Week 11 Story: The Rubiks Cube

The end was near. 

That's what Lola and Liza thought to themselves anyway. 

Out yonder, their sister Luna had a different opinion of what was to come. 

Luna, the eldest, found herself haggling with the snag toothed wretch who had kidnapped them. Wincing in disgust at the site and smell of the miserable being in standing in front of her she knew that it was here duty to rescue her naive siblings. 

Standing in front of her, the stringy haired, wrinkled, missing tooth woman demanded that she complete the rubiks cube before taking one more step. The requirement was that she complete this game of colorful intelligence within two shakes of a lambs tail. 

If Luna is able to complete her task then her sisters walk free. If Luna fails, she and her sisters will remain captive for all of eternity. 

Luna gawked at the cube, wondering how she would complete this task before the lamb shook his tail. Finally, with a huge sigh she held her sweaty palm out to retrieve the cube. The dark cloaked woman, grinned and handed her the cube. She was sure that she would not complete it in time. They both were. 

Luna worked tirelessly, twisting and rotating the colorful tiles on the cube. Sweat dripped from her brow, she felt a lump in her throat. The lamb shook it's tail one time. 

Distracted, she was certain that she wouldn't get the cube solved before the lamb shook it's tail a second time. 

Twisting and rotating the tiles, she was within reach of winning! She almost had the cube solved and the lamb had yet to shake it's tail of the second time. 

The last piece was needed, tension was high. The wretched woman still stand their grinning, Luna still nervous finally moved that last piece to complete the problem. The lamb shook it's tail for the second time but Luna was faster. The grin from the despicable woman disappeard and Luna jumped with joy. 

True to her word, the woman retrieved the sisters and brought them to Luna. They were free! 

The three sisters made the long trek home where they told of their adventure. A parade was held and there was a day of celebration. 

Within the crowd was that wretched woman. 

People took notice and talked, but Luna assured them that she was welcomed. 

Luna was a kind and gentle soul, she pitied the poor woman and so she invited her to return home with the them. Lonely, the woman agreed and her heart once hateful and evil heart was replaced with love and joy. 

They all lived happily after. 

Image Source: The wretched woman watching Luna work at solving the cube problem

Author's Notes: The idea for this story came from the story Princes and the Sprite, written by Ellen C. Babbitt. In the original story there are 3 princes who venture to the forest. The 2 younger brothers are asked by the water sprite to successfully answer a question, which they are unable to do. This results in them being carried off. Eventually the eldest brother goes to see why they haven't returned and meets the water sprite who is disguised. He is able to answer the question and the brothers are released. They all return back to the kingdom where they rule. Living within them is the water sprite. 

Reading Notes: Jataka Tales, Part B

The Elephant Girly- Face:
- Girly-face is name of elephant owned by a king
- he was a kind and gentle looking elephant
- one night robbers awoke girly-face and he overheard them talking about how to be cruel and be good robbers
- girly face decided that he wanted to act like that too
- the next morning he killed the keeper when he came to feed him
- he killed the next keeper who went to help
- for many days he acted like this and killed people
- a wise man was sent to look him over and found out that there had been bad men there
- that night the king sent good men to talk
- girly face listened and decided that he wanted to be good
- he lived happily ever after


The Princess and the Water Sprite:
- there were 3 princes, 1 was named Prince of Stars, the other Moon Prince and the last Sun Prince
- the queen asked the king to give the kingdom to Sun Prince
- he told her no and that the eldest and 2nd eldest would be king by right
- the king told the 2 older princes to go off and live in the woods because he was afraid the queen may kill them, the third, Sun Prince joined.
- in the forest the youngest prince went to retrieve water from a pond
- the pond was owned by a faire king and the fairies could have power of anybody who entered the pond unless gave the right answer to the question "what are the good fairies like?"
- they asked him the question and he answered "they are like the Sun and the Moon"
- that was the wrong answer so the water-spite carried him into a cave
- the Moon Prince got down there and he answered "Like the sky above us"
- that was the wrong answer so she carried him off too
- the eldest brother went down and realized that there was a water-spite so he drew his sword
- the spite appeared in a form of a woodworker
- he asked the spite why she took his brothers
- he answered the question right and the spite said he would bring back a brother
- the sprite brought back the princes and they lived in the forest until the king died
- they returned home and the eldest was king but the other 2 ruled with him
- he built a house for the sprite on their kingdom grounds
- they lived happily ever after

    picture info: Girly-face being a good elephant


Source: 
Jataka Tales   by Ellen C. Babbitt, 1912.
 

Reading Notes: Jataka Tales, Part A

The Monkey and the Crocodile:
-A mother croc asked her son to get her a monkey so that she could get his heart
-The croc tricked the monkey to get on his back to swim across and get fruit
-The croc went underwater and told the monkey that he would kill him so that he could give his heart to his mother
-The monkey said he left his heart at home
-They turned back around so that the monkey could get it and he ran up the tree instead
-The monkey moved trees but the croc found him
-Everyday the monkey jumped to an island in the middle of the river and ate fruit all day there, the croc watched him and plotted a plan
-The croc laid on the rock to wait for the monkey but the monkey realized that it was abnormal so he tricked the croc into answering him
-He was able to escape and the croc left him alone
How the Turtle Saved his own Life:
-A king made a lake in his courtyard for princes to play in
-He put fishes and a turtle in the lake
-They though he was a demon so he was taken to the king
-He ordered his men to kill the turtle
-A man suggested he be thrown into the water and he would flow away and die
-The turtle was able to convince them to "kill" him that way
-he was able to flow down the river and return home
The Merchant of Seri:
-a man sold brass and tinware with another man who was greedy
-a granddaughter told her poor grandmother to sell a gold bowl that her late husband used to use
-the greedy man pretended like it was worth nothing and threw it down
-the other man was on the same street trying to sell things
-he told her that it was worth more than what he had
-she plead with him to take it but instead he gave her everything he had in exchange for the bowl and 8 pennies
-he ended up leaving the greedy man and lived happily ever after
The Turtle who Couldn't Stop Talking:
-2 young geese and a turtle become friends
-the geese told the turtle that he could go with them back home if he didn't tell anybody nor talked
-he held on to a stick by his mouth in between the geese as they were flying
-he opened his mouth to talk and fell dead
The Ox who won the Forfeit:
-a man who owned an ox always bragged about his ox
-he bet 1000 pieces of silver that his ox could drag 100 wagons
-the man whipped and cursed at the ox so he didn't move b/c he had never been treated like that
-the ox and owner made up so they agreed to go back into the village the next day
-the man bet 2000 pieces
-they won the 2000 pieces and went home to live happily
The Sandy Road:
-a merchant in the desert on his way to the other side of the desert
-they moved at night and set up camp during the day
-the pilot told the men they would make it to the village so they could throw away food, water, and wood
-the pilot fell asleep and woke up in the same spot but they didn't have any items
-the merchant found a well and so everybody drank, bathed, cooked
-they set up a flag on the well so people could see it and made it to the village
-they sold their items and then returned home
The Quarrel of the Quails
-a group of quails lived in the forest with their leader
-a hunter who made a living off of quails tricked them to think their leader was calling them, he then sold them in town
-the leader set up a plan for the quails to escape
-day after day he came up empty handed
-the quails got in a fight and he was able to capture them since they didn't work together, he sold them

Image Source : The crocodile waits for the monkey with his mouth open

Source: 
Jataka Tales,  Ellen C. Babbit, 1912.

Wikipedia Trail from Dragons to Loki

I started my wiki trail out with dragons, I read a story from the other class that used these creatures and made me want to learn more. From there I looked up Norse mythology since I have always been a bit interested in it. I found it interesting that they had gods and goddesses for things like apples but I was more interested in learning about a skiing goddess they had so I went to check out Skaoi. Skaoi was not a let down and is an interesting goddess, I mean a goddess for skiing could only be that. On that page I saw that she was connected to Loki and was interested in learning about him. I went to the Loki page and learned that he is said to have helped the gods or may have been mischievous. Previously I had thought that he was only mischievous and was not a helpful deity.

Image info: Loki is being tortured with a serpents dripping venom. The goddess Skaoi is said to have bound Loki and placed the serpent over him.

Story Lab: EmpoWord

-Scope refers to boundaries of plot.. where and when it begins, the focus, background info that might be needed.
-Focus on important stuff to keep from boring the reader
-Sequence and pacing.. the order of the events and the amount of time given to each event
-Exposition- setting the scene, introducing characters, prepping for the journey
-Rising axn- things begin to happen, encounter conflict, set out on a journey, meet people
-Climax- peak of the axn, main showdown
-Falling axn- things start to wind down
-Resolution- everything is back to normal, things end
-In medias res- in the middle of things, start story with axn, then circle back to the earlier part of the story and fill in the blanks, continue on
-Can also bounce around in the story, fragments
-POV- impacts tone, mood, scope, voice, and plot
-Tone- emotional state of the narrator
-Mood- what emotions do you want your reader to feel?
- POV breakdown: 1st person (I, me, our) can include monologue, thoughts, etc
   2nd person (you, your) speaks to the reader, is the protagonist, or speaks to an absent or unidentified person.
   3rd person limited (he, himself, etc) observes and narrates but sticks near one or 2 characters
   3rd person omniscient (also third person pronouns) narrates from all knowing perspective , can include monologue and thoughts
   Stream of consciousness (uses inconsistent pronouns, or none at all) wandering and ungrammatical thought process of the narrator
-Characterization- development of characters thru axn, descriptions, and dialogue.. helps with building sympathy from reader
    Can introduce directly (thru description of them) or indirectly (thru behaviors, speech, thoughts)
-Round characters are very detailed, most important
-Flat characters are minimally detailed, briefly sketched or named, less important
-Static characters remain the same
-Dynamic characters change within the story, usually as a result of an event
-Dialogue- communication between 2 or more characters, connects reader to characters and let's them understand relationships
-Medium- way story is written via images, poetry, video, audio recording, "found" texts, illustrations, comics, journal entries, plays, blogs or social media


-See page 50 to review and get ideas on how to experiment with dialogue

Picture Info: Doge Meme

Source

Reading Notes: Naraka and Bana, Part B

Indra visited Krishna in Dwarka and told him that Naraka is nearly invincible. He took the sea's umbrella, took Mandara Mountain's jeweled crest and his mother's earrings. The earrings gave out ambrosia at the will of the owner. He then demanded Indra'a elephant so Indra asked Krishna to come help him kill him. Krishna agreed and Vishnu's eagle, Garuda appeared, Indra got on his elephants back and they all went to Pragjyothisha city.
Muru, a demon designed the city which had turrets, moats, and magic nets to capture the enemies. Krishna on the eagle flew over the arrows from the turrets, the moats and the nets. He cut the nets with his sword, dried up the moats with his fiery discus and battered down the walls of the city with his mace. Muru was at the bottom of the moat hiding under the water, when it dried up he had 5 heads, he had a trident that he tried to rush Krishna with. Krishna shot 5 arrows and they each hit Muru's head and he died. Within the city the 7 sons of Muru and Naraka's army tried to fight Krishna and Indra off but Krishna's arrows killed the sons and his sword killed the others so the army fled.
In the city they found all of the missing items as well as stables full of animals, and thousands of princes that were kidnapped and being held. They were all sent back to Dwarka.

Picture info: Krishna storms Naraka's city

Source:   Shri Krishna and Dwarka and Other Stories by C.A. Kincaid (1920)

Reading Notes: Krishna's Youth, Part A

King Kansa sent the demon Dhenuka to kill Balarama (Krishna's brother) in hopes that it would weaken Krishna and he would be able to kill him more easily. Three boys wanted to eat the fruit in the orchard where the demon hid ass a donkey but the donkey told them to go away. They returned with Krishna and Balarama. 

Dhenuka rushed Balarama but he ended up knocking his brains out against a fruit tree. The demons friends rushed Balarama and Krishna but they did the same and eventually the tree lost its fruit so all the boys ate the fruit. 

Another demon called Pralambha who was even stronger offered to kill them so he disguised himself and played with the boys. They played a game and the loser had to carry the winner on his back. Balarama won so Pralambha had to carry him on his back but he morphed back and ran away, Krishna was unable to catch him. 

Krishna told Balarama to knock him in the head so he did and he ended up dying. Balarma returned to Krishna. 

King Kansa left them alone for sometime. 

Krishna told the people of Gokula to no longer give thanks to Indra for the monsoon season but to give thanks and sacrifice to the Govardham mountain. They did so and when they got on top of the mountain they saw Krishna who accepted their sacrifices. 

Indra was mad so he sent down large rocks and floods that killed men. Krishna picked up the mountain and had the people hide under the mountain for shelter. 

Indra then came to earth and anointed Krishna as god of the cows and of the cowherds. All cowherds and milk maids threw him a party and passed out. They woke up in the middle of the night to find Krishna's dad, Nanda trapped and being crushed by a python. 

Krishna went to save his dad and the snake turned into a man who's name was Sudarshan. He said that he was cursed for being vain but when Krishna's foot touched him, the curse was ended. He then bowed to Krishna and was lifted to the heavens. 

                   Picture info: Krishna, the god of cowherds 

Source: Shri Krishna of Dwarka and Other Stories by C.A. Kincaid (1920)