Week 11 Story: The Bear and the Bees

The Bear and the Bees

One day a bear is walking through the woods looking for honey.  He travels long and far looking all through his usual forest but can't find any bee hives until he sees one at the top of a hill.  He approaches the hive and doesn't hear any buzzing.  Hoping they are either dead or sleeping, he sneaks up to the hive.

When he gets there, a bee flies out and shouts, "Halt!"

The bear replies, "Look, I am sure you have some honey to spare.  Can you please give me some?  I have traveled long and far looking for my fill today."

The bee shakes his head.  "You will not be getting any honey here.  If you try taking our honey you will surely die."

The bear laughs, "HA!  You say I will be the one dead?  Look how tiny and weak you are!  Look how big I am!  Surely if anyone dies here it will be you."

Suddenly, lightening strikes the tree and the smoke knocks out all the bees in the hive.  Although shaken up, the bear regains his senses, cracks open the hive, and takes all the honey.

The bear retires to his lair with his honey and eats until he is fat.  As he tastes the sweet nectar, he laughs about the bee's threats toward the bear's life.

"You think you can kill me for stealing your honey?  HA!  Look at the outcome now!  The gods have spoken and knocked your entire hive unconscious for me to take your honey.  Look who is laughing now!"

The bear, after stuffing himself with honey and getting it all over his face, falls into a deep sleep.

While asleep, the fleet of bees detect the smell of the honey coming from the bear's lair.  They gather one by one outside of his home and wait until thousands of bees surround it.  The bees all rush in at the same time and sting the bear hundreds of times.  Other bees grab hold of the honey on his face and bring it back to their hive.  The bear, after being attacked, lies dead in his lair.  The bee wasn't lying when he said he would die.

Bear getting stung by bees sourced via Wikipedia

Author's note:

In the original story, a coyote comes across the path of a snake.  Both refuse to go around the other and the snake warns the coyote that if he steps across his path he will die.  The coyote does it anyways and gets bit but doesn't feel it.  He mocks the snake, goes to a lake, feels tired and dies.  While I wanted to challenge myself to making a more short but sweet story like this one, I couldn't help myself but spice it up a bit.  I loved the idea of making the characters a bear and bees and thought it would fit the theme of the story really well.  I also found writing the ignorant dialogue for the bear very entertaining and fun!

Bibliography:

Great Plains: Coyote and Snake by Katharine Berry Judson

Week 11 Reading Extra Credit: Releasing the Buffalo

Long ago, people were playing games at their camp when a raven comes.  They all watch him closely because they plan to follow where he goes for food.  However he flies super high and only few can see him at all.  They eventually find the raven again and he distributes meat to all of them.  They ask him about the buffalo but he gives no answer.  They change an Apache into a puppy and hide him in a bush.  The ravens children get the puppy and don't want to let go of it.  They decide to keep it believing it is just a puppy and not an Apache.  The raven then goes to get some meat from the buffalo he has locked up and the puppy goes with.  In the middle of the night, the puppy lets all the buffalo out to be free.  The Raven notices and tries finding where the man is but he hides behind one of the old and slow buffalo that he doesn't pay attention to.  The man goes back to his tribe and tells them he let the buffalo loose and they rejoice and feast.  The raven and its children were left to eat the gross remains of dead buffalo.

Raven eating dead remains sourced via Wikipedia

I loved this story because it is filled with Indian culture and also really shows how they told stories about things such as why Ravens eat gross things.  It is amazing the amount of detail put into a story that really just goes to explain something like that, but it is incredibly entertaining.  If I were to make a story off of this I would put this one into a modern context but make it an explanation for something more modern and make it a little more exciting and obviously easier to read.

Bibliography:

Releasing the Buffalo by Pliny Earle Goddard

Week 11 Reading Notes Part B: The Coyote and the Snake

A coyote is walking through a field in a straight line when he comes to a snake that tells him to stop and go around him so that he won't step on him.  They get into an argument and the snake tells him that if he steps on him he will kill him.  The coyote does it anyways and he gets bit but doesn't feel it.  After mocking the snake and calling him a liar because he hadn't died yet, he comes upon a lake and looks in the water and sees that he is fat which is surprising to him.  He then realizes he is really tired and falls asleep and never wakes up.  The snake wasn't lying.

Snake biting Coyote sourced via Flickr

Once again, this story really interested me because of its style.  I imagine stories like these being ones that are told to children to teach them lessons about life.  They are really simple and have a very specific point to them.  I think I will try making a new story by writing something that is very geared toward teaching a child a lesson.  And also make something more simple than I usually do because my stories are typically very complex.

Bibliography:

Great Plains: Coyote and Snake by Katharine Berry Judson

Week 11 Reading Notes Part A: The Eagle's Revenge

A hunter hears a noise and checks to see what it is.  He finds an eagle eating a deer he shot so he shoots the eagle.  The Chief orders for there to be an eagle dance because of the dead eagle and a person who seems to be from another tribe comes to the dance.  There are rattlers at the dance and the person who seemed to be from another tribe starts telling stories.  After each story, he would yell out, "hi," and one of the rattlers would die.  This happens until all the rattlers are dead and everyone is very scared.  The strange person disappears and people later find out that he was the brother of the eagle that was killed.

Eagle sourced via Wikipedia

I thought this story really showed a unique style of story telling.  I really liked how different it was and I would love to retell it.  I think it would be really challenging to match the style because I have never written a story like this before, but if I could pull it off it would feel very rewarding and I feel like it would greatly enhance my writing abilities!

Bibliography:

Great Plains: The Eagle's Revenge by Katharine Berry Judson

Week 10 Story: Recess RIP

Recess RIP

There once was a young boy playing on the playground of his school.  On the playground, there was a manhole leading to the sewers that all the teachers warned the students not to go near.  The boy was always curious about the hole and what might be down there.  Why would the teachers not want him down there?  Is there a secret tunnel leading to a secret meeting room that the teachers use?  Is there candy in this room?  He was set on finding out, but could never get it open.

It is the fall, there are leaves everywhere.  Big, beautiful golden leaves practically cover the entire playground.  The children gather the leaves into many piles and jump into them carefree.  However, the boy is fixated on the manhole.  It has yellow tape around it and there are construction workers working on it.  He watches as they leave on their lunch break and realizes this might be the only chance he has to find out what is in the hole.  Leaves are clogging it up so much that he can't even see where the hole is.  He waited until the teachers weren't looking, slid under the yellow tape, and instantly fell into the hole.  He is so scared that he can't even scream.  He hits the ground hard and it feels like he broke his leg.  He then looked up and saw Pennywise the clown staring at him, holding a red balloon.  He lets out a big yell when seeing him but it is no use, he is too deep in the hole for the teachers to hear him. 

Pennywise the Clown sourced via Wikipedia

Pennywise smiles at him and asks if he would like to float back up to the surface.  He screams no and starts running down the labyrinth of a system the sewer is.  He runs for what felt like ages until he reaches a ladder that led to the surface.  He climbs up, cautiously opens the hatch, and there he finds a meeting room.  The principal and all his staff are there at a table laughing about how they are going to cut recess time by 30 minutes.  He was right!! There really was a secret meeting room.  He looks to his right and sees a big bucket of candy.  He starts to go toward the candy when Pennywise grabs his leg.  He starts to get pulled back in and he knows he can't scream or else the teachers will hear him.  He then remembers that Pennywise can only exist if he fears him, so he lets him take him into the tunnel.  When taken down, Pennywise asks if he is ready to float, and the boy starts laughing hysterically at him for looking like such a stupid clown.  Pennywise keeps trying to scare him by transforming into terrible things but they only make the boy laugh harder until Pennywise explodes.  The boy then sneaks back into the teacher's meeting place, steals the candy, makes it back to the playground, and gives the candy to all the boys and girls and he becomes the coolest kid in school.

The end.

Author's Note:

In the original story, a hunter travels to a family's house and is warned not to hunt on the north side of the land because of a deadly snake.  The hunter's curiosity gets the best of him and he goes there anyways.  When he finds the snake, he tries running away but the snake gets him anyways.  He struggles to get away and finally does when he wafts his body odor in the snakes nose and it runs away.  I wanted to keep the similar theme of curiosity nearly killing the cat but the cat getting away barely.  I also wanted to get a little more creative and make the theme more modern.  I also figured since Halloween is so close that I would make a story with a more spooky theme!

Bibliography:

The Hunter And The Uksu'hï by James Mooney

Week 10 Reading Part B: The Hunter And The Uksu'hï

The Hunter And The Uksu'hï

A man living in Georgia goes to visit relatives.  After resting at their place, he went out to hunt.  He was told to not go toward the north where there is a dangerous Uksu'hi snake living around an uprooted tree.  If he went in the area, the snake would coil around him and crush him and drag him into a hole.  Although he hears the warning, this only sparks his curiosity and he goes and finds the snake who is looking the opposite direction.  He runs away, but the snake chases after him and catches up to him.  The snake coils around him, crushing his arm and torso but leaving his other arm free.  He tries clawing at the ground trying to get free but every time he does this the snake knocks him out with its horrible breath.  He then remembers that the snake can't stand the stench of perspiration, so he covers his hand in armpit sweat and when the snake turns to knock him out again with its breath he shoves his hand in its face.  The snake releases him and runs away and the hunter is safe.

Coiled Snake sourced via Wikipedia

This story was very interesting!  I really wonder if you can actually make a snake like this let go of you if you shove your armpit sweat in its face.  If i redid this story, I would put it in a much more modern context and keep the theme of someone doing what they shouldn't and getting in trouble.  Then I would either be evil and make them die from their mistake or find an equally bizarre way to get them out of the situation they get themselves into.

Bibliography:

The Hunter And The Uksu'hï by James Mooney

Week 10 Reading Notes Part A: Tobacco and Strawberries

How They Brought Back the Tobacco

In the beginning of the world, there is a single tobacco plant that everyone took from until geese steal it.  Everyone's health deteriorates and one lady is about to die because she doesn't have her tobacco.  Many animals offered to help but every one that did got killed by the geese.  Finally, a hummingbird, who everyone thinks would be too small and weak, proves his abilities to get the plant by flying to a plant in a field and back without anyone even noticing.  He manages to steal the tobacco and seeds and saves the dying woman and the day is saved.

Tobacco Plant sourced via Wikipedia

Origin of Strawberries

The first man and woman are created and live in peace for a while, but eventually they start to fight and the woman goes off to the sun land.  The man follows behind her feeling sorrowful but the woman never looks back.  The sun then asks the man if he is still angry with her, to which he says no.  He is then asked if he would like her back and he eagerly says yes.  So, the sun forms a patch of the finest huckleberries and blackberries in front of the woman but she refuses to even look at either of these.  New plants were continually put in front of her until the red berries, the strawberries, caught her eye.  She stops to gather and eat them and is reminded of the good times she had with her husband.  She gathers more berries and comes back to them and they are happy again.

I really liked these stories because I love origin stories.  They really say a lot about culture and since I am part Muscogee Creek Indian I really like learning about how my ancestors thought.  I am leaning toward the tobacco story because I really liked the underdog feeling it gave and I feel like I could really take the opportunity to expand on such a short story.

Bibliography:

Cherokee: Tobacco and Strawberries by James Mooney

Week 9 Story: Ethylene Glycol Poisoning

Ethylene Glycol Poisoning

By Connor Dugan

There once were two competing scientists, one a creationist, and one an atheist.  They regularly argued about the origins of life and the age of the earth and universe.  Sadly, the creationist had very little evidence other than his beliefs in God, whereas the atheist had many scientific theories and proofs to challenge and contradict the creationist beliefs.  One day, the creationist came up with a devious plan to get rid of his competition once and for all.  He came running up to the atheist as he was researching protein folding.  Lying, he exclaimed to him that God had come to him to tell him that the atheist was right about the universe, that it really is billions of years old, and that God wants him to come up to heaven and be high right hand scientist to work on a new universe.  The atheist, as cunning as he is, acted incredibly surprised and excited.  He exclaimed, "none before have I believed in a god until you reveal to me that he has indeed brought you to the truth!  Let us celebrate before my departure to the great glory of heaven!"  They went to the atheist's log cabin.  The atheist questioned why the creationist, now having seen God, wouldn't like to come with him on his journey to the heavens.  The creationist pondered this question for some time and realized how joyous it would be to walk up to the gates of heaven to watch the atheist get rejected and sent to hell.  "You know what," said the creationist, "I think that would actually be a great idea.  Let's go there together!"  The two scientists go to the atheist's lab where there sits a large container of ethylene glycol.  They both drink enough of the sweet, thick nectar to die, and to celebrate the atheist breaks out a bottle of grain ethanol that he distilled for himself.  The creationist, however, refuses to drink it because it would be a sin to drink such a high concentration of alcohol and be drunk.  The ethylene glycol kills the creationist because he doesn't drink the ethanol.  The atheist lives because the ethanol competes with ethylene glycol for alcohol dehydrogenase, the first enzyme in the metabolic degradation pathway, stopping it from producing deadly glycolic acid and oxalic acid.  The end.

Ethanol sourced via Wikipedia

Author's note:

In the original story, a king has a painter and carpenter.  The painter tells the king that god told him that his father wanted him to send up the carpenter to build a temple by burning him.  The carpenter digs a tunnel to escape when the fire is lit, comes back later, and tells the king that the temple was great and that it needs to be painted now and they burn the painter and he doesn't escape and actually thinks that the carpenter burned and came back to life.  I really liked the original story, but wanted to make it much more modern and scientific.  I also have been seeing a lot of stuff with creation scientists and their work is unacceptable.  This story was produced with the motivation of being upset from the persistent and ridiculous "scientific" claims from the creationist movement.  With the technology and infinite amount of information at our hands today, thinking that the universe and earth are ~6,000 years old is equal to saying the earth is flat and there is no such thing as an atom.  Luckily, we live in a world where the scientific community has incredible power and will not put up with such nonsense.  Those who bring forth information to the scientific community without reputable and reproducible evidence of their claims will be laughed at. I am all for philosophy, I am a very philosophical person myself, but keep it away from science. I kept the general theme of god supposedly telling a message and the person who tries tricking the other gets outsmarted by their victim.  I also find ethylene glycol poisoning really interesting and wanted to incorporate it.

Bibliography:

Tibetan Folk Tales: The Wise Carpenter by A.L. Shelton

Week 9 Reading Notes Part B: The Golden Squash

The Golden Squash

There were two old men living in the mountains, one was kind at heart and the other was greedy.  The king old man had a bird land in his garden with a broken wing.  He nurtures it back to health, lets it free, and it comes back with a seed that it says will do him well.  He grows the seed and it produces a gigantic squash.  He god five men to help him carry it to his house, but when he tries to eat it he finds that it is made of pure gold and because of this he is now rich.  He uses his wealth to help the sick and poor.  The greedy neighbor, envious of the kind man, gets a bow and shoots a bird's leg when it is near his garden.  He then nurtures it back to health pretending it is out of the kindness of his heart, and when the bird gets better it brings him a seed that bears a squash of similar size.  He gets five men to carry it to his house just like the kind old man, but when he opens it, a scary old man jumps out of it.  He tells him he has been sent from the king to weigh him, grabs him by the neck, weighs him, and says, "You are far too light and no use at all," and proceeds to cut his head off.  The end.

Large Squash sourced via Wikipedia

I liked this story, not just because of the message it bears, but also because of the absolutely crazy ending it has.  It inspires me not just to write about this message that many people from the modern era need to hear about the bad things about greed, but also to write something that stuns the reader like I was.  It was a strange, but good feeling to think the squash was going to have spiders or be rotten or something, but ends up having a man jump out of it and cut his head off because he doesn't weigh much!

Bibliography:

Tibetan Folk Tales: The Golden Squash by A.L. Shelton

Week 9 Reading Notes Part A: The Wise Carpenter

The Wise Carpenter

The new king has two men under him, a painter and a carpenter, both the masters of their crafts.  The painter tells the king that he had a spiritual encounter where the king's dead dad demanded a message to be delivered to the new king demanding him to send up the best carpenter he has.  The king tells the carpenter he will be sent there, and the painter tells the king that if he wants him sent there, he would need to be set on fire along with all his tools and he'll ride the smoke to heaven.  The king tells him that he has seven days to prepare for his departure.  The carpenter, knowing the painter just wanted him gone, gets his wife to help him dig a place from where he is to be burned to his home so he can escape.  The village builds a fort around him, set it on fire, and he escapes through the tunnel.  He waits three months, then comes to the king with a letter from his supposed dead father, telling him the carpenter did a great job and should be given many riches, and that the temple he built was amazing, but that it needed to be painted by the finest painter he has.  The king commanded for the painter to be sent to heaven the same way, and the carpenter tells them to play music so it would drown out his screams and he dies.  The end.

Big Fire sourced via Wikipedia

I thought this story was really funny!  I love it when a person is being screwed over by their enemy, and they are able to turn it back around on them.  I wanted to do this story in a more modern context for people in a comedic way since I haven't done much comedy in my stories.

Bibliography

Tibetan Folk Tales: The Wise Carpenter by A.L. Shelton

Week 8 Progress

I definitely feel like I have progressed in my reading and writing abilities since the beginning of the semester.  It all just comes a lot more naturally to me now.  I can type quite a bit faster now, I can read faster, and I am a lot better at giving other people advice from the comments and feedback I leave!  So far, I have most enjoyed the storybook!  I really like working on a single concept for a long time so it is a large and grand project that I can be proud of.  While I enjoy making small short stories as well, the big projects are just more satisfying to work on and finish because of their significance.  I do some extra credit, usually wikipedia trails and tech tips.

Motivational caption sourced via Flickr

Week 8 Comments and Feedback

Surprisingly, I have actually been getting really good feedback from the class.  While there are still comments that don't offer much feedback, I have gotten more help and motivation from the comments and feedback than I thought I would.  While I love the motivation from the positive comments, constructive criticism is definitely the most productive form of feedback for me.

I definitely like gibing feedback to others.  I have frequently found by reading other people's work mistakes that I know I make myself and it is a good reinforcement for me to do better in my writings.

There really isn't much that makes me happier in this class than when I find someone that has similar to my writing or unique writing styles and also people that have similar interest in science.  It is really cool.  Even though this is an online class, I feel like I know some people better on here than I ever would in a regular lecture.  I definitely feel like my original introduction post could be a little more on the fun side of me rather than what I tell the average person I meet (we all put on a mask for society) but I feel like I did a good job still.

I might try spicing my blog's graphics up a little when I find myself with free time.  You can never make a blog look too good! :)

Feedback Cat sourced via cheezburger

I feel like this feedback cat pic resonated with me the best because the best feedback for me is telling me what I did wrong.  Not only does this give me the chance to fix it, but it also allows me to learn what i'm doing wrong and I will be less likely to do those mistakes in the future!  But of course, like everyone else, I do love being told how well I did too!

Week 8 Reading and Writing

Personally, I love the reading and writing assignments.  I love getting creative and writing short stories.  My favorite reading so far has probably been Adam and Eve.  This is because while I have always been quite aware of the beliefs within Christianity, I had never actually read the story and it was quite entertaining!  The reading notes definitely help me, especially if it is a long story, because it allows me to more easily isolate the important factors such as characters and major events and meanings behind the story that allow me to develop a new story easier.  I really love the storybook I am making.  I knew I was going to do something unique, but was worried about if I would be able to come up with a project that made me happy to work on, and I think I did a really good job.  I think my greatest accomplishments have been developing my grammar skills, developing my story telling and creativity skills, and picture sourcing skills.

Dante's Inferno found on Wikipedia

I love this image because of the complexity of it and the way it shows the different levels of hell, how they become less and less populated but darker and scarier, and eventually lead to the worst of the worst, Satan himself and the other traitors.

I feel like I have been getting a little off schedule and it isn't a good feeling.  Looking forward I think I need to spend more time on this class during a week I don't have as much going on so I can get ahead again.

Week 7 Story: Story of Sand

Story of Sand

By Connor Dugan

Once upon a time on a beach in Florida there was a child building a sand castle.  The child was building the biggest castle he had ever made and was concentrating very hard, getting sand all over himself.  When he was done and ran to get his father, the father said to the boy that he'd better wash off in the ocean. 

When the boy asked why, the father ranted to him about how much he hated the sand, and how he can't stand how much it gets everywhere.  However the child, looking puzzled, looked up at him and said, "But daddy, sand is what makes the beach so fun!  Imagine a beach with no sand, it wouldn't be very fun!". 

The father shook his head, no son, you don't understand.  Maybe we can talk about this when you are older.  The father packed up everything, frustrated that the son didn't understand the consequences of sand on a beach and got himself and the boy in the car.

"Son, I know of a perfect beach, the sand there was so fine that it has all molded together and it doesn't get everywhere.  I'll show you how much better it is"

After arriving to the new beach, the father gets out and smiles.  He smells the air and thinks back to all the great memories he had here.  He looks at the tan, milky in texture beach.  "Now THIS is a beach!" he exclaims.

The kid tells him that he's just going to stay in the car, he won't be able to make a sand castle out of that sand.

Determined to prove the child wrong, the father runs out to the beach full speed.  "Look son!  Look how much fun i'm having!  Don't you want to ha.."

He takes a step into tanner than usual sand, and sinks right through.  He is sloped, half buried in quicksand.  He thrashes around trying to pull himself out but it is no use.  He isn't getting out alone.

Quicksand sign sourced via Wikipedia

"HELP!" he screams.

The son is in the car playing video games, when he hears his fathers cries for help.  He rushes over with a stick to try to pull him out but his hands keep on slipping.  The son then gets a wonderful idea.  He runs to the car and collects the sand on the floor mats.  He gives it to his dad to put on his hands and he is able to grip the stick and is pulled out.

"Oh my god I almost died... you saved me! Thank you so much."

"Don't thank me Dad, thank the sand!", the son said with a smile.

The father laughs and agrees that they will go to the sand beach from now on and that sand really isn't all that bad after all.

The End.

Author's note:

In the original story, a king is told by his daughter that she loves him as much as salt and water and he takes offense to this and wants her killed.  The other daughters convince the executioner to spare her while still making the father think she is dead.  The daughter is found by a wizard and is arranged to get married to a son of the king.  At the wedding, the wizard had commanded the groom to not give the king water or salt.  When this happens, the king can't eat, and when he is revealed that the bride is the daughter he tried to have killed he feels ashamed, hugs her, and tells her she was right about salt and water.
I wanted to make this story much better while keeping the message and I feel like I did a good job!

Bibliography:

Water and Salt by Thomas Frederick Crain

Week 7 Reading (Extra Credit): Italian Tales

Water and Salt

A king asks his three daughters how much they love him.  Two give satisfactory answers, but the third said she loves him as much as water and salt.  He immediately orders an execution, but the other sisters get the executioner to swap her life for a dog's and they smear her clothes in blood and bring it to the king.  The daughter that was supposed to be dead is found in the woods by a magician and the king's son falls in love with her. The magician tells the son that to marry her the son must kill him the day before the marriage, invite three kings, and order the servants to pass water and salt to all guests except the king. The day before the wedding they killed the magician and quartered him, and put a quarter in each of four rooms, and sprinkled his blood in all the rooms and on the stairway, and the blood and flesh became gold and precious stones.  At the banquet after the wedding the daughter supposed to be dead was sitting by the king and he isn't eating because he doesn't feel well but the real reason is because he wasn't given salt for his meat or water to drink.  The girl reveals to him that she is his daughter and they rejoice.

I thought this story was strange, but liked that the king learned from his child.  I want to redo this story in a modern day situation where a kid says something that a parent thinks is really silly but then turns out to be very true!

Father and Son Playing sourced via Pixabay

Bibliography:

Water and Salt by Thomas Frederick Crain