Tech Tip: SoundCloud Embedded

I love this tech tip because I always want to know how to embed some music clip in my story to create the mood.  This tip is very useful and easy.  I wish I've done it earlier in the semester so I could add SoundCloud to all of my story.

Extra Reading Notes: Europa Unit

The Cinder-Maid Story – This is another version of Cinderella, but it was a bit more dark since it had scene about the step-sisters cutting parts of their foot off. One detail that is exactly the same for every version of Cinderella story is that the father seems to know Cinderella’s situation, but he had done nothing to help her. If I am going to write a story about this, I want to either explain why he neglects Cinderella’s situation or why he is unaware of her situation. I want to keep the same story but want to clarify the part where I as a reader was confused on.

Step-sister cut her feet. Link

Beauty and the Beast – Again, I don’t know why Bella’s father asks her to live the Beast for his sake. Yes, that he loved her, but he didn’t seem to do much in protecting her. The Beast did give him any poison or sending people to spy on the father to see if he kept his promise, but the father still did what he promise even it might cost the life of his daughter. If I am retelling this story, I will go in deep in explaining why the father did what he did instead of a simple detail.

The Language of Animals - In this story, Jack had a horrible father who wanted to kill his son due to a prophecy that his son told him. Yet, Jack was filial that he forgave his father and brought him to live with him after the prophecy had completed. I want to retell the story in that it was the Jack’s teacher who wanted to kill Jack out of jealousy of his talent, and Jack’s parents had to run away with Jack to protect him. During the process, the parents found out their son’s gift, and when they returned, Jack punished the teacher, who tended to kill all the talented kids in the town.

Bibliography. Joseph Jacobs. Europa's Fairy Book.  Link

Story: A Ghost Mother

In the small town, there was a young couple who were deeply in love with each other. After married, they longed to have a child, a fruit of their love. Two years later, the woman was pregnant, and her husband was overjoyed with the new. The villagers were happy for them.

As the young couple waited for their child, they dreamed of their wonderful future like how many kids they will have, how many boys, how many girls, and who will their children look like more. On her delivery day, the moment that supposed to the happiest moment of their lives ended tragically.

The woman had a difficult delivery. When the midwife asked the husband of whom he wanted to save, the man could not speak word while tear streamed down his face. Unlike her undecided husband, in the mid of the pain, the woman told the midwife to save her child. After it seemed like endless hours, the midwife brought out the weak baby, who was injured during the delivery, and a bad new. She could not save the mother.

Holding the newborn son, the man broke down in tear. The young child seemed to know about the loss of his mother and influenced by the misery of his father, he joined his father in crying.

Looking at the newborn child, the fruit of their love and the life that his beloved wife sacrificed her life to save, the man decided to seize his mourning. He stood up and went in the delivery room to see his wife one last time. Seeing the lifeless body lay on the bloody bed, he saw the smile on her face. He knew that she had no regret in her decision. At this moment, he promised his wife that he would use all in his power to take care of their child and raise him up to be a wonderful young man.

After the funeral of his wife, the man was troubled. How could he nurse his son? He had no experience, and both of his and his wife’s parents already passed away. He doubted his ability of raise his child. He ended up hire an old woman to take care of his son during his early age.

The strange thing happened. The child cried nonstop during the day, and he would not drink milk. Yet, at night, the child was quiet. Seeing the child not drinking his milk, the man became worried.

One night, he visited his son’s room to see how his son sleeping. He saw the old nurse already returned to her room. Her action of leaving his young son alone and went to sleep angered him. He decided that he would fire her the next day and find a caring nurse.

As he about to open the of his child’s room, he heard a soft humming. Terrified of the thoughts who would be in his son’s room at this time, he wanted to storm in but afraid that the person inside would hurt his son. The man softly opened the window and looked inside.

He saw that his son was cradled in the arm of a woman. As the woman turned side to side, he saw her face. The woman was his dead wife. Terror crept in his mind, but at the same time, he longed to see her face. It was only few days since her funeral, but he missed her so much. He knew this was her spirit. She must have worried that he could not take care of their child that her soul could not rest peacefully. Unknown why she did not visit him but only visit their child, he knew she must have her own reason. Determined to be a better father so his wife would not be worried, he stood outside the window to see how she takes care of the baby.

Mother and Child. Link

On the next day, he fired the lazy nurse. Every night, he stood outside his son’s room and learned how to take care of the baby from his wife. He saw her got milk from the cow and warmed it up before feeding their child. He saw how she changed the baby’s diaper, how she helped the baby burps, and how she put the child to sleep. During the day, he would apply the same techniques to take care of his son. Surprisingly, his son stopped crying during the day and drank the milk happily.

This situation continued until the child’s first birthday. At this time, the man had become a better father. He loved how things were: his child grew up healthily and he could see his wife at night. Yet, that very night, thing changed. When he repeated his daily routine of watching his wife feeding and putting their son to sleep, she turned around and looked at him. He froze not because he was afraid of her, but he did not want anything to change.

His wife looked at him and smiled. She told him that she knew he stood there all the time, but she could not speak or look at him because if she did it would be the last they see each other. He asked why did she did it now when she knew the consequences because they could live forever pretending that she did not know he knew about her existence. She replied that her time was gone, and now, she was content to see that he could take care of their child and himself. She said she had to go because she wanted him to move on and find his new happiness instead of mourning for her death. Then, she handed him their son and kissed the man for the last time before she disappeared. The man held his son and cried.

Time passed. The young baby grew up to be fine young man, standing next to his old father in front of his mother’s grave.

Author’s Note

I based this story on the Dead Mother in the Russian Fairy Tales. The original version ended with the woman disappeared and the child died after the husband and the kinsmen stormed into the room and saw her nursing the child. I think the original ending was confusing and sad. In my version, I still kept most details, but I changed that fact the husband’s love overcame his fear. I saw made a change about the baby’s death and explain why the woman’s spirit returned. I hope to keep the theme while make the story less tragic.

 Bibliography.  W. R. S. Ralston.  Russian Fairy Tales. Link

Reading Notes: Russian Tales - Part B

The Witch Girl is a story about a girl who was a witch. She roamed around at night and kill people in the village. Her cruel act was stopped by Cossack, a stranger who rested in the house that she intended to kill. I can write about why the girl wants to kill the people in her village.

The Headless Princess is a story about princess, who was also a witch. A boy accidentally saw her took her head off and dressing it. The princess set out to kill the boy by requesting him to read the psalm for three nights in front of her coffin. The boy’s teacher taught him how to protect himself. I can write why the princess is the witch and how the boy retells this story to younger generation.

The Warlock is a story about a greedy Warlock, who didn’t want anybody to have his money. So, before he dies, he told his children to send his daughter-in-law to watch his coffin. Each night, he rose up and killed his daughter-in-law, but his third daughter-in-law outsmarted him and killed him. I can write the story about the warlock feared that his daughter-in-laws would split his money and so he pretended to die to punish them.

Warlock. Link

The Fiddler in Hell is a story about a fiddler who went to hell and saw the punishment of a greedy man. I can write a how the fiddler attempts to convince the rich man’s son to share the money to the poor and how he convinces the King to build road and bridge to improve the peasants’ lives. I want to add my own twist that it was too difficult to convince the rich son and the King to share their wealth. The fiddler ends up taking them to a trip to hell to see what the greedy wealth can bring to them in the afterlife. I want to write this story as lesson passed down from generation teaching people to be generous with others.

Bibliography.  W. R. S. Ralston.  Russian Fairy Tales. Link

Reading Notes: Russian Folktales - Part A

The story of The Dead Mother is very sad and very short. I felt like all my questions are not answered, and this hanging feeling annoyed me. Yet, I can create many things for this story. I can write about how the dead mother is very worried for leaving her young child before with no mother to take care of him, and she still loves her husband too much to pass to the netherworld. I can write how her soul lingers behind and try to take care of her loved ones. However, instead of having the old woman who first became suspicious of the child’s behavior, I want it to be the husband. I want to write how her husband stop hire old woman and help take care of the child himself. I also want to write how the husband and wife can communicate. I want to write a better ending instead of the dead mother left and her child died while the husband and kinsmen were left with terrors.

Mother Feeding her Child. Link

The story of The Treasure is very interesting. The old man in the story is such a loving husband, and he got the reward himself. I think to him the treasure only use was to give his wife a proper burial when no one was willing to help him. I can write about how God was touched by the man’s love to his dead wife and want to help him. In addition, God also want to test the old man’s mind whether he is a good man who deserves help or a man blinded by wealth. So, when the village’s pope used God’s name in vain for his selfish purpose, God tests both of them. The old man who lived true to his heart and valued God more than gold would have his treasure back while the greedy pope who disguised himself as the devil to get the money would receive nothing but a monstrous appearance like his heart.

Treasure Box. Link

 
Bibliography.  W. R. S. Ralston.  Russian Fairy Tales. Link

Review: My Regret

I really regret for not reading the class announcement completely. I tended to skim through the first few paragraphs and then proceed to do the module. Sadly, I missed out something that I really want to do. It was free Tai Chi lesson this week. I was able to go, but I did not aware of it due to my laziness for not reading the whole Thursday’s announcement. I should start reading the announcement for carefully next time.

Tai Chi. Link

Famous Last Words: Effort Paid Off

I am actually very happy this week. Earlier in the week, I spent my whole Monday dedicated to study for my hardest class this semester. I was very stressed out for this class because I will have to delay my graduation for a year if I failed this class. My professor for this class is known for his strict grading and willingness to fail senior. In addition, I scored under average for the first two exams for this class. So, I tried to study much harder than the last two times and pushed away other assignments in order to focus on studying for this class. I was very happy that my effort paid off. I scored 15 points higher than the average this time. I couldn’t help but smiling for a whole day. Besides this, most of my classes in the upcoming week are canceled due to the meeting that all of my Chemical Engineering professors required to attend at San Francisco. That means no lecture and lab. Not mentioning after next week, it’s Thanksgiving Break. Yay!!! I am so excited because I will go to Texas to visit my oldest brother, whom I have not seen since his graduation last year. Since I want to enjoy the great break before the finals coming, I planned to complete as many assignments for this class as possible. For this week, I think I did well in my story, especially my last story for my project. The only problem is I went over the word limit, which required me to go back to my story and revised it. Besides this, I feel like I did pretty well in all my class. In my personal life, I tried to bake sweet bread for my mom and myself. After spending almost three hours of preparing and baking, my bread turned out like cake not bread. It still tasted okay but not the bread texture that I wanted. I will continue to bake the bread until I succeed.

My expression. Link