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)

Week 14 Storytelling: Dante in the Ninth Circle of Hell

(Rocky cave from pxhere; edited by me)

Dante watched as Virgil floated over the dangerously sharp rocks as he made his way to a two-story-tall black iron door. Dante walked behind him, but his still-living, mortal feet were sliced on contact with the razor sharp floor.

It took a few minutes for Dante to navigate the floor in a way that he would be cut as little as possible. When he joined Virgil by the door, the soles of his feet were bleeding. He looked up at Virgil, who smiles reassuringly down at him.

Without saying a word, Virgil pushed the large, black door open and floated inside the ninth circle of Hell. 

(Venice - Campo Pescaria from Wikimedia)

Standing outside the door, Dante imagined what horrors might be inside. He thought back to the monsters he had seen over the past couple of days. Giants, harpies, all of the eternally damned. He knew this final circle of Hell was were Satan himself resided.


Dante had grown up hearing the stories of Satan. A huge creature that made giants look small. Three heads, six eyes, three wings, and three mouths endlessly chewing on those who committed the worst crimes while on Earth.

As he stood in front of the cracked-open door, he could feel the cold nerves settling in his stomach. But, Virgil had already gone in, and Dante was there to follow him and see all nine circles of Hell.

So he went in.

At first Dante was blinded because it was so much brighter inside the door. Before everything was dimly lit by unseen lighting that gave just enough of a glow so one’s eyes could adjust to the dark. But this light was bright white, almost luminescent.

When his eyes adjusted Dante was astonished. Before him were linoleum floors, so shiny he could see everything reflected in them. Paintings and tall pillars alternated down the long hallway in front of him. There were furniture arrangements scattered about, creating small sitting areas. At the end of the hallway, Dante saw Virgil hovering next to a large table that someone was sitting behind. The two chatted idly.

(European-Style Walls And Pillars Design For Hotel Lobby from 3dhousedownload.com)

This was not what Dante was expecting.

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Author's Note: Dante’s Inferno is a classic. Everyone has either read it or at least heard about it. In the original story, Dante is led by Virgil through the different circles of hell, learning about the creatures that dwell there and how it all came to be. In the ninth circle of Hell, Dante and Virgil originally see Satan, with his three heads, chewing on Judas, Brutus, and Cassius, all traitors when they were alive. After seeing this final scene, Dante and Virgil climb up Satan and reemerge on Earth. In my retelling, I wanted something different. When I was think about what to write, I remembered Elizabeth Harper’s storybook that I read at the beginning of our class. She wrote about a new perspective of the underworld as a sort of office where Hades is the boss and has a new secretary, Kyle. I really enjoyed this new imagining of Hell and I thought it was great. So I wanted to incorporate that into my story by having Dante find the ninth circle of hell to be a hotel/office setting. I think it makes the story funny because the lead up of the rest of the story is dark and grim and horrifying, and then you get a different sort of “horror” with working in public service.


Bibliography: "Canto 34: Satan" from Dante's Divine Comedy, translated by Tony Kline (2002). (Web Source)
“Hero Visa Pending” by Elizabeth Harper (Web Source)

Reading Notes: Dante's Inferno Unit, Part B

Satan, Judas, Brutus, and Cassius

Since beginning this unit, I have been looked forward to seeing how the different levels of Hell progressed and who or what would be at the very end. I figured it would be Satan himself, but I didn't expect him to have three heads and be a giant to giants. I also never imagined that he would be using his mouths to chew on some other famous historical people. I think it's interested that the three men were all infamous for their betrayals. I wish that the story would have made some comment about why specifically they were there, but if I had to guess it would be that. 

Once I got to the end and was a little surprised, it made me think, "What was I expecting?" and I am not sure I really have an answer to that. After finishing this unit I'm a little concerned with writing a story for it just because I have no idea what I would re-imagine Hell to be like...but, I guess we'll see. 

(Inferno by Gustave Dore on Wikimedia)

Bibliography: "Canto 34: Satan" from Dante's Divine Comedy, translated by Tony Kline (2002). (Web Source)

Reading Notes: Dante's Inferno Unit, Part A

The First Circle: Limbo

Before this, I had never read any of Dante's Inferno. I had heard about it plenty of times with it being a classic, of course. What surprised me pretty early on was the concept of the first circle of Hell. From what I have understood growing up, limbo is an in between space where souls go when they can't go to heaven or hell. But, in this story, it is the place where good people, who died before Christianity was a thing, spend the rest of eternity. It just strikes me as sort of unfair. They have to live here just because Christ hadn't come about yet? And yes, a few were saved, but only a select few. I think I would rewrite this to be completely different just because I really don't think this would be...good? fair? right?

(Foggy Lake Mist on pixaby)

Bibliogprahy: "Canto 4: Limbo" from Dante's Divine Comedy, translated by Tony Kline (2002). (Web Source)

Tech Tip: Adding External Links in Twine 2.0

Hello and welcome to my second Tech Tip involving Twinery.org!

Since my first story using twine, I have been trying to figure out how to add external links, or link that when clicked will take you to an outside webpage. I wanted to use this to revise my stories and add in links to my other stories, for those who want to read them in a very continuous manner. When looking at different websites, including Twine's own Wiki (lightly outdated) I could not find anything that worked.

Finally, I found a Twine Help Forum (found here) with a problem post asking for help regarding external links. From this post, I finally code the line of code I needed to create an external link:

(link-repeat: "LINK NAME HERE")[(open-url: "http://insertyourlinkhere.com"]
I edited the code taken from the forum so you can better see where things would go, such as what you want the clickable link to say and where to put the url you want to go to.

This can go in a twine passage along with everything else. Here is an example of what it can look like from an editing point of view:

(Screen shot of a passage where I used an external link to a Dice Roller)

This took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out, but now that I have it, I plan to go back and edit my stories to include links back to my Story Web page, as well as links that lead straight into the other stories. 

I hope this helps someone else!

Reading Notes: Welsh Fairy Tales (Thomas), Part B

Owen Goes a-Wooing

I like this short story because while it is only 400 words long, it told a story full of different kinds of magic. The mansion under the lake that Owen floated to was great, and there was some sort of time magic going on as well. When Owen arrived to Siwsi, he found out he had been gone for months, rather that a few hours. It makes me think of the time magic in C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. But in that story, when the siblings think they have been gone for years upon years, they find that back home they were gone for merely hours. This sort of time magic has always been really fascinating to me because I think it can really alter a story and the characters perceptions within it. 

(Old Clock Close Up from Wikipedia)

The Martyred Hound

This story was sad and ironic. The King thinking the dog had eaten his heir, killed the dog, only to find out the dog had actually saved the child by killing a wolf that had gotten in. This story was also relatively short at 600 words, but even within that time, I felt intense sadness when it was revealed what happened. The dog and the King had such a strong bond, it was sad the King killed him needlessly. 

(Enzo the Italian Greyhound on flickr)

Bibliography: "Owen Goes a-Wooing" and "The Martyred Hound" from The Welsh Fairy Book by W. Jenkyn Thomas with illustrations by Willy Pogány (1908).

Reading Notes: Welsh Fairy Tales (Thomas), Part A

Arthur in the Cave

When I read the short explanation before the story, I already knew I would like this story. There's a popular book series that's fairly recent called The Raven Cycle. These books are all about a group of teenagers searching for the sleeping king of Wales. In the book, the King isn't Arthur, however... or at least they don't call him Arthur. They call him Glendower. I love the series (though I haven't finished it yet) so I was excited to read the tale that inspired the books. I've always been a lover of fantasy, and a sleeping King is a fantastic story that I absolutely love. 

In the original, I thought it was really interesting that King Arthur was woken up, and then he decided to listen to the sorcerer saying it was not time to wake up. Truthfully, I expected Arthur to get mad we was woken up for nothing and maybe fight and/or kill the intruders. 

(King Arthur by Charles Ernest Butler on Wikimedia)

Tech Tip: Starting Twine, Saving, and Backing Up Stories

Hello and welcome to a very basic Twine introduction. I learned a lot about Twine from Keegan Wheeler when Dr. Gibbs connected us to talk about Twine. I've also learned a lot from Twine's Wiki and the YouTube series listed in a blog post Keegan made that you can read here! I wanted to write up my own tech tip from the perspective of someone who has only recently begun using Twine!

1. Getting Started

Twinery.org is the official website for starting your own twine story. On the front page, there is different information about patch updates, downloads, and more. Something I really like about Twine is there is the option to use it online. This means you don't have to download any sort of program to create your stories. 

Something very important to note about this is that the information is saved to your browser. This means that there is no login username and password that you use to access your stories. It is just saved to whatever internet browser you're using, such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc. This can sometimes cause a problem with working on projects from multiple computers. 

For example, if I save my work in Google Chrome on my work computer (where I get a lot of my school work done), I won't be able to just open my project on my personal laptop later, even if I am using Google Chrome. There is a solution, though! Which leads me to...

2. Saving and Backing Up Stories

Backing up Twine stories is very very important. Since everything is only saved in your browser, one cookie/cache clear will wipe out everything saved in Twine. This is why "publishing to file" is your best friend. Here is where you can find it when you're editing your story:

Publish to file will download an HTML file to your computer. This HTML file will allow you to always have your work backed up, as well as allow you to edit your story in multiple browsers. 

Going back to my earlier scenario, if I am working on my project on my work computer, but want to work on my story on my laptop, I can use publish to file. Once I have the file, I can email it to myself. Then, on my laptop, I download the file from my email. Then, I go to twinery.org, click "use it online" and I will click "import from file" on my homepage: 

You will be able to upload the file you downloaded from your email and pick up editing where you left off! 

These are just a couple of things that I thought would make a good Twine Tech Tip post, since they are important and things I find myself using most often. I hope they helped you understand Twine a bit! 

Reading Notes: More Celtic Fairy Tales, Part B

"The Legend of Knockgrafton"

This story was about two different men with humps on their back. The first, Lusmore, was a kind man. One night he heard fairies singing and sang along with them. The fairies liked this so much that they removed his hump, gave him fine clothes, and improved his life. The second man, Jack Madden, was more mischievous and rude. When we heard about Lusmore, his family brought him to the fairies. When the fairies started singing, he interrupted their song instead of singing along. For this, the fairies punished him by giving him Lusmore's old hump, so that Jack would have two humps.

To me this story was a tale about being kind in life. Those who are kind in life are rewarded, while those who are not are punished.

(Fairy Bridge from Wikimedia)

Bibliography: "The Legend of Knockgrafton" from More Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs

Reading Notes: More Celtic Fairy Tales, Part A

My two favorite stories from this reading were "The Fate of the Children of Lir" and "Dream of Owen O'Mulready." The first story was a bit longer and told the story of the four children of King Lir who were turned into swans because his second wife was jealous of them. The children were to remain as swans for 90 years until two specific people were married. This story sort of reminded me of Swan Lake, because, you know, swans. I think it could be an interesting story to retell. Maybe with an ending where the children don't have to wait 90 years to turn human, just to die immediately.

(The Four Swans, Waltham Cross, Hertforshire by Christine Matthews on geograph.org.uk)

The second story was about a man who had never had a dream. His master gave him instructions on how to have a dream, which Owen O'Mulready followed. He did have a dream, but it was the sort where you sleep walk...or sleep climb? And he ended up dropping his shoe on his wife's face, waking her up. She woke him up and Owen decided he didn't want to have any more dreams. As someone who used to sleepwalk, I would always go to bed afraid I would get up in the night and get myself hurt. Maybe I could re-tell this story with a difference circumstance to O'Mulready's dreaming/sleepwalking. 

Bibliography: "The Fate of the Children of Lir" and "Dream of Owen O'Mulready" from More Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1895).

Week 11 Storytelling: Mondamin

Many, many years ago, there was a young man who, at the beginning of spring, began his yearly fast. This fasting was a tradition for his tribe, and the young man was proud to take part in it. However, his father was not a skilled hunter, which meant that there was normally no food in their home, anyway.

While his father went out daily to hunt, hoping to catch something to eat so there would be food when his son’s fast ended, the young man would wander the forest and wonder at the different plants he found there.

After fasting for the first four days, the young man became weak with hunger and decided to lay down inside of his tepee. He got comfortable on the floor, staring up at the light let in by the small opening at the top. He watched the dust float through the beams of light for many hours.

Suddenly, a handsome youth appeared inside the tepee with him. The human man could tell that this stranger was from the Sky-land because of his elaborate green and yellow robes that flowed around him and the soft plume of feathers in his hand. The young man could not help but think how truly beautiful this man from Sky-land was.

“The Great Mystery has sent me so that you may learn all that you wish to know,” the handsome stranger explained. “To gain knowledge, you must wrestle me.”

The human man explained that he could not wrestle, for he was too weak from fasting. After convincing the man that this was indeed the only way to gain knowledge, he accepted. After a few minutes, the handsome stranger said that was all for that day, and left silently.

The next day, the stranger came again, still in his beautiful green and yellow robes, and wrestled again with the young human man. After a few minutes, the handsome stranger said that was all for that day, and left silently. After the stranger was gone, the young human man reflected on how he seemed to best the stranger when wrestling. He wondered how, and what he might learn from him.

The third day came and the two young men wrestled once again. Finally, the stranger stopped. “This has been enough. You have prevailed.”

The young men settled in on the floor comfortably and began to talk. “The Great Mystery has decided you are worthy enough to gain the knowledge you seek. Tomorrow, after I have come and we have wrestled once more, you must throw me down, strip me of my robes, and bury my body in the ground.”

The human young man began to protest, but the handsome stranger spoke over him. “From this place where you bury me, keep it well. Do not let weeds and grass grow over where you have laid me there. Also, you must not eat until after we have finished wrestling tomorrow.” After he spoke, the handsome stranger rose gracefully and vanished. The young human man stayed sitting there for a while, thinking on what was asked of him. He did not want to bury the beautiful stranger. He had come to think of him as a friend.

When the next morning came, the young man’s father brought him some food he had caught, for it was the seventh day of fasting. The young man declined the food and waited patiently for the handsome stranger.

When evening came, so did the beautiful stranger. The two young men wrestled as usual, and at the end, the beautiful young man from Sky-land stayed on the ground, waiting for the young human man to do what he was told.

Minutes went by, but nothing happened.

The beautiful young stranger sat up and found the young human man standing across the tepee from him. “My friend, why have you not continued?”

“I do not wish to bury you. You are my friend, just as you have said,” the human man responded.

The beautiful young man got off of the ground and smiled. “I understand your concern, but I will be all right. It is my purpose to come here and do this for you. So that you may gain the knowledge you are seeking.”

“I do not know what I am seeking, so how will you aide me in this,” the young human man questioned his friend.

After a long pause, the beautiful stranger turned friend spoke. “I do not know, but it is what I was sent here to do.”

The two young men talked about this for a long while, well into the night. By the time day broke, they had reached an agreement.

“I will bury you,” the young human man said. “And I will accept the knowledge you leave behind.”

Both young men were saddened, but they accepted that the beautiful young man from Sky-land had a purpose to fulfill.

The young human man buried his friend and tended to his grave daily to make sure no weeds or grass would grow there. He visited right until it was time for winter to come. On the last day he was to visit, the young man found that from his friend’s grave, a tall plant had grown. The plant seemed graceful and was as bright and colorful as his friends robes has been, with silk-like hair in places.

This is how we came to have Mondamin, also known as corn.

(Maize Corn Field on max pixel)

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Author's note: In the original story, the human boy wrestled the stranger without question, buried him, and from his grave corn grew. In my story, I wanted there to be a little more depth so I explore the option of the two actually becoming friends. I still wanted the outcome of the stranger being buried and corn growing, though. 

Bibliography: "Mondamin" from Myths and Legends of the Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1914). (Web Source)

Reading Notes: Mississippi Valley/Great Lakes Unit, Part A

My favorite story, or should I say stories, from this part of the unit were the two stories about the origin of corn. One is from the Ojibwa people and the other from the Odawa people.

In the Ojibwa story, there is a beautiful stranger sent to wrestle with a human boy. The boy was fasting, but as he wrestled the stranger each day he grew stronger. Eventually he defeated the stranger who instructed him to bury his body. From where his body was buried, corn grew. 

The Odawa story was similar in that it involved wrestling, and the winner buried pieces of his fallen foe, and from that corn grew. 

I was interested to see that wrestling and burying your opponent was common among these stories, and it got me thinking as to if other corn origin stories would have those things as well. If I choose this story to re-tell, that is something I would want to look in to. 

(Amazing Maize on Wikimedia)

Bibliography: "Mondamin" from Myths and Legends of the Mississippi Valley and the Great Lakes, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1914). (Web Source)