Week 10 Story: Recess Love

Recess Love

“So, I think I’m going to ask Ainsley out at recess today” Carter whispered to Keaton.

 “Dude, I was going to ask her out today and you know that I’ve liked her for 2 weeks now!” Keaton fired back a little above a whisper.

 “Then you’re going to have to beat me in a race to her” Carter said back.

So, the two went to lunch just waiting for the moment when the loud bell came on to signal that it was recess.

“We have to at least make this fair, we should both wait for her to get outside with her friends and then we will line up and race towards her. The first one to get to her gets to ask her to be their boyfriend” Keaton said to Carter.

The time came and the two walked slowly out their both staring at Hailey making sure the time was right. But Carter knew he wasn’t as fast as Keaton so he decided that he was going to have to make a new attempt to get her.

“I think the coast is clear, she is in line to play tetherball, so now is the perfect chance” Carter said.

The boys lined up evenly on the playground and looked each other down as if they were about to run in the Olympics. They both counted to 3 and on “Go” they both took off sprinting as fast as they could.

Keaton and Carter were dead even for about the first 10 yards, and then Carter started to slow down. Keaton thinking, he had it in the bag kept running as fast as he could until he reached Ainsley.

With a slight sweat and a heavy pant of breath Keaton ran up to Ainsley and asked, “Do you want to go out with me?”

Ainsley looking at Keaton strangely said “Uhhh.. look Carter seems to be hurt over there we need to go check on him”

This is an image of a child hurt which I found on Brian Bajakian's chiropractor website.

The two walked over to Carter who was laying on the ground pretending to be in agonizing pain.

“What happened Carter?” Ainsley said in a very concerned voice. “I was going to come ask you to be my girlfriend but Keaton shoved me down and kept running towards you.” Carter barely working the words out.

“I would never date someone who would do such a terrible thing. How would you like to be my boyfriend Carter?”

Carter just smiled and said “Yes!” as he gleamed over at Keaton in complete disgust.

Authors Note:

This story is loosely based off of “Why the Possum Plays Dead” which is a short story about a rabbit and a possum. Both of the animals in the story desperately wanted wives so they would travel to a nearby village in which they would search. The rabbit was much faster than the possum so he reached the village first in which he delivered a message to the Chief that everyone must get married. By the time the possum reached the village, everyone was married including his friend the rabbit. So, the rabbit said that he would go to the next village and do the same making sure there would be a wife for the possum, but instead he decided to bring the message that there must be war at once. So as fighting started to break out, the possum reached the village in which they tried to attack him and instead of fighting, the possum played dead instead. In my story, I felt that there was no need for war but I also wanted some deception. I symbolized Keaton as the rabbit since he was much faster and could beat Carter, and I symbolized Carter as the possum since he knew he was slower. I had him pretend to be injured like the possum playing dead, except instead of the rabbit tricking the possum, I had Carter tricking Keaton. Overall, this story is more of a tortoise versus the hare but instead of just being slow, there was trickery involved in winning.

Bibliography:

Myths and Legends of the Great Plains by Katharine Berry Judson (1913).

The specific story of "Why the Possum Plays Dead" can be found in this link. 

Wikipedia Trails: From Eagles to J.J. Abrams

Eagle

One of the stories that I read and took notes on this week was about an eagle so this is where I decided to start my trail at. One of the things that I learned is that there are only two species of eagles in North America while there are many more in different areas of the world. I found this kind of ironic being that the eagle is such significant figure for America. I learned that their are different groups of eagles including: Fish eagles, Booted Eagles, Snake eagles, and Harpy eagles. I also learned that the eagle is the patron animal of the Greek God Zeus.

Zeus

Being that I have taken years of latin and seeing that Zeus was involved with the eagle, this is where I decided to lead my next step of my trail. One of the things that I learned about Zeus is not only is the eagle a sign of him, but also the bull is as well. I also learned that Zeus was raised by a goat named Amalthea. I knew that Zeus was always tied to monsters but this was too hard for me to resist on going to my next part of my trail.

Monsters

This page was kind of interesting because it showed monsters from the greek stories as well as ones from movies. It even separates the monsters based on time frames such that Dracula and Frankenstein were pre-world war II monsters while Godzilla is considered post-world war II. The page also discusses how monsters are usually seen as bad but there are also examples of good monsters in movies such as the Hulk. It also talks about how Pokemon can even be considered monster characters who are likable.

J.J Abrams

Being that I was on the monster page it actually mentioned J.J. Abram's Cloverfield movie which I watched 10 Cloverfield Lane last night. I really enjoyed the movie so I thought I might as well look him up since he produced the movie. Although I have heard of the man, I didn't realize how many movies he was involved in that I really enjoy. The most important fact that I learned about him in my opinion was that he worked with the show Lost which I watched as a kid with my parents. Other than that I didn't really learn much about him other than the fact that he has 3 kids and is jewish.

A picture of J.J. Abrams I found on Wikimedia Commons. 

Reading Notes: Great Plains, Part B

Why the Possum Plays Dead

This story was enjoyable to read because I never truly knew what was going to take place. I mean obviously the title lead the idea of the possum pretending to be dead but I would say it did a good job describing why he had to do so. What I didn’t like when thinking about the story as a writer was the fact that it didn’t really explain why the rabbit felt the need to say their should be a war. I think that one more sentence could have truly brought the story together more because the focus was them getting married but then it kind of just switched randomly.

Keeping this in mind gave me ideas for my own writing of stories. First of all as I mentioned I feel that I need to make sure that everything makes sense to the reader and not just in my mind as a writer. Second of all I think this makes me realize that as a writer I need to keep a patter in legend style stories. When I say that I mean keeping the same rhythm of going from town to town like the rabbit did.

In terms of ideas that this story gave me for writing my own story, I was thinking what if I did a story about two kids racing to get a girl they have a crush on. I was thinking that maybe one is faster so he reaches her first but on the way one of the other kids pretended to hurt himself so that she would notice him and take care of him. This way it would kind of be like him playing dead like the possum without the point of the war (which I didn’t enjoy). I feel like everyone would be able to relate to that type of story.

This is a picture of an opossum playing dead which I found on Wikimedia Commons.

Bibliography:

 Myths and Legends of the Great Plains by Katharine Berry Judson (1913).

The specific story link is above.

Reading Notes: Great Plains, Part A

Great Plains: The Eagle's Revenge

What I liked about this story was how concise it was yet still gave off a drastic amount of information. Somehow as a reader you could actually imagine the eagle, the people dancing, and of course the death. I think it was a cool aspect of saying the word "Hi!" and the reader already being able to tell what was going to happen next. I think this is a good way to tell a revenge story as a writer, which since I have written a revenge story already in this class, it sparked some ideas for me. Since my portfolio is based around children I was thinking what if I have a kid be a magician but with the single snap of his fingers he is able to perform some type of revenge. I'm not saying it has to be death because I feel that is a bit aggressive for the style of my portfolio but I think maybe it would be funny for him to get revenge on the kids who bullied him.I was even thinking about twisting this story around and having it be an eagle mad at humans instead just to add a different dynamic.Maybe even have the eagles and deer team up to fight the humans.

  One thing I would like to do differently than this story though is change the ending to be a little bit more descriptive. I felt that it kind of just slipped in the fact that he was brother's with the eagle and as a writer I feel something like that should be more climatic. Overall, I enjoyed the style of this writing in the sense that I respected the conciseness of the events yet fully being able to visualize each aspect, however even though it was meant to be concise I felt the connection of the man with the eagle could have been told better which I would like to change. 

Bibliography:

 Myths and Legends of the Great Plains by Katharine Berry Judson (1913).

The link to the exact story is above. 

A picture of a kid magician I found on Pixabay.

Collage Tech Tip: Lil Wayne and Kurt Cobain

A picture of Kurt Cobain I had on my phone and a picture of Lil Wayne that I actually took at his concert. 

I made a photo collage using my phone instead of my computer. The app I made this collage on is called Enlight which I actually use for most of my photo editing which normally ends up just being memes.  I actually make collages pretty often for different things but for this assignment I chose to do a collage of two of my favorite musicians. I chose Lil Wayne and Kurt Cobain because I've been listening to them pretty frequently recently.

Learning Challenge: Be Happy!

Want to Be Happier? Science Says Do These 11 Things Every Single Day
One of the things that I had already known but this article confirmed was that actually smiling makes people a lot more happy. I knew this from random speakers I have heard in the past but I still think it is cool how performing the action actually makes one happier. I found it interesting how just planning a vacation can make someone happier even if they don't go on it. I actually used to make fake vacations with my friend without even knowing this but they were always hilarious and did make me happy. I also became curious with the idea of mediation. I have never really thought about doing that but honestly it wouldn't be the worst thing for me to take a little time when I'm stressed to just empty my mind through meditation. Overall this article was interesting to read and made me think of ways I need to be more positive.

I chose this picture because of what the article said about taking vacations and this is one of my favorite movies. I  found it on Flickr. 

Growth Mindset: Sharing the idea with my room mate

For this Growth Mindset assignment, I choose to talk to my room mate Graham about it all. Basically the way the conversation went was me explaining my outlook on it all him and asking him how he handles things in his life to keep positive and reflect on his daily life occurrences. One thing he told me that he has been trying to do better was realize why he is doing something in moments and whether it will affect him positively or not in the future. I told him that is a good idea and that I should do that with things like studying and what not. Sometimes I will just be doing something and living in the moment which isn't bad but it might not be productive for the future. I also gave him some ideas about reflecting at the end of each day to truly analyze what one can do better for them selves. Overall I'd say it was a positive conversation and he enjoyed listening to the ideas behind Growth Mindset.

I chose this picture because Graham and I got our minds together to have a good conversation about being positive and  proactive. I got it from here . 

Wikipedia Trails: From Spiders to Horse Shoe Crabs

Spiders

From my reading this week I read a story about why spiders hide in the corners of room so this is why I looked them up first. I personally hate spiders and am actually terrified of them. I learned from this page that their closest relative is the Scorpion, which I also would hate if I ever encountered one. I also learned that one thing that separates spiders from a lot of the bugs is the fact that they have fangs which can inject venom. I knew that they could do that but wasn't really sure how the process occurred which was cool to read about.

Scorpions 

I've never really found any interest in scorpions, all I knew was to avoid them at all costs haha. I found it interesting that they are on all continents except Antartica and can live in some pretty bizarre conditions. I also found out that the most harmful stinging ones aren't on North America so that gave me a little more assurance.

A picture of a scorpion found on Wikimedia Commons.

Eurypterid

I didn't even know these existed but they are more often referred to as Sea Scorpions. Although most of them swim, I learned that some of them have long enough legs where they can crawl. I also learned that their closest relative is the Horse shoe crab.

Horse Shoe Crabs

These are another type of arthropod and I obviously went straight to their page from the sea scorpion one from seeing how closely related they were. I learned that they have a lot more rods and cones compared to humans meaning they are extremely susceptible to light but even with that they have very poor eyesight. I also found it interesting that these creatures don't have any hemoglobin in their blood.