Monday, April 24, 2017

Week 14 Tech Tip: Editing Pins

Caption: Meteora Monastaries. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Meteora_2_evlahos.jpg.
Tech tip: For this week's tech tip, I learned how to edit a pin on pinterest. This was particularly helpful because I'm an avid user of pinterest but I never edit any of the captions, I just repin them as is. I don't use pinterest for school, I use it to keep all of my interests in one place. I edited a particular pin on my travel board. I love traveling and it's useful to update the pins with more about the places that I'm interested in traveling to so I can look at the pictures and see exactly where they are.

Week 14 Learning Challenge: My Time Management


Caption: Time Management. Link.

My time management tips: I really used to suck at time management, so this is something I've really had to work on. My best tip is to write everything down and to make lists. For me, nothing is more fulfilling than crossing things off of a list. So, when I make lists, I am far more likely to get things done. I also am an avid user of my planner; I don't know what I'd do without it. I write EVERYTHING down and cross it off as soon as it's done. That way, it's easy for me to look at my planner and see when I'm going to be busiest so I can manage my time better and can plan for being busy then.

Week 14 Wikipedia Trail: From the German Language to Greenhouse Gases

Article 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_language
I decided to choose the German language as the starting point for my wikipedia trail because I think it's really interesting and I've been studying it for 3 years so I thought it'd be interesting to read more about it. I did think it was really an interesting article because I didn't realize how many places it was actually spoken and the different dialects everywhere.

Articles 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saxony
I chose Saxony to be my second article because I'll be doing a study abroad this summer in Leipzig which is the capital of Saxony, so I thought it'd be interesting to learn more about it. I thought it was interesting to learn more about the industries of Saxony and I didn't know that it was nicknamed Silicon Saxony.

Article 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union
I decided to follow the link to the European Union next because I thought it would be interesting to read more about. I thought it was interesting to see how little of the population was encompassed in the EU but how much of the world's GDP is produced by the EU.

Article 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_gas
I decided to follow a link to learn more about Greenhouse Gases. You hear so much about carbon emissions and I really don't know how much I actually knew about greenhouses gases besides what causes them and the effect they have on the environment, so I thought that it was interesting to learn more about greenhouse gases.

Caption: A map of Saxony. Link.



Week 14 Reading Notes: Grimm LibriVox Part A

Bibliography: LibriVox, Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm, Link.
Caption: Rapunzel's Tower.Link.
Reading Notes: I liked the Frog Prince story quite a bit. I knew of The Princess and the Frog, but didn't know that it was one of the Grimm Brothers' stories. I think it's a little interesting that it turns out so well for the Princess though, because she was rude and didn't want to keep her word. She only did so because her father commanded her to. Usually, the Grimm Brothers punish the people who should be punished and only reward those who have done kind things. I think it's interesting that the princess gets to marry the prince and he is beautiful and whisks her away. I like the story of Rapunzel a lot, though I didn't realize that Rapunzel was just the daughter of two common people. I thought she was the daughter of a king and a queen and had noble birthright. I think that the evil enchantress is an interesting character and is particularly conniving which I think is an interesting character trait that really fits her well, especially when she tricks the prince into thinking that she is Rapunzel. I didn't particularly like the stories following Rapunzel at all, I didn't think they were as interesting by any means and didn't feel like the rest of the Grimm Brothers' stories. 

Week 14 Storytelling: The Big Bad Wolf

Caption: Wolf. Link.
Bibliography: Ashliman, Grimm Brothers' Household and Children Tales, Link.

Story:
Chester was a bright young student who loved gardening and playing the harp. He was kind and sweet, but didn’t have many friends and kept to himself for the most part. Chester was the youngest of seven wolf brothers. Chester got all of the nice genes in the family and his older brothers were all cruel and liked picking on others, especially young little Chester. Chester was the brunt of all of the bullying of the family. Even Chester’s parents didn’t step in and stop the bullying.
                  When Chester would finish his chores, he would go outside to his secret garden and plant some of his favorite flowers. He loved all flowers, but found roses to be especially beautiful. He kept his harp hidden in his garden in a secret meadow surrounded by trees. When the weight of the world was especially heavy for Chester, he would retreat to his secret garden and tend to his flowers and play his music.
                  One day after school, Chester thought he was being sneaky and he took a shortcut from the path home to go off to his garden. However, his brothers were close behind and followed him to his secret garden. Once they saw what Chester was doing, they came out in the garden and started trashing it. They stomped around in his garden, pulled his flowers, and destroyed his harp. Chester was devastated. He wondered what the point of rebuilding it all was when he knew that his secret place was compromised now and they would constantly destroy it.
                  That day, Chester changed. Chester was no longer the sweet little boy who loved to garden and play music. Instead, he started picking on people like his brothers. He quickly became known as one of the bad wolves like his brothers and everyone started to hate him, too. The teachers and students were scared of him.
                  Chester grew up mean, and never had any real jobs. He would work at various places until too many customers complained and he eventually got fired. This was a common story and Chester hopped from job to job, just like all of his brothers. Chester eventually became a criminal because there were no places willing to hire him with the reputation he built for himself.
                  Chester started by selling drugs, but there was too much responsibility involved in selling drugs, so he didn’t last long. Stealing, though, was definitely more of his forte. He started by pickpocketing people at the local market and stealing some food here and there. He quickly moved on to bigger jobs, though. He would break into people’s houses when he knew they weren’t home and steal their expensive belongings. But Chester even tired of the robbery life, and picked up the hobby of committing bigger crimes. Chester was the local hit man; people would go to him when they needed people to disappear because Chester was good at eating people up and leaving no sign of them.

                  One day, Chester saw a pretty little girl who looked yummy with a red hood walking through the woods…

Author's Note: I really liked the character of the wolf in the Red Riding Hood story. He is conniving and eats Red Riding Hood's grandmother and pretends to be her so that he can eat up Little Red, too. I thought he was a smart character who probably wasn't always bad. I decided to give him a back story that made people understand why he did the things he did now. 

Week 14 Reading Notes: Crane's Brothers Grimm Part B

Bibliography: Lucy Crane, Household Stories by Brothers Grimm, Link.
Caption: Snow White. Link.


Reading Notes:
I didn't like the six swans story either. I just didn't think it was very interesting and as intriguing as some of the other stories that the Grimm Brothers have written, so I don't think I'll write about this story. King Thrushbeard's story is pretty awesome. I like that his daughter was being rude and complaining and he punished her the way he did. I like that all (or a lot) of the Grimm Brothers stories are about children being punished for being a certain way and that they always learn a lesson from the story. I think it's funny that the King's daughter has to live with a beggar husband now that she complained too much and pushed away too many suitors. I particularly liked reading the story of Snow White, because though I have seen the Disney adaption of the story, I had not heard the original story and it's been a while since I've actually seen the movie. I thought that it was interesting how the evil queen came to kill her twice before deciding on the apple. I also expected more to the characters of the dwarves since they are such a big part of the Disney movie. I wish that they would have been expanded upon more so than they were.

Week 14 Reading Notes: Brothers Grimm Crane Part A

Reading Notes:
I didn't particularly like the story about the fisherman and his wife; I didn't think it was super interesting or compelling for the most part. I did like the Aschenputtel story, though. I think it's interesting to read the story as it originally was written instead of the typical Disney adaption of the story that everyone has come to know. I think it's interesting that there is no fairy godmother in the original story and that Aschenputtel instead actually grows a tree from her tears and it is the source of the magic in her life. I also thought it was interesting and disturbing that the step sisters actually cut their feet in order to fit into the shoes. I also didn't realize that there were 3 balls and that the prince was conniving for the last one and that's how he actually finally met Aschenputtel. I think that's interesting and wish that this would've been included in the Disney adaption of the story. I like the ending of the robber bridegroom story. I like that the bad guys get whats coming to them, I think that this is fitting.

Caption: Aschenputtel. Link.
Bibliography: Lucy Crane, Household Stories by the Brothers Grimm, Link.