Tech Tip: Weather Widget

For this week's Tech Tip, I wanted to do something fun and make my blog look a bit more fancy. That was why I chose to add the weather widget. It was super easy and gives my blog a personal look! I really suggest hat you guys try it out!

Week 12 Storytelling: General Arthur

There once was a young man whose spirit was unmatched. His name was Arthur Pendra. Despite always being a troublesome student, some people still believed in his potential. Arthur was always a gifted athlete, so much so that a college recruiter was impressed with his athleticism.  Merlin, the recruiter, ended up offering Arthur a scholarship to play football for the nearby university: The Knights. Arthur was, above all else, flattered. He was never one to be praised, so the fact that a man from a respected school would even suggest that Arthur could be successful with anything was a welcomed surprise.

Upon accepting the scholarship, Arthur said goodbye to his adopted father and his brothers to embark on his journey as a college student. Upon arriving, Arthur's rise as a starter was meteoritic. Within his first few games with the Knights, he was able to present his talents and land himself the job as starting quarterback. As a starter, he lead his team to several championships. His ability to play the game and his natural-gift as a leader for his team eventually allowed him to gain fame throughout the country. Upon graduating, Arthur was drafted number one overall to play professionally for the Kings. As a King, Arthur continued to play successfully. Eventually, Arthur even manages to win several different awards. One award was the Award of Excalibur, given to a player whose offensive capabilities were unmatched throughout the league. Eventually, all of his hard work paid-off. Upon his final year, Arthur lead the Knights to the national championship to play for the Holy Grail, the national championship trophy that the Knights had been striving for since the team's creation. It was here where the Knights faced-off against their sworn rivals, the Dragons. After a long game that went well into the night, the Knights finally won the game, but only after Arthur bravely rushed for a touchdown that ended with him snapping his throwing arm. This marked the end of the great Arthur, the greatest quarterback the country has ever seen.

Bibliography: King Arthur: Tales of the Round Table. Andrew Lang. Link.

Author's Note:

For this week's storytelling, I wanted to retell the legend of King Arthur, but to put in a special twist. Instead of the it being set in ancient times, I wanted to move the setting to the modern era, and instead of being a king, I wanted to make Arthur a quarterback instead. The main thing that I took out of reading the King Arthur unit was the ability for the story to develop King Arthur as a character by looking at his whole life, from being to a lowly citizen to one of the greatest kings Britain has ever seen. For my story, I wanted to try to replicate this development by following my Arthur from being a high school athlete to one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. In my story, you can see several nods to the original legend, like the Offensive Player of the Year award being dubbed Excalibur, and how his final game ended with a career ending injury, like in the original story where he dies in his last story.

(Hall of Famer, Arthur:

Click Hole)

Reading Notes: King Arthur, Part B

For Part B of my reading, I decided to continue with the King Arthur Unit. I had so much fun reading and learning about King Arthur's legend.

In Part B, we deviate from King Arthur's development as a king and focus on his knights on their quests for the Holy Grail. I really enjoyed this half of the reading, but I have to admit that it does not really help with my previous idea in writing a story that focuses on one character and follow him throughout his lifetime. I think I have decided to go ahead and use this idea and move forward with my storytelling option.

Bibliography: King Arthur: Tales of the Round Table. Andrew Lang. Link.

(The Death of King Arthur:

Timeless Myths)

Reading Notes: King Arthur, Part A

For this week's reading, I decided to read the King Arthur Unit. I have always been a fan of King Arthur and his stories. I like how, after centuries of storytelling, this story is still relevant. Things like Kingsman and King Arthur: Legend of the Sword are all recent movies that have sought to keep this story within the minds of this generation.

The greatest aspect that I took from these readings is the development of Arthur. We get to meet Arthur as a young common-man, watch him fall in love and marry, and see him develop as a noble king. Since many of our stories that we write are, at most, one-thousand words long, it will be hard to incorporate the same level of character development in our stories. However, it isn't exactly impossible. At this moment, I can see myself writing about a young man, maybe a drop-out, who joins the military and watch him evolve into a high-ranking officer. I am going to wait until after I have read the rest of the unit before deciding, however.

Bibliography: King Arthur: Tales of the Round Table. Andrew Lang. Link.

(King Arthur, upon discovering Excalibur:

The Telegraph)

Famous Last Words, Week 11

Hi everybody!

It has been a decent week! The readings for the class have been very enjoyable. I chose to read the Southwest/California unit and had a blast. Fortunately, I was able to complete both readings early in the week so that I would not scramble last minute like I have done on occasion. Because of that, I think my Reading Notes have been better than usual.

For my actual storytelling, I have to admit that I am a bit disappointed in it. I was on campus until 3 A.M. Thursday night, so I had to scramble Friday morning to have my story submitted. Although following all of the necessary conditions, I felt that it could have been a lot better if I had more time. If I do decide to submit it into my portfolio, I believe I will edit it drastically!

Bedlam was today, and I'm really happy and excited to share that we won! It was a nail biting game, lasting about four hours because of the fact that it turned out to be a shoot-out! I wanted to finish up this extra credit assignment earlier, but the game was too good to ignore!

For next week, I hope to have all of my assignments done on time and of the caliber that I am pleased with. I am seriously hoping that I will not fall behind this week. At this point, it looks like I should be done with the course a week before Dead Week, and I would like to keep it that way! If all goes to plan, I can hopefully even finish before that! It is not that I do not like this class, it's just that I wanted to have this class out of the way when all of my math courses finally hit me!

Good luck to the rest of you guys!

(Optimism! :

MY Business)

Week 11 Storytelling: The Origin of the Earthquake

Long ago, before even the mountains were formed, there were willows and oaks that towered over the lands. Back then, these trees bore fruits of all kinds. No one knew this more than the Bear. The Bear was a selfish, gluttonous creature, eating anything that it could get its paws on and was not afraid to steal from others. He was so malcontent with the food that he had access to that he one day decided to climb all the nearby willows and oaks to eat their fruit. Tree after tree, the Bear propelled its growing body up every tree in the land, eating all of the fruits that it could reach. It was to the point now that almost every tree in the land was now fruitless. All for but one. There was a great, tall oak that towered above the rest. It was so tall that there are tales of other animals being able to see the monstrous tree from lands away.

The tree was considered sacred to all who lived in this land, but the Bear did not care. His hunger made him disregard this fact. Despite the outcry from other animals of the land, the bear dragged his now gargantuan body up the tree, eating what he came across. The tree was so tall and filled with fruit that it took the bear days to even begin seeing the top of the tree. Near the top, the Bear could see that he had eaten all but one piece of fruit on the tree: a lone apple perched at the very top. Determined to eat his fill, the Bear ignored the fact that it was exhausted and too fat to carry on. However, at the very moment the Bear tried to pluck the apple from its spot, it lost its grip and fell to the earth.

Upon landing on the ground, he Bear's massive body created an earthquake so large that any subsequent earthquakes that are felt today are merely aftershocks to the original. This is also the reason why Oak trees and Willow trees no longer bear fruit. As penance, all bears starve themselves during the winter to make up for the Bear's original greed and gluttony.

Author's Note: Piggy-backing off the theme that a lot of the Native American stories have, I wanted to create a story that gave us the origin to something or things. In this case, my story tells us how earthquakes came to be, why Oak and Willow trees do not have fruit, and why bears do not eat in the winter. Obviously, all of these can be explained scientifically: Earthquakes are due to tectonic shifts, not oversize bears falling from the sky. Oaks and Willows genetically cannot carry fruits that we are accustomed to, and bears don't eat during the winters for hibernation. I just thought that this would be a fun way to tell something we already know!

(The greedy bear:

Wikipedia)

Bibliography: Bibliography: Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest. Katherine Berry Judson. Link.

Reading Notes: California and Old Southwest, Part B

For Part B of my readings this week, I continued with the California and Old Southwest unit. Like Part A of the unit, Part B focuses on nature and explains the origins of some notable occurrences in nature. Things like El Capitan (which I just learned was a rock formation and is the reason why Apple's OS El Capitan gives users the default wallpaper of the rock formation), mescal, lightning and thunder are told as why and how they were created. From the readings, I have to say that the origin of lighting/thunder and why mescal are so big is my favorite stories. At first, you don't really know where the story is going to take you, but in the end the story tells you that the children's adventures signify the notion that "lightning does not strike twice". 

For my writings, like I said for Part A, I wish to write my own origin story for something very common. As of right now, I think I might write about the origins of earthquakes and how they are caused by bears falling down! 

Bibliography: Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest. Katherine Berry Judson. Link.

(El Capitan:

Wikipedia)