Storybook Favorites

The first storybook to grab my eye was the very first one on the list Law & Oder: SSU and strictly from its name it already has a place in my heart,  the Law & Order television series can always be found my television recordings and I have watched every single episode of Law & Order: SVU.  However the second thing that caught my eye was the shape shifting, this looks like it could be a great fantasy book.  This storybook was structured in a way that it explained each character fully with information on what parts they play within the story with a more modern twist, and each character's profile is read like an agents file would.  I love this modern spin on something that is most usually read as ancient history!

The second storybook to find me was Visit Us, A Country With a Past which was very informative. It uses the system of a travel brochure in order to give historical information on places within India with what seemed like a fun attitude.  She chose three places to showcase in her blog including: Hanuman Garhi, Elephanta Caves, and Triveni Sangam, giving extensive information without it making it sound like a history lesson.  I've never heard of many of these places!

The third storybook that I read through was a little different, which is why it drew my attention, Indian Epics News. This storybook used the framework of a news network to give information on the abductions of Draupadi and Princess Sita, both of which were extremely beautiful and married, carried away by other men who wish to have them.  I thought this was an interesting way to deliver a historical account of what happened and even included a 911 call from a fawn that I thought was slightly funny.

Overall I really liked the creativity that was used to make all three of these and I was especially interested in the Law & Order: SSU storybook. I thought it was a great way to give information and make it seem like another world altogether.

This is a screenshot from the storybook, Indian Epics News.

Tech Tip: Blogger Template

Alright I'm not going to lie, with my background in Graphic Arts I could have made my own template purely from code if I wanted to spend that much time on this project. In fact when I was in high school I won first place in a Website design competition at state level and went onto nationals where my computer crashed, my partner got sick, and I ended up withdrawing in order to not end up at the bottom of that 26 people long list.  So in short, I had a lot of fun with this tech tip!  I wanted the look to be something sort of whimsical and not so serious, but I didn't want the design to be distracting from the actual information.  I chose my blog post text out of my preference for wanting to actually be able to read the text in both color and font, I have really bad eyes.  The purple color of the title is fairly self-explanatory and everything else was just for fun!

Overview

I guess I am very fond of epics, I suppose. I know loosely what this term means and I'm sure that some of the classics I have read throughout high school and in college were considered epics as well. When I think of epics as they relate to mythology I think of all the Greek and Roman mythology and the stories that we have found about their gods, goddesses, and heroes.  I haven't personally studied Buddhism or Hinduism, however I did learn quite a bit about both while visiting China and I actually got to meet a Buddhist monk while there.  However on the flip side I do know quite a bit about Islam and I have actually tried to read some of the original passages from the Quran, however the Arabic is nothing like todays Arabic!   Also I've never really studied anything about India however I read a teen fantasy book that was centered around Indian artifacts and mythology, I found it very interesting!

(photo by: Indian Epics)

I chose this photo because while I was in China there were quite a few temples and museums that we visited and the type of art used in this sculpture is very familiar and similar to those I saw in China.  

Introduction

Hey my name is Briana, I am dual majoring in Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies and I also have an associates degree in Graphic Design.  I currently am working at as a florist at Uptown Grocery and I know what you're thinking, flowers suck at grocery stores right? That's a big WRONG. Just to let you know, we have several florists that have worked as florists all their lives and we get flowers internationally from several different sellers which means we can get pretty much anything in a cut flower.  We also do weddings, parties and blow up a lot of balloons.

Sorry for the spiel but I had to set everyone straight.

(personal photo of a wedding bouquet)

I have a lot of hobbies these days because I tend to "dabble" which means I have to tendency to skip from hobby to hobby.  Right now my current hobbies are MMA fighting, gardening, and spending countless hours catching up on my favorite television shows on Netflix.

(personal photo of my garden)

My favorite television shows include Doctor Who, Sherlock, Dowton Abby, , New Girl, The Big Bang Theory, Game of Thrones, Grey's Anatomy, America's Next Top Model, Bones, NCIS, and Criminal Minds. I won't include any more because I feel to include all my favorites would take up completely too  much time.  Though I have to say I am a very big fan of BBC television shows.

I have a thirteen year old dog named Dexter, he is a pit bull terrier and he likes to wake me up at 5:30 in the morning to let him outside and to fill his food bowl, as if he were starving.  He likes to sleep in my bed and prefers to be covered up with his own very soft wool blanket.  He has bad table manners, will hop into random cars if he thinks the owner will take him for a sonic cheeseburger, and absolutely loves men.

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(Personal photo of Dexter, 3 years ago, he's much older now.)

Just for fun heres some more of the things I like or have made!

(personal photo of Dexter)

(Personal photo of flower arrangement)

So something I've recently picked back up is weightlifting and boy am I sore!! I know it's probably not a whole lot but I bench pressed 95 pounds yesterday and I'm very proud of that because that means I benched ten pounds more than I did two weeks ago! Yay!  Now I know a lot of women think that weightlifting will make them ugly and overly muscled, but honestly, our bodies don't have enough testosterone to do that naturally!!

weightlifting meme

Yes I"m walking like that.

Week 1 Curation

I'll be honest, I've been a user of bookmarks for a long time... though mostly just for webcomics and news sites.  However I wonder why I've never thought to use my bookmarks for my schoolwork, which would be a lot more important than my daily dose of webcomics.

Pinterest on the other hand, is a magical place full of many many magical ideas and happiness.  I look on Pinterest everyday, I use it at work, I use it for school, and sometimes I just like to look at the pretty pictures. Pinterest is probably the most useful thing I have ever come across. I have boards about holiday decorations, flower arrangements for work, house improvement, inspiration quotes, and  healthy food recipes. I love Pinterest!  Also I find it really great for work as I am a florist and often have brides who would like to see the work we do, and Pinterest just makes it easy to share photos and ideas. Also many people are able to bring me photos from Pinterest to show me exactly what their wanting, which is possibly the best thing ever in the history of flower arranging!

(personal photo from Pinterest)

Growth Mindset -- I don't know a whole lot about it....yet.

Honestly I've never hear of this before, however I have experienced this with several of my professors here at OU.  I find the idea that we should be rewarded for continuing to try and improve a nice prospect. Though I see myself as a person who has a growth mindset now, I do realize that not long ago I had a very fixed mindset.  In fact it took a hard fall in my grades to make me realize that doing what I had done all throughout high school was no longer going to work when it came to college.  Suddenly I had to work so much harder to do as well as I use to do, and honestly, I love the challenge.  Even in my hobbies I enjoy the challenge; I started Judo my sophomore year of college and since then I've come to realize that every match or "roll" I lose teaches me something, a new move, a flaw in my own moves, or the humbling fact that I'm never as good as I think I am.  I find the idea of the "growth mindset" to be an interesting topic that is worth talking about and researching, however I question how effective it actually is with younger students who can't or won't grasp the idea of what having a "growth mindset" means.  The effort part of the whole idea seems to be the hardest part to instill into young students these days who are always looking for the shortcut, the easy way out.  I'd like to continue to research the statistics on this a fair bit more in order to see how effective it is on a wide range of different types of students.

(cat meme)

Not all is as it seems -- Storytelling, Week 1

TAFFY was a Welshman, Taffy was a thief;

Taffy came to my house and stole a piece of beef:

I went to Taffy's house, Taffy was not at home;

Taffy came to my house and stole a marrow-bone.

I went to Taffy's house, Taffy was not in;

Taffy came to my house and stole a silver pin:

I went to Taffy's house, Taffy was in bed,

I took up a poker and flung it at his head.

It was very well known in town that Taffy was a Welshman, he flaunted the information to anyone who would listen, however what everyone did not know was that Taffy was also a thief.  I found this out the first time I invited him over for tea.  For when he had gone I was missing a piece of beef!  Therefore I went to his home to accuse him but he wasn’t there! The wretched man!

(tea party)

 So in an effort to catch him in the act, I invited him again for tea.  I thought perhaps he hadn’t stolen anything this time because I didn’t catch him, but later I found that he had stolen a marrowbone! The odacity!

So again I went to his home and again the man was not home! I began to wonder if it was even his home!

So in an attempt to catch him a third time I invited him over for dinner, and again the buffoon stole from me, this time a silver pin!

So I went to his home again and this time I finally found him, however he was already in bed! So I took up a hot poker from the hearth and flung it at him.

(photo found on Napoleoxnfireplaces.com)

….

Three days later they found me, babbling on and on about some Welshman named Taffy, everyone assumed it was this man that had found me in my bed and flung a poker at my head!

AUTHORS NOTE:

TAFFY was a Welshman, Taffy was a thief;

Taffy came to my house and stole a piece of beef:

I went to Taffy's house, Taffy was not at home;

Taffy came to my house and stole a marrow-bone.

I went to Taffy's house, Taffy was not in;

Taffy came to my house and stole a silver pin:

I went to Taffy's house, Taffy was in bed,

I took up a poker and flung it at his head.

This story used the nursery rime "Taffy the Welshman" as it's focus, using the twist that Taffy was actually part of the main characters dual personality in the end.  As can be seen by the end of the story, all the antics of Taffy were actually the antics of the main character himself, he stole the piece of beef, he stole his own marrowbone, and he stole his own silver pin.  Turning a simple nursery rhyme into a twisted story and of course I wanted to give a hint with the title "Not all is as it seems".

Book: The Nursery Rhime Book

Author: Unknown

Edited: Andrew Lang

Year Published: 2008

Web Source: Project Gutenberg

China and Buffalo Wild Wings...... My Favorite Places!

There are only two places in the world that have truly captured my heart, one is of the far away variety and the other is more close to home.

China  I spent a month exploring China during my sophomore summer and I have not and will never forget it.  It was spectacularly different from America and was one of the most exciting places I have ever visited in my life! The thirteen hour plane ride was completely worth it!

(Personal photo of the Muslim district in Xian, China)

(Personal photo at the stone forest in Kunming, China) 

(Personal photo of the Great Wall of China in Beijing, China)

Buffalo Wild Wings While my second favorite place in the world is not quite so adventurous, it does serve my most favorite meal while entertaining me with five different screens at once!

(Buffalo Wild Wings -- glassdoor.com)

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