Reading Diary A: Aesop's Fables (Winter)

The fable I read is from Aesop's Winter Fables and it's called The Eagle and the Jackdaw (it's the second story on the page).  And for my reading diary, I want to relate this fable to the video game Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.  Because that was all I could think about while reading this.

The Assassin Order in this game series kill those who they believe are a threat to The Greater Good and they are often represented by an eagle. In the game there are “synchronization” points, usually at the top of very tall buildings, such as church spires and watch towers, where you go to “synchronize” (I’m putting this in quotes because there’s a lot more to the story – but it’s not relevant so I won’t get into it) and you fill in your map of the area. These sync points are always marked by a circling eagle.

"Concept art emphasizing the eagle silhouette of an Assassin's robes." [source]

An Assassin also has an ability called “Eagle Vision” – this allows him/her to differentiate between friend and foe and aids in finding the target.  Again, there's more to the story, but it's not relevant.

Eagle Vision in action. [source]

In Black Flag, the main character, Edward Kenway, is a pirate who (unknowingly) poses as an Assassin and meets with the governor of Havana – hoping to get the reward the Assassin (now dead) was to get for delivering an object. Stuff and things happen, Edward is found out and, while escaping with a few fellow pirates, steals a Spanish brig.

He names the brig the Jackdaw.

The Jackdaw sailing into port. [source]

As the game progresses, Edward meets other Assassins who challenge and change him (they show him a better way of living), eventually allowing him to join their Order after he had began to change. It’s his transition from a pirate to a high ranking Assassin that embodies the moral of this fable: do not let your vanity make you overestimate your powers.

In the beginning of the game, the Edward who steals the Jackdaw is much like the Jackdaw in the fable: he is greedy and cocky and oftentimes overestimates what he can do. However, as the game progresses and Edward matures – he develops the calm confidence of the eagle and the strength to not only back up that confidence, but to know how to use it wisely.

In the fable, the line “and made off with [the lamb] to her nest” implies that the eagle has young ones to feed – she isn’t killing for the sake of it. While the Jackdaw tries to make off with a ram for seemingly no other reason besides wanting to imitate the eagle and gets stuck in the ram’s fleece. When he’s seen by the shepherd, the Jackdaw’s wings are clipped and is given to the shepherd’s children.

Now, to throw the Black Flag lens over this fable: the eagle (the Assassins) are killing for a reason (to help the weak). The Jackdaw (Edward) attempts to imitate an eagle (in the beginning of the game, he kills an Assassin and steals the Assassin’s clothing) but only succeeds in making a fool of himself (Edward gets caught by the governor of Havana) and getting his wings clipped (Edward is thrown in jail).  Alternatively, the clipping of the Jackdaw's wings - and their subsequent slow regrowth - can be seen as Edward's slowly taking on the role and responsibilities of being an Assassin (there are rules to follow and a Creed to honor - it's not just killing people all the time [and we come full circle: using your power well and not abusing it]).

And while Edward eventually escapes the jail – there might not have been such an ending for the Jackdaw in the fable.

The last line of the fable – “That is a Jackdaw … but if you should ask him, he would say he is an Eagle.” – is great because, in the end, Edward (as the Jackdaw) eventually does become an eagle (a well-respected Assassin).

Week 1 Curation: TweetDeck is a Wonderful Thing

I'm no stranger to the wonderful world of bookmarking - bookmarking videos on YouTube to show to friends later or bookmarking my favorite Buzzfeed lists to come back to if I'm ever having a bad day.  But when it comes to curating a certain space on the internet and making it my very own - TweetDeck, a version of Twitter - has been the best platform.

As someone with multiple twitter accounts (one public and one private) TweetDeck has been a lifesaver.  On the app on my phone, I have to manually flip between one account to another which can get time consuming if I'm trying to monitor both accounts, but with TweetDeck, I can monitor, and tweet from, both accounts at the same time (shown below).

I've edited out the content due to consent and privacy issues from the people I follow with locked accounts.

TweetDeck allows you to monitor multiple feeds at the same time, all of which are scrolling down in real time - so you don't have to hit refresh every time you get a new notification.  If you follow a lot of people, then I wouldn't recommend TweetDeck just because the tweets would be going by so quickly, there probably wouldn't be a lot of time to read every one.

Because I can pick and choose which columns I want up and which feeds I want displayed - TweetDeck gives me a bit of space that is wholly mine.

Growth Mindset

As a kinetic learner, I have to be doing something with my hands while learning - either writing notes or, if  I'm learning a task, then performing the task itself. [source]

Growth mindset is a very interesting learning tactic – and the wonders it has worked in less privileged areas is fascinating. However. I don’t think that it is something that I can practice. Making “uncomfortable the new comfort zone” can work for other people – not for me. I’m twenty-six and completely revamping the way I learn isn’t something I wish to try.

I like the way I learn (visually and kinetically) and I’m too settled in my ways to try to change now. It’s just too bad that all of this research hadn’t already happened by the time I was in school, things probably would have been a lot more tolerable.

Storybook Favorites: Mermaids, Hawai’i, and Group Therapy for “Monsters”

I was looking for three things while going through these storybooks: humor, creativity, and something unexpected. And I found three that did just that.

The first storybook to catch my attention MermaidsOnly.com is hilarious! The title grabbed my attention and immediately that “Farmers Only” song popped into my head. I liked the pictures that were used and the bios were pretty funny; they’re also typical bios would you see on a dating website. Also, the fact that one of the mermaids had a pet Great White is pretty fun to imagine. The introduction to the site did a good job of letting me know what I was looking at (even though the title already did) and was an entertaining read. The overall design of the site was really good – the formatting made it clear and easy to read.

The second storybook that caught my attention was The Dirt on Hawaii’s Elite – the Gossip Girl-esque theme was brilliant. I’ve never watched Gossip Girl or followed it, but this was still a very entertaining storybook. It was able to transcend the Gossip Girl influence so that it was still funny for someone like myself, someone who has only ever been peripherally aware of the show. The colors were beautiful and the writing was particularly good.

The third storybook is my favorite: Legendary Creatures Speak Up, A Human Encounters Convention. This is just amazing. I love the turning of the tables here – in the picture below, I highlighted my favorite bits from the introduction page.

Except from Legendary Creatures Speak Up.

Dr. Erik Yeti holding a group therapy session for his fellow legendary creatures was amazing – Courtney Kraken struggling with loneliness and Cornelius Dragon struggling with his guilt of not having saved his human friend in time. The transcriptions of the panels on each page are wonderfully done and the writing is clear and concise.

The UnTextbook

"The Lion and the Crane" [x]

For the Classical unit of Week Two, I am going to go with Aesop’s winter fables. I chose Aesop because his work is short and sweet and poignant. I love the way he tells a story.

For the Biblical unit of Week Three, I am going to go with Saints and Animals. I did this because the connections between, well, saints and animals is always something that I have been interested in, but never really had the opportunity to look into.

For the Middle Eastern unit of Week Four, I’ll be going with either Georgian Folktales or Turkish Fairy Tales. I’ve read a few of the Turkish Fairy Tales before this class, but I don’t know much about Georgian Folktales – so this will be a good opportunity to expand my horizons a bit.

For the Indian unit of Week Five, I am going to be looking at Indian fairy tales. Most because the titles of the tales caught my attention – The Lion and the Crane, The Magic Fiddle, etc. – all promise an interesting read.

Introduction

Hello! My name is Kirsten and I am an anthropology major, history minor. I’m a Navy veteran – coming from a long line of Navy vets. I was a Gunners Mate for four years and was stationed out in San Diego on the USS Rushmore, LSD-47.

 I have five rabbits: Jack Bunny, Stella Artois, Sidney Crosbun, Khan Noonien Singh, and Tywin Golden Gate Vanilla Thunder Lannister (my sister named him) – all of which are rescues and, with the exception of Stella, had been turned loose in various neighborhoods and parks to fend for themselves.

We are also fostering two more rabbits names Tweak and Ziggy because they require special attention.  So, adopt don’t shop.

If you're thinking about adopting a rabbit, or if you're just curious about bunnies in general, I've been using the Famous Last Words as a way to write a primer to rabbit care.

Ty-ty disapproves of anyone who doesn't adopt.

On to a few of my favorite things: I enjoy reading, writing, and sketching.

My favorite books are Hannibal by Thomas Harris, White Fang by Jack London, Rant by Chuck Palahniuk, and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith (I loved the film adaption of this, too, it was beautifully shot and the acting was great; it's the very realization of the trope "crack treated seriously").

I have a huge collection of DVDs – because I’m old and I enjoy having hard copies of things – and they’re all my favorite movies so I don’t know if I’d be able to pick just one. I enjoy war movies, superhero movies, rom-coms (romantic comedies), and the occasional bro comedy.  My favorite television shows are Supernatural, Doctor Who, Sherlock, and Last Comic Standing.

I enjoy comics – both Marvel and DC, though Batman will always hold a special place in my heart. My favorites are A Death in the Family, The Long Halloween, and Hush. I also love the Superman/Batman collections.

I listen predominantly to country and classic rock music. My favorites on the country side are Blake Shelton, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Reba, and Miranda Lambert. On the rock side, I love Kansas, Styx, the Steve Miller Band, AC/DC, Queen, Rush, and Journey. Fun fact: a biopic of Hank Williams is being made with Tom Hiddleston as the lead which should be pretty interesting. Tom Hiddleston is a fantastic actor and I can’t wait to see how he handles this role.  From the reviews that I've read so far, he did an excellent job!  Since I first posted this introduction, a clip has been released featuring Hiddleston singing "Move It On Over."

Storytelling for Week 1: The Cock and The Fox

Author's Note: This story is an adaption of the Aesop fable of the same name.  It tells the story of a fox getting stuck in a trap and, when he sees a rooster, tries to trick the rooster into letting him go.  The rooster doesn't fall for the trick and instead crows loudly in order to draw out the farmer who then kills the fox.  In the original fable, the story is told from the fox's point of view, but I decided to use the rooster's for my own re-telling.  Also note that I've capitalized a few words that normally wouldn't be, this is intentional.

The Cock and The Fox

It is during the darkest hour that Rooster wakes – the hour when the last of Moon’s light has faded from the stars and has yet to be replaced by Sun's.

Rooster stands and stretches his wings, pushing the sleep from his muscles. The night has been quiet, but he knows that silence doesn’t always mean safety. A lesson which not all of his kin has survived to learn.

So it is with a sense of caution that he leaves his hens to their sleep and ventures into the dark of the pre-dawn.  The air around him is still and heavy; not even the song birds have woken.

Rooster ventures first around his wooden hutch, the home given to him and his hens by the humans, before he turns to the long wooden fence that keeps the horses in. An old Clydesdale mare opens an eye and chuffs at him in greeting before she's drifting to sleep again.

Rooster is about to turn towards the gardens, to see what damage the wild rabbits had done in the night, when he hears a low curse – carried only to him by the barest breeze.

Rooster turns towards the noise, hears someone say: “Stupid, stupid.”  Rooster cocks his head to the side – he didn’t recognize the voice as belonging to any animal on his farm. And when he sees why he doesn’t recognize the voice, Rooster’s feathers stand on end and his claws reflexively curl into the dirt, ready to use his spurs if it came to that.

A fox, with his leg trapped in a snare of wire, lay in the dirt with a bloodied muzzle – obviously having tried to free himself from the wire with his teeth.

“Howdy, little rooster,” the fox says, trying to tug his leg free again even as he spoke; the wire only tightened. “Oh, dear rooster, won't you free me, little rooster? My ma’s sick with the Slow Death and I need to see ‘er ‘for it’s too late, dear rooster!”

Rooster caws out a laugh – he’s an old bird and he knows that nothing but lies falls from the lips of foxes – and says, “It’s too late for you both!”

Then Rooster stretches out his neck and, just as the first of Sun’s light touches the sky, he crows out a warning to the rest of the farm.

“Rancher’ll have your fur for his daughter,” Rooster laughs as Rancher tears open the door – holding his iron-and-fire stick.

“Cursed rooster,” the fox screams, ripping again at his leg as he tries to escape – then he’s stilled by the fire from the iron in Rancher’s hand.

Rancher nods to himself before grinning at Rooster; then he's calling out to his daughter and wife standing in the doorway.

Rooster turns from the dead fox and the humans, flying to the top of his little wooden house and facing east – where the sky is quickly turning red and pink – and crows his welcome to Sun as He rises over the Oklahoma horizon.

Rooster Crowing at Sunrise [source]

Bibliography: The Aesop for Children, Aesop, 2006, Gutenburg Ebook.

Blanchard and Norman: My Favorite Places

Norman, OK.  That saying "there's no place like home" is true.  I lived in many places during my childhood - the perks of having Navy parents - and traveled to many more after joining the Navy myself.  But, truly, there is no place like Oklahoma.

Bison bison.

Heartland Rabbit Rescue, Blanchard.  The Heartland Rabbit Rescue is home to over 100 rabbits who have been abandoned, surrendered, or confiscated from bad homes.  Many of these rabbits have health problems and behavioral issues that prevent them from being adopted out to homes that are not rabbit-savvy.

Levi, a silver rabbit who had been found wandering a neighborhood.

The rabbit pictured above, Levi, is a member of Grouchy Rabbit Row - a row of pens that hold a few of the rabbits with the more intense behavioral issues.  These are the rabbits that I work with - coaxing them into trusting me by using a soft tone, gentle head pats and scratches, and, if they’re in a good mood, picking them up and taking them to a couch for a good grooming (it’s molting season).

Hershel, an old Californian.

The reason that I love Heartland so much is because it represents hope - hope for a better life and a better home with someone who understands rabbits, who knows what they want and need, who knows that those wants and needs are far different from either a cat’s or a dog’s and will love them anyway.

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