Google Search-by-Image Tech Tip

The image that I picked for this assignment is the Iguaza Falls, which look incredibly beautiful! Take a look;

(Iguazu Falls: Wikipedia)

Famous Last Words: Week 2

For this weeks Famous Last Words post, I would like to reflect on my week overall. With school getting into the swing of things and life and work also in full gear, this past week was quite busy! Each day I wake up at 6:45 a.m., get myself ready for the day and sit and sip on a cup of coffee for at least ten minutes of quite calm reflection time before really starting my day. I then bike two miles from my apartment to campus and - depending on the day - go to class or go to the library to catch up on some work. If it is a Tuesday or Thursday where I don't have class until 10:30, I usually use the time between 8-10 to work on medical school secondary applications, which I am extremely happy to have finally finished this past week! After class, I have just enough time to bike back home, change into work clothes, cram a sandwich down, and then jump into my car and head to work. Once at work, I spend the next 6 hours of the day caring for patients at the physical therapy clinic I have been working at for the past almost two years. When the last patient leaves the clinic, I head home, eat dinner around 8:30 p.m. and then get a couple hours of studying/homework in before going to bed and starting all over again. So ya, this will be my life for this semester and most likely the next. It should be very busy, but also hopefully enlightening time in my life where a lot is going on and changing. Outside of the normal weekly activities, this week was especially exciting because I actually got to scrub in and be very up close and personal during a operation that surgeon I have been following was performing. Before that, I had to watch from a least a 5 foot distance, which makes it a little more difficult to see everything going on in the surgery.

(Morning Cup of Joe: Wikipedia)

Week 2 Essay: The Power of Love

This week I read the story about Cupid and Psyche. I did not know anything about the background of the story before reading, so it was kind of fun to enter into it blind. I was surprised to discover that this story, like many other, dealt with the idea of forbidden love. Cupid was fully aware that his marriage to Psyche would be entirely against his mother’s wishes, but he chose to trust Psyche not to uncover his identity so that he could keep her as his. Just like most other forbidden love stories, this one also ended with the couple’s love being exposed and – in this particular case – literally tested. It is very interesting how easily love can be torn apart in life and yet it seems to always have a way of coming back together in the end. Even when Psyche had once again let her human nature get in the way of being with Cupid by opening the box Venus sent her to obtain, Cupid chose to forgive her faults and take her back into his arms. Whereas the young woman and her betrothed in the beginning of the story were separated by an external force, Cupid and Psyche were separated by Psyche's doubt and curiosity. There are so many factors that can play a role in ending a relationship, both stories and life, that it is inspiring to see an elderly couple walking down the street after fifty-plus years together. Sometimes love is challenged and strained from society and other obligations. Self-doubt, curiosity, envy, and anger all certainly contribute to the darker side of human nature. Also, work commitments and the stress of making it through the daily struggles of everyday life, can have a huge impact on your relationship, but when love can overcome all of those negative aspects, it is a pretty spectacular thing.

(Cupid and Psyche, Web source: Wikipedia)

Storytelling Week 2: No Girl is Good Enough for my Baby Boy!

"Mom! I'm home!" Cupid shouted at he walked in the door.

"Oh, honey! It's so good to see y- Oh my goodness! What on earth happened to your shoulder?" Cupid's mother, Venus, exclaimed.

Cupid's shoulder was wrapped tightly with thick white bandages and held in a sling.

He hung his head and sighed before replying, "well, Psyche and I got into a bit of an argument and I accidentally bumped into the cabinet. I apparently managed to hit it just hard enough to knock off a candle that had been lit all day and the hot wax spilled all over my shoulder. Since I was so angry with Psyche, I didn't let her help me and the wound got worse."

"That's awful my sweet son! I warned you not to marry a worthless and cruel woman like Psyche!" Venus said hotly.

"No, no, mother. It wasn't anyone's fault. We just had a slight misunderstanding!" Cupid claimed.

"Fine. Fine. Go get some sleep and rest that injured arm of yours," Venus demanded.

Ever Since Cupid and Psyche secretly got married against Venus's wishes, she had held a grudge against Psyche. She was determined to think that Psyche was only after Cupid's vast inheritance and had no real life skills for herself.

*Knock knock knock*

"Who on earth could that be?" Venus wondered.

As she opened the door, a scowl instantly took over her face. Standing on Venus's front porch was Psyche begging to come in a see her husband.

"How dare you show up at my home after causing my poor son so much pain!" Venus snarled at Psyche.

"I'm so sorry, Venus! I never meant for Cupid to get hurt. I just got a little heated at him because he never wants to spend any time with me during the day! I just sit at home alone with absolutely nothing to do!" Psyche pleaded. "Please. May I see him?"

"Until you can prove to me that you are a woman deserving of my son's love, you may not see Cupid! If you can successfully complete three tasks that I give you, than I will leave you and Cupid alone and you two can live a happy life together without fear of my interference," Venus told Psyche coldly.

(Cupid and Psyche from Wikimedia Commons)

Authors Note: For this week's storytelling assignment, I chose to take a spin off of four of the chapters from the Cupid and Psyche Unit. In the story, Cupid and Psyche are a married couple and Cupid only comes to see Psyche at night when she cannot see him. When Psyche decides one night to ignite a lamp and finally see her husband's face, she is drawn to his handsomeness and accidentally burns his shoulder with the lamp as she kisses him. I decided to switch this story around a bit and make it a little more modern and have the burn that causes Cupid to go to his mother, Venus's, home to come from a candle burn. Also like in the story, Venus holds much hatred for Psyche. In the original version, Venus is thrilled to see Psyche arrive at her doorstep so that she can torture her with impossible tasks. In my version, I have Venus angry at Psyche for showing up, but she still gives the opportunity of winning her favor by completing tasks that would have also been difficult to achieve.

Bibliography: "Cupid and Psyche" translation by Tony Kline. Website: Un-Textbook

Reading Diary Week Two: Cupid and Pysche

Apuleius: The Captive Woman: Begins with Lucius speaking in first person. I found his line, "Even to an ass like me, she seemed a girl to cover," to be hilariously ironic. I was surprised at the robbers kindness towards the girl they kidnapped. They seemed to have no intention of harm towards her. I was even more surprised by the old woman's snappiness towards the young woman (although it was quite warranted from all her crying.)

Her Dream: The young woman begs forgiveness and explains that she was so upset because she was kidnapped on her wedding day. The poor young woman envisioned one of the robbers killing her finance as he looked for her.

Psyche's Beauty: Psyche, of course, was the most beautiful of the three sisters and was a princess. She was the most idealistic version of the perfect woman; beauty beyond compare (except maybe to Venus), a "virgin flower," and gazed upon by all. Venous, mother of Cupid, was obviously not a fan of being forgotten because of a new face. Venus begged her son to make Psyche fall desperately in love with a worthless man.

The Oracle of Apollo: Psyche's beauty surprisingly was only adored and not sought after by men wishing to make her their wife. Her father went to Apollo for an oracle reading of his daughter's future and was incredibly disturbed by what he heard. I had not been expected this twist in the story. The phrase "...living corpse was led," really created a powerful image of the situation.

The Magical Palace: "Now her desire to gaze on all these beautiful things led her to examine every object closely." This phrase makes me wonder if the story is alluding to needing to look closer at her own beauty. Psyche was in a beautiful home that the "voices" claimed to be hers, although she still did not know who her future husband was.

The Mysterious Husband:  Psyche's new husband remained unknown to her even after making her his wife. I found it interesting that her husband was so determined to keep his identity hidden he was willing to fall prey to Psyche's pleasantly sly words.

The Jealousy of Psyche's Sisters: It's funny that Psyche had not only been tormented by the envy of Venus, but now also by her own sisters who were just recently mourning for her. The tide can turn so quickly.

Psyche's Husband Warns Her: The same two sisters that were just mourning their youngest sisters death were not plotting her murder. Psyche's husband tempts her with the promise of a divine child if she agrees not to pursue knowing his face. Psyche, in ignorance, begged to see her sisters again.

Fears and Doubts:  The sisters have not tried anything violent on their first visit back. The second day they remind Psyche of the oracle and it's words that she will marry a man that is horrid. The sisters try to scare her into discovering the face of her husband. The sisters convince Psyche to turn on a light while her husband is asleep just long enough to see him and then decapitate him. She now had to choose between Family and Love.

Psyche's Husband Revealed: "The rest of his body was smooth and gleaming, such that Venus had no regrets at having borne such a child." He must have been quite attractive for that statement to be true! Anther line that I really liked came from when Psyche pricked her finger with Cupids arrow and, "fell further in love with Love himself, so that now inflamed with desire for Desire, she leaned over Cupid." Venus wanted Cupids arrow to cause Psyche to fall in love with a worthless man, so it's interesting that it caused her to fall in love with Cupid himself. Cupid was displeased and hurt and threatened Psyche and her sisters.

Psyche's Despair: Psyche tried to kill herself because of her anguish at her husbands departure, which was a selfish thing for a pregnant woman to do. Psyche wound up at her sisters castle and recounted the story of discovering Cupid. Cupid had told Psyche when he left her that he would bed her sister. When Psyche told her sister this, instead of being horrified, the sister ran to the cliff and jumped with the failed expectation of being caught my Zaphyr. The other sisters story was the same.


Venus and the Goddess: Venus learns that Cupid is (was) seeing someone and that someone was Psyche. Obviously, she was very angry at this, which is funny since she was not one to talk about married life. I loved how Juno and  Ceres got onto Venus for being so blindly angry at her son.

Psyche's Prayer: Ceres, Venus's aunt, finds Psyche tidying up her temple (although Psyche did not know whose it was). Ceres warns her of Venus's wrath.Ceres turned Psyche away from her safety choosing her loyalty to Venus. Juno, Venus's aunt, did the same.

Venus and Mercury: Psyche finally stopped thinking about who could save her and starting thinking about how she could save herself. Her solution was surrender. Venus goes to Mercury (messenger god) to tell announce a reward for Psyche's discovery. Psyche shows up to Venus' home.

Venus and Psyche:  Venus wants to call Psyche's unborn child illegitimate because of her illegitimate wedding. Venus tortured Psyche. Then gave her a hard task, which ants helped her with.

Psyche's Next Task: Venus kept Psyche and Cupid separated. Psyche's next task was to get wool from golden sheep, which were very hot and crazed from the sun. Psyche waited till evening and then collected wool from the tree branches were it was stuck.

The Third Task: The most dangerous yet. Providence, Jupiter's eagle, assisted Psyche.

The Jar of Beauty: Venus sends Psyche to the underworld for yet another task of obtaining more beauty from Proserpine. Another helper given Psyche very complex instructions on how to get to the underworld and back without being stuck there. Once Psyche had come back to the mortal world, Envy started to creep its way into her and she decided to take a drop of "beauty" for herself.

The Sleep of the Dead: Wen she opened the jar, it was not beauty inside, but sleep. Cupid found her and "wiped away the sleep." Cupid goes to Jupiter for help against Venus, Jupiter only asks him for a woman of "outstanding beauty."

The Wedding Feast: Jupiter marries Cupid and Psyche even though he sees Cupid as a reckless and "hotheaded" boy. Jupiter also makes Psyche immortal.
Now we are back to the story with the old woman, young woman, and ass. Lucius gets hurt and the robbers want to toss him over a cliff.

The Escape:  Lucius tries to muster the courage to escape. When he tries, the old woman tried to stop him. Then out of nowhere, the young woman frees Lucius and climbs onto his back to win her own freedom as well. The "..princess fled her captors, riding on an ass." Such a funny image to leave off with.

Google Doc Dictionary Tech Tip

For this week's tech tip, I chose to learn how to use the dictionary function on Google Docs. The word that I chose was, definitely. For some crazy reason, I have always had trouble spelling this silly word!

Week 1 Introduction: My Journey

Hey everyone! My name is Jordan Wiebe and I am currently a senior here at OU from Muskogee, Oklahoma. I am a Health and Exercise Science Major with a Minor in Biology. I am currently in the secondary application process for medical school and have been accepted to a school in North Carolina so far! I am beyond ecstatic to have the opportunity to start the next chapter in my life and learn the arts of holistic medicine. I have only applied to osteopathic schools after having read the book, "The DOs: Osteopathic Medicine in America," by Norman Gevitz. I did not know much about the differences and similarities between osteopathic and allopathic medicine until discovering Gevitz's book and learning about the history and principles of the osteopathic profession. My hope is that one day I will be able to work rural areas to provide medical attention for those who need it most.

In my leisure time (what little I do have), I volunteer at a non-profit coffee shop on Campus Corner called Second Wind Coffeehouse. Working there has given me the chance to learn a really neat skill in creating gourmet espresso drinks and has also allowed me to meet a variety of wonderful people.

For a bit of a deeper look into my personal life, I am the eldest of three kids with a brother in his senior year of high school and a sister in the 8th grade. I also have one adorable dachshund named Buddy who is almost twelve years old and is pretty much my child! I have been to eight countries outside the United States so far and absolutely love traveling and experiencing new cultures and idea. 

Well, that's a little dive into my life and I hope you enjoyed getting to know me a little bit better. I look forward to reading everyone's writing assignments throughout the semester!

(Image Information: Personal photo of myself from my apprenticeship in Haiti; Photo from July 2014)

Week 1: My Storybook Favorites

The first storybook that caught my attention was Miss Porcupine's Therapy Show. I clicked on the link to this storybook based on my curiosity of the significance of using a porcupine at the leading character in a mythology and folklore course. After reading the introduction, I thought that the author's idea of presenting each of her stories using a talk show was a very interesting approach. I also thought that it was fun that the author used undergraduates as the talk show audience since her online audience were also undergraduates.
As for the design, I thought that the author did a beautiful job. The title of the storybook looked fantastic and I loved the red theme!

The second storybook that I found an interest in was Goddess Talk, which - to my surprise - was written by a friend of mine! I thought that the authors webpage design was very nice and made me think an old Roman script. Her introduction was also captivating enough to leave me in suspense and wanting to read more to get the whole story. I think that being able to allude to future plots for the stories in the introduction is an important skill as a writer.

The final storybook I picked for this assignment was E! True Hollywood Story: Women of the Bible. I feel like it was a very bold move for the author to mix the very gossip oriented show, E! with women from the Bible! In regards to the page design, I thought that the opening page had a very beautiful picture, but I was expecting something a little more "snappy" since the title had E! in it. This author also utilized a talk show style storybook, which I felt would be a little awkward at first, but after reading the introduction, I thought that it read very nicely.

Week 1: Un-Textbook Rambles

Week 4: Since I took the Indian Epics course over a year ago, I thought it would be really fun to look back at some of the stories from the Ramayana.  So for week 4, I plan to test my memory and utilize the information I already have for my writing assignments.

Week 6: After spending three weeks in Haiti this summer, I learned quite a bit about their beliefs in voodoo as a religion. Voodoo arose from the slaves coming from different parts of Africa and other countries where they were previously slaves and ending up in Haiti where they did not all speak the same language or hold the same religious beliefs. Voodoo became their mixture of belief that was held very dearly as a tool to help them get through their hard lives. I think that some stories from the voodoo culture would be incredibly interesting to read more about. For that reason, I have chosen Western African Folktales as my reading for week 6.

Week 9: For this week I would have liked to read some folktales about the Choctaw culture, since that is the Native American culture I am most familiar with, but I guess branching out of the bubble is not such a bad thing either! So I have chosen to read about the Indian culture I know the least about - the Alaskan (Judson) Indian stories.

Week 11 and 12: I am very excited for these two weeks! I traveled to several counties in the British Isles a few years ago and was fascinated by the land and the culture. Because Scotland and Whales were two of my favorites, I have chosen to read The Celtic Fairy Tales one week and The Welsh Tales (Thomas) for the other. I think that it will be interesting to learn more about the dynamics of their cultures based on these stories.

Week 1 Storytelling: Think Before you Ask

Pavlin soared through the air while dipping and twisting in the refreshing summer breeze. He climbed as high as he could only to let gravity take hold of him in an adrenaline pumping dive. Pavlin loved the time he spent in the air instead of on the ground with the other birds from the farm. He didn't feel alive down there as he did when he was in the sky letting the wind drift between his feathers. The other birds treated him differently. They all had colorful draping tail feathers or a memorizing checkered coat. Palvin just had plain gray feathers. He wanted the other birds to gaze at him in wander as he did towards them. He wanted to be unique.

(Summer Sky: Wikimedia Commons)

 As the sun started to set, Palvin became aware of his exhaustion after hours of soaring through the sky dreaming about beautiful glossy feathers. He started his decent towards the farm and his warm nest in the birdhouse for a well-deserved rest. As Palvin was getting close to landing he heard a gentle voice. "Palvin," Juno cooed. "Palvin, because you are my favorite of all the birds and because you so desperately want others see your external beauty, I will grant you your wish," Juno told him. "When you wake up in the morning, you will have the most extraordinary tail feathers any one has ever seen," she said.

Palvin was overwhelmingly excited! He rushed into the barn and restlessly settled in for the night. The next morning as Palvin stood up an yawned, his back end felt excessively heavy. He jerked his head around and saw the most glorious display of feathers he had ever witnessed and they were HIS! He rushed outside and expanded his tail feathers so that everyone could see his new found beauty. The roosters and chickens gazed with astonishment at the beautiful and colorful array of long feathers before them.

(Pretty Peacock)

Palvin cried out with glee and jumping into the air with the intentions of showing off his new tail to the rest of the world. He made it about ten feet before falling back to the earth. Confused, Palvin tried again and again until it finally hit him - he couldn't soar through the skies anymore. He couldn't fly. Plavin had exchanged the thing he loved most because he wanted to be the most magnificent bird only in terms of looks. He had to live out the rest of his life dragging his mistake behind him and jealously watching the other birds in the sky.


Authors Note: I used the fable, "The Peacock," to write my storytelling post this week. To make the story a little more fun to get into, I gave the peacock in the fable the name Palvin, which translated to peacock. In this fable, the peacock originally did not have the beautiful feathers that we see today. Juno had granted him the feathers after having been begged to do so by the peacock. At first the peacock seemed happy with his new found beauty, but when he realized he had lost his ability to soar through the skies, he was distraught. I kept with that same general theme, but changed the begging to Juno into Juno watching Palvin in the skies dreaming about beautiful feathers and then granting that wish.

Bibliography:
"The Peacock" by Aesop, from Aesop's Fables (2006). Web Source: Aesop's Fables

Week 1; My Favorite Place is Scotland

The Mountains of Scotland, The summer between my junior and senior year of high school, I participated in a program called People to People where I was able to go to England, Ireland, Scotland, and Whales all in one trip. Although each of those countries were beautiful, the landscape and culture of Scotland stole my heart. I'm sure you will agree with me that the picture below captures a piece of Scotland's magnificent mountain side!

                                                 
                                             (Cuillin Mountains of Scotland: Wikimedia Commons)

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