Learning Challenge: Reading

This week, I decided to practice reading out loud. This is something that I do often on my own, but I've never really paid attention to how it was helpful. This week, I paid attention to how it was benefiting me versus silent reading. When I read aloud, I realized I could see, hear, and speak the words all at once and that was very helpful in allowing me to understand and retain the information. I often have a hard time with not getting distracted while reading but this is definitely something that is very helpful. I will continue to practice this to gain a better understanding of my readings so that I can retain the information better.

Image from Pexels

Growth Mindset: New Storytelling Style

This week, with my retelling of Twenty-Two Goblins, I tried out a style that I hadn't used before. For one, it was the first story that I had written from a first-person perspective, and also it was written to be slightly comical and it was also an unfinished type of story, one where you're not really sure what happens next. Before this story I had only just changed a few details in the story but left most everything else the same. With this one, I changed most everything. I actually really enjoyed writing this way. I felt free to make the story completely my own. It was more enjoyable than keeping with the same tone as the original story. I think I might actually try this more often, I feel like I learned a lot just by trying out the new style.

Image from Wikipedia

Review: Punctuation

My favorite graphic from this week was the one for Saturday, National Punctuation Day. Punctuation is something that we all struggle with even though we have been writing for 15+years. It's just something that is very difficult and there are many rules to remember! So, it's never a bad thing to learn a little more and have some friendly reminders of correct ways to use punctuation. I had no idea that National Punctuation Day existed, but I think it's really cool and a great way to get people excited about punctuation.

National Punctuation Day

Famous Last Words: Settled In

Well, as you can tell by my blog post title, I finally feel like I am settled in with this course and my other classes. I know, it took forever since we're almost halfway through the semester already. But, now that I have my storybook all set up and slowly coming to life and have given my first feedback, I feel like I have this course figured out. Now I just need to keep working on my storybook and enjoy what I come up with. I honestly didn't think I would be able to find a topic that I like since I never have thought of myself as creative, but I really do enjoy my topic and how my storybook is looking so far. I hope others will agree.

With my other classes, I was feeling overwhelmed since I have three online and two on campus. But like this class, I've gotten in the swing of things and I feel a lot less stressed. I'm feeling very positive especially since it is finally the start of fall. I mentioned in my introduction that fall is my favorite season, and it's finally here! Unfortunately the football games have been a little disappointing but they are still a lot of fun and I know we will still have some good games this season. Now that the Halloween stores are opening up, I can't wait to go check them out and buy some cool stuff for my room! Halloween is my second favorite holiday probably, because I really like Christmas too. All of these things make me feel very positive and that is so helpful for my school work. I always work better in the fall and I wish there was a way for me to transfer that positive energy to the spring. Nothing fun happens in the spring! I hope to have a really good rest of the semester now that I'm all settled in and the best part of the year is starting.

Image from Pexels

Tech Tip: Google Sites Page

Hi guys! I have expanded my google sites page and made an introduction on my website. This is for my storybook, feel free to check it out here.

Story: Twenty-Two Zombies

Hi, my name is Eddy. I'm a goblin. Don't be afraid, though, I'm not a bad goblin. I might not be too pretty, but I'm still a good guy. You want to know who isn't a good guy? The king. That's right, the king of this land is worse on the inside than I am on the outside. He hates us goblins, and he banished us from the kingdom, so now we have to fend for ourselves in the wild. People hate us now because he has painted such a bad image of us. They think we are savages, but really we just do what we can to survive. If the king would stop putting such bad propaganda out about us, we might not be so hated.

So, my goblin friends and I have come up with a plan. We are going to force the king to stop making us out to be the bad guys! Now we are definitely no match for his army, there are only twenty-two of us left.. but we have a plan. After all, we do have some special goblin powers. You know, like being able to take over the body of a corpse. The corpse is basically a shield, even if it gets blown up we'll still be safe inside. So if we just keep jumping in corpses, we'll make it to the king. It's the perfect plan, really.

Here's what's gonna happen: My goblin friends and I are going to go to the cemetery and dig up as many bodies as possible. One-hundred should be a pretty good number. We're then going to wheel them away and stack them just outside the gates of the castle. Will people smell them? Maybe, but eh, who cares. That night, we are going to jump inside of the bodies. Twenty-two dead people are going to be walking towards the castle. You know what really scares those humans? That's right, twenty-two walking corpses. ZOMBIES! It'll be great. They'll try to kill us, yeah, but when they see that more bodies are coming and that we can't be killed, they'll just be scared and run for their lives.

Goblins in corpses

Now, once we make it in, we'll go straight to the king. Only about ten of us in corpses, though. The rest will sneak in as our regular, goblin selves and wait for the opportunity. The ten corpses are going to pretend to attack the king. BRAAAINS! It'll be hilarious. Then, when he really thinks it's all over for him, the eleven other goblins will come to the rescue! We'll "scare" the corpses off and save the day! Then we'll make the king a deal.

If he let's us back into the castle and treats us right, we'll keep those monster corpses away, but if not, we'll let them come back to finish him off! I have a feeling he will choose the first option. Well, I've got to go now, I think my twenty-one goblin friends are gathering to dig up some bodies. Wish us luck!

Author's Note: This story is based off of Twenty-Two Goblins translated by Arthur Ryder. In the original story, a king must go get a corpse from a tree. As he carries the corpse back, he notices it is talking and realizes there is a goblin inside. The goblin tells the king riddles, if the king gets the answer right, the goblin escapes and goes back to the tree, if the king gets the answer wrong he may keep walking. But, if the king knows the answer but does not say, his head will explode. So, there is really only one goblin but he tells twenty-two riddles. In my version, I made it to where there are twenty-two goblins trying to convince the king to let them back in the castle. I kept the king, the goblins, and their ability to get into a corpse but changed most everything else to make a funny little plan from one of the goblins perspectives. 

Reading Notes: Twenty-Two Goblins Part B

As this story goes on and comes to an end, we find that the goblin was not so evil after all and that it was the monk that was an evil doer. Since this is not the ending I was expecting, it did give me a few ideas on how to change it.

One change that I thought of for this story would be that the king is too proud to give a wrong answer. He knows all of the answers to all of the riddles, but he refuses to answer incorrectly even though he has to to get the goblin to leave the body. It could now be a story about learning to give up your pride in order to do the right thing, and the monk could instead have been teaching the king a valuable lesson rather than using him.

Another way to retell this story would be to have it be some kind of game show. This story is told in such a way that it would be easy to make into a game show of some kind, involving the king, the goblin, and the monk. It would be a comedic approach to this story.

One thing that I feel like the story didn't really go that much into was the corpse. Like I said before about turning the story into one about pride, it could be that the corpse is a prisoner of some kind that must be rescued and the only way to free him is through answering all of the riddles correctly. Perhaps the king needs help with this task and it turns into an adventure type of story.

Goblin and King

Twenty-Two Goblins  Arthur Ryder's translation of the Sanskrit Vetālapañcaviṃśati 

Reading Notes: Twenty-Two Goblins Part A

The story begins with a monk asking a kind to do him a favor and get a dead body that is hanging from a tree. Had the king been cruel and not done this, the monk may have had to do it himself, or find someone else to do it for him. This is one small change that could alter some parts of the story.

As the story carries on, the king is told riddles. If he answers correctly, the goblin escapes and goes back to the tree, if he knows the answer but lies about it, his head will explode, but if he doesn't know the answer, the king will carry on walking with the goblin. The king keeps getting the right answer because he is wise, so he must keep going back to get the goblin.

One thing that could be altered here is the rules. Perhaps the king must get the answer right to continue going, and if he does not know the answer, the goblin goes back to the tree. It would probably change the moral of the story, instead forcing a dumb king to be wise rather than the other way around.

Another thing about this story that I found interesting was the title- it is called "Twenty-Two Goblins". Before reading, I thought that it would be some kind of battle between twenty two goblins rather than twenty two battles with one goblin. I could write a story that I inferred from the title rather than how the actual story goes. Perhaps he has to get through twenty two goblins and their riddles before he is allowed to take a dead man, or a prisoner, home.

the goblin in a tree

Twenty-Two Goblins Arthur Ryder's translation of the Sanskrit Vetālapañcaviṃśati