Feedback Thoughts

I am someone that is pretty good at receiving feedback, even negative.  I have played sports my entire life and was given "constructive criticism" every single day.  But, I would be lying if I said it NEVER got to me.  I enjoyed the article, "5 Tips for Taking Feedback like a Champ." I especially liked the point about "reminding yourself of growth areas."  It reminds people that there is so much more to learn.  It also sets the reminder that nobody is perfect and mistakes are okay.  We can learn from them.  I also enjoyed the article, "14 Signs Your Perfectionism has Gotten Out of Control." I know that I am a perfectionist in certain aspects.  I always want to do a good job.  Some of the points like "you take everything personally" and "you're a big procrastinator" really hit home for me! While receiving feedback can be hard, I personally have a harder time giving it to people.  I am always worried about hurting peoples' feelings or making them feel like their work is not good enough.  So, that is something I will struggle with.

Sometimes I feel like this dog (StaticFlickr)

Topic Brainstorm

I have chosen Creation Stories as one of my potential story topics.  This was interesting to me because every belief system seems to have its own creation story.  Some are very similar and some are very different.  I have no prior knowledge of any popular creation stories in India.  I am very curious to see what I can find and learn about these stories.  I plan on just coming up with creative twists on the stories that have already been produced.  Here is a link to a story that I thought looked promising: Samudra-manthan.

It is also likely that I have Love stories as my main topic.  I really am a sucker for a good love story so I will probably enjoy recreating them! I do not have any prior knowledge on any Indian love stories.  I would plan on making these stories happy, rather than sad and twisted.  A good start would be this link: Kamadeva.

 What we normally think of when we think of love (Pixabay)

My third possibility is having The Gods/Devas as my topic. I have always been interested in other culture's worship habits.  America is primarily monotheistic so it is always interesting to read about places where it is very different.  Again, I will probably just try to come up with a creative way to retell these stories.  I imagine I would try to incorporate several gods, rather than just focusing in on one.  Here is a good link that I would probably start with: Deva (Hinduism).

Lastly, one of my topics could be on Nagas.
I have never heard of this before.  To be honest, I chose this one at random.  But, I am happy I did because it seems rather interesting and different from anything else I have read before.  I also feel like I could write a wide range of stories on this topic.  I look forward to doing more research but here is a good link to start with: Naga.
 

Week 2 Story: Goblin Mountain

Centuries ago on a mountain called Beylon lived a village of goblins.  They were all women.   They were very content living without men but from time to time, they liked to entice them into their community.  Nobody else really lived on Beylon, but it was a popular spot for hiking and camping.  If the she-goblins were looking to attract some men to their village, they would throw a giant party.  They possessed magic powers so they were able to make it appear like there were hundreds of people having a great time.  In reality, this was all a facade because they did not want the party to look suspicious.  Men would be hiking or camping and would hear music and wander over to the village.  At this point, they women would invite them in.  They would even offer them a home-cooked meal and nice place to stay.  This was a lot more appealing to the men than a tent.  The women, however, had a separate agenda for the men.  They would make these men fall in love with them but they did not love them back.  In fact, the she-goblins planned to use their magic to make the men completely obedient to them.  They essentially made them their slaves and would keep them as such until they got tired of them.  Once the women decided they no longer wanted the men, they would dispose of them in an utterly disturbing way.  They would turn them into dinner. 

One day, the she-goblins were planning one of their wicked parties and everything seemed to be going smoothly.  They had all been matched up with men of their choosing and began their routine.  One goblin, Ashla, decided she wanted to wait to cast her spell.  She was curious to see if she could get him to fall in love without doing it deceitfully.  Indeed, he did fall in love with her.  But something else happened.  She fell in love with him too.  Being in love, she could not see herself betraying him.  She reached out to the other women.  She proposed that maybe their way of life was wrong.  Many disagreed, but a couple wondered if she might be right and decided to test the waters for themselves.  Eventually, several she-goblins also fell in love with their men.  Everyone else in the village started to notice and got jealous of the connections of the other couples.  Everyone started to try it.  After a while, no one wanted to go back to their old, evil ways.  The women decided that living in harmony with men was not actually so bad.  They were all equals and could help each other tremendously.  The mountain of Beylon was forever changed.

 

 

"Not your average goblin" (Flickr) 

Authors Note: This story was based on Goblin City.  In this story, there were she-goblins that lived on an island.  They would force travelers to marry them and would eventually eat them once they were sick of them.  One day, a ship wrecked and the she-goblins were going about their normal routines to get these men to marry them.  They would sneak down at night to eat the previous men they had tricked.  Normally, all the men would be asleep, but one man woke up to hearing his wife gobbling down on some other man.  He informed the other men and convinced some of them to try to escape.  There was a fairy that was not such a fan of the goblins.  She decided to help the men out by sending down a flying horse to save those who wanted to escape.  The horse came and saved those who wanted it.  The men that stayed were toast.

Bibliography. "Goblin City" from The Giant Crab, and Other Tales from Old India by W. H. D. Rouse.  Web Source

Reading Notes: Turtles and Goblins

All of these stories were different and interesting to me. I especially liked the one called, Two Turtle Jatakas.  I think it was people can relate to it in a since.  Just because we are smart in one situation, does not mean we are smart in all.  And, just because we make one wrong decision, does not mean we ALWAYS make the wrong decision.  I also liked the story called, Goblin City.  Honestly, this one was just weird.  But it was something that I could see myself recreating so that there is a happier ending for everyone.  I look forward to putting my own spin on some stories.

Goblin cartoon (SketchPort)

Reading Options

I'll be honest...this was initially a little overwhelming! I did get a little confused because there were so many links to so many different things.  After browsing for a little while, I definitely found some things that interested me.  For Weeks 3-4, I will probably choose the PDE Ramayana.  Obviously the first reason I chose this was because it is free online, which makes my life a lot easier, but it also has an audio version which is nice!  Aside from practicality, I did like the different styles and all of the illustrations.  I look forward to diving into that more.  For Week 5, I'm thinking I will probably choose the online film option, Sita Sings the Blues. This is a little different from just reading a long story and sometimes I like to just sit back and watch!  Lastly, my choose in Week 6 will likely be the PDE Mahabharata.  I chose this for the exact same reasons I chose the PDE version in Weeks 3-4.  It's easier and more appealing to me!

Hanuman, Rama, and Lakshmana (Blogspot)