  Odysseus and his men came upon the island of the Cyclopes'  The land was good but the conditions were bad, but the Nymphs guided the goats towards them and they had plenty to eat Prisoners of the Cyclopes Odysseus took 12 of his best men out to explore the island They came upon the cave of a cyclops, and ate some of his cheese, lit a burnt offering and waited for him to return so they could reason with him The Cyclops returned and trapped them, eating 2 of the men The Cyclops Defeated The Cyclops ate 2 more men, then left for the day, leaving the crew trapped in the cave Odysseus made the men cast lots to determine who would try to blind the Cyclops with him When the Cyclops returned, he seized 2 more men to eat when Odysseus went to him and offered him wine they got from Ismarus Odysseus told the Cyclops his name was "Nobody"...

 When giving feedback, a lot of the emphasis is on the here and now. Feedback could be a this is what you did wrong or right, but often is not about how you can change it. The word feed"back", seems to focus on the past, that is why Marshall Goldsmith says in his article " Try Feedforward Instead of Feedback ", we should call it feed"forward", which is emphasizing the future. This form of response generates ideas for the future, instead of constant dwelling on the past. However, if you are going to give feedback that emphasizes past actions, doing so in a humble way is the best way to get a good response. In his article,  How to Give Bad Feedback without Being a Jerk , Adam Grant talks about how you should explain why you are giving the feedback and take yourself off a pedestal when doing so. This allows for good and clear communication, without giving off the vibe of personally attacking.  Thumbs up and Thumbs down, via  Getty Images

 1.  The Oklahoma Octopus Professor Gibbs threw this story my way as an idea for sea monsters, and it totally unlocked a memory I forgot I had. From seeing this article, I remember a long time ago I watched a show on Netflix called "Lost Tapes". One of those tapes, was about the legend of the Oklahoma Octopus in Lake Thunderbird. This intrigued me as I have always loved stories about the ocean and creatures in it, plus it took place in Oklahoma and claimed to be true. If I were to make a story based off this legend, I could go back and watch that Netflix episode for reference and use my prior knowledge of Oklahoma and lakes to creatively make a story. 2.  The Devil Whale This is a monster I had not heard of, but it is very interesting. The legend goes on to say this whale is as big as an island, and is able to swallow ships whole. If I were to use this as my story, I could maybe to add elements of Moby Dick into the story, making them the "Twin Tower"monsters of the...

  The Chosen Ant Many years ago, a very smart farmer began to toy around with genetics, creating a new species of insect. These small and ground-limited insects were named "Ants", and the farmer loved his creation and kept them close by on the farm to watch over them. However, in time, the ants began to rebel against the wishes of the farmer. As a whole, the species were lazy, always fighting with each other, and selfish in only looking out for themselves in food collection. The farmer noticed these changes, and were displeased with his creation, except for one ant whom he named Moah. Moah respected the farmer, still following the guidelines that were set in the beginning. One day, the farmer pulled Moah out of the boundaries of the farm to tell him he was going to start the population over, in hopes the next to come would be more respectful to his wishes. Moah understood, as he had seen the changes in the actions of his species. However, the farmer told Moah he had found fav...

 Main characters: Noah God Secondary characters: Shem, Ham and Japheth The wives and other family of Noah Methuselah The fallen angels Important things to remember: The Ark (Genesis) Noah was 500 years old at the time of this Man was corrupt in the eyes of God, but Noah found favor with God Noah did not just randomly assemble this idea, God established a covenant with him and gave him a guideline on how to create the Ark The Flood (Genesis) Everyone just remembers how Noah got the animals "two by two", but he was also told to get seven of the clean beasts The flood did not occur until Noah was 600 years old, it took a long time to complete building the Ark The rain lasted for seven days, flood lasted 40 days, and the waters prevailed for 150 days After the Flood (Genesis) After about a year on the Ark, Noah sent out doves to see if the water had gone down enough Once, off the Ark, Noah sacrificed every clean beast as an offering to God Noah's Sons (Genesis) God establishe...

  Negative Feedback, via  Glia Why It's So Hard to Hear Negative Feedback Conflict, specifically in the workplace, is something I dread more than almost anything. While I know the people who are above me care both about me and the office, when negative feedback is given to me I feel like I am being directly attacked and have let everyone down. However, this article showed me that I need to train my mind to crave these experiences. As I said, I know these people care about me and also give me positive feedback, so why am I so hung up on the few times I get corrected? If I know I have good intentions with my work, and that they are also working in good faith and trying to correct the mistake for next time, I should take that C graded performance, and turn it into an A graded performance for improvement. Why Negative Feedback is Better than No Feedback The picture used above is from this article I found while browsing the internet. It gave me a different but also h...

  A Sea Monster, via  Medium Topic 1:  Sea Monsters     This would be a very interesting topic for me because I feel like it is so open-ended. I have always loved stories that might be a little  eerie, and it doesn't get much better than unknown monsters. With sea monsters being masked by the water, they are often not as easy to picture as one could picture Bigfoot or Frankenstein. This leaves so much room for creativity when it comes to the monsters themselves, whether I told a twist on Moby Dick, or an unknown story of the Pirates of the Caribbean.  Topic 2:  The Lovers of Zeus     I wrote about this one initially when we first started exploring storybooks, and I had to revisit it. A story in this format would be so fun to write about, as my love for greek mythology goes back to my elementary days. However, the twist from this story is what makes it so appealing. The intense personification of the gods...

 The Masked Bandit was one of the most elusive burglars the world had ever seen. In and out, no detection, no witnesses, ever- until one cool fall night.  The burglar wore his big puffy black jacket this cold night, easy for stuffing any extra loot not fitting inside his duffel. It was his good luck charm, at least he thought so. Another perfect heist, the priceless jewels of the biggest museum in the world, all his... until at the last second his jacket got caught in the safe. The undetectable man, trying to free himself from the restraints he put himself in, was detected. The on-shift security guard came upon him on one of his rounds and began to laugh at the fool caught in the safe. "Oh how silly you look!" mocked the security guard, "you have done my job for me!" "Please!" the burglar pleaded, "If you help free me from these restraints I will split them with you, we will both be rich!" The security guard paused, not expecting such an intrigui...

 This reading was a good opening story to go with because it shows the importance of personification in some stories: - this story allowing any animals and object to talk opened up more clarity to the situation - repetition, native jargon, and expressive adjectives are good in writing as needed - any character, no matter when introduced can have immense importance - giving the audience a clear protagonist, antagonist, and hero helps capture the audience, as I was sitting here reading and rooting for the Brahman and happy that he had a hero in the jackal  - backstory is not always needed, if the story has a good hook - the clear outline of this story was an individual helping another, getting betrayed by whom he helped, then having an outside party make it all right again The Tiger, the Brahman and the Jackal  illustrated by John D. Batten Source:  Indian Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1912)   Tricksters: Tiger, Brahman, and Ja...

Choose from  CLASSICAL and/or BIBLICAL units  for Weeks 3 and 4. Week 3: Noah and the Ark Week 4: Homer's Odyssey  Choose from  MIDDLE EASTERN and/or INDIAN units  for Weeks 5 and 6. Week 5: Ancient Egypt Week 6: Sinbad Choose from  ASIAN and/or AFRICAN units  for Weeks 7 and 9. [Week 8 is review week.] Week 7: The Monkey King Week 9: Brer Rabbit Choose from  NATIVE AMERICAN units  for Weeks 10 and 11. Week 10: Mississippi/Great Lakes Week 11:Hero Tales Choose from  BRITISH and/or CELTIC units  for Weeks 12 and 13. Week 12: Aesop's Fables Week 13: Beowulf Choose from  EUROPEAN units  for Weeks 14 and 15. Week 14: Inferno Week 15: Czech I decided to start off the first 2 weeks with 2 stories I am very familiar with. I wanted to use these stories as a way to ease into these assignments, getting my grounding from stories I already know. However, this will also give me a chance to dive back into these stories and maybe pi...