Peter's Myth Blog

I've searched through and read several articles in  Writers Write   website. One article that really caught my attention was " Why You Should Open Yourself Up To The Possibilities Of Story " This article caught my attention because I couldn't agree more on how important it is to be open to the endless horizons of possibilities of story when I'm writing stories. Otherwise, we might risk to write a story that isn't as creative as our initial intent. I've written lots of stories over the course of this semester, but I've always wanted to improve the quality of writing every time I write new stories. So I thought this useful article can help me a lot in improving the quality of my writing. Like the author said, it's a risk that leaves an author dry.  How To Be A Writer’, in the book, Self-Help, when we are open to new possibilities and creativity, the story becomes richer and fuller.  I like reading about the story of Rosa Parks and the bomb, and

I've always been a big fan of Grimm brothers' fairy tale stories. Obviously, I think Grimm Brothers' fairy tale stories are the best of European fairy tale stories. I especially enjoyed the readings in the Part B section, so I decided to review and do the reading notes for it. Grimm brothers' works are truly creative and fascinating. I've read several of them, but I've only watched the Disney version of Snow White. I haven't read Snow White's written version before. It was really fascinating to read about the story because it seemed slightly different from the movie. It begins with a similar beginning as the movie. The queen, who was the mother of Snow White, dropped three drops of red blood in the snow. It was a snowy day and the queen was contemplating on how her daughter would look like. She obviously wanted a very pretty one. The queen wished that her daughter would look like a lady whose skin was fair as snow, lips were red as blood, and hair w

I really liked reading all the European fairy stories. One interesting thing that I've found is that all the stories are incredibly rich with vivid, imagery details, rich plots, and interesting characters. Although I thoroughly liked reading all the amazing and fascinating European fairy stories, the one that really caught my particular attention was Beauty and the Beast. I've never read the book version of the story, and I was amused at how text version of the story is more fun to read than watching the Disney movie! The story begins in a really interesting way, which is quite different from the Disney movie. There are the father and his doting three daughters. He asked his daughters for a favor because he loved them so much: "What shall I bring you back, my dears?" I like the youngest and most mature, in my personal opinion, daughter's interesting response: "Bring back yourself, Papa, and that is what I want the most." I thought this daughter re

I decided to do another learning challenge this week because I have had a really good experience from someone who is so empathetic. It's about Kim. Kim is a friend from Korea. I like him so much because he is so kind and caring. Kim, although he is from Korea, has lived in America for many years, certainly many more years than I have. He came here when he was only twelve years old. When I arrived here in OU campus, I didn't know anything about the environment. In fact, I was confused to find the dorm that I was assigned to. I barely spoke English back then, so I desperately needed help. All the RA's apparently didn't speak Korean, and we couldn't communicate well. I even used the Google translator several times to get my messages across right. Fortunately, one of the RAs knew Kim. Kim has been a long friend of his, so he made a call and Kim showed up to our sight right away after few minutes. Kim graciously navigated me throughout campus, including dorm, resta

Twitter is a really popular social media platform and its regular users include the President of the United States. The set-up was incredibly simple like most social media accounts are. I tweeted a simple tweet, Boomer Sooner. Wow. I think this is the power of social media. Anyone can sign up and tweet regardless of their status. In the past, people had to be famous or powerful enough to be able to show up in TV to reach a large audience. I've never been a regular user of Twitter and I've set up an account just for this assignment. But it was truly fun. Now I understand why people always tweet (before I've never understood why), including the President. To be honest, I'm not a big fan of Twitter design though. I dislike the messy design and so many unnecessary functions that require some time to learn. It's great that it limits the words though, and that I think is a good advantage of Twitter over other social media platforms like Facebook or Google. Obviousl

I haven't read the South African folktales in the previous readings, so I found these readings to be really fascinating. I think they are all rich in plots and characters, but the story about the ants was the most fascinating of all. I have read about the story of other animals such as monkeys, crocodiles, lions, and so on, but insects like ants aren't usually given attention worthy of a great story. So The Lost Message part of the reading was my favorite of all South African stories I've read. I like the very beginning of the story, which is so true to the core: "The Ant has had from time immemorial many enemies, and because he is small and destructive, there have been a great many slaughters among them. Not only were most of the birds their enemies, but Anteater lived almost wholly from them, and Centipede beset them every time and at all places when he had the chance."  How many ants have I accidentally stomped on and killed? Probably countless. Yet, it

Once upon a time, a jealous and hateful uncle named Unnatural Uncle lived in a village of the Crow Nation. Unnatural Uncle hated the boys and would always kill them when they were born. He just vehemently disliked boys and like girls. Villagers thought it was perhaps because Unnatural Uncle hated his ugly look, but nobody knew for sure why he hated boys and would always want to kill them right after they were born. This cruel and merciless act of Unnatural Uncle was against the Crow moral code of conduct, but the chieftain and villagers couldn't intervene in his murder process because his extreme hatred and jealousy would scare off the people who approached him. One day one of his younger sister gave birth. The sister was long yearning and hoping that it was a girl. She was scared of her brother's cruel jealousy and hatred toward boys. When she gave birth and found out that it was a boy, she screamed in deep fear, "Oh my god. It's a boy. My brother is going to ki

I really liked reading all the interesting English fairy tales. There are very fascinating in that each and every story has unique and different plots that can teach important lessons. Although I liked reading all the English fairy tale stories, one that really stood out and drew a real interest in my heart was the story of Mr. Fox. I like the beginning of the story that tells just how brave and exceptional Mr. Fox was: "But of them all, the bravest and most gallant was a Mr Fox. No one knew who Mr Fox was; but he was certainty brave, and surely rich, and of all her lovers Lady Mary cared for him alone." That's a powerful and exceptional character, and it's no wonder why Lady Mary fell for him. It's very suspicious, however, for Mr. Fox to disclose his location and castle to his prospective in-laws: "Lady Mary asked Mr Fox where they should live, and he described to her his castle, and where it was; but, strange to say, did not ask her or her brothers to

I hurt my back while I was out playing basketball with friends last week. I felt so dumb and silly. When I got my back hurt by being pushed over, I was angry at the friend who pushed me at first, but as time progressed, I've forgiven him. He didn't intentionally push me over to the ground, so it was accidental. He's a massive guy who is 6 feet 4 inches tall, so the force of pushing me over was great. As I reflected and thought about this incident, it made me realized that I was responsible too. I was supposed to be studying and working on assignments like this at the time because I've been falling behind in most of my classes, but I couldn't resist the temptation of hanging out with friends. I'm really behind in this class, but the situations are even worse in traditional classes because they've had exam and graded essay grades. I don't want to retake any of my classes, so I need to have more discipline and stay away from wasting time. Another rea

I decided to start my Wikipedia trail with Arjuna, one of the most fascinating characters that I've read over the course of several Indian epics readings.   1.  Arjuna : Arjuna was one of the  main central characters of the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata and he played a key role in the Bhagavad Gita alongside Krishna. Arjuna was considered to be the best archer of his time. Arjuna was the son of Indra, the king of the celestials. Arjuna was married to Draupadi, Ulupi, Chitrāngadā and Subhadra at different times. Arjuna's children included Srutakarma, Iravan, Babruvahana, and Abhimanyu. 2.  Draupadi : Draupadi  is the most important female character in Mahabharata. According to the epic, she is the daughter of Drupada, King of Panchala. Draupadi was the daughter of Drupada, King of Panchala. Draupadi has multiple names, inclduing  Kṛṣṇā,  Panchalī, and Yajñasenī. Draupadi had five sons, one son each from the Pandava brothers. They were known as Upapandavas. Their names were P

Although I've never really been a big fan of Canvas, it is obvious that Canvas is what OU students are required to use for classes. One example that I've found of such feature is canvas calendar settings. I've set my personal preferences for Canvas calendar notifications. Obviously, setting the dates for my schedule was important, so I've set some schedules for my time table. One of the things that I've set was the time allocations for this class. This India epics class needs at least six hours every week in order to make sure that I complete all the weekly assignments. Since it's not a traditional class, I thought having the designated time for this online class was important to make sure I complete the weekly reading and writing. Canvas calendar is a phenomenal tool that not only lets me set the dates and time for my classes, but also can remind me of the assignment due dates and exam dates that are set by professors. To be honest, I've always

I've watched my classmate Jackson. Jackson is a really empathetic and compassionate guy who wants to be a pastor. I don't come from Norman, and I don't know much about this place. In fact, I've struggled to find locations and places in Norman. Jackson is a local Norman who was born and raised here in Norman. He went to Norman High School and graduated there. Jackson and I got to know each other through an official OU student program called OU Cousins. It's a program that matches one international or exchange student with an American student. Jackson has always been a good listener who would rather listen than talk. When I asked Jackson how he could patiently and attentively listen others, including myself, so well, he said he is interested in  others' needs  and that's how he became such a good listener. Another empathy that I've observed from Jackson is that he is kind to anyone and is very consistent in his kindness. He isn't a moody pers

One of my best friends and I had conversation about his recent heartbreaking break-up experience. My friend and his girlfriend have been dating for over five years since their sophomore year in high school, well into their college years. My friend didn't know or hear about the idea of growth mindset. Nonetheless, the conversation between him and me became a growth mindset conversation. My friend and his girlfriend broke up with each other because they were expecting each other to fulfill their needs. The needs were primarily emotional needs. I could sense that they were emotionally dependent on each other. I don't think it's particularly bad to be emotionally dependent when two people are dating, but I think that often leads to disappointments. Being a five-year-old couple, they obviously had  expectations  on each other.  He wanted to re-connect with her and become couple again. I told him that he either had to drop all of his expectations or lower them to the

I decided to start my Wikipedia trail with Vishvamitra, a fascinating character that I've read over the course of several Indian epics readings. 1.  Vishvamitra : Vishvamitra was a fascinating character that often appeared in the Indian epics. Vishvamitra was one of the most venerated sages of ancient Indian epics. The story of Vishvamitra was narrated in the Balakanda of Valmiki Ramayana. In the epic, Mahabharata, Vishvamitra had a relationship with Menaka and had one daughter with her, Shakuntala. The story of Shakuntala was Adi Parva part of Mahabharata. 2.  Shakuntala : Shakuntala, who was a daughter of Vishvamitra and Menaka, was the wife of Dushyanta and the mother of Emperor Bharata. As a baby, Shakuntala was found by Rishi Kanva. She was named Shakuntala because she was surrounded by Shakunta birds. Shakuntala first encountered King Dushyanta while he was travelling through the forest with his army. Shakuntala and Dushyanta fell in love with each other and got marrie

Although I've never really been a big fan of Canvas, it is obvious that Canvas does have many features that can be convenient for students to use. One example that I've found of such feature is canvas notifications settings. I've set my personal preferences for Canvas message notifications. Especially, I've set up my phone setting, so I can receive messages via phone. I didn't know about this option, but I think this is a very good, neat feature.  It was also interesting to learn about Canvas's ability to sync with social media accounts. I've also set my schedule, groups, course activities settings, so that I can stay on top of my classes and schedules. Now I can receive all the Canvas messages, grades, conversations, and group messages to my OU email as well. As long as I check my OU email, I'll be aware of the things that have happened in Canvas, which really would make my life a lot more convenient. Although it's been handy to adjus

I chose to do a happiness challenge for my H.E.A.R.T challenge last week. To accomplish the challenge, I laid out a detailed plan and tried to follow the rules I had set a week ago. Nevertheless, this challenge, unfortunately, has been a very difficult challenge for me. I have failed to follow the rules I've set pretty miserably and only stick to the rules I set for a couple of days after last Sunday. These are the steps that I had laid out last Sunday. 1. I will work and study only until 9:15 PM. 2. From 9:15 PM to 9:30 PM, I will take a shower to get ready for sound sleep 3. At 9:30 PM, I will be lying on my bed. 4. Until 10:00 PM, I will try some sleep-inducing tips such as reading novels and listening classical music. 5. From 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM, I will be asleep. On Monday and Tuesday, October 29th and October 30th, I did stick to the step 1 through 5. Nevertheless, starting on Wednesday, October 31st, which was the Halloween Day, I lost the track o

I've searched through and read several articles in  Writers Write   website. One article that really caught my attention was " Even Short Stories Need Goals ". This article caught my attention because I couldn't agree more on how important it is to have aims to write better stories. Otherwise, we might risk to write a story that is read like a collection of ramblings. I've written lots of stories over the course of this semester, but I've always to improve the quality of writing every time I write new stories. So I thought this useful article can help me a lot in improving the quality of my writing. I'm always good at writing "attention-getting" introduction. I write my stories with interesting introductory paragraph, but I found myself struggling to write afterwards because I haven't had specific aims when I was writing stories. I agree with the author: "The inciting moment of any story is the moment of change for your character.&

I really liked reading the fascinating English fairy tales. I think they are unique in that all of them consisted of rich plots and characters. The stories were all fascinating in their own respect, but one story that particularly caught my attention was the story of "Tom Tit Tot". I particularly liked this one because it was really mysterious and brought a lot of suspense while I was reading. The story starts with a woman baking five pies for supper. But the pies were over-baked and the crusts of the pies were hard as rock. So the woman told her daughter to have them rest to make them soft. The impatient and hungry daughter ate them all however. I particularly found it interesting to see how the daughter pretends as if she doesn't know anything about missing pies: "The girl went and she looked, and there was nothing but the dishes. So back she came and says she: 'Noo, they ain't come again.'" She ate them all, so there were none! I like how