Tech Tip: Troubleshooting Comments

Sadly, despite how often we rely on technology, technology often fails us. Like right now: for some reason, Blogger thinks I’m not signed in, and so I can’t leave comments on peoples’ blogs!

As one can see, Blogger is acting like I’m not signed in, which is weird, since I’m signed into my Google Account on two different Safari pages, along with Blogger and Google Docs. I didn’t get to publish any feedback comments last week since I ran out of time to try to troubleshoot, but I suppose this week I have no excuse. At least I get extra credit from it.

So, my first step. I’m going to try to close all the tabs and log out of my Google accounts, then sign back in. Let’s see how this works.

Me in front of my computer 99% of the time (Source)

And that didn’t work at all.

Now for the next step: trying to clear out my web browser’s cache. I have a Mac laptop, so I use Safari most of the time, including for the page I specifically have open all the time for this class. Hopefully doing this won’t erase all my history, as I’ve done in the past…..

Well, that didn’t do anything either.

My face right now (Source)

This is a very weird issue. If I click on someone’s link to their comment wall, it tells me I need to sign in.

From Brady’s comment wall

But when I click on the “Sign In” link, it automatically directs me to my home page on Blogger, no sign in required.

Well, one last thing I can try: using a different web browser. I prefer to use Safari for most everything I do, but I have Chrome installed because what doesn’t work with Safari usually works with Chrome. 

From Elyse’s blog

Well, that worked! Hopefully it’ll keep working in the future (and I’m still not sure why Safari suddenly decided to be annoying), but for now I can prove to everyone that I’m trying to provide feedback!

Story Lab: Research for my Storybook

Confession: I already have an ending planned for my Storybook, but I don’t yet have a 3rd story to tell.

Me right now. (Source)

Fortunately, since I have the option to do a Story Lab this week, that means I have the chance to dig around and see if I can find that third story!

It’s fine, everything’s fine (Source)

So far, in my storybook I’ve discussed Greek and Grimm mythology. I’d kind of like to branch out into a non-Western culture, but that might be difficult to do; I’m struggling to find stories that are both long enough and that appropriately feature a textile in some manner.

At any rate, there are some stories that I can look into for my third story, such as:

Rumpelstiltskin

(source)

Rumpelstiltskin, of course, is one of the more popular stories that involve a textile of some kind. A miller tells a king that is daughter can weave straw into gold, and the daughter is locked into a room full of straw and a spinning wheel. She’s desperate enough to accept the help of a strange little man, including agreeing to give up her first born. 

A main reason I don’t want to use this in my storybook is that this is a Brothers Grimm story, and I already have the story of The Six Swans. Plus, while the Six Swans story isn’t as popular, Rumpelstiltskin is, and I want to have more obscure stories in my storybook (because personal preference). But if I can’t find anything I’m satisfied with, then this will be something to fall back on. 

The Emperor's New Clothes

Ah, to have that self-confidence (Source)

Like Rumpelstiltskin, this story is also very popular. In a sentence, two con artists manage to convince a king that they can create a fabric that only certain people can see, and the king goes walking around naked before a small child points out that, in fact, the emperor has no clothes on.

Again, like Rumpelstiltskin, this isn’t quite a story I think I want to include in my storybook, because it is so popular and I’m also not sure on how I would introduce it into my story, especially because the point of the story is that the fabric doesn’t exist. But it is a textile story, technically, which is why I looked into it.

Donkey Cabbages

(Source)

So this story has a weird title, but it’s another Brothers Grimm story so that should be expected, I’d say. To try and summarize, a huntsman shows kindness to an old beggar woman, who tells him how to obtain a cloak that will grant any traveling wish and a bird’s heart that, when eaten, causes a gold coin to appear next to the consumer’s pillow. The man does so, and roams about with the cloak, until he reaches a castle where a witch lives with her beautiful daughter. The witch threatens her daughter into obeying her plans to steal the bird’s heart and cloak, which they do successfully. The plan ends with the man stranded on a mountain, although he’s able to get down thanks to a cloud. When he makes it back to solid ground, he finds himself in a cabbage patch that contains two types of cabbage: one that will turn the consumer into a donkey, and one that will turn someone back to human. 

The man gathers up both types of cabbage, and makes his way back to the castle in disguise. He feeds the first type of cabbage to the witch, her daughter, and a maidservant, and all three are turned to donkeys. He sells them to a miller with instructions on how to treat them (basically, treat the old woman donkey the worst, the maidservant somewhat better, and the daughter the best). Later, the huntsman returns to find the old woman dead, and the other two miserable. He feeds them the cabbage to turn them back human, and ends up marrying the daughter.

The cloak in this story definitely fits the theme that I’m looking for, but again, this is another Grimm story, so I’m reluctant to do it. Additionally, this is a relatively long story, and I had a lot of difficulty cutting down the Six Swans; I’d rather not have to go through that again!

The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl

(Source)

So in China, there was the Goddess Weaver who constantly wove at her loom, until she happened to look down and see a herdsman working. She fell in love with him, but her mother, angry at this and that her daughter neglected her duties, separated the two. The Goddess Weaver stopped weaving the Silver River (the Milky Way), which threatened the world. As a compromise, the two were separated by the River of Heaven, but once a year, magpies form a bridge for them to cross, and the two get to meet for a day.

As it turns out, there’s also a Chinese saying, “a goddess’ robe is seamless,” which originates with the Goddess Weaver. She showed a court official that, because of her loom, her robe was seamless, made without needle or thread. This is now a common idiom to express that something is perfect.

I think I like this story to use the best, because it’s a different culture, and the name of the character is the Goddess Weaver. I think this is the one I’ll end up using, I just have to find a decent source to use.

Reading Notes: Cherokee Myths, Part B

Today’s reading comes from James Mooney’s Myths of the Cherokee, and is about a race between a hummingbird and a crane.

Reading Notes

• Hummingbird and Crane were both in love with a woman; while she only cared for Hummingbird because of his beauty, Crane was so persistent that she finally said that the two would need to race to see who would get to marry her.
• Now, Hummingbird was very fast, but Crane could fly throughout the night; the woman didn’t know this, so she thought Hummingbird would win.
• They agreed to start at her house and circle around the earth; whoever made it back first would get to marry the woman.
• Hummingbird flew off immediately; he flew for the entire day, then stopped at nightfall to rest.
• Crane, though left behind at first, flew throughout the night, and passed Hummingbird’s resting spot; eventually he stopped at daybreak to eat breakfast.
• Hummingbird expected to still be far ahead of Crane, and was surprised when he passed Crane eating; but he quickly flew ahead again.
• As the days went on, Crane slowly gained more and more of a lead over Hummingbird, until Hummingbird was a whole day behind Crane.
• On the seventh day, Crane took his time eating breakfast, and made sure to fix himself up so he looked nice; the following morning he arrived at the woman’s house.
• Hummingbird came in that afternoon to discover he’d lost, but the woman declared that Crane was so ugly she couldn’t marry him, so she stayed single.

Source

Reading Notes: British North America, Part A

The story I chose for today is called “Why the Sun is Bright,” from Katherine Berry Judson’s Myths & Legends of British North America.

Reading Notes

• A village moved, and abandoned a boy with his grandmother because they were angry at the boy.
• To avoid starvation, the grandmother told the boy to trap small animals and shoot birds.
• The boy did as he was told, and managed to shoot many birds with bright feathers.
• His grandmother used the plumage from the kills to make the boy a brightly colored robe, which he would wear when he went to spear fish.
• The sun, as he passed overheads, saw the robe many times.
• Eventually, the sun went to visit the boy, wearing his goatskin robe as always.
• Sun told the boy he wanted to exchange blankets.
• The boy initially refused, but Sun showed that the long fringe on his blanket could be used to catch many more fish than the boy could ever spear.
• The boy immediately agreed to exchange blankets when he saw that.
• Before the exchange, Sun was no brighter than the moon; now he was so bright that people could no longer look directly at him as they once had.

Source

Week 9: Never Trust a Human

     I should have known this would happen. Even when my brothers and sisters and I were barely out of the egg, Mother always told us: “Humans are untrustworthy. Interactions with them never work out, even if they seem kind.” She always warned us to limit our interactions with humans as much as possible. She said it was how our father had died, because he had been foolish enough to trust a human’s offering of food that turned out to be poisoned.

     Still, like anyone else, I didn’t quite listen to my mother. I convinced myself that she was exaggerating. But at the same time, I didn’t get too close to humans. There was one I saw occasionally as I flew about. He lived in a forest I visited every so often. He seemed to support himself by hunting, but I knew from witnessing it personally that he wasn’t exactly a great hunter. Humans always seem to be so loud, but he was even when I could tell he was trying to be quiet. When he did manage to catch something, he was usually quite courteous in how he discarded the remains. I feasted on those remains sometimes, after I was sure he was gone.

     I think that’s why I failed to head Mother’s warning. He’d unknowingly fed me, and I felt bad for him after seeing his struggles. So when I was flying around, and saw him walking to the stream in the mountain, I knew what he wanted, and that I had to stop him. 

     The water was almost at his his lips when I knocked it away. As a hunter, you’d think he’d have more sense to investigate his water source, but apparently not. In fact, he tried to drink the water again! So I swooped down again and knocked the leaf-cup out of his hand. But I made a mistake. When the same thing happened for a third time, I didn’t notice him immediately grabbing for his bow. Right when I turned in the air to face him, his arrow shot through my chest. I was only aware of intense pain, and then the ground hitting me suddenly. 

     Humans are untrustworthy. I was trying to stop him from drinking poisoned water, and for my generosity I was killed. I can only hope others won’t suffer the same fate as me.

Source

Author’s note: this is based on How the Raven Saved the Hunter, from A.L. Shelton’s Tibetan Folk Tales. The story is told from the point of view of the hunter, who is enraged when a raven keeps blocking him from drinking from a stream. After he kills the raven, he discovers that the water is being produced from a snake, and that it’s poisonous. He grieves over his mistake, realizing he let his temper get the better of him. I decided to just tell the story from the raven’s point of view, as it isn’t addressed in the story about what causes the raven to try and protect the man. This is a short story, especially from me, but the original story isn’t very long either.

Reading Notes: Tibetan Folk Tales, Part B

My second story for this week’s notes seemed very familiar; it was also one of Aesop’s tales. It’s called How the Raven Saved the Hunter, from Tibetan Folk Tales by A. L. Shelton.

Reading Notes

• There was a very poor man who managed to make a living by hunting, but he often had nothing to eat or drink. 
• One day he went out on a hunt, and traveled for a distance.
• Eventually he came to the top of a mountain, and realizing his thirst upon seeing a stream, he made his way down to it.
• He fashioned a cup from a leaf and filled it with water, but just as he raised the leaf to his lips, a raven flew up and knocked the leaf from the man’s hand with its wing.
• The man thought it was an accident, and refilled his leaf, but the raven knocked the water away again.
• When this happened a third time, the man became angry and shot the raven dead with his bow.
• After his rush of anger, the man wondered why the raven had been so adamant about the whole thing. 
• Before he drank, the man walked a short distance upstream, only to discover the stream originated from the mouth of a great snake, and the skeletons of different animals littering the banks of the stream.
• The man was greatly upset, realizing that he had killed the raven when it was just trying to save his life.

Source

Reading Notes: Nigerian Reading Notes, Part A

This week, I decided to write up my notes for the first reading about Why the Bat Flies by Night, from Elphinstone Dayrell’s Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria. In this story, playing a prank has deadly consequences, as the bat finds out.

Reading Notes

• A bush rat and a bat were friends, but for unlisted reasons, the bat was jealous of the bush rat.
• They often dined together; the bat’s food was always good and tasty, and the bush rat asked the bat for his secret.
• The bat told the bush rat that he boiled himself in the water he used, and that was what made the food tasty.
• The bat offered to show the bush rat his process: he took a pan of warm water and told the bush rat it was boiling, then jumped in and out relatively quickly.
• The bat had prepared some soup beforehand but pretended it had just been made from the water he’d “boiled” in; as usual, the soup was tasty.
• After their meal, the bush rat went home and told his wife he was going to make soup the same way as the bat.
• He had his wife boil up some water; then, when she wasn’t looking, the bush rat jumped into the boiling water and quickly died.
• When his wife realized what happened, she reported the matter to the king, who ordered the bat to be captured. 
• The bat managed to hide himself before anyone could catch him, but now he has to hide during the day and can only come out at night.

Fortunately, Bat’s gotten used to flying around at night (Source)

Week 8 Progress Review

In reflecting on what I’ve done so far for class, I’d say overall I’m pretty satisfied with what I’m doing. At the very least, compared to Week 8 last semester, I’m doing great. While my weekly routine may not be the most productive (since I’m not working ahead, but working at the pace of the class, basically), but I’m still getting stuff turned in on time, so there are worse things I suppose. 

Right now I haven’t been doing a lot of extra credit, but I’m going to use this week to both catch up and get ahead, so that leaves more room for extra credit. There’s been a couple extra credits I want to do anyway, it’s just a matter of actually finding the time to do them. 

I think as far as looking forward, the big thing I’ll want to focus on is not procrastinating (as I usually say) and just making sure I don’t let my time get away from me. I should probably also focus more on giving feedback, but that’s hard to do sometime, so that’s a thing that I won’t worry about as much. 

And now, a motivational (for me) picture:

The only thing getting me through midterms right now is thinking about how I can decorate my graduation cap (Source)

Week 8 Feedback/Comments Reflection

Feedback is such a fun thing. Sometimes. Not really. But it is necessary, especially in a writing-based class. That being said, giving feedback can be good, in the long run. Overall, I do enjoy the feedback I’ve been getting from my classmates. Especially when my grammar errors are pointed out to me. 

As far as giving feedback, sometimes I do struggle to come up with enough to talk about, but the feedback techniques do help. Hopefully the feedback that I do leave is helpful for people! I tend to focus more on grammatical stuff than writing things, I think. Consistently writing comments/feedback that meets the word quote is pretty hard for me, I think because I end up struggling with not sounding repetitive. Dividing it up over the week would help, but that means not procrastinating, and as I’ve established that’s hard for me.

In the future I think I’ll try to do more blog feedbacks. Going through intros and not sounding repetitive is difficult for me, but I think spreading it out over the week will make it easier. Something to try out anyway. 

Source

Week 8 Reading/Writing Reflections

Now that we’re at the halfway point, it’s time to reflect on what I’ve done so far both in style and in writing. I think I’ve made it further in the class than I did last time, so I’d say that’s going pretty well so far.

So, the first part to reflect on is the aesthetics and appearance of my blog and storybook website. Overall I’m pretty happy. I messed with my blog settings a while back until I was able to find the look that I wanted. I feel like all the blues and grays give a calming feel that goes with the whole “mythological” aspect. I’m also pretty happy with how my Storybook website is looking. That took a lot more tweaking since i’m not as familiar with Google Sites settings vs Blogger, but I think I managed to make it work. There is some stuff I wish I had more flexibility on, but it’s not a big deal. I’ll probably keep tweaking it as I go just because I can.

In terms of my writing, I don’t think that’s going too badly, overall. I probably have an issue with procrastinating too much, then rush-writing at the end to make the deadline for the assignment. I don’t think that’s a super big deal for the short, weekly assignments, but it’s definitely more of a problem with my storybook. After I posted my latest story on my website, I later reviewed it with my boyfriend. There was some stuff in there that I probably wouldn’t have left in there if I wasn’t rushing the writing. As it is, I definitely revised those things a little.

Honestly this picture from my comments wall is still my favorite. Because Futurama and memes. (Source)

In terms of what I’m looking to do in the future, procrastination is, as always, something I always intend to stop doing. (I procrastinate a lot of things.) Beyond that, I think I also want to work on making sure I find new ways to tell stories in new ways, and not just sticking with the same things. I tend to stick with first or third person POVs, and looking at the story from the other point of view, rather than expanding a little and looking at things like rewriting the ending to be different, or gender-bending.