Tech Tip: Google Site Image

For this tech tip, I explored the Google site for my storybook. I am somewhat challenged when it comes to working on a new site I have not seen before or been familiar with. I am still somewhat struggling with making my site look "cool". I see other people's sites and wish I could figure out how to format things to get to how I want them to look. I think the Google site is very easy to work with. Putting in a picture wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. On my introduction to my storybook I added a picture of the Amazon Jungle. I'm still trying to figure out if I am able to get a picture in the background and how to work with different fonts.

Week 6 Storytelling: Zarro and the water

Tiki was King of the land for hundreds of years. He was very well known and had eternal life. He had lived to see lives changing during his time as king. Tiki also enjoyed the finer things in life, such as the prettiest women, great big feasts, and commanding his servants around. What Tiki enjoyed the most was the array of women he was allowed to chose from. He was allowed to have multiple wives, but wasn't entirely satisfied as his wives would soon get old and eventually die, while he stayed young and everlasting. The king called upon his servant to find him an eternal love.

"Zarro", the king yelled, "If you can find me eternal love, then I will denounce my thrown unto you. Your fate lies in the hands of my happiness."

Not sure quite what to do, Zarro was off to find what the king was looking for. He hiked up mountains and through the desert storms, asking, hoping, and praying for any sort of sign that would lead him to what the king was wishing for. Zarro was poor servant, and this was a once and a life time opportunity for him to become something other than that. He loved the people of the land, and desired fame.

Twenty nine days passed, and the servant still had yet to find someone for the king. He thought to himself that there must be someone else out there with eternal life. Although he thought this, there was nothing he could do except wait for a sign.

Suddenly, Zarro was stopped by an old man on the streets who said he could help with him with his problem. Without hesitation, Zarro agreed.

The old man was a fisherman and had many tricks up his sleeve. Not many people had heard of him, but he felt bad for the servant and wanted to offer up his services. He led Zarro to his boat and took him on a fishing adventure.

Zarro had never been to the water or on a boat, so he was nervous. All his life, he only knew of the land to be safe. He didn't know what the waters contained so people of his kind stayed away from it. Trusting the old man and wanting to be successful, he went on the boat anyways.

While on the boat, Zarro and the fisherman had a nice conversation. The fisherman told him stories about the water and what lies beneath. All of the sudden, the fisherman threw his fishing rod into the water. They waited ten minutes to before something finally caught the hook. Reeling it in with all his strength, the old man pulled a fish out of the water. Zarro was in shock. He had never seen anything so wonderful, he did not want to let that moment go.

What happened next was magical to Zarro. The fisherman somehow was able to turn the fish into the most beautiful lady in all of the land who had eternal life, or so he thought. Zarro was so thankful for what the fisherman had done and he led the girl back to the king for him.

The king, Tiki, was overwhelmed and happy that he had finally found someone to share life with. Zarro was then made the king of the land, while Tiki went off to be with the girl.

Little did Tiki know that the beautiful girl would lead him to the water where he would later die and drown. The king didn't know much of the water, but saw how the girl transformed into a fish and thought he could do the same...

(Fish in water)

Author's Note - I got the idea for my story after reading multiple stories from the Nigerian Folk stories. I thought they all very interesting and different at the same time. Most of the stories began with a king having several wives, so I thought I would make mine similar in that way. The moral of my story is that looks can be deceiving. The fisherman isn't who the servant thought he was going to be and the girl isn't who the king thought she would be. The servant and the king had no idea what the water was like nor had they ever really explored it. The story worked out well for the servant, but the king was unsuccessful at living eternally happy with the fish. I though I would include some type of animal my story because most of the folk stories did and twisted things to where I didn't think something was going to happen.


Bibliography - Nigerian Folk Stories by Elphinstone Dayrell

Reading Notes: Nigerian Folk Stories, Part B

The lightning and thunder story was a good read. I like how the central focus for Nigerian Folk Stories focuses on attributing certain things for why they are the way they are. For instance, in this lightning and thunder story, thunder was the mom and lightning was the son causing destruction. The lightning was always causing havoc and burning things down and the thunder was yelling at her son for doing so. They were eventually banished from town and were sent to another place where they did the same thing and that is why there were sent so far away into the sky. They couldn't harm anyone from there. Bringing things to life from nature would make for an interesting story! There are so many takes I could make a spin off of.

(Lightning storm)

The next story I enjoyed in Part B of the reading was about a hippo who no one knew of his name. The hippo had many wives and threw many feasts for people. During his feast, he asked if anyone knew his name and no one knew the answer. Eventually he made a deal that if someone knew his name he would go live out his days in the water. The tortious snuck his way around the hippo so he could get one of his many wives to call him by name. This fold story is another one of those legends for why hippos stay in water. Thinking I could do something like this story about another animal or so.

The last story that I wanted to comment on was about two birds that were competing for the king. The king promised that he would make whoever could endure pain the longest chief of his tribe. Two different birds were both up to the challenge. One was larger and therefore thought of himself more fit than the other. The other bird was not fit, but rather very witty. They had to build a house and go seven days without food. The smaller, but wittier bird skillfully planned his house to where there was a whole he could go in and out of to get food. The king inspected it and didn't notice the whole. At the end of the seven days the smaller bird had been able to get in and out of his cage and get to food, while the larger bird had died. He became the chief appointed by the king. I like how the story transitioned into why these types of birds are hard to shoot. They are small and witty.

I very much liked reading through these different stories. They were all similar and different at the same time. There were reoccurring instances of some characters and some similar themes. What I think I could use to make my own story might possibly have to do with creating why something does or is the way it is. I could also alter one of the stories. Stay tuned to see what I come up with this week! 

Bibliography - Nigerian Folk Stories by Elphinstone Dayrell

Reading Notes: Nigerian Folk Stories, Part A

The first story for this weeks reading caught my attention fairly quickly and caught me off guard. It was about a king who was successful and well liked and hated at the same time by his people. He got what he wanted and any pretty girl that he wanted as well. A neighboring town did not liked the king and wanted him killed, so a witch agreed to do so. This witch turned herself into a pretty girl and deceived the king by poisoning his food that she made for him. All the sudden the story got gory and she sliced the kings head off when he was poisoned. Her town was able to then defeat the king's town as they were not prepared. I think if I was able to give one of my characters a supernatural power that would make for an entertaining story. I have always liked the idea of tricking others to think you are someone else. Secretly in my own mind I wish I could do that.

The next short story from the reading had to do with a bat and a rat. The central theme was jealousy, and ultimately the rat tried to do what the bad had done to make his soup just as good. In the end, the rat lost his life and the king sent people after the bat. I enjoyed how the end of the story led to the reason that bats only come out to feed in the dark. They have fear that something will happen to them. Maybe for my story I could use something like this and lead up to something normal.

The third story in this first half of the reading

Bush rat 

was about a daughter who disobeyed her parents and wound up marrying someone that she shouldn't. At first, I thought surely something was going to happen to the girl when she went off with the skull who borrowed things to appear handsome for her since the skull was from an evil land of spirits. I thought the moral of the story was going to be that you should listen to what your parents tell you, otherwise something bad might happen. It seemed bad, but then she was sent home because she was kind to the skull's mother. I didn't quite know what the moral of the story was then, but I liked how I thought something was going to happen then something else happened instead.

Following that story, the next one I really enjoyed reading was about a king and a cock's daughter. The king was able to get any girl that he ultimately wanted and had many wives. He heard of the cock's daughter and that she was beautiful, so he wanted her. Seeing as how the cock was poor, he had no option but to present his daughter to the king, although he warned the king that she still contained some qualities of a cock. This part I though was especially interesting because I think it would be fun to add qualities to humans that people don't expect into my story. As the story goes on, the cock's daughter eventually becomes the favorite and the other wives are jealous. They then expose her qualities and embarrass the king so that he gets rid of her, and their plan works. When the king finds out it was a set up he gets rid of the wife that planned it and she ends up poor and homeless. The king himself eventually dies because he is unhappy that he sent the cock's daughter away.


Bibliography - Nigerian Folk Stories by Elphinstone Dayrell