Reading Diary Week 10 Continued: The Rattlesnake's Vengeance

This is another great story about revenge. One day a mother had heard her children scream and went to go see what it was. Upon finding a snake among them, she killed it for protection. Later the husband was returning from hunting and ran into the snake who had been killed tribe. The tribe told the man that there must be sacrifice for the snake killed was their chief. The man agreed to let the snake kill his wife once he got home...I don't know if I would have made that same decision..He eventually leads the snakes back home and tells his wife to get him water; as she does a snake bites and kills her. After this husband hold his wife in the final moments of her life, the snake tells the man to sing a song for protection from the snakes in the future and if anyone is ever accidentally still bit by them, the song would also heal them.

Revengeful Snake: Source

This was a collection of thoughts after reading the story entitled The Rattlesnake's Vengeance, by James Mooney in 1900.

Reading Diary Week 10: The First Fire

Yet another creation story; this one is easily my new favorite. Not only does it explain how the first fire was created, but also how the fire spread throughout the Earth. Unfortunately, the first fire was placed on an island. All the animals try to cross the water and bring the fire back because the Earth is so cold and dark. While all the animals attempt, almost all of them fail and have resulting injuries to this day because of it. For example, the owls get nearly blinded and their wings damaged when they try to bring the fire back and that the reason why to this day they have bad sight and flight abilities. The snake fell into the fire and was scorched black, the raven was burned black from the smoke above. This story explains the characteristics of many animals as well as the first fire.

The First Fire: Source

These were the collected thoughts after reading the story entitled The First Fire, written by James Mooney in 1900.

Storytelling Week 9: Sweet Revenge

A helpless and innocent small young woman had just finished her shift as a server at a local restaurant; she had made over $150 that shift regarding it was a Friday night. As she was walking by a dark alleyway a mugger had focused in on her and her bag.

The dark shadow emerged from the alley and began to follow the young woman as she made her way to the bus stop to go home. Half a block away from the bus stop she stopped and hesitated; she saw the muggers shadow approaching.

Being a small woman, she knew she could not escape the mugger once he made his final move towards her and her bag. Knowing this, she held her bag even tighter towards her body and darted across the deserted street.

No person was around to witness what was happening; the mugger engaged towards the woman and also darted after her. As he crossed the street, the bus she was supposed to be on collide with the man instantly killing him.

The mugger now laid in the street taking his last final breaths as the woman watched from the sidewalk on the other side of the street. She slowly approached him as the life was leaving his body and said the last words he ever heard..."are you satisfied now...?"
...

Bus Stop, Source

...

In the final moments of the muggers life, an ambulance had arrived and successfully revived him. He was lucky to be alive and everyone was shocked he was still breathing. He had suffered from 8 broken bones and brain damage; he would never be the same again.

Later the next day as the mugger laid in his hospital bed, his ex wife had heard the terrible news and thought about going to visit him. The wife was skeptical about visiting him for they had been divorced for several years; though they were both still very much in love.

Deciding to finally visit her ex husband and tell him how she still felt about him, on the way to the hospital the woman who he had attempted to mug her before was carpooling with her friend to work when her car had struck and killed her instantly right in front of the hospital.

The mugger did not know who the person was crossing the street to get to the hospital, but saw the aftermath of the incident and questioned what could have happened. He suddenly thought about his one love in life, the woman who had just died in front of the hospital trying to see him.

In the following weeks as he recovered in the hospital one phrase was stuck in his head that he could not shake..."are you satisfied now...?"

Authors Note
This was my adaptation from a story I read earlier this week entitled the Coyote and Porcupine. In the original, animals were used instead of humans and the porcupine had came back to life several times after the coyote had beaten it. After coming back, the porcupine eventually tortured him and his entire family getting the final sweet revenge. This original story I must say was quite brutal, especially with animals. I wanted to make a more modern adaptation of this using a very common example, a mugger who is after a woman's purse after she gets off her late night shift.

Bibliography
This is an adaptation of the original story entitled the Coyote and Porcupine, by Pliny Early Goddard in 1911.

Reading Diary Week 9 Continued: Coyote and Porcupine

This one was more interesting to me than the last reading. This story involves coyotes and a porcupine. Initially a porcupine had asked a buffalo for help crossing the river. The porcupine went inside the buffalo to cross the river to ensure him from not falling into the water. Just as the buffalo crossed, the porcupine killed the buffalo and began to slaughter it.

As a coyote was passing, he offered to help slaughter the buffalo for the porcupine because he was too small; he began to do so and clubbed the porcupine to death as well. The porcupine came back to life several times and fought the coyote as he attempted to bring the buffalo meat to his family.

The porcupine ended up silencing the coyote who had killed him, went back and killed his family, and told the last remaining coyote where to go to be at "ease". When this last coyote went there, the porcupine had kicked the branch from under and let him fall in to the canyon and literally explode into pieces. A gruesome story of revenge from a seemingly hopeless porcupine, classic.

The Porcupine and the Coyote: Source

These were the thoughts from reading the story entitled the Coyote and Porcupine, written by Pliny Earle Goddard in 1911.

Reading Diary Week 9: The Swallowing Monster

This story is very interesting and takes several quick turns. A monster who "swallows" things is after a small young girl. After she discovers many dead dear when getting water, the people realize there is a creature after them all. 

A fire poker was told to cry loudly when the monster approached them to scare the monster off; this worked only once before the swallowing monster swallowed the poker itself up. After literally swallowing everything and everyone except for the small girl, she hid under a mans braided hair; this man's name was Spider and he was chopping a tree near his home when the little girl ran to him. 

In the end Spiders wife became jealous of this girl and built a swing for her by the shore. When the young girl swung from the swing for the second time, it snapped and she fell into the water and transformed into a frog...many many many turns in this one. 

Swallowing Monster: Source

These thoughts were recorded after the reading of The Swallowing Monster, an Apache tale by Plin Earle Goddard in 1911.

Week 9-10 Reading Ideas

For weeks 9 and 10 after spring break, I plan to focus on the California and the Old Southwest unit of the untextbook. I chose this unit because it included stories from the Navajo; I have always been interested in this tribe so here is my change to learn about their myths! The first story I saw also could possibly tie right in to my storybook entitled Three Coyote Creation Stories. 

While I have been doing a lot of origin stories, the second reading I noticed that caught my attention is entitled Origin of the Sierra Nevadas and Coast Range. I have enjoyed reading about different cultures origin stories and this one will be a great addition I am sure.

Navajo Desert: Source

Week 8 Blog Ideas

When browsing through other peoples blog I have found some ideas and changes I may like to add to my blog as well. The three people's blogs who gave me ideas were Carmen and the style/format of her sidebar and widgets on her blog. Patrick and the solid fading color he chose for his background, and Kaitlin with the nice classy look provided by her background image and font used for her blog.

I would like to possibly make my sidebar more simple and appealing, possibly change my background to something solid to keep the readers attention on the posts alone, and if possible change the font of my blog to give it a more personal feel for the readers.

Week 8: Managing Time

Time management has (finally) not been a major issue with me this semester. This is mainly due to it being my senior year and I am taking another online class along with this one. Besides my two labs and government class (I know, its late to be taking government...), I only have these two online courses. I usually try to get both reading diary and storytelling posts done before Wednesday of the week and the rest of the weekend assignments typically on Saturday or Sunday. This schedule has worked very well for me and I do not plan to make any major changes to it for the second half of the semester.

The picture below is deadly accurate...

(Oscar Winner Leo: Source)

Week 7 Storytelling: The First Clap of Thunder

They call me Xander, god of all gods. I rule over the heavens and the seas; the gods under me control things such as the weather, love, and nature. The god of weather goes by the name of Jupiter, the god of love goes by Eden, and the god of nature goes by the name of Eve.

I have admired the god of love, Eden for many many years now, though Jupiter seems to have begun showing affection towards her also. Eve has always admired me, but I do not wish to be with her. I only want to be with Eden; for she is the most beautiful god there is who rules over the strongest emotion, love. If I could be with Eden, her love would be enough for both of us to be everlasting together.

One day I witnessed Jupiter sneak a kiss from Eden, her eyes showed that she too cared for Jupiter. I thought many nights about what happened between Jupiter and Eden before taking any action. The first day of spring, I confronted Jupiter about what happened and he ignored me completely. Jupiter did not want to get in my way, although he already unknowingly has. My resulting anger from Jupiter ignoring me caused me to do something very harsh and bold...

I summoned all of the weather in which Jupiter controlled and summoned it upon him. I gathered every bolt of lightning I could grab and sent the electricity jolting through his body. Though Jupiter was a god, he could not handle all the weather and lightning I summoned upon him; this was due to the fact that I was the sole god above him. Only I could destroy other gods if I so pleased.

As the bolts of lightning passed through his body, he collapsed down from the top story of the heavens down to the bottom floor of the earth. With so much power behind his body, the first and greatest clap of thunder ever echoed throughout the entire earth as he stuck the ground. The skies went black and the rain began for months on end. The first thunder storm graced the earth this day due to solely my actions.

Upon approaching Eden, she too ignored me and never spoke to me again for my actions towards her one love, Jupiter, could not be undone. To this day, I still remain as the loneliest god over all gods. After that day I destroyed Jupiter, thunder always accompanied lightning during storms and serves as a reminder of my own harsh actions.

(Jupiter Striking Earth: Source)

Authors Note

As I child, I remember my mother telling me that thunder was the sound of god rearranging his living room; this always grabbed my curiosity and from then, I was always intrigued by thunder and lightning. I read about the origins of lightning last week in the Nigerian tales and this week I have read the origin story of lightning within the Asian tales. I felt it was now appropriate to make my own adaptation to this origin story. 

Bibliography 

This story was adapted from the original story entitled The Origin of Lightning, by W.A. Briggs in 1899.