Famous Last Words: My Plans Change Every Second

I had finally convinced myself that I should be applying to the three graduate programs that seem like a good fit for me, and this week I found out that you can only apply to one program at OU per term. So I can only apply to one, and if I don't get in, I will have to wait 6 months to a year longer to start school, depending on what program I try to get into next. So now I'm questioning everything all over again. I feel like I have to try for the PhD program, but it may not be a perfect fit for me, and they might not accept me. But there's a master's program that feels like a better fit. It used to have a companion PhD program, but that's on hiatus. So if I do the master's and the PhD program isn't reinstated, will the other completely different program accept me? Or have I prepared for the totally wrong thing?

I was thinking about asking my teacher some questions and for some advice when I ask for a letter of recommendation, and I still think that's a good idea. But my husband suggested last night that I should talk to the head of the master's program and see what he thinks about where I would fit better, and if he knows anything about the PhD program's future. I didn't even think of that. So I'll be sending him an email today. I want my PhD, but if it comes down to it, I would rather start a relevant master's program in the fall than get rejected from a PhD program that wasn't entirely right for me to begin with, and having to wait another whole year to start. I'm too old to keep waiting, I need to finish my education so I can make use of it.

In mythology this week, I finished revising my second story. Two more to go, and I think they will be a little easier to write than this one was. The next one will be set at the beach, and I think it's going to be really fun to write. I'm getting close to the end of the course, so I'm only taking so many points per week so I can finish up the project. As for other writing stuff, a group of people I collaborated with on some fan fiction over the summer asked me to do so again, so I'm starting to think about what I want to write for that. We're all writing the same characters, and there will be a theme, and then we'll each write our own unique short story and publish them all as chapters. It was ra great experience last time, and the topic sounds fun.

(Photo from my personal collection. Happy Mario.)

Mario has been really content most of the week. I took this photo the other day and he looked so happy. This morning he's the grumpiest cat that ever lived, and I haven't found a solution. He's finally napping, but he growls in his sleep every once in awhile. Having a hyperthyroid cat is hard sometimes.

(Photo from my personal collection. Folding paper again.)

I started making origami lucky stars at the end of last week. My new obsession. I'm filling jars as gifts for some of my family for the holidays, because I always have to add some kind of ridiculous deadline of pressure to my hobbies. My daughter is on her fall break this week, so we spent yesterday at the mall looking for things she might want for her upcoming birthday, and drinking yummy coffees. Wish I could spend all of today with her, too, but I'll be off to the Veteran's Center in the afternoon as usual. Last week was better than the first, but you never know what you're going to get there, so it makes me anxious every single time. Last week I made some weird pasta art to entertain the group we had there. The art lady keeps making them decorate paper pumpkins and none of them seem into it. I have a feeling it will be two more weeks of paper pumpkins. I would bring some things in to give them something new to do, but I don't want to overstep. I'm just there to help. I had a great talk with my supervisor on my way out last week, so that relationship feels really good, and I like the art lady and other volunteers, so hopefully it gets more fun and less stressful over time.

Google Define Tech Tip

(Screen Shot from Google Define)

I already knew what aesthetics means, but I was curious about the origin. I think it's fascinating that it had nothing to do with beauty until the early 19th century, and was controversial until the end of the 19th century.  The way word meanings change over time is really interesting. 

I use google to look up words pretty frequently when I'm not sure what they mean, or I need to explain the meaning to my daughter and realize I can't put it into words even though I know how to use it. Another thing I use often if thesaurus.com when I am writing. It makes it much either to not keep repeating the same words over and over, especially descriptive words. 

Wikipedia Trails: From buried treasure to witchcraft

1. Buried Treasure - It's a popular belief that pirates bury treasure. From what I have read, William Kidd is the only pirate known to actually have done it. His was found, and it is suspected that be buried even more in other places, but since those have never been found he probably didn't. Lots of fiction has been written about pirates burying treasure, including The Gold-Bug by Edgar Allan Poe.

2. Edgar Allan Poe - American write best known for writing creepy stories. Influenced not only literature, but cosmology and cryptography. May have died from alcoholism, "delirium tremens, heart disease, epilepsy, syphilis, meningeal inflammation, cholera, and rabies."

3. The Black Cat - a short story by Poe in which the narrator becomes an alcoholic and harms his beloved cat. It's sad and very mean to cats so I won't go into more detail. My daughter has read it in the past and remembered it was a one-eyed cat, but had forgotten how it happened. Symbolically, Pluto the cat becomes a witch that haunts him.

4. Witchcraft - the practice or belief in magic. Can also be a religion (Wicca). In Japan, witches are people who employ either foxes or snakes. The kitsune-mochi makes a deal with a fox, to provide food and shelter in exchange for it doing the person's bidding. The Tsukimono-suji is a family of hereditary witches that employ foxes. Employing snakes is much less common than foxes.

(Photo from Yōkai wiki)

Reading Notes: Captain Kidd

(Photo from Pinterest)

Chapter IV - Kidd claimed his men were the pirates and that they locked him in his cabin to perform acts of piracy. He claimed to be afraid to go back to New York because of the false stories about him, so he instead headed to Boston. Along the way he stopped at Block Island, then stopped at Gardiner's Island leaving its proprietor, Mr. Gardiner, with most of his treasures for safe keeping. It is suspected that when Kidd traveled through Long Island Sound, he buried gold and jewels at Thimble Island and all along the coast before reaching Boson and his arrest.

Chapter I - A fortune teller told some men where to find Captain Kidd's treasure - Young woman with a sacred stone - Chihaya and the holy stones.

Kidd took notes that would enable him to find the treasure again later.

Fortune tellers continually told people where to find the treasure and to work in complete darkness and be completely silent, or else natural disasters would come and prevent them from taking the treasure (torrential rains and thunderstorms, lightning, shrieks of laughter heard, swarms of bats).



The buccaneer chiefs; or, Captain Kidd and the pirates of America by John Stevens C. Abbott. Web Source.

Week 10 Story: Return of The Sun

(Photo from Pinterest)

The Phantom Thieves were in a strange part of the Metaverse where the sun didn’t shine. All they had was starlight.

“What are we supposed to do about this?” Noir asked. “We can barely see anything.”

“Maybe there’s something we can do to restore the light,” Mona, the cat, said.

“I will take care of it,” Joker said.

“What are you planning to do,” Noir asked with wide eyes.

Joker smirked. “I’m going to steal it back.”

“Hey, can I come with?” Skull asked. “I’m bored.”

Joker shrugged, and the two went off in search of the light. They glimpsed some rays on a hilltop near a cabin. A man was shoveling snow out front. Each heap of snow he threw into the air completely blocked out the sun. Joker noticed a ball of light by the cabin’s door, and smiled. “Excuse me, sir,” he said. Can we trouble you for a cup of coffee? It’s very cold outside and we’d love to warm up.”

“What? You’re thinking about coffee of all things in a place like this?” Skull asked.

Joker held a finger to his lips, then turned back to the man.

“Oh, I suppose,” he replied. “Come into the cabin.” He dropped the shovel and walked to the door. Joker snatched the ball of light and started running back down the hill.

“Ohhhh, now I get it,” Skull said. He started to run after Joker, then stopped and grabbed the shovel. “Hey, we’re gonna borrow this, mister, thanks!”

The two thieves ran all the way down the hill, breaking off pieces of the light ball and dropping them every so often. When they reached the others, they had created days and nights in the palace.

“Oh, thank you! That’s so much better!” Noir said happily.

“I think we should leave, though,” Mona said. “I’m pretty sure that shovel Skull took was the treasure, this place is about the crumble!”

They ran as fast as they could, escaping to the real world just in time. “That light thing you did was really cool, Joker, but I guess it was for nothing since the palace doesn’t exist anymore,” said Mona.

Skull smiled sheepishly. “Oops. That was my bad.”

(Photo from Pinterest)

Author’s note:

This story is based on The Bringing of the Light by Raven from Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson. In the original, the sun stops shining in a village. A boy says he can get it back, and turns into Raven. He finds a man at the top of a hill shoveling snow, which is blocking the light. He tells the man he wants to live with him since his village is too dark. When the man agrees and invites him in, he steals the ball of light by the porch and the shovels and runs back towards the village, breaking off pieces of light every so often, creating days and nights. The man chases after him, but because he is Raven, the boy quickly flies away. I have used characters from the game Persona 5 in my retelling. In the game, a group called the Phantom Thieves can enter a cognitive world in people’s minds called the Metaverse. A particular person’s cognitive world is referred to as a palace. To create a change of heart in a person who has gone astray, the thieves have to steal the core of the palace, called its treasure. I thought it would be fun to set this story in the Metaverse where the sun could go missing. The thieves end up stealing the light back, but also take the shovel, which turns out to be the treasure. When the treasure is taken, the palace crumbles and ceases to exist.

The Bringing of the Light by Raven from Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson. Web Source.

Reading Notes: Alaskan Legends Part B

The Ghost Land - when the chief's son's wife died, he was too sad to sleep. One morning he got dressed and walked all day/night, he was walking the Death Trail. He called to people on the other side of the lake to come get him, but they couldn't hear him. A man was paddling in a canoe. The people finally heard shouting and said that someone was coming up from Dreamland and to bring him over. The chief's son saw his wife and he was happy. She told him he couldn't stay long, and took him back in the Ghost Canoe. They landed at Ghost's Rock, at the end of the Death Trail. They walked back home, and he went inside and told his father that he brought his wife home. He told him to bring her inside, but no one else could see her. She wrapped a cloak around her, and ate, but all they could see was the cloak and the spoon. After, the chief's son died, and they both went back to Ghost Land.

(Photo from Pinterest)

The Boy in the Moon - a lazy boy in a village fell in love with a girl. He sees her climbing a ladder to the sky with a plate of meat and berries. She grabbed hold of a line hanging down as she climbed. Her brothers scolded the boy, and he rushed to get dressed and ran outside, climbing the ladder to get to her. She was floating away, and he did too. The girl became the sun and the boy the moon. 

"When the sun sinks in the west, the moon rises in the east, but always too late. The moon has no food, and sometimes almost fades away. Then the sun reaches out the dish of meat and berries and the moon becomes fat again." (Explains the phases of the moon).



Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson. Web Source.

Reading Notes: Alaskan Legends Part A

(Photo from Pinterest)

The Bringing of the Light by Raven - The sun and moon were taken away; people only had the stars for light. An orphan boy that everyone hated said he could bring it back, put on a raven coat and became Raven. He asks his aunt where the sun and moon are and she doesn't know. He insists she wouldn't sew so well if she didn't know where it was, so she told him to go south on snowshoes and that he'll know it when he gets there. So he goes, and days later he sees a ray of light, but every time he gets closer to it, it disappears. He comes to a hill and one side is full of lights, the other black as night. There was a hut with a man shoveling snow out front. When he tossed snow in the air, you couldn't see the light until it fell. There was a ball of fire near the house and the boy plotted to steal it. He asks the man why he keeps throwing the snow, because it's hiding the light. The man tells him he's not hiding the light, he's shoveling snow. He asks the boy who is is, and he tells him his village is so dark that he came to live with the man. He invites the boy in, and the boy takes the ball of light, grabs the shovel and runs north. The man chased him, but the boy was Raven and could fly fast. As he flew, he broke off a piece of the light, which made day. Then he let it stay dark, then broke another piece, and kept doing so, creating days and nights. Sometimes nights were longer, because he traveled through the dark longer.


Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson. Web Source.