Week 2 Story: Cats Hate Water

Once there was a cat named Logan asleep on the outside of a windowsill. He was fitfully dreaming of a torrential downpour. All of a sudden he felt a sudden drop of water that startled him instantly awake, and he took off running as fast as he could. His younger brother S
Severus saw him and shouted "Yo, what's up?" as he saw Logan run by.
"The world is flooding!" Logan shouted back.
"Oh snap!" exclaimed Severus as he took off following Logan through the neighborhood. This continued until all the other neighborhood cats started joining the pack until they approached Trouble.
Trouble was the neighborhood Old Man Cat. He'd been around the block, and knew these young cats easily overreact. He asked "What in the world is going on?!"
"The world is flooding!" yelled several cats back to him.
"Oh goodness. Surely not. Who saw this start?" He started eyeballing each cat, one by one.
"Not I!" "Not me!" "I think it was him" "no it wasn't me" echoed all around.
Finally Logan stepped forward. "It was me!" he said worriedly.
"I see! What proof do you have?" Trouble looked at him.
Logan started shifting his eyes looking all around "Well see, I was asleep in this windowsill, and all of a sudden I felt water on me!"
"Did you look to see the source?" Trouble rolled his eyes.
"Well no, I took off running to be safe. What cat wants to stay to check out the source for water?" Logan answered sarcastically.
Trouble let out a HUGE sigh. "Let's go have a look. Show me where you were".
"Alright" Logan agreed reluctantly. They started walking back to the house it occurred at.
Once they got there, Trouble immediately eyeballed the gutter and saw a steady stream of water coming from it. Drip, drip, drip it went, right into the spot Logan said he was laying.
"Do you see this" Trouble asked Logan, referring to the Gutter.
 "Yes" Logan admitted sheepishly. He knew he knew a mistake, and they needed to go back and tell the others. Thank goodness Trouble was wise enough to take the time to check the source.

(Image from Flickr)

Author's note: I used the Foolish, Timid Rabbit and changed the story to use my cats and their hatred of water.


Bibliography. "The Foolish, Timid Rabbit" from Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt. Websource

Currently on My Portfolio

Reading Notes: Week 2 Anthology

The story I liked most was The Foolish, Timid Rabbit ( source: Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt.)
It reminded me of all the Stuart Little adaptations. It's also a good lesson for watching what you say, because people may just go off of it without fact-checking (politics today, anyone?).

The plot: had an obvious lesson to learn, lots of buildup and then the resolution.


Character: the two main would be the Rabbit, who shamefully thought the world was ending, and the wise lion, who took him to the beginning and proved he should've looked around without jumping to conclusions.


Action writing: I liked it with all of the various animals joining him running away from the world "ending". It painted a visual picture of more and more animals following him. 

Beginning/ending: I also liked the fact the story came full circle, it started at this tree, and circled back around to it. Starting the story with a dream, really set it to keep going.

(Image from Flickr)

Week 2 Reading Overview

For next week's reading, I chose R.K. Narayan's The Ramayana, mainly because I just ordered any books listed for my courses this semester.

Browsing through the comics available, I easily chose two that caught my attention. The first one was Vaishno Devi: Goddess of the Hills. She looks like a Bad A**. She gives the air of someone who could take on anything, and win. She's strong, independent, and can take care of herself. She's a woman young girls can admire.

(Image from Ackguide)

The other comic that caught my attention was The Giant and the Dwarf. It reminds me of another version of David and Goliath. It makes me wonder if it's a similar story line, or something completely different.

Of course when it came to videos, one jumped out right away - Crash Course to World Mythology. Having no prior knowledge about the subject, I feel like it would be a good introduction to get a feel for the stories/characters, so it's not totally new information.

The other video that caught my attention was about Sanskrit. I have always taken an interest in other languages and writing styles, so this caught my eye immediately. I love knowing the histories and how the world ties together in strange ways. Almost everything builds off each other and I find it fascinating.

Time Stratagies

The two I chose are thought processes I've used for YEARS, and I don't believe people use them enough. The two blog posts I read were Checklists and Too Busy.  Both can be applied in every aspect of life. I use checklists for to-do, to grocery shopping, to events, etc. I also believe we make time for what is really important to us, so no matter how crazy life gets, it's never "too busy"

Most people I know spend HOURS on their phone, watching TV, sleeping, etc. Relationships have failed because the other person was "too busy" to even text. If something is truly important, people will make sacrifices and shift their priorities to make sure it happens/taken care of. Being a single mom, I had to learn to re-prioritize a LOT, and my GPA suffered from it. I'm still working to recover, but it's just a balancing act, and compromise with yourself. Lists also help, because I can tell myself "I can watch a movie after this much of the list is done" and so on. It also helps, now that my BABY is 8 *insert crying face* that we try to have a schedule. We have school for each of us, choir, soccer, work, etc so we know we have specific times set aside to do what we need to get done. If something throws it off (because its bound to happen) we know we need to set aside other time to make it up. That's when checklists  come in handy.

(Image from Flickr)

Technology for class

Oh my goodness. I know that I grew up in the era of the technology boom, but I'm still pretty old fashioned. I still prefer my pen/paper to computers, physical books to ebooks, etc. The list of technology resources for this class is...long. It's a little daunting to see it all spelled out like that, I'm just working on trusting the process and hope we will ease into it. I hadn't heard of about 99% of what was listed. I obviously have the blog page figured out, and I know flickr for images, can bookmark pages, and can do basic photo editing on my computer, but that's about it. It's definitely a lot more open ended to any other class I've taken, which I appreciate, but it's also terrifying. Our society has became so much "teach black/white for the test" I'm not sure how to handle open ended. Hopefully this class will bring me a little more into the 21st century.

(Image from Flikr)

Assignments

First impressions: I am liking the flexibility to mix and match assignments throughout the semester to get the grade I'm aiming for, but I'm also intimidated by the project. Most of my classes have been pretty black/white when it comes to assignments, so having the option opened up can be overwhelming. I am definitely interested in different extra credit opportunities, each one seems to have great benefits. I am always up for reading (book nerd here), but I probably won't make it to the library for the comics.

I'm eager to get more into the semester and get a better understanding of how the schedule works. So far, I really like everything it offers, and would love to take more classes like this.

(Image from Flickr)

Growth Mindset

As a single mother, I liked the ideas that were discussed in the Growth Mindset TED talk. My child is also ADHD/High functioning autistic, so we have chosen to home school because of the issues of his learning style to traditional schools. He has had to find other ways to learn, and struggles on tests with black and white "You failed" or "You passed". The idea of rewarding the process is something that could be very valuable to him so he's not as discouraged.

I hadn't heard of this before, but it is something we have tried to work on anyways. It has helped his confidence in learning and trying to get to the destination. I know I've also had issues with the black/white in eduction, and have easily gotten overwhelmed. I think if we focused more on the process, it would help with attitudes/mindsets, and even retention of information. I have studied too many times just to pass the test, and then forgot everything.

Every semester I worry about grades, balancing a full time work load, and being a single mother. I worry about balancing, and studying enough to get the "perfect" answers to work on my GPA. Many classes if it's not EXACTLY what they want, it penalizes the grade which is discouraging. I really appreciate this class, where it is definitely more about learning/doing and not so much grades and perfect answers.

(Image from Growthmindset blog)

Introduction to Dorothy and her crazy life.

Hello all!

My name is Dorothy (my family calls me Dottie, but I usually still use Dorothy for school). I am a single mom to a silly, smart 8 year old boy (side note: kids are exhausting). I am an Academic Affairs-Exploratory major? At this point, I'm honestly just trying to finish. I am a Senior going part time. I'm hoping I can finish maybe December 2020, otherwise it will be 2021. I've been out the last 3 semesters (life gets crazy), but I'm happy to be jumping back in! It's a wonderful feeling to be able to set the example for my kid.

Last semester I took classes was Fall 2017, and I was in the Women's Chorus that was chosen to  perform at the OMEA convention in Tulsa. I was active in choir all throughout high school, so I jumped at the chance to be apart of it again. I was able to do it for 2 semesters, until I got an "adult job" Monday-Friday 7-4, so that removed the possibility of being able to continue. Because of that I am trying to finish it all out online, around the kid's schedule. We home school, but he does home school choir, and soccer so we still stay busy.

In the past I was an English major. I have always had a passion for reading, to the point I would get grounded from books. I was going through them so fast, my family refused to buy more so I ended up reading anything I could get my hands on. I started my Grandma's Nora Robert's books in 3rd grade, and shortly after had my Dad's Stephen King's books. I am also a huge fan of the classics, and a HUGE Harry Potter fan.

On that note: I have 3 dogs and 6 cats, several with Harry Potter names. Dog wise have 2 huskies- Luna and Percy, and 1 Great Pyrenees - Henri (technically my moms). Cats we have 1 Russian blue- Trouble, a long haired tabby - Logan, a long haired gray tuxedo -Sophia, a Siamese - moaning Myrtle, and 2 tuxedo kittens - Severus and Otter.

 Logan and Trouble (shown above)

Severus, Otter, and Trouble (shown above)

Percy and Luna (shown above)

 Myrtle and Otter (shown above)

Henri (He's like 60 lbs now) 

So in that break I got a new job (as previously mentioned) working in the mortgage industry behind the scenes, and this summer we went to Colorado (also previously discussed in my Favorite Place post). I was born in Durango, Colorado and have a deep love of mountains. Of course, that's probably because I'm pale enough the beach and I don't get along. But being apart of something so huge, and getting to hike around is one of my favorite things to experience. It is absolutely beautiful.

That's a look into my crazy life. We wake up, go to work, come home to school/soccer/animals, and repeat. There's not much I would change though.

Storybook Favorites

There are many interesting Storybooks to comb through. All were written in different styles, and formatted differently, but all were interesting in their own right.

The first one I liked was Lives of Lakshmi. I loved that they started the introduction with a picture to set the visual, and set up a reason behind telling the story " to remind you who you are". As someone who isn't familiar with the story, it sets you up like your Laksmi learning about yourself. It starts painting a picture of the narrator and the point they hope to make throughout the story. The layout threw me off slightly, just because of the tabs being at the top, but it was easy to adjust to.

Lakshmi

(Original image from Flickr)

The second one that stood out was Music Stories. I personally have always loved music, so the title caught my attention from the start. This is another story I'm not familiar with, so I liked how the home page gave some general information to know before the reader delves into the story. Going into the Introduction, it sets a scene. The visual helps to understand what's going on, but leaves it open to pull the reader in more. That's similar to the 1st story discussed in catching attention, but it does it in an entirely different way. The layout was pretty much the same as the first, so not many issues, it was easy to navigate.

The last one was my favorite The Cat Gods & The Tales of Heraclaws. I am a huge cat lover (I have 6) so it definitely caught my attention immediately. I loved how it started out similar to a good book. You just want to snuggle up in a comfortable chair and just enjoy it. It paint's a scene that is easily understood, and I could picture it like an opening scene of a movie. It was a very entertaining read. I liked the formatting on this the most. The tabs on the left, felt more like a table of contents to me, which helped with the book feeling.

All were very neat to look at!

Colorado - My favorite place

I haven't been many places, but one of my most favorite places would be my birth state of Colorado. Colorado is beautiful. Their mountains are definitely a view to behold. I'm constantly in awe the whole time I'm visiting.

This is a view in Colorado Springs showing Garden of the God's, and Pike's Peak.

(Image from Flickr)

There is a breathtaking view every time you turn around. When I visit, I always end up taking around 100 pictures of the mountains in various lights.

Picture of Pike's Peak

(Image taken on our trip June 2019)

Of course the view from the top is something else entirely. I'm a wimp when it comes to heights, so the drive up was nerve wracking. I may or may not have had an anxiety attack (hint: I did). However, the view is definitely worth it.

Our View From the Top

(Image from June 2019)

Testing 123

This is my test post for my Epics of India blog for class.