Blake's Mythology Blog

There was once a majestic lion who had fallen madly in love with a beautiful human maiden.  The lion was strong and brave, but not nearly as sharp as his claws or teeth.  Even so, he desired greatly to marry this young woman with whom he was so smitten and so went to ask for her hand in marriage. Upon seeing the ferocious beast, the young maiden’s mother nearly collapsed of fright, but her father, being a more shrewd and careful man stood his ground and demanded a single condition of the lion. The Maiden and the Lion “If you are to marry my daughter,” he began, “I cannot bear the thought that some harm my come to her from you, even by accident.”  Although the lion began to protest that he was a very careful beast, her father presented his plan.  “If you will agree to be defanged and declawed, I shall know that my daughter is safe and that you may wed.” This shocked the lion, and even sent a shiver of fear down his otherwise courageous back.  Being so madly in love, how

I particularly liked the stories of the tricksters as well, like many people I find satisfaction in seeing the results of someone else's cleverness.  The main story of tricksters, about the Jackal, the Brahman and the tiger was quite entertaining, but it was not the only story dedicated to tricking someone.  In Aesop's fables, the lion is often representative of strength, but not necessarily cleverness.   In one of the tales , the poor lion is defanged and declawed out of love, but it was merely a trick to reduce his great strength to nothingness.  Although it may be cruel, it is a worthy lesson to remember. Source:  Wikimedia

Beowulf fighting the dragon For my readings I want to strike a balance between myths that I am already familiar with and with stories that I have never heard before.  I am pretty familiar with Greek and Roman myths, but am almost completely unaware of the mythologies of Africa .  I thought that it would be interesting to find a balance between traditional western and eastern mythologies, so I am looking forward to rereading Beowulf (which I read and loved in 9th grade).  Another one that caught my eye were some of the stories of Alaska , in fact I couldn't help myself from reading the first story as I was browsing the modules.  I am looking forward to getting reacquainted with some already familiar stories while immersing myself into entirely new material at the same time.

Source:  Flickr I've looked at some of the assignments and their due dates and I think it will be best for me to try to get as much as I can knocked out at the beginning of the week, especially between classes.  I have some gaps in my schedule that I don't really have anything else to fill them with and I think this class would be perfect for that, especially for me on Monday and Wednesday.  I then usually have free time on Friday and Saturdays, even more so in the afternoons, so I can finish anything else up then.

Source:  flickr I'm interested to see what kinds of work we will actually be doing this semester in order to use all of these resources, it will be fun to leave the "confines" of Canvas every once in awhile.  I think that making our own websites will be a great skill to have, as using basic formatting tools and understanding website layout and design is basically a life skill at this point.  Google docs are also the best, I used them extensively last semester for all of my group projects and they were wonderful.

After reviewing some of the assignments that we will be doing throughout the following weeks, my first impression was "Wow that is a lot of assignments!" At first I struggled to understand why there were so many.  I know that we don't have a class period where we meet and so I guess that this is a good way to keep us involved and thinking about the material throughout the week, instead of just every saturday afternoon when everything comes due. So it seems like I will be more engaged in this class than most of my other classes, simply because there will be a steady stream of little things to keep me focused on the material we are covering.  I am looking forward to really getting into the heart of this class and the readings we are covering. Source:  Flickr *Edit: Changed everything to not be so salty

Listening to Carol Dweck speak about the growth mindset kind of confirmed a lot of suspicions that I myself had thought about.  Although I had never heard of her or her research before, what she was saying sounded instantly familiar, and I think I have had some of those same experiences in my own life.  I had always found almost everything in High School very easy, and when I was confronted by more difficult academic situations my freshman year, many times my response was, like the EKG illustration, to shut off my brain.  I have moved on somewhat past that, but I still feel like that is still my immediate instinct. Source: Pixabay Learning to solve a Rubik’s cube was actually something that helped me to see what I was doing wrong as far as my learning mindset.  I had resisted learning how to do it for many years, but eventually a good friend started walking me through the various steps “algorithms” for solving a cube.  It is a relatively simple process, but involves a lot of

Hi! My name is Blake Allred and I am majoring in International Relations with a minor in Spanish.  I chose this major because I love travelling and meeting new people and learning about their cultures and traditions.  One of my favorite things about the classes I take is the chance that I have to meet other people from a very diverse range of backgrounds.  If all goes well, I will be graduating this semester, so this part of my college journey is coming to an end.  I’m still not sure how I feel about this, it is kind of a mixture between excitement and dread, but overall, I am glad I could have such a wonderful experience here at OU and that I am now able to graduate. This summer we went on a family vacation to visit my grandparents who live in rural Colorado.  My grandpa is a retired pilot and owns his own plane and built his retirement home right next to a remote airstrip.  When we went there this summer, I was able to go out flying with him and even fly his plane for a while.  It

(Persephone by Marta Dahlig from Deviant Art . ) The first storybook I chose was the “ Real Housewives of Greek Mythology .”  Although I have never watched the actual show, I am familiar enough with the Greek stories to see how well the drama could translate to a more modern interpretation.  The introduction drew me right into the story, with its depiction of maybe a leaked or official script from the show, which was an amazing stylistic choice.  The website design itself was clean, but I wasn’t a huge fan of how the Google Sites put the different sections horizontally across the top.  It was a little counterintuitive to navigate. The next story that captured my imagination was called “ Choosing Paradise ” and although the title piqued my interest, it did not illuminate what the story would be about.  However, the introduction quickly cleared up my confusion and drew me into the story, which dealt with some of the interesting aspects to creating artificial intelligence.  The a

This is a spectacular view of most the of mountain range.  The Tetons are some of the youngest mountains in the United States, which is why they have such a harsh and jagged appearance.  Wikimedia Commons

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