Friday, May 4, 2018

Famous Last Words: Not the End All, Be All

This is my last post for Mythology-Folklore, and honestly it’s a little sad. This week I took advantage of the extra week of reading and writing to make up for some things I missed over the semester.

I really liked the Russian folktale unit I read this week. And honestly, I’ve liked most, if not all of the readings for this class. They’ve all been incredibly interesting. My only wish is that I would have read more (and maybe gotten that extra reading credit, haha).

I’m content with my story this week, I feel like it has a note of finality and wrapping thigs up that is a little poetic to it being my last story for the class. I regret missing a couple of stories, writing them has been one of the best things about this class. I love creative, fictional writing, but I never really get a chance to do it. Having it be for a grade helped me really make that time.

I finished my capstone this semester, yay! I don’t graduate until next spring, though. I took capstone early because I want to study abroad next spring and won’t be here to take it. Fingers crossed I get into my number one pick, Ireland!

Today (Friday) I am going to the OU Creatie awards because I used OU Create this semester to host my twine story. I’m really excited and I hope I won something! If I didn’t, it’s still a good time to meet other students and people who work with OU create. I’m sad that I might not get to meet Keegan, he’s really been a huge help this semester (along with Dr. Gibbs).

Well, this is it! I’m officially done! This will give me the last points I need for the grade I want, and I’m satisfied with how this semester went. Even though class is over, I plan to keep this blog up, and maybe even use it for brainstorming because I definitely want to re-vamp and expand Dungeons & Decisions.

(Goodbye on maxpixel)

Week 15 Storytelling: The Two "Friends"

Many, many years ago, in a small village, there lived to young men. They were as close as two people could be. Some referred to them as brothers, but they shared a different sort of bonded love. Because of how close they were to each other, neither young man had married by the time all the other young people in town had married. They were more than content in each other’s company. 

One day, one of the young men became terribly sick. His partner was right by his side every second, waiting on him hand and foot. Even the strong bond the young men shared was not enough to stave off the inevitable coming of death.

Many months after mourning the loss of his partner, the still living young man met a young woman whose time he enjoyed sharing. The two grew close, and about a year later, they made the decision to be wed.

On his way to the place where he would marry his bride, the man passed by the cemetery where his first love was buried. He decided to stop and pay his respects.

(Jay's Grave on Wikimedia)

Sitting in front of his partner’s grave, the man talked about his new engagement. He sat there for many minutes, telling old stories and new. At the end of his talk, he stood and looked over the grave. As he turned to leave, he spoke: “Comrade, dear. I invite thee to my wedding.” He knew he would never marry this woman here his partner still living, but he liked to think his partner would like to see him happy now.

As soon as the young man spoke these words, the grave shifted and began to open. From the hole, the dead man rose up. He smiled, as much as he could, and responded: “Thanks be to thee, love. Let us act upon this happy chance. Come into my new home and drink in celebration with me.”

The living man was surprised and he explained that the entire wedding procession was waiting for him.

“Eh, dear! Surely you can spare a moment for one last drink with me,” the dead man replied.

The living man thought for a moment. He had heard stories of people drinking with the dead. Every glass was rumored to make a hundred years of time pass. As he looked to his fallen partner, he remembered the time they had spent together, and how he had wished many times he could spend just one more day together.

One could argue a hundred years is better than a day.

The living man looked back to the gate of the cemetery where his procession was waiting for him, and he turned his back to them and stepped into the grave.

“Surely, you know what this means?” the dead man questioned him.

The living man smiled and answered him, “I do.”


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Author's Note: In the original story, the two friend promise each other that whoever gets married first will invite the other to his wedding, even if the second man dies. One young man does die, and the living man goes on to get engaged. The day of his wedding, the living man passes by his friends grave and invites him to the wedding. The dead man raises up and thanks his friend, inviting him in for a quick drink. The living man accepts, thinking it will not take very long for one drink. The has three drinks, and three hundred years pass by. When he emerges, everything is different. He eventually makes it to a town where someone explains that three hundred years ago, a groom went missing, never to marry his bride. 

In my story, I wanted to change the relationship between the two men. They are lovers, and the living man consciously chooses to spend however many hundreds of years with his partner, instead of getting married. 

Bibliography: "The Two Friends" from Russian Fairy Tales by W. R. S. Ralston (1887). (Web Source)

Thursday, May 3, 2018

Reading Notes: Russian Folktales, Part B

The Two Friends

I'm not exactly sure why, but as I was reading this story, I was already coming up with a way to retell it. The two friends were so close that they promised each other to invite the other to his wedding, even if he had died. Which, since it was mentioned, it happened. But I kept imagining that maybe the two friends were close enough that they didn't need to be married, until the other died. And maybe then the still living friend went on to finally want to be married one day. He could then stop at his friend's grave, wanting to share the news but missing him. The dead friend rises and convinces his living friend to stay for a drink or two since they have missed each other so much. The living friend agrees, thankful to see his friend again, but then comes to find that three hundred years had passed by in his absence. 

I'll throw in more details, but I think that will make the story have more of an impact, in my opinion. 

(Wedding Seating on pxhere)


Bibliography: "The Two Friends" from Russian Fairy Tales by W. R. S. Ralston (1887). (Web Source)

Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Reading Notes: Russian Folktales, Part A

Emilian the Fool

This was my favorite story from the first part of this unit. The fool, who everyone treated badly, came upon good luck and was granted the power to have whatever he said happen. That seems like a Very powerful thing to me. I liked how at first he only used it to do the things the wives had asked of him. He never did anything bad or harmed anyone. I'd definitely like to have a power like that. 

For re-telling this story, I might make it so someone keeps this gift a secret and uses it for a long long time. Maybe by using this gift they create all sorts of things, creatures, anything! That might be fun! Maybe the pike plays a larger role than only granting the gift. Maybe the person keeps the pike somewhere and has to return to it to continue their powers. Then I could explore what happens if they forget or cannot return to the pike. 


(Northern Pike on flickr)

Bibliography: "Emilian the Fool" from Russian Fairy Tales by W. R. S. Ralston (1887). (Web Source)

Monday, April 30, 2018

Week 14 Review: Things I Forget To Do

Breathe

The graphic I chose for this week is the gif of a clock with markers to tell you to breathe in for three seconds then out for three seconds. This is really relevant to the week I had. I felt like I constantly had a million and one things going on, and sometimes I forget to watch my breathing. Another technique I like to use is in through your nose for three seconds and our through your mouth for five seconds. This is something I learned while taking the Sho Hei Ryu style of karate for six and a half years. It helps regulate your breathing and pulse! 

(from the Slow: Three Seconds HEART post)

Sleep

While I was growing up, my mom has always stressed that it was important that I sleep enough. I always took her word for it. She's my mom and it felt nice to sleep. This video, by Claudia Aguirre explains some of the reasons behind why people need to sleep. It was really interesting to listen to and watch, especially learning about the guy who stayed awake for 11 days in 1965. I think my longest record for staying awake is two days, and I definitely felt horrible before I finally got some sleep. I used to use an app called SleepBot that tracked how long I slept, how much I moved around, and if I talked in my sleep. It was pretty cool, and I'm not really sure why I stopped using it. I do want to start keeping better track of my sleep from now on though. 


Tech Tip: OU Create's Wordpress and Adding Navigation Links

Before this semester I had never used OU Create or Wordpress, so this has been a lot of learning. When choosing a site to host my project on, Dr. Gibbs suggested that I check out OU Create because it's platform is friendly to hosting the HTML file I needed because of my Twine story. The first day I looked into it, I was really overwhelmed. For this Tech Tip, I'll be specifically showing you how to add header links in the Wordpress application of OU Create, because it took me a hot minute to figure it out.

Setting Up OU Create

Every member of the OU community has access to OU Create! Once you create your account and log in, you will see a page similar to this: 


For this example, you'll want to click on Wordpress and go through the set up for that. This will include picking a domain name. The one I use for class is dungeonsanddecisions.oucreate.com

Once the application is installed, you'll click on "My Applications" and then on your domain link that has /wp-admin/ on the end of it:



This takes you to the editing/admin side of your site. It should look something like this:


Setting Up Header Links

Once you're on the admin homepage, you'll click "Appearance" in the left-hand column. This will take you to a page with six pre-loaded themes you can use, or an option to make your own. For my project, I use the "Twenty Seventeen" theme. 

Once you pick your theme, you'll click the blue "Customize" button that shows at the bottom of the theme. 


This should take you to what looks like your site page, but with a control panel on the left side of the screen. Click on the "Menus" option. Once in Menus, there should be a choice labeled "Navigation" with "(currently set to:)" and either Top Menu, Social Links Menu, or nothing. 

Click on Navigation. There will be a place to name the menu if you choose, and a button that says "+ Add Items"



There will be a list of pages and posts after you click "+ Add Item" to choose from. Choose what you want to add to the Navigation Bar, and you should see it automatically added to the left under what you have your navigation bar titled. 

NOTE: If you have not created any pages, posts, etc. yet, there will be no items to add. Create a tester page/post if you need to. 

This will update on the preview of your page in the background. Once you are done, don't forget to hit the blue Publish button at the top of the control panel. After you have published, you are all done! 


I hope this helps! 

All pictures were screenshots done by me from my personal view of the OU create website. 

Famous Last Words: Finishing Up My Storybook and a Drag Show

Storybook

I did it. My last story in my storybook is in and I feel really proud of myself. This week, my story was the final encounter with Sedna, with only one player remaining. I chose to wrap up things this way for a few different reasons. For one, writing one player character meant I could write more about them, instead of a short amount about multiple characters. Secondly, I wanted it to feel like everything truly was leading up to this. This was the end, whether it went good or bad because there was only one person left. Had I had more time or more words to use, I would expand the story and maybe have four or five stories, but this semester didn't really allow for that sort of thing, haha. Overall, I'm very pleased with what I accomplished. 

Crimson & Queens

If any of you have heard about, or went to, the Drag Show, Crimson & Queens, thank you! I have been part of a three student committee planning this show since Fall. Things have not always gone our way, and true to show biz, we had numerous complications the day of. But, despite all that, we put on a fantastic show! We had three student performers, three local queens from Norman pride, a local queen from OKC hosting, and our headliners was Kennedy Davenport from Ru Paul's Drag Race. The event was co-sponsored/hosted by the Gender + Equality Center (where I my internship) and the Union Programming Board. Our LGBTQ Program Advisory Board was essential to putting on the show and we definitely could not have done it without them helping out Thursday night. A huge HUGE shout out to Chris and Jerry, the other two members of our trio. We went through a lot this semester to make this show happened, and we freakin' crushed it. 

(Planning Committee: Me, Kennedy Davenport, Chris Ebert, and Jerry Lessley. taken from Jerry's instagram)
(Some of our volunteers at the end of the night, ft. Kennedy. taken from Jerry's instagram)


Famous Last Words: Not the End All, Be All

This is my last post for Mythology-Folklore, and honestly it’s a little sad. This week I took advantage of the extra week of reading and wri...