Portfolio Index

The purpose of this portfolio index is to organize finalized stories that I've spent time revising from each week. As a former copy editor from the OU Daily as well as a few other places, I enjoy editing and revising copy to make it as perfect as it can possibly be.


Sisters Unite
Once there were three young girls: Ella, Kate, and Lee. They were from a rich family. Their dad was a lawyer, and their mom was the district attorney. Not only were they rich, but their parents didn't spend a lot of time with them due to their jobs. So at age sixteen, they were all very used to doing whatever they wanted and whenever they wanted. Unfortunately, they weren't intelligent. They went to school but spent most of the hours on their phones, never paying much attention to the teachers. The only special thing about the sisters was that each had her own special talent.     read more...

Hunt or Be Hunted
The king and his servants go out one morning, venturing into the woods. Guns in hand, the king was ready to catch a good bird. He always loved the sport of hunting. He had a room filled with taxidermy. He was so proud of everything he had hunted and shot down. In reality, most of his servants that went on his hunting trips were really the ones who shot and killed everything. But of course, being the king, credit was due to him.     read more...

The unforeseeable foggy future
On a rainy day in Brownmote Village, there were three vicious witches stirring up trouble. The first sister, Meg, was the brightest, but she never knew when to stop talking; the middle sister, Patty, always messed up the easiest spells, even turning her own dress into a pumpkin one time; the youngest sister, Serena, was by far the prettiest of them all, which isn’t saying much, and she was also the nicest of them all.     read more...

A Series of a Child of Ill Luck
There was a daughter borne to two beautiful actors. They had a scary birth, but overall they thought they had bore a healthy child. But when she was born, the doctor told them that she was a child of ill luck. At first they were scared, but then they remembered that it was just an old myth from Chinese culture. And it made sense because their doctor was Chinese. But they decided to ignore the doctor and continue on with life.     read more...

Fortunate Findings
Once there was a poor, poor village just outside the kingdom’s reach, and every morning Baker Paolo would put out a basket of burnt bread for the children to grab on their way to school. The children would take what they needed to fill the rest of their stomachs, never taking more than was filling, for they knew other children might come along who also needed it. The baker always looked forward to seeing the children's smiling faces in the morning, knowing he was at least putting some joy in the children's lives.     read more...

Famous Last Words: Make an Effort

I'm doing this blog post at the beginning of the week since the class announcements will be the same for Mon-Wed.

Source: OU Class Announcements

This meme really speaks to me as I have less than a month until graduation.
I have received many awards. I have been involved with a lot of things. I have accomplished a lot of things. But in the midst of all the hustle and bustle of trying to find a job, I forgot that I need to come back down to earth and be humble. I have lost that. The awards and achievements don't mean anything unless I use them to better myself and the people around me. I think a lot of people gain power and they get lost in what the power does to them. I like to be in control and be in a position of power. But I don't want to be in a position of power to take advantage of people. I believe that with power comes responsibility. And you must use that power for good. A lot of what is going on in today's society is people using their power not for the good of society. And it is not necessarily my place to say where people should direct their power toward, but I know this society and the world would be a much better place if people used their power for good. So, I want a job that I can use my power for good. I want a job in which I am seen as a role model. I want to be someone that everyone can invest time and energy into and trust.

So I have taken a second to sit down, breath and reevaluate my life and my hunt for a job.
I know that in everything I do, I must make a real effort to succeed. No one is going to hand me a job. And certainly no one is going to do it for me. I have to do it for myself, and I have to make the effort. 

Final Class Reflections: Improvements

For the final class reflections, I have copy and pasted the text from the original blog, and have made comments in red below each section. My own separate suggestions are in blue. 

Change Review Weeks to Planning Weeks. This is a really big change to the class, but one that I am really excited about. Right now, there is an Orientation Week in Week 1, and then Review Weeks in Week 8 and Week 15. What I am thinking, though, is that instead of reviewing, PLANNING would be more useful, especially in terms of getting people to plan their own time schedule for the class. The result would be Orientation Week in Week 1, then a Planning Week in Week 2 (focused on time management but also other kinds of plans you might make for the semester), so the regular reading and storytelling assignments would go from Week 3-8. Then there would be a Planning and Review Week in Week 9, with the remaining reading and storytelling weeks for the rest of the semester. The main goal here is to try to find a way for people to create and commit to their own schedules for the class instead of relying on the Canvas due dates (which are obviously not going to be convenient for everybody). If you have any other ideas about how to help people with managing their class schedule and time management in general, let me know!

I like this idea. I love planning, and I think this would have been great this semester. It would have helped me have a general scope of what I had left in this class. 

Expand the Story Planning Option. This was a fantastic idea that someone suggested in the midterm survey, and I actually implemented it partway through the semester (something that I rarely do, but it was such a good idea!). Next semester, I will have that story planning option available from the very start, plus I am going to expand on that idea to be useful for people doing Storybooks: in addition to using this option for planning a regular weekly story post, people who are doing Storybooks could use the planning option to plan the upcoming story for their Storybook. Did you try the story planning option this semester? Was it useful? What resources can I provide that would help people with the planning process? Any thoughts you have about that would be very helpful!

I never used the story planning option except once maybe, because I'm the type of person to sit down and get everything done, at least for this class, to just start writing. Yes, I am a planner, but for this class, a planning option wasn't really needed. But I'm sure other students would greatly benefit from it. 

Create more audio recordings. I don't have a professional-quality recording voice, but I like to record stories, and some students in the Indian Epics class have found the SoundCloud recordings helpful; those of you in Myth-Folklore can see how that works here: Vyasa and Ganesha. There are some units in the Myth-Folklore class that have audio from LibriVox, but I was thinking that I might record at least one story from each of the Myth-Folklore units so that there would be more audio available. Also, I was thinking that if there are any of you in the class who like to read out loud and would want to share recordings back with me, I could make that into one of the options for extra credit reading so that you could share your mp3 audio recordings, and I could put your recordings at SoundCloud to share with the class too. So, let me know what you think both about me creating some more audio and also about creating audio together as a class.

Again, I never used this option because I'm a visual learner. When I was in grade school I had a hard time focusing because some of the stories would be read using a recording, and I never could figure out how to pay attention and comprehend. But again, I think this would be useful for other students. 

Create writing tutorial videos. There are some writing areas that could benefit from a video presentation. For example, I could do some screencast videos working through the process of finding comma splices and fixing them, and also videos on how to write dialogue with correct use of quotation marks and punctuation. Since those are both complex writing topics, I was thinking that a step-by-step process could be helpful. If you've ever watched Lynda.com or Khan Academy videos, that's what I have in mind, although obviously my videos would not be as sophisticated in terms of production values. I think I could learn how to make something simple, though, that might be useful. If you are interested in something like this, let me know what writing topics you would like for me to focus on.

I like this idea. I'm not sure I would ever use it, but I like the idea for other students. Again, I'm more of a read-on-page learner rather than a video/audio learner. 

Create thematic reading units. Right now in both classes the readings are organized around selections from books so that in any given week you are reading selections from a specific book (or the whole book if the book is short). I was thinking, though, that it might be useful to build some thematic units, kind of like the way the thematic Storybook projects work. So, for example, in the Myth-Folklore class, I could create a week-long reading unit of "Ghost Stories" or "Trickster Stories," while in the Indian Epics class I could create a unit of "Love Stories" or "Dharma Stories," etc. If this is something you think would be good to do, please let me know what kinds of themes you think would be good choices!

YES! I love this idea. I think this would get me more excited for the units to come and it would actually help my brain organize the units since they go by themes instead of geographical location or countries. 

My own suggestions for this class:

I would suggest try to cut down the amount of text used to explain assignments. Sometimes I felt overwhelmed with beginning an assignment due to the amount of text was there. After reading through all of it, I realized that the assignment wasn't as difficult as the text made it out to be. I'm the type of person that like to read bullet points or lists of instructions. It helps me understand concepts better and I can read through it quicker. Maybe having shorter instructions but then using bolded text with questions if students get lost. 

For example: Word Count? 500

Don't know how to do a bibliography? Click here. (But again wherever the link leads, the text should be short, concise so that it doesn't take the student more time to read the instructions than to actually do the assignment.)

THAT'S ALL I HAVE. This is a great class. I've already recommended it to my friends! 

Reading Notes: Lang's European Fairy Tales I

These notes are from Lang's European Fairy Tales I unit. Story source: The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H. J. Ford (1889).

The Master Cat, or Puss in Boots
I have not read the original story of puss and boots, but I have seen the Puss in Boots from the Shrek movies. This is one of my favorite characters.
I think I would write a story in which I tell the history of how Puss in Boots came to be an adult. He would have grown up with a mother who was a seamstress. She fed him milk and spoiled him. Until one day she died, and Puss was all alone. What his mother didn't know was that he was teased in school a lot. And so he would wait after leaving the house to walk a different, more dangerous way to school because everything he usually walked with teased him. But after his mother died, he didn't know what to do anymore. He was so ashamed he hadn't told her that he was teased.
Fast forward 15 years, not in actual cat years, and he is all though. Thus the name, Puss in Boots.

Puss in boots. Source: Shrek. Wiki

The Dirty Shepherdess

I would change this story and make it two sons. It's always daughters who seem to be in a castle. For this story I would make it a father and his two sons. And the son that he kicks out isn't as smart or bright and intelligent as the other. The king doesn't think he can carry on the family name very well. So the youngest boy leaves and throws his crown on the dirt road as he leaves the castle. One into the poor village, he tries to find a job, but no one will give him one since they all know who he is. They remember him. He isn't very nice to them. When he comes to shop, he is rude and when he comes to eat, he never tips. So no one gives him a job.

Reading Notes: Italian Popular Tales, Part B

Reading Notes from Italian Popular Tales by Thomas Crane.

Reading Notes, Part B

The Language of Animals

Animals in a zoo. Source: Youtube

I would create a story in which a boy has been raised from birth in a zoo. His family are not gorillas. They are not monkeys. They are not anything you've heard before. They are giraffes. This boy can talk to the giraffes and his mother, Delila, has raised him as her own. This would be loosely based
off the reading but also off The Jungle Book. I would have everything be normal, until one night the zoo night guard comes by and thinks someone is trying to steal the animals, meanwhile is only the boy. They have never been caught before this. The boy runs away and hides as best he can, but because he doesn't understand how the real world works, he hides in a cage. The night guard calls the police and an entire investigation is started. The boy is scared. So he escapes as soon as he can with the help of his mother and her long neck. The boy runs as far away as he can. Then I would start to base the story off Elf, where he discovers the city and the fascinating things it has to offer him.

The Sexton's Nose

I would write a story about how a young man found a hundred dollar bill on the floor and had a small idea that he had been dreaming of every since he was small. He took the hundred dollar bill and invested it by gambling. He scored big. What can he say? He had great luck. He takes all his winnings, because where he lived and in the age he was in, he was allowed to gamble. So he takes all the money and becomes a millionaire by the time he is 22. But he doesn't live a normal life. He never grew up understanding how normal people live. He didn't understand the struggle. Story to be continued...

Reading Notes: Italian Popular Tales, Part A

Reading Notes from Italian Popular Tales by Thomas Crane.

Reading Notes, Part A

Zelinda and the Monster

This story reminds me of Psyche and Cupid because there are three sisters, two of whom are jealous of their sister. I think I would set this story in Mexico. There would be three triplet brothers and each of them would be married with kids. But they still live off daddy's money and none of them know how to work or the value of a dollar. So the boys are trying to raise their own kids but don't know how because they were never forced to understand.
One day the monster comes by all three boys' house. In this case, the monster is not an actual monster but a dealer. He is a liar. But he tricks people into thinking that they can play card tricks with him and if they win he will pay them money. Their wives tell their husbands not to give in and play this dirty game. But the first born man (only by 5 minutes) can't stand to say no. So he tells the monster that he will play one game, but that's it. Story to be continued.

The Fair Angiola

The Little Mermaid. Source: Giphy

Wow. Seven women in the original story. I would make them sisters. I would also have this story take place under the sea, like the little mermaid. Instead of a desire for jujubees, I would write about their desire for sea shells. But it's hard to find big round beautiful sea shells because they can't be found in their part of the reef. So some of them venture out to find them, but their father tells them it is too dangerous. The girls don't understand why they can't go beyond the reed, kind of like in Moana, and so Petria goes out one day past the reef, only to be caught in a fishing net. But thankfully a dolphin sees Petria and cuts her loose from the net of fish that is going up toward the fishing boat. Story to be continued. 

Reading Notes: Through the Looking-Glass, Part A

Reading Notes from Through the Looking-Glass, Part A from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, a sequel to Alice in Wonderland.

Looking-Glass House

First off, I've never read the sequel to Alice in Wonderland. So this is a first time for me. I think that Alice will be grown up and she will still be as curious as ever. She wonders into the mansion after school one day, and instead of being cautious, she starts looking around. Nothing really catches her eye. So just as she is about to leave, she sees something out of the corner of her eye. She jumps back and screams. But have no fear, it wasn't a person or even an animal. It was her own reflection inside this old mirror. As she looks more closely, she see's not only herself but other creatures that she remembers from her adventures with the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Diamonds (previous reading A) and the rabbit that she had followed around. So, as this mirror plays back memories, she cries. Then the mirror stops the memories and a face appears. The face tells her not to cry anymore. Alice is scared at first, but then musters up the courage to ask a question of this face in the mirror. She asks, "Why should I trust you? Who are you?" The face waits a moment, and then it replies, "My dear girl, I gave you these memories so you would look back on them and be happy. There comes a time when memories will fade, but for now you should remember everything in good light." Alice understands and continues talking to the mirror. 

illustration by John Tensile

Queen Alice

I would make Alice a Queen of Hearts, and she and the Queen of Diamonds would get into arguments over who had the most power. I would kind of play off the Wizard of Oz themes with the two queens, one good and one bad. But in the end, both queens learn how to get along together. 

Reading Notes: Alice In Wonderland, Part B

Reading Notes from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, British/Celtic Unit.

Reading Part B:

A Mad Tea Party

illustration by Sir John Tensile

I think instead of a table on the ground here in this story, there would be a table in a tree house. The rabbit goes up the tree into a tree house. Alice must figure out how to get up there since she is still sort of dazed by the caterpillar's candy. As the rabbit disappears out of eye sight, Alice sees a nearby river. She goes over to it to drink water. She feels much better. As she feels better minute by minute, she figures out a way to climb up the tall tree to get to where the rabbit has gone. She can hear voices, but doesn't know what's going on. As she is so curious, she finds a branch and uses it to propel herself up into the tree. She accidentally sticks a rough landing, and lands on top of the table. The Mad Hatter, which in this case will be a fox, is not happy. He leans over to eat Alice right up until the rabbit stops her. He says, "Wait!" We mustn't. She is important later on today. 

Then he gets up and scurries out of the tree house screaming, "I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date!" 

The rabbit disappears again out of Alice's sight. She must follow him. 

The Queen's Croquet-Ground

I think instead of the Queen of Hearts, she will be called the queen of diamonds. Why? Because what woman doesn't love diamonds. I understand that the original queen can control others' hearts and it is a source of power, but what about a queen of diamonds? I think she would rule over a land of diamonds and her servants are called diamonds in the rough. Ha! But anywhere, instead of roses being in the garden, too, there would be flowers that shine as much as a diamond would. The queen also kills the enemies and the ones who get in trouble with diamonds. 

Reading Notes: Alice in Wonderland, Part A

Reading Notes from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, British/Celtic Unit. 

Reading Part A: 

Down the Rabbit-Hole

I think I would have a parent reading a story to the little girl named Alice. I don't think they way this story opens is all that appealing. I would make the child of a younger age as well with a vivid imagination. The story would include the rabbit that was talking and saying he was going to be late. 

I think I would write a story kind of resembling Beauty and the Beast. Where whatever Alice runs into — supposedly intimate objects at first — they will talk back to her telling her she shouldn't be as curious as she is. 

The bottle she finds would say 'Don't Drink Me,' because we all know that children are notorious for doing the opposite of what they're told to do or not do. After Alice drinks it, she begins to speak in different languages. This is where the story would start to really differ from the original Alice in Wonderland stories. 

Advice from a Caterpillar

illustration by Sir John Tenniel

The caterpillar can talk, but he doesn't smoke. Instead he talks and if starts talking very emotionally, candy starts falling from his eyes. I would take the idea from the movie Inside Out. As he talks, he gets emotional and then candy starts coming out of his eyes. Alice wants to eat all of it. When she does though she starts laughing. The candy has magical powers in it that make anyone happy and laugh. But it also makes people unaware of what is going on around them. So the caterpillar knowing Alice is under the influence of the eye candy, tries to lure her into his cave so that he can eat her. But when that happens, the rabbits comes by and snaps Alice out of her trance but still says that he's late for a very important date. 

Reading Notes: English Fairy Tales, Part B

This story is part of the English Fairy Tales (1) unit. Story source: English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1890).

Reading Notes, Part B:

Henny-Penny
This story is extremely interesting. I found it difficult to read because of the different punctuation used throughout. The dashes and the names within single quotes was confusing. Also, I know these are fairy tales, but the names are crazy. The long, rhyming names make it confusing to follow along. I wouldn't want to read these fairy tales to my children.

Molly Whuppie
After reading quote a few of these stories from the British unit, I have come to realize that I wouldn't have enjoyed these stories growing up. Or maybe I would have, but something about them isn't the same as the stories that I grew up with. This story here is not morally OK. I wouldn't read stories to my children about leaving children in the woods. That's called neglect. And I don't think it's humorous either. Then again, I don't find The Office to be funny either.
The giant in this story is quite interesting though. This story is confusing as well. Too many characters for me even to focus on rewriting this stories.

Mr. Fox
OK. This story is more creepy than any of the British stories that I've read. It started out sweet and what seemed to be a love story, but it is not. The story goes on and talks about blood and skeletons and I got so freaked out that I stopped reading halfway through. These aren't fairy tales. It makes sense, I think, because the British never seemed to be much of the fairy tale type.

Johnny-Cake

This is a story that I like. It reminds me of a gingerbread man and how he popped out of the over. I like the name for this one because he was baked and he probably is a cake. This story makes sense to me. This is a story that I could see reading to my kids.

Source: OU Blog Spot

Tech Tip: Canvas Calendar

I think what I like most about the Canvas calendar is the options for professors/TAs, etc. I think the freedom it allows is great, and overall it then helps students too. 

I don't personally use the calendar, because it gives me dates that I don't necessarily need to know about. I have a planner of my own that is broken down by hours from 7 a.m. until 9 p.m. every single day. It is my bible. I follow it like someone else follows their religion. That being said, I'm sure the calendar is helpful for others. But I don't use it all that often.

Tech Tip: Canvas Mobile App

I already have the Canvas Mobile App. I downloaded it this summer even before the new academic year was here. I think it is more intuitive than the D2L app, but I still had to turn off a lot of the new notification preferences. I like it overall, but I don't use it that much, since this class, especially, uses so many notifications when I do the declarations. So, sometimes I miss important things, but it's fine. I also think it's helpful to use the app, because when using a web browser, especially on my phone, it is hard to view.

Tech Tip: Pinterest, Embed my profile

This is it.

Tech Tip: Pinterest Board/Embed

This is my Pinterest account link: pinterest.com/ougal17.

I made a Pinterest account when I was either a junior or senior in high school. I remember my chemistry teacher talking about it and how it was the newest thing. I also remember having to wait for a link to sign up to even get an account because there were so many people trying to get accounts. Now I don't it it used as heavily, but it is still just as popular as ever! I use/used pinterest for cooking, crafts, clothing, shoes, pursues - basically anything and everything. I like to use it for inspirational quotes as well. It is a great app to help pass the time.

I'm going to go ahead and get another tip out of the way by embedding my account here in this blog post.

Review: Take Risks

The announcement I enjoyed the most was from Week 11, Saturday. It was about Growth Mindset and I think it really helps me to understand life, especially right now.

Source: OU Class Announcements Blog

As I am about to graduate in less than 35 days, I have to remember that in order to succeed at anything in life, I have to take risks. I can't just sit back and expect things to happen to me, good things at least.

Famous Last Words: Faking It Until I Make It

The reading for this week went well. I did not have to time to do both portions of the reading, as norma. So, instead, I just did the second half of the reading. I remember that most of the stories I read from the British unit were extremely interesting and many of them I didn't like. There was one story that I skipped completely because it was too graphic for me. It was a story about a woman who had killed her daughter and chopped her up and served her in the soup. I almost got sick reading it. I can't stand reading stories like that. I did not experiment with a new creative writing style this week. 

Things are going fine in my other classes. Right now in my capstone class, we are reaching the very end. I have 4,000 words to write before May 7 I believe. So that's what the title of this post is: Faking It Until I Make It, because I am indeed faking it until I make it. I'm trying to finish up this class so I have more time devote to my capstone class. As of right now, there isn't anything I'm reading in this class that correlates with sometimes I'm doing in another class. But I do love it when that happens. 

This past weekend, I was honored at the OU Campus Awards Ceremony for being Gaylord College's Overall Outstanding Senior as well as Letzeiser Honor List. I've very honored to have been recognized for my achievements as my college career comes to an end. Now on to find a job. I have applied to several places, but something just doesn't feel like a good fit yet. Until yesterday, I applied to a Marriott training program and a copy editor position at an advertising and marketing firm. I'm still waiting on a couple of other applications, but I am keeping my fingers crossed. 

Graduation Caps Being Tossed Into Air Source: Programming Librarian

Reading Notes: English Fairy Tales, Part A

This story is part of the English Fairy Tales (1) unit. Story source: English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1890).

Reading Notes, Part A:

Tom Tit Tot

For this story, I would set the location in Italy. I would have the father wishing that someone would come by and take his daughter's hand in marriage. One day, he is out in the garden and he is singing a lovely tune about his daughter. A man walks by and inquires about who the song is about. When the father tells him, the man wants to marry this girl at once. The father only assumes that because the man is dressed well that he is the prince everyone has been talking about for days. The village said he would visit. So the man says that he will marry his daughter and give her everything she needs for 364 days of the year. But on the 365th day, she must make dinner for him and his friends to their liking. If she does not listen to him on this day or make food to their liking, he will kill her that night. It seemed like an easy task. So the daughter marries the man, but she finds out that he is not a prince, but a businessman who happened to be traveling through the village on business. When the daughter tells the father that the man is no prince, the man gets upset. He tells the girl that the deal is off. He tells the daughter that he will return her if she does not cook and clean for 364 days of the year. 

Source: Shutterstock

She can have one day off. Horrified, she does as she is told. She pretends to be the perfect wife when the friends come over and when other people visit. But deep down she is sad. Finally her father comes to visit her, and he can see in his daughter's eyes that she is not happy. So he plans a getaway for his daughter in the night.

The rest is history.

Note: I don't like the british fairy tales. They are too blunt and too scary.