Mikayla's Epics of India

  Thoughts:     Some of my favorite videos on the internet are Crash Course videos. I LOVE these videos as a classroom tool. I really enjoy learning more about history through different avenues, and I really feel that Crash Course History has some of the most accessible lessons on the internet. I learned that basically anywhere there is a civilization, there is likely to be a historical flood associated with that civilization. Almost every major civilization we know of has been ravished by a flood, and they always see it as symbolic in some sort of lore. This is my last blog post for the semester and my last post for this class ever. I have taken this class twice now, so I am sort of attached to this class in a weird way since it has been part of my daily routine for the last year, practically. Overall, as my last post, I just wanted to say how grateful I am to have this course as an option for my Gen-ed course work.  Video:    Flood Legends of the Americas : Image Information:  Awkwar

Drabble:       The fluorescent light filtered down from the overhead lights and cascaded down my shoulders, my feet created a sharp shadow upon the linoleum floor. I turned in the aisle, my breath quick and hot in my mask. I took a bag of medium roast coffee from the shelf, sparing myself a quick sniff before tucking it under my arm and heading back the way I came. I took in a satisfied breath as I turned the corner and jumped when my hand made contact with the back of an elderly man.  His back was contorted and his gnarled hand gripped tightly on the top of an oak cane.  I yelped in surprise and sheepishly apologized, "Oh, I'm sorry I didn't see you there." The man made no effort to excuse my surprise and instead let out a fractured moan instead. My eyebrows pursed in confusion and I stepped around him towards the bustling lines of college-aged kids and tired adults waiting to pay.  ' I hope that man makes it home alright. He doesn't seem like he should be dr

  Drabble:     And after a long day of laying around the house and chasing the neighbor, the brindle lab mix stretched out as if to say she worked hard today. She had accomplished a lot, despite what you might think. The overactive pup got in two naps, an hour of tug of war with her dad, and even threw up on her mom's new rug because she ate too fast after running as fast as she could along the fenceline. The mutt finally rests her head on her father's lap as she lets out a long puppy groan, "it ain't much, but it's honest work" the dog thinks to herself.  6-Word Story:      Newly empty chairs haunt Christmas dinner Authors Note:     For my Drabble I was inspired by my dog, as per usual. She is seriously the light of my life and I do not know what I would do without her if anything happened to her. She also happens to be a very easy topic to write about, as she is sort of a clown. As for my 6-word story, I was inspired to write about something many people acro

  For these reading notes, I wanted to zero in on  The Lion in Bad Company . I have yet to focus on too many stories that feature lions, but this title really called out to me and I felt compelled to find out what this story was really about. Like I have said previously with my reading notes, I have determined what all of my storybook stories are going to be about so this one is just another bonus reading if I find myself needing it. With all of the other Jataka's, this story is packed full of morals, compassion, and fable-like stories. This story is shocking to me, however, because the lion actually dies. I have not encountered many stories in the Jataka tales where there is actually a significant death. There is usually more of a lesson to be told with the story. Despite the death of the lion, I really liked this story and would consider using it in my classroom or my storybook if I had room for it.  Image information:  Babbit's Jataka's

  For this reading of COURSE I wanted to do more of the Jataka's. They have been my favorite stories by far because they are the most easily digestible. The story I chose is  The Penny Wise Monkey  naturally because of the name. I really caught my interest so I had to know what the story was about. I have already selected my stories for my storybook project but if I need another story to fall back on I would love to use some of the money jatakas because they are so sweet and easy to recreate into something of my own. All of Babbit's Jataka's tell a very powerful story in a very short language. They are easy for young children to learn lessons from, as well as being very simple to put a twist on. I am definitely going to continue to explore the Jataka's further for the rest of my "free reading" because they are the most relevant to my storybook, as well as where my interests lay within the class. That said, I love the fable-esque stories from India and how they

    "Huh, so it is really happening." I sighed as I looked up at the sky. "The sky is actually falling".  All of us in the rabbit community knew that this day would come. Global warming has been an issue since the early 1990s, and well, we are way past the point of return nearly 200 years later. Humans are long gone. All that remains is the technology that they put in place to mitigate the harmful effects of the UV rays. We have heard jokes and tales of people mistaking falling objects for the sky falling, but it appears that the human's attempt at rebuilding the ozone has finally collapsed in on itself. I guess we knew it would happen, that the bubble would burst, but no one knew it would be this soon. I stand and watch on the muggy street corner near my childhood rabbit hole as thin slices of some sort of engineered plastic fall from the sky. The sun shines through the holes in the bubble that appear small to the eye but must be half a mile wide. The rays are

  The story that I have chosen to write notes about is  The Hermit Cat . This story is about a cat that has grown too old to catch his own prey. This story is from The Orient Pearls: Indian Folklore by Shovona Devi. This story is all about an old cat who has grown too weak to catch his own prey, so he pretends to be a pious, rule-following, and staunch pilgrim. He hopes that this will help him catch some mice to eat so that he won't have to work so hard. This story was a really good read even if it is not something I am planning to use in my own storybook. I really enjoyed reading this story, it was so fun and whimsical and a nice break from my regularly scheduled readings for the week. I am glad that I got the opportunity to read this story because it was a really good way to find more materials.  Image information: prayer beads

      For this week's choice of free reading, I went back to last week, which got messed up due to the ice storm and the election, etc. I went with the story that caught my attention the most, The Hypocritical Cat , because of the name to be honest. I feel like all cats would be very hypocritical if they could be. I wanted to dive into more of the Jataka tales because they have become my favorite stories. I almost wish that for my project I had chosen to make a portfolio of the Jataka tales, as opposed to just random animals. I think these stories encompass much more moral storytelling, rather than random bits of stories. I really enjoyed this story because it is about exactly what it sounds like. I want to use this story in place of the previous story that I figured I might want to use in my project. This is just a backup for now, but there is a good chance that this could be the story that I decide to go with. This story is very whimsical and tells a really good story that would

  Drabble:      Flora moved the dolls throughout the dollhouse as if she were putting them in their places. Flora seldom played with the dolls. She only moved them from place to place on schedule, every day. She never seemed to even enjoy playing with the dolls, the furrow on her brow made it seem like this was work. This was a part of her daily duties. Flora seemed more concerned about moving the dolls. Some dolls disappeared, and other appeared without her putting them there. Some dolls moved out of the house, and new doll family sets would arrive. A new family to control in the simulation.  6-Word Story: One day you will be forgotten.  Image information:  Beacon Dollhouses Authors note: I was inspired for my drabble to write about the show The Haunting of Bly Manor where a little girl uses the dollhouse to know where people are in the large mansion. It is a great show on Netflix that I highly recommend. I wanted to write a spin-off of that story. The 6-word story is something that I

 I really liked using Babbitt's story of the "Very Timid, Foolish Rabbit" so I wanted to make sure I read more of the jataka's. I think that this story is supposed to symbolize people not understanding beings other than them. I think that this tells a tale of morality and about how one's presumed weakness may actually be to the perpetrator's fault. The story essentially features a group of being cruel to a turtle, and someone suggests throwing him into the river. The turtle realizes he has an opportunity to save himself, a tells the group that it would be a horribly dreadful thing for him to be thrown into the water. Little do the people know, he is actually much safer in the water than on land. I think that this story also encourages people to think outside of the box and to think of other ways to protect yourself that are not violent, but rather clever. Of course, the young prince's had never seen a turtle before so they did not understand that they were