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Story Lab: TvTropes

As one of my last assignments for this class, the TvTropes story lab was a great way to get some final information that I will be able to use with my future projects. This was such an interesting site- not at all what I was expecting. The idea of organizing characters and trope like this is such a wild resource- I can't believe that someone had the idea and exigency to put this together. I fell into a bit of an information exploration hole when I dove into the SOviet tropes. There are so many characters alone that I was inspired by. There is such a mystic about these sort of tropes that are so unfamiliar to the classic American canon- or what I associate it with at least. Another page that totally opened my eyes to the possibilities of the site was the "Dining in the Buff" definition. Watching a clip on The Big Short led me there, and it was pretty cool to see something explained in such a short clip. That is- the curators of this site took what seems like such a short pi

Reading Notes: LibriVox's Grimm

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This week I switched over to LibroVox's version of some Grimm stories to see how the different adaptations would read. THis section had a different collection of stories alltogether from last week, but the underlying familiar tone from the Grimm brothers was still there. Thse stories were also more familiar that last week's. My favorite story for this section was one that I had no familiarity with. That would be The Straw, The Coal, and The Bean. The past few units I have been so interested to see how non-human characters are used and this story takes this much further. Here even a piece of burning coal can exit a fire and participate in both narrative and dialogue. Story: Link Image: Link  

Story Lab: EmpoWord

This week I opted to do the story lab. I think my final addition to the story/portfolio will be the third section of my Asus and Ligh story . For the lab I read through the second chapter of EmpoWord. The resource was a great learning experience and seemed to be put together by a group of minds that are fluent in both writing and education. The chapter reads like it is designed to be in a textbook, but one that has a personal tone and is aimed at young authors. It defined some well-known terms like epiphany and dialogue, but also went into detail about things like the difference between narrative scope and narrative sequence. Out of all of the resources that I have found out about through this course, this online "textbook" is one that I know I will revisit. I thought that the exercises at the end of the sections could be useful, but were a bit inauthentic for me. Though, I suppose with how unsettling it is to be in a place where you are experiencing writers block, pieces of

Week 14 Reading: Brothers Grimm (Ashliman) B

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Not your normal Bitcoin Mining As I entered the second part of this week's Brothers Grimm stories, I was still lucky enough to be reading some unfamiliar stories. Right off the bat, I wondered if The Little Lamb and The Litte Fish is responsible for the origin on "Eenie Meenie Miney Moe." Obviousy, some of the text was a little bit different in the Brothers Grimm story. But it would surprise me if the premise and a segment of the words were so similar and it was not the foundation. Moving forward there was some fantastic imagery going on in Simeli Mountain. I felt like I was among the gold and silver within the depths of the mountatin. The story had a pretty shocking ending and I felt like it was not super related to the rest of the story. Maybe a more sensible ending would be for the brother to remain trapped after the mountain closed on him for uttering the wrong name. Either way, reading this second part was yet again a delightful trip down a familiar lane, albeit

Tech Tip: Canvas Gradebook

This was a pretty helpful tech tip this week, and seemed to be pretty appropriate. As we are entering the end of the semester, it is important to see exactly where I stand in terms of progress in the course. I was able to use the total grade in the top right to see where I stood, as well as the progress chart to compare with the paced class. It seems I should be fine to finish by the end of this week, but if not I will not have any problem at the beginning of dead week. The assignment groups were a little confusing on the gradebook, but I think it had to do with the way the extra credit assignments were laid out in the modules. Overall, checking out the gradebook from a canvas perspective like this is still useful. I always end up doing my own calculations, as I think the ones at the bottom of the screen usually don't include pending assignments, but being able to view all of the assignments on one page makes this step easier.

Reading Notes: Dante's Inferno A

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Dante and Virgil  For this week I had scheduled to do the Brothers' Grimm stories because of how much I enjoyed them as a kid. But when I sat down to begin reading A for it, I saw that Dante's Inferno was also an option and I could not resist (no pun intended!). So for this week I will be concurrently doing the Dante reading. I had always been curious about the Comedy, and the first half of this unit's reading did not disappoint. I had checked out sections of the text in the past, so I was familiar enough to recognize that this is a very different translation than I was used to. For instance, I have been made to recognize the plaque above the entryway to Hell as ending with "Abandon all hope, all ye who enter here." I think that the difference is not incredibly important as far as an informal reading like through this unit, but if I was doing a close reading I imagine I would want to get as close to the original Italian as I could. Running into Socrates and Pl

Week 14 Reading: Brothers Grimm (Ashliman) A

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The All Important Ring  This week I am reading the Ashliman unit of some classic Brothers Grimm stories. Some of part A's pieces were very familiar, but others I had never heard of. I remember growing up that I had a huge manuscript of Grimm stories (it seemed large at the time, and I think I would feel the same way today). But nowhere in that book did I read Cat and Mouse in Partnership or The Seven Ravens. They both definitely had some familiar literature themes, like the manipulative dialogue that leaves protagonists in some sort of pickle. In the Seven Ravens it took the seventh dwarf's help to resolve the conflict. In so many of these stories of folklore, there seems to be a reoccurring timeline. Even when stories can be entirely unfamiliar to a reader, there can always be elements that seem familiar and allow readers to relate to the text. Story source: Dan Ashliman's Grimm Brothers' Children's and Household Tales. Link . Image source: Link .