Essay for Week 3: Fable Folks

This week I read Aesop's fables that were illustrated by Milo Winter.  Aesop's fables are what I was really expecting to read and learn the most about when I was signing up for this class.  I also like the structure of it.  Rather than one long story, it's several short stories, and that helps me a lot.  I think that helps me with the storytelling assignments because there are several options for stories to tell and ways to tell them.
One of my favorite stories was The Spendthrift and the Swallow.  It's about a guy who sees a swallow on a nice day in early spring thinks that winter is finally over.  He sells all of his winter clothes to fully embrace the nice weather.  Then, a few days later, the cold weather came back and brought a severe frost along with it.  That is exactly what spring is like in Oklahoma.  Another reason I like this story is because of the illustration.  I think we've all seen this person walking around campus on a nice sunny day in February.

Another one of my favorite stories is The Astrologer.  This man claims to be able to see the future.  One night he is looking up at the stars while walking and falls into a hole.  Moral of the story being to take care of the little stuff and the big stuff will take care of itself.  I think being in school makes you dwell on the big picture too much that you don't take as much care of the little stuff.  I think we focus on what we want to do after college and not so much as the steps to take to get there.  Or, some people focus so much on school that they forget to make friends, which is also important.

Overall, I really liked this unit as a whole!

Storytelling Week 3: The Balding Lad

Michael was in his early 20s when his life took a sudden turn for the worst.  He woke up one morning and noticed he started balding.  There was absolutely nothing wrong with him; premature balding ran in his family.  His father was bald, his grandfather was bald, all the men in his family were bald.  Michael hoped that this inherent trait would surpass him, but even he couldn't escape the icy cold hands of baldness.

Michael was in his first year of graduate school, he wasn't even old enough to rent a car, so being bald seemed like something in the distant future.  He was terrified of what his friends would think about.  Would they make fun of him?  Would they be too embarrassed and stop hanging out with him?  Even more terrifying than his friends, what would the girls think?!  Michael was panic-stricken and thought to himself, "I couldn't get a girlfriend when I had hair, how am I supposed to get one now?!"

He started looking into treatments for hair implants and shampoos.  He started wearing hats to the point that it was weirder to see him without one than with.  His friends didn't really seem to notice it, or if they did, they didn't say anything.

Michael started hair implant treatments and started using special shampoo, all to no avail.  Since he was still in the process of balding, the implants were useless and wasteful because they wouldn't take hold to the follicles.  Michael was running out of options.  He considered getting a hair toupee.  He remembered his grandfather having one and how ridiculous it looked.  Michael quickly talked himself out of that humiliating decision.  He would rather be bald than wear a toupee, and that's what he decided to do.

One day, he woke up and decided to confront his friends about his baldness.  They were eventually find out anyways.  He was going to convince them that hair is unnecessary.  Michael argued that hair is just added effort when getting ready everyday and it requires frequent vacuuming from all the shedding.  Most of his friends agreed or were pretty apathetic about hair.  Then there was Adam, Michael's "frenemy."  Actually, no one in the group really cared much for Adam because he was such a jerk, but they hung out with him regardless.  Michael felt he had presented a decent argument and that soon him and all his friends would shave their heads.  Adam walked by Michael and grabbed his beanie, exposing his balding head!  "No wonder he wants us all to shave our heads!  He doesn't want to be the only cue ball of the group," Adam snidely exclaimed.  Michael was mortified.  His secret was out.  However, to his surprise, none of his friends laughed.  Instead, they told him it wasn't a big deal and would still be his friend with or without hair.

                                                                         Source: Permission to Talk

Bibliography:

Title: The Æsop for Children
       With pictures by Milo Winter

Author: Æsop

Illustrator: Milo Winter

Release Date: December 2, 2006 [EBook #19994]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

Author's note:

I read the Aesop (Winter) section this week and the story of The Fox Without a Tail was really memorable.  I decided to make it about humans rather than animals; I felt it was a little more relatable this way.  

Reading Diary Week 3: Aesop Winter

These are just some of the stories from Aesop (Winter) that I really liked.

Part A:
The Wolf and the Kid:
I liked this story the first time I read it when the class first started.  I think it's a cute story.  I know the moral is to not lose sight of what you're after, but I think it's also important to know that if you don't let fear cloud your mind too much, you just might get saved.

The Tortoise and the Ducks:
The first part of this story, about the tortoise being lazy because of the house on his back and his short legs, reminds me of how I feel Monday mornings carrying my heavy backpack around on campus haha.  Then I finished and thought, "Oh." Sometimes not saying anything really is better than saying something.

The Dog, the Cock, and the Fox:
I thought the Dog would save the Cock since they're best friends, but I surprised by the quickness of it.

The Eagle and the Jackdaw:
What is a Jackdaw and why does the farmer call the Eagle that?

The Oxen and the Wheels :
This reminds me of some people I'm friends with.  Or people eating at restaurants that are just so demanding.  They complain that their service was terrible and their waitress didn't wait on them hand and foot like she wasn't busy with other tables as well.

Part B:
The Fox and the Leopard:
It's better to be intelligent and skilled than to just have good looks.

                                                              


The Spendthrift and the Swallow :
I really liked this story.  It reminds me of the spring semester on campus.  One day it'll be 70 degrees and sunny in January, and everyone is wearing tshirts.  The next day, it'll be 45 degrees and sunny and everyone is freezing in their tshirts.  Just because it was nice one day, doesn't mean it's here to stay just yet.

The Astrologer
I can definitely relate to the Astrologer.  I am constantly worrying about the future and what I need to do to be successful when I get there, that I forget to focus on the present and getting things done now.

The Mischievous Dog
I think this is a really important lesson.  Just because you're notorious for something doesn't always mean it's a good thing.  Charlie Sheen and Lindsey Lohan are notorious for being drunk and doing crazy things, but those aren't good things to be known for.

The Rose and the Butterfly
I really liked this story just because it was so different than the rest.
You can't expect others, not just romantic partners but friends as well, to constantly be there if you aren't constantly there for them either.