Learning Challenge: Attention Graphic

(Attention Quote, web source: Canva)

I picked this quote because I think this is something I find myself thinking a lot. While, of course, there are different levels of inherent intelligence levels, I think continued attention and work can bring anyone to a higher level than they current reside. I like to believe I could learn anything I ever wanted if I just paid attention and focused on whatever I'm wanting to learn. 

Tech Tip: Quotemakers, Canva

(My Favorite Quote, web souce: Canva)

Reading Notes: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Part B

Link to reading here.

I've been reading around in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to find out how to end my Story Book. I've kind of switched events around from the original story, so coming to the conclusion is seeming to be a bit challenging.

I read the last half of this story to see how I could adapt the original ending to fit my Story Book. There's a really big event leading up to the original conclusion of Alice's story, so that may be challenging to fit in one last story. There's an entire trial happening, with many different sections of a trial. The evidence presentation by Alice, the King and Queen interacting with the Dormouse. I'm going to have to take a lot of artistic liberties on this one.

Alice's story ends with the Red Queen once again calling for Alice's head to be chopped off. There is a lot of action leading up to the end of Wonderland and the cards are flying around her; it's mania. Then, all of the sudden, she wakes up in her sister's lap. Her sister says she's been having a wicked dream. This is an interesting point to go from, how do I make an appropriate ending for this? While still keeping the dreamlike ending that brings her back to the real world.

The layout of my Story Book also makes it very challenging to end. The premise I've been working on is Alice is posting all of her adventures on social media as she goes along. How am I supposed to say that all of this was a dream when she's been posting the whole time? Are all of the posts just a dream? Or should Alice be trapped in Wonderland forever?

(Alice in a Flurry of Cards, web source: Wikimedia)

Storytelling: The Princess Above the Pea

The princess sat, perturbed, looking from her nook out the window.

The royal announcement had not yet made its way to her castle. Why hadn't it come? Nearly all of the princesses of neighboring kingdoms had received their copy, but not yet Princess Cat. Cat knew that an announcement from the prince would guarantee his presence at her home shortly after.

Cat had met the prince many years before. She doubted very much that he would remember her if anyone asked. But she had never forgot. They were children, then. Her family was traveling through the countryside to visit an ailing family member on her mum's side. They had stopped to eat a meal when the prince came barging out from the side of building. He had come tearing out from seemingly nowhere. His appearance struck the princess then and that had stuck with her for her entire life. She often thought of his raven hair and startling blue eyes. He was dressed impeccably, although everything about his outfit seemed disheveled, no doubt from the roughhousing.

That was the only time the princess had ever seen the prince in person. After that instance, she often saw his picture in announcements or fliers. Her infatuation with him had never been stifled. The word that was spreading across the country said that this prince, her prince, was seeking a wife. He was traveling to the various kingdoms to meet the princesses, in hopes that one would be his life's companion. There was one problem: he hadn't been to visit Cat. She had no idea why that was. Nonetheless, her heart was broken.

In the coming weeks, the prince would complete his tour of the country and return to his home. He would return without a wife. His quest had not been successful and Cat would be lying if she said she wasn't a little bit pleased. However, after he had returned home, the prince would not been seen in public for a long while. He refused to leave his chambers, undoubtedly disappointed in the failure of his mission.

Cat heard about his state from afar, and found that she must take matters into her own hands. If the prince wouldn't come to visit her, she would come to him. She stole away at night, and made her trek to the prince's castle. Her travel was largely uneventful, until she was nearly there and the sky opened up. It rained down quite hard upon the princess and she was forced to seek shelter under trees. In the process, spare branches snagged at her dress and caused it to rip and tear.

"Oh, but I'm so close," the princess thought to herself.

She decided to complete her journey and arrived quite quickly. She was greeted at the castle gates by a couple of guard. She announced herself and was escorted into one of the larger ballrooms in the castle. It was the middle of the night, so there was no one in the hall which gave it a rather ethereal sense. Suddenly, she heard a woman's footsteps approach, light but clacking loudly as her heels hit the marble floor. The queen rounded the entryway and stood still, waiting to be noticed by the princess. The princess, awaiting the arrival of the cause of the footsteps, turned to her immediately.

"Come child," the queen said as she beckoned to the princess. "We've arranged a room for you upstairs. We will make arrangements for you to meet the prince in the morning."

The princess was confused. Had they known she was coming? How did they know who she was? Certainly they knew she was of royalty, or else why would they have prepared a bed?

"Your parents sent a message ahead of you. We've known of your imminent arrival for hours. Come now, it's late."

Cat followed quickly and was led into the most incredible room. There was a bed in the middle of the room with many mattresses stacked upon it. Grateful for a warm bed, she climbed up immediately. However, once she got in the middle of the mattress, she couldn't help but find it to be the most uncomfortable bed she'd ever entered. No matter how she tossed or turned, she could not find a comfortable position. She constantly felt as though something was prodding her, even through all of the mattresses. She was in fits throughout the night and didn't catch a wink of sleep.

Early the next morning, the queen returned to awake her to find that the princess was laying with her eyes wide open in the bed.

"Did you sleep well, dear?"

"Well...yes er Your Highness."

The queen could see on her face that the princess was lying. She was pleased. Perhaps she had finally located a match for her son.

She led the princess back into the hall where they had met the night before. However, now, there were many people milling about. Most importantly, the prince was sitting atop a throne, clearly waiting for something. As soon as the prince locked eyes on the princess, led by his mother, he gasped. Could it be her? The princess had a similar reaction. She could not believe that after all this time she was reunited with her prince.

The prince leapt to his feet and nearly ran toward them.

"Hello! Hello, hello, good morning, my princess."

"Good morning, My Lord."

"Do you remember me!?" the prince almost exclaimed.

Cat was taken aback. Remember him? How in the world could he know who she was?

"I remember, you were sitting with your family and I was playing with a lot of my pals. We nearly tore right into you lot. I had no idea you were a princess. I have been searching for a wife, you see, but none could compare to you as I remembered from so long ago. This is amazing! This is splendid! Oh, we'll be married at once!"

The princess could not believe her ears. He had remembered her for all these years, just as she had remembered him! They had held out for this long for each other, and neither of them knew it of the other!

Within the week, the couple was married and they lived happily for the rest of their days.

(The Princess Discovers the Pea, web source: Wikimedia)

Author's Note: I used the story of the Princess and the Pea to tell the princess' story. After reading the original story, I was left with so many questions. Like, why did the princess seek out the prince? And why hadn't the prince come to visit that particular princess? I thought I would answer my own questions through retelling the story. In the original story, the prince goes around the meet princesses to find a wife. He doesn't exactly find one so he returns home, unsuccessful. The princess (Cat, as I've named her) goes to meet the prince at his home. She arrives sopping wet from rain and with her dress torn. The queen allows her to stay for the night, but has placed a pea under the mattress. She believes if the princess is bothered by the pea, then she will have been proven to be the correct match for her son. The princess doesn't sleep at all through the night and has developed bruises in the morning from the measly pea. The queen approves and the prince and princess are married.

Bibliography: The Princess and the Pea, by Hans Christian Andersen. Link to reading here.

Reading Notes: Hans Christian Andersen, Part B

The Little Mermaid, by Hans Christian Andersen. Link to reading here.

This whole section is the story of the Little Mermaid.

I think this when compared to the Disney version of the Little Mermaid epitomizes this class. We read stories and learn how to retell them in different ways. It seems to me that that's exactly what Disney did here and what they do for many of their movies that are adapted from older tales.

I think this story was only half maintained in the newer version that everyone knows. Ariel is the meek person described in this original fairy tale, but the way her story ends up could not be more different. And then, of course, the original fairy tale does not have the exciting sidekicks in Flounder and Sebastian that she has in the movie.

I think retelling this story with a darker ending would take it a step even further away from the pleasant Disney version. Something more heartbreaking, like the prince does actually realize his love for her but it's too late and she slips from his fingers. Or, somehow, she tries to revisit the witch or her family after she's already been changed into a human but she doesn't realize that humans can't breathe underwater or something. So she would drown before reaching her family's kingdom.

Or, taking the general outline of the story, girl escapes her family to pursue boy, and transposing it into an entirely new situation to spice it up a bit. I haven't done that kind of situation for a story in a while. Or, and I do this quite a lot, using the price's perspective to write the story. I think especially in this case, his story would be very much different than how we hear it from Ariel's point of view.

(The Little Mermaid's sisters, web source: Wikimedia)

Reading Notes: Andersen Fairy Tales Unit Part A

Andersen Fairy Tales, by Hans Christian Andersen. Link to reading here.

I knew I wanted to choose this collection of stories because my grandparents once traveled to Europe to Hans Christian Andersen's birthplace and brought back a beautiful set of books filled with his fairy tales. I used to read these books all the time and I was so glad to read them again.

I love the story of the Princess and the Pea. It's a classic story that a lot could be done with. For instance, why was the princess trapped out in the rain? The prince had apparently just traveled across the entire country looking for a princess. Why had he missed out on this specific princess? I think an interesting story here could be the princess' back story. What made her trek across the country through a large storm to seek out this prince? Had she heard about his quest to find a princess? What made her want to be that princess? Also, why in the world did the queen, once this princess had found them, decide to put a pea in her bed? Why the pea? I think it would also be cool to make up a significance to the pea, as opposed to a stone or pebble. Also, how grueling was that evening with something jabbing into your body the entire time? I think this will be the story on which I will write my Storytelling post. There isn't a lot of meat to the story itself, which lends itself nicely to being expanded upon in a big way.

I also appreciate the class "Emperor's New Suit" story. A leader is so conceited and at the same time insecure about his position that he lies about wearing a "suit" that literally does not exist. He would rather walk around his town naked than admit to possibility that he's not well "suit"ed (excuse the pun) to his office.

(Hans Christian Andersen, web source: Wikimedia)

Wikipedia Trails: Tweedledum and Tweedledee to Charlie Parker

Tweedledum and Tweedledee:
These are characters from Through the Looking Glass, another adventure of Alice from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. They are twins that are quite peculiar, often agreeing to fight but never following through. Their names come from John Byrom, and his epigram.

Epigram:

Epigrams are a literary device that are often sort of poetic. They are often satirical, but not always a poetic device. They've been used for a very long time and often by very famous writers, like Oscar Wilde, William Shakespeare and Emily Dickinson.

Tweedledee and Tweedledum originally come from an epigram from John Byrom, which led me from one Wikipedia page to the next.

Graffiti:
Epigrams were made into graffiti, especially one of the the most famous pieces of graffiti from Pompeii.

Graffiti is something that is drawn or etched onto a wall, often in public view. In modern times, they are often spray painted on walls in public in bright colors. Often times, in the instances of Banksy, they can make a social statement.

Charlie Parker:
Shortly after Charlie Parker died, his name often was featured in pieces of graffiti. They would say, "Bird Lives," to immortalize him.

Charlie Parker was a jazz legend, and an extremely talented saxophone player. He was a leader in the rise of bebop and influential in the overall jazz movement. He was nicknamed "Yardbird" or "Bird," which explains the existence of graffiti saying "Bird Lives."

(Charlie Parker, web source: Wikimedia)