Famous Last Words Week 13

By Berger & Föhr; Ello, Inc. (https://ello.co/wtf/post/ello-logo) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

So as I have said in one of other posts, I have finally left Facebook. I love the idea of social networks but Facebook is just not what it used to be. It used to be a place were you could network with people about jobs and other things. Then it became a place to keep up with your friends. Now it is a mix of things they want to sell to you and things they want you to buy. It got to the point that I couldn't see my friends updates. I guess I was not the only person that felt that way because a group of people created a social network site call Ello. When I first heard about this site I thought "wow that would be great to join, so that I could actually see my friends and not see ads constantly. So I sent a request to join. Well I am happy to announce that I have finally joined Ello and so far it looks like it is a pretty cool site. Much like Google+ but without the confusion of who is and isn't your friend. I love Google+, I really do except nobody uses it. I am hoping this doesn't become the case with Ello because it is such a great site. They don't collect any information from you and they are a non profit so absolutely no ads. All it is, well it is exactly like Facebook used to be. Just you and your friends updates. I really do like it better. If any of you wanna join it to check it out send me your email address and I will send you an invite.

Other than joining Ello the big highlight of my week was completely and LSAT prep test for fun. I'm taking it in December at OU so I figured I should at least crack open the book once and try it out just to see what a test is like. Wow, that was a crazy test. My brain hurt after taking it. It was like having a conversation with a crazy person on a three day drug bender. Seriously some of the questions seemed so far out there that I am not sure what they were about or how I got them right. The fact that I was able to answer these questions makes me a little worried about myself. I have always known I was and odd duck, but after getting some of these questions right I afraid I might be a really odd duck. LOL. Well other than that this was a pretty easy going week for me. Hope all of you have a great week. Do yourself a favor and make someone smile this week. Trust me it will make you feel great.

Essay Week 13 Me, My Editor, and the Work

     When writing poetry I have always found it is best to not force the poem. By this I mean that I am unable to make myself be creative. For this class I chose to write poetry for my storybook, and this was a process that some weeks went rather quickly and other weeks extremely slow. For my first poem I thought about my topic for about two weeks. Throughout my day I would say phrases in my head and slowly but surely the poem was completed before I even sat down to type it out. This is a very natural way for me to write poetry. So the first poem in my storybook actually happened in a very organic way. My second poem, Sita’s Sonnet, didn’t come to me as easy. This was a poem that I struggled with more than any of the other poems. I knew what I wanted to say, but because I wrote it in the form of a sonnet, I was faced with many challenges that I did not face when writing the other poems. One of the challenges was trying to write a poem that told the story of Sita without breaking the meter. It is an extremely confining form that I chose to write this poem in, but I feel as if it was my most creative of the poems because I was forced to choose words that gave the most information. The third poem, and I feel the best of the group, was the easiest to write. There was no plan to writing this poem, I sat down at the computer and started typing and it just came out. My final poem and my least favorite of the group presented little challenge in writing. I feel that this is my least creative poem, though this poem may be the easiest to read by someone that is not familiar to the story.

     Just because these poems were typed up and turned in did not mean that the work on them was finished. The most horrible part of the writing process was just beginning, the revising process. I have always found this part of the process to be the most alcohol inducing of them all. When a writer completes a piece of work there is a great deal of pride that they feel. They feel this because writing is a journey. For most of my work this is not something that I just sat down and typed up. Instead it is something that has been floating around in my head for a good deal of time, and even though I know it can be improved, I still feel proud and extremely protective of the work. This is why there is always a bunch of anxiety when you send in your work to your editor. This is for a couple of reasons. First, you want them to like the work. No matter what someone says, they really do want to be recognized as being gifted and one of the ways that they receive this from other people is through compliments. Second, as a writer you have a vision and this is your vision alone, so to have someone else comment of what they think your vision is can be frustrating. Finally, as a writer I hate to change my work. Still, it is a necessary step in the writing process. So even though receiving notes from your editor can drive you to drink, cuss, and throw your computer out the window, I have found it is best to stop, take a deep breath, and realize a few things. First, the editor is a fan of your work. If they did not like your work their only note to you would be, “this is horrible, delete it and start over.” Though they don’t tell you they like the work, the fact that they are taking the time to read it and give you honest thoughts on the work is proof that they like the work. Second, the editor wants your vision to be seen by people as much as you do, so their notes are an objective way of being able to share your vision with everyone else. Their objectivity is what is most important because as a writer you lack objectivity because you are emotionally attached to the work. Finally, they themselves are often writers so they know how much work goes into the writing. They know that if you are not pushed to make these changes you will regret it later when you revisit the work, because you will have gained some objectivity and will see that you could have done better. The most important thing for me to remember as a writer is that this is not a journey I am on alone. This journey involves myself, my editor, and the work and without the editor and I working together the work will suffer. As a writer I have to be able to surrender my ego and realize that the editor and I are working together to make the work the best possible version of itself.

Story Telling Week 13

Twenty-Two Six Strings

Everyday Mike sat next to John on the park bench while he ate his lunch. They never spoke, in fact he only knew John’s name because John introduced himself the first time they sat down for lunch. John would hum and eat while Mike would talk on his cell phone with his daughter. Honestly he wasn’t even sure that was his real name. All he really knew about him was that he liked tuna fish sandwiches and drank Tab cola, which seemed odd to Mike because Tab cola hasn’t been sold in years, liked big hats and scarfs and that he did not like shoes. John was always barefoot. Mike on the other hand was a reserved, shirt and tie guy that always wore dress shoes. In a way Mike envied the freedom John must have felt being able to wear whatever he wanted and often wished he could do the same but instead he gave up his freedom years ago for what his boss at the copy store called “Job security.”

Each day after John was done eating he would politely nod goodbye to Mike and hand him a sticky note with a picture of a musical note on it. Mike would take the note and nod back to John and throw the sticky notes in his pockets and when he got home we would throw them up on the dresser and forget about them.
One day however, John gave came home and gave the note to his teenage daughter. She looked at the note and headed to her room. About five minutes after this happened Mike heard screaming.

“What’s wrong?”

 “Where did you get this?”

“A guy I know gave it to me. Why?”

“Oh my god! My dad knows John Mayer!”

“Who?
”
“John Mayer daddy. Look her on the other side of this note it is his autograph.” Mike looked at the note to see that signature of John Mayer. He went to his room and grabbed the other notes that he had tossed on his dresser. Each one had his signature on it; his daughter noticed that each musical note was different. “Dad, do you know what this is?”

“No. What?”

“It is a song. This is a song written by John Mayer.”

“Of course it is.” Mike did not want to seem to uncool to his daughter. Since she reached her teenage years he felt more out of touch with her than ever, so this was a moment he had longed for, a moment when his little girl looked up to him as someone cool again just like she did when she was three years old.

“Where did you meet him dad?”

“I have lunch with him every day in the park.”

 “Daddy you have to take me to lunch to meet him. I love his music. Please.”

Staring into his baby girls eyes he knew he had no choice but to tell her “Yes.”

The next day Mike and his daughter went to the park bench for lunch. When John walked towards the bench to sit down, Mike’s daughter jumped up and threw her arms around him, “Oh my god you are John Mayer. I love you, I love you, I love you.”

John was gracious to her and hugged her back. Mike looked at John as if to say, “I’m sorry.” After Mike’s Daughter calmed down, he pulled out the sticky notes from his pocket and showed them to John. “You gave me these, what are they.”

“Well they are your song. Well actually I guess they are her song. The first day I sat here with you I heard you on the phone with her and I was inspired to write a song about your daughter and you. I am working on my new album and well I was coming here each day for inspiration to finish this song. In fact today was going to be the last day because I am almost done writing the song. Actually after meeting your daughter I think I am done with the final note in the song. Those notes were the notes to the song and my gift to you.”

“Will you play me the song? Please?” The teenage girl was completely star struck by John, and even though he did not want to impose on John, he loved the feeling of being his daughter’s hero, even if it was just for a day.

“I will give you anything if you could play my daughter that song John.”

“Sure thing. I’d love to play that song for her. You say you would give me anything, well that sounds like a pretty good deal.” John pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to Mike. “I need you to go downtown to the music store and in the back is a 1959 Les Paul Whitford 'Burst guitar. Hand that piece of paper to the store owner and he will give you the guitar. Bring the guitar to me and I will play you guys the song. Me and you daughter will wait her and have lunch together.”

Mike nodded at John, hugged his daughter, and headed to the music store downtown. He grabbed the guitar and handed the note to the owner and left the store and began to make his way back to the park. As soon as he was a block away from the store he heard singing coming from the guitar. Mike dropped the guitar and then heard it say, “Ouch! Why did you do that man?”

“What?”

“Why did you drop me bro, I was grooving, why you killin my groove man. Where are you taking me?”

“What is going on? How are you talking, am I on some weird television show, where are the cameras?”

“Nah man, it’s all cool here man, no one is messing with you. Where are you taking me?”

“To John Mayer.”

“That dude ha. He has been trying to get his fingers on my strings to hit a lick for a while now. Ok, well if you want to take me to him that is cool with me, that boy’s got talent, but first you have to answer me a question. I you are clever enough to answer it then you have to return me to the store. If you know the answer and try to be slick and not say anything then your head will explode.”

“What!”

“Ha, got ya. Nah there bro just relax I was kidding your head won’t explode. You will just go to hell. See I am the devil in disguise, and don’t go thinking you can’t play this game because you gave the owner the note and that is a binding contract. So if you don’t play then I get your soul.”


And so began the story of the twenty-two six strings.


Author's Notes
The is a retelling of the introduction to the "22 Goblins" tale listed in the assignments. It is a little long but I have cut it down in half already and could not cut it down anymore. The basic of the introduction is a king is given fruit by a wise man each day. The kings throws them away until one day gives one of the fruit to a monkey and then sees the monkey playing with a jewels and realizes all the fruit has jewels. He is so happy he gives the jewels a way to his assistant ( I guess that is the best term ) and promises a boon to the wise man. The wise man sends him to a tree to fetch a hanging dead body. The dead body contains a goblin and the goblin makes him answer questions before he can take him back to the wise man. If the wise man knows the answer then he has to say it or else his head will explode. If the king is correct then he has to return the goblin to the tree.

Picture attribution
By Delhovlyn (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Reading Diary Part B Week 13 22 Goblins

Twenty two Goblins

Introduction

King Victory????

King throws away jewels

Finds them and gives them away

King is sent on a journey

Discovers goblin



The three Lovers

Goblins tells the king a story at the end the king must answer the question

If he lies his head will explode

King must decide who the wife belongs to

The man that slept with her ashes is the husband



Brave Wise Clever

King must decide who a girl should marry

He decides the brave man should be married to her because he risked his life



The Girl her husband and her brother

Boy falls for a woman while at the village bathe

They marry and the husband and brother are killed

Their heads are placed on eachothers body

King guesses who should be the Husband



Food Women Cotton

Three brothers quarrel about a turtle

They stay with a king and their cleverness is tested

King victory decides the brother that was the specialist in cotton was the most clever



The Four Scientific Suitors

Lotus city=pleasure city= golden city- Ujjain

King named heroic

Son named brave, daughter named grace

King is looking for a husband for grace

She tells him to marry her off to a man that understands science

First science is the working man

Second science is the farmer

Third science is the strong armed soldier

Fourth science is the ability to restore life

King victory decides that the soldier is who she married



The three delicate wives

King Virtue banner

He had three wives

Crecent, star, moon

King injures Crecent with a lotus flower

Star is burned by the moons light

Moon is bruised by the sound of Pestles

Goblin ask king victory which is most delicate



King victory says that moon was most delicate because nothing touched her, she was injured by just sound.