Famous Last Words:

This post has become one of my favorites to do throughout the week. I really like looking back and seeing how the week has gone once I reach the end of it.

This week in particular has been crazy but also a lot of fun. My best friend and I went to Waco this weekend for the OU football game and I got to show her around my hometown and spend some time with my family. It was a super fun and restful weekend, something that I desperately needed after the crazy beginning of the semester. Also, OU won (barely) so that's always a plus too!

Personal photo from this past weekend with some of my friends

from OU that all made the trip down to Waco.

As far as this week itself, it is always crazy getting back from being out of town and preparing for another crazy week ahead. I had a couple of tests and assignments this week, making it slightly stressful. I also have a lot going on outside of school that is proving to be a cause of stress so finding time to decompress and wind down so that I can keep my sanity in tact has been nothing short of crucial. This coming week, I will have to do better with my time management and not allowing myself to get super freaked out about something that is not completed before there is a reason to panic about it. One of the things this week that has been super beneficial to not having a breakdown this week has been the ability to hangout with friends and take a little bit of a break each day. This is something that I mentioned in my Learning Challenge blog post, but it is something that I have learned makes such a difference from week to week.

I'm excited to see what the next weeks of the semester will hold and what is going to pan out as we move through the rest of the semester not only in this class and in my others, but also in things that aren't school related.

Learning Challenge: Time Management

This week for the Learning Challenge, I looked at the article titled 11 Ways Unsuccessful People Mismanage Their Time. I had several reactions to the article, finding that I utilized some of these strategies in my own time management attempt, but not all of them. My challenge to myself this week would be to be mindful of what I do and to make a conscious effort to be better about time management as a whole.

The article that I read this week is all about Time Management

and how to be more successful about utilizing it. Source: Pixabay

The very first point that this article made was the importance of keeping a schedule. This is something that I do religiously, always making sure to write down every little detail and to color code it appropriately. I have definitely seen the ways that this has proven to be beneficial and I have no doubt that it is something that I will never stop doing. I feel like this is very similar to the second point that said to record things such as what you need to do and what you've already done. I've also seen great benefits in doing this.

The first thing I saw that applied to me in this article was the 3rd subtitle that said that they get distracted easily. This definitely applies to me at times, more than I would like to admit. Usually my focus is pretty good but there re definitely times that it is lacking and could be better. Those are times that I want to be aware of what is going on and to make an effort to stay on task and to focus more on quality than quantity of time spent on something.

A HUGE thing this article mentioned that I am guilty of is not planning time for fun things in order to relax and avoid burning out on what I am working on. This is something that I had not really given much thought to previously, but that I will begin to make an effort to be better about. I think this goes hand in hand with the topic that follows it in the article about forgetting about the weekends and trying to just push through them as if they are just 2 extra days during the week to cram as much into as possible.

These are just a few of the things that I found to be interesting about the article that I read and that I want to challenge myself to be better about not only during this week, but also during the weeks to come following.

Week 6 Storytelling: A Pet For Keeps

A Pet for Keeps

There once was a young named Michael. Growing up, his parents had given him everything he could have ever wanted, except for one thing. He had never been allowed to have a pet, no matter how much he begged for one. Dogs, cats, snakes, birds, and pretty much any creature was automatically ruled out anytime he tried to bring it up. Feeling particularly rebellious one day after he had just moved out of his family's home, he decided he was going to become a pet owner once and for all. But he didn't want just any pet; he wanted one that was unique and that had something out of the ordinary to offer him. With that in mind, he set out to find the perfect pet for him. 

The parrot that Michael picked out to be his pet was brilliantly

colored. Source: Pixabay

Shortly into his journey, Michael stumbled upon a pet store that seemed promising called Critter's: Exotic Pets and More. Exotic was ordinary, he thought to himself. He went in and was immediately drawn to a brilliantly colored bird in the corner, one that squawked in such a way as if he were actually saying something and not just making useless noises. This is the pet for me, he thought and he went to the cashier to take his new friend home.

Once arriving back at his house, Michael began to play around with the parrot, seeing what he could get it to do. Eventually, the bird had had enough of the useless phrases that Michael wanted him to repeat. The parrot knew he had to do something so he made a promise to Michael. He explained that he was not an ordinary parrot, but one with great wisdom and greater capabilities because of it that simply could not go to waste. Having said this, the parrot insisted that Michael allow him to use his potential. He explained that he could keep all annoyances from pestering him because of his crazy story telling capabilities. There were some people that Michael found generally annoying yet saw often so this sounded like a wonderful trade. Without any hesitation, the two made a deal an Michael left the parrot alone, excited about the service the bird would soon be doing him. 

Bibliography

Ziya'al-Din Nakhshabi's The Tales of a Parrot

Author's Note

I decided to use this story to retell the story of Miemun and Khojisten in a more modern way. I made this decision because I thought it would be fun to think about why a prince, or even a boy with a lot of privileges, would want a parrot in the first place. I ended up changing it from a market to the pet store but also kept the parrot's capabilities in my version of the story from what he could do in the original. 

Reading Notes: Tales of a Parrot Part B

Of a King and His Sons

This piece took a turn that I didn't expect as the princess, through a strange turn of a few events, ended up with the prince. For a rewrite, it might be interesting to focus more on the princess and talk about how she might have been feeling through the whole process.

The Merchant Whose Daughter was Lost

I really am coming to like the way that the wife keeps going to the parrot, allowing him to distract her at this point without him having to make as much of an effort. It might even be fun for some random project to focus a story on this part of the piece. For a rewrite on this piece, however, I might make it to where the merchant was lost instead of his daughter. 

Of a Brahmin Falling in Love

I always love dealing with stories about love. I feel like this might be the simple answer but for a rewrite about this piece it would be fun to modernize it and write about a guy looking for a girl in the city and finding her through some crazy circumstances or something along those lines. 

What I imagine the character that fell in love in this piece might

have looked like. Source: Wikimedia Commons

The Son of the King of Babylon

In this piece, I think the best way that I know to do a rewrite is to focus on an outside character that would find the severed heads and write what his/her feelings would be in such a situation. There are many different ways to express such an occurrence but this perspective enables me to then continue the story beyond where it ends now if I decided that I wanted to somehow for some reason. 

The Merchant's Daughter

As interesting as this piece was, I think it's one that is told quite a bit in some variation. To make it more unique, I might would change the daughter into someone that is not beautiful but is the exact opposite. While that seems like a trivial change, it would ultimately change the entire layout of the story due to this one characteristic. 

The Nobleman who Concealed a Snake in His Sleeve

This piece was unique on its own but I think it might be fun to put a totally unexpected turn on it and make the animal something that is otherwise thought of as cute, even if it were something like a dachshund around his neck or something like that.

The Soldier and the Goldsmith

This piece was entertaining but also simple and just kind of ended where one would have expected. A rewrite might be fun to take it even further, focusing more on what the soldier did with his newfound wealth after the goldsmith was robbed for trying to rob him. 

Of the Merchant and the Barber

The stories in this selection have started to become more and more random and seemingly disconnected. I feel like this section had a very "Disney like" feel to it and for that reason I thought it would be fun to turn the barber into a genie like character of sorts and see where that could go. 

The Fog, the Bee, and the Bird

While it is a seemingly small aspect to focus on for a rewrite, I think it would be fun to focus this one on what might happen if the bird and her eggs had gotten stuck on the elephant and were cared for and nurtured there as opposed to falling off. 

The Elk and the Ass

This piece was also simple but fun to read. I think it would be a fun idea for a rewrite to focus on the friendship that is so briefly mentioned at the very beginning of the story and to explain how such a relationship between two unlikely figures came to be instead of just mentioning it and then moving on so quickly. 

A King Falls in Love, and the End of Khojisteh

As is common with many of the stories regarding love, I think this one would also be fun to modernize in some way as the King falls in love. This was an interesting but fitting piece to end the collection with, at least in my opinion. 

Bibliography

Ziya'al-Din Nakhshabi's Tales of a Parrot

Reading Notes: Tales of a Parrot Part A

Miemun and Khojisteh

This particular story provides a background of how Miemun came to get the parrot. I like the idea of using this as a rewrite but changing the animal or something like that. It would be fun to write about a dog with such powers or even to make the main character that comes to own the pet a female, showing what difference they might have in request.

The type of parrot that took over and manipulated so many

people in the piece. Source: Pixabay

Khojisteh and the Parrot

This section shows some of how manipulative the parrot can be, especially towards the main characters lover. As a rewrite, I could change what the parrot was asking the girl to do, all while keeping with the theme of the trickster character being an animal other than a parrot. There's a lot of room for character development in this section. I also like the way this highlights the way it is a continuous story with the way the ending is formatted.

The Parrot of Ferukh Beg

There's a lot of plot development here as you see that the parrot and the wife are not fond of each other but that they want to get back at each other for what they believe the other did. As far as an idea for a rewrite, this segment might be fun to modernize a little bit to where the parrot made the wife do something like taking the kids somewhere fun or going out herself, and not so old timey.

The Goldsmith, the Carpenter, the Taylor, and the Hermit

I like the way this story opens with a narrative before diving in to the actual story. For a rewrite, I might consider having the men fight over the woman a little bit more, making it more modern as opposed to the old jobs that they claim in this piece.

The King of Kinoje and his Daughter

I like the way that this is told from the perspective of someone else as it has already happened and not in a way as if it were happening in the present. For a rewrite idea, I could focus on the sacrifice made that makes the royroyan so generous. I could even change this character completely and make it to where the generosity is from a completely different character with different traits and everything. 

The Fowler, the Parrot, and her Young Ones

As I continue to read these different stories, I like the variation between them and the way that none of them are the same but they are related just enough to fall under the same story. For a rewrite of this one, I would most likely want to focus on the way that the young birds were trapped and told to play dead. That would probably look like one of the babies talking and expressing fear as they listen to the parrot telling him/her what to do. 

The Merchant and His Wife

For a rewrite on this piece, I would want to focus from the perspective of the merchant that endured something because of the parrot that causes him to be embarrassed and, as a result, mad at the parrot and vowing to get revenge. 

The Old Lion and the Cat

I like the way that the lion had to depend on a much smaller and less intimidating animal in this section, the cat, instead of the other way around. For a rewrite, it might be fun to write more of a trickster story where the cat takes advantage of the new found trust since a cat doesn't get that opportunity all that often. 

The Commander of the Frogs, and the Snake

This was an interesting story in which the chief from made a plan to get his power back that ultimately backfired on him. For a rewrite, I might would change the outcome of the frog going to the snake in a way that the snake made the from serve him either for a time or for the remainder of his life, adding to the idea that what he did backfired and he went from being the most to the least powerful. 

Four Rich Persons who Became Poor

This piece is super interesting, especially when thinking of how to go about recreating it into my own version. I like the idea of taking it the reverse direction and writing about four poor people who became rich instead of four rich people who became poor. It also would be fun to modernize it and play around with the concept of money and riches. 

Besheer and a Woman Named Chunder

To rewrite this piece, the most interesting viewpoint I can think of is to focus from the perspective of Chunder, mentioning what she might have seen in such a person to have a relationship with him. This would be a prime way to work on the character development.

Bibliography

Ziya-alDin Nakhshabi's Tales of a Parrot