Tech Tip: Blogger Template

I have had my design for my blog since the first few weeks of this semester. The reason for choosing this blue and watery design was because of my blog title and the theme of my portfolio. I knew that this design would set the tone for my portfolio very well since I primarily wrote about fish stories. Having a design can greatly enhance the readers experience depending on how you customize it. Many of our classmates have their own unique design for their blogs. Each personal design tells a bit about their personality and creativity.

Week 13: Review

Beware of multitasking

My favorite graphic for this week is from the proverb laboratory. The proverb "He that hunts two hares will catch neither" basically says that people who multitask are most likely never to get either job done. I think that this is a very true statement, but there are very few people who actually are intelligent enough to multitask. Even so, I don't think that people should multitask in certain situations such as texting and driving which could be very dangerous.

Fishy Portfolio Guide

The Betta and The Tetra
This is a story about two fish who live in a tank together and are quite bored. One day they decided to play tricks on one another.

The Super Shiny Goldfish
There once was a shiny bubble in the Lake of Plentiful that burst and gave life to a shiny goldfish who was as bright as the sun.

Tangy's Creation
In the beginning there was a fish who created the world from bubbles and dirt as well as his own life.

The Super Shiny Goldfish Vs. Dr. Evil Fish 
The heroic tale of the Super Shiny Goldfish against the evil Dr. Evil Fish in the battle for the Lake of Plentiful.

Ray the Super Shiny Goldfish and the Beautiful Serpent
After the battle with Dr. Evil Fish, Ray is dealing with a personal issue and bumps into a beautiful serpent that could change his life.

Athena and The Lost City of Atlantis
Athena is an Atlantic cod who loves to roam around and often swims far from her group. During one of her explorations, Athena gets lost and discovers something new that was once forgotten.

Week 12 Storytelling: Athena and The Lost City of Atlantis

Atlantic cod

Deep in the Atlantic Ocean, there lived an Atlantic cod named Athena. Athena was in a group of other cod for a large portion of her life. She was quite the odd one out of the group since she had a tendency to wander around more than any of the other cod.

One day while the group of cod were swimming around near the center of the Atlantic Ocean, Athena decided to swim a little farther away from the group. As she swam farther and farther away from her group, she saw some interesting figures in the distance that got bigger as she got closer to them.

Worried that she would get lost, Athena looked back to see where the group was. When she looked back, all she could see was just the vast blue ocean.

“HEY, GUYS!” she shouted. “WHERE ARE YOU?”

No one replied to Athena. She tried swimming back to the group but she did not know how far she had swum or which way she came from. After swimming for a long time, Athena was still in the same spot she had been in when she saw the interesting figures.

“Why do I keep ending up in this same spot?” wondered Athena. “Hmmm. Maybe there might be some fish near those weird-looking things.”

Athena then began to swim closer to the distant figures. As she got closer, she started to see buildings, statues, and wagons. Athena was curious about all these new things that started to appear out of the deep blue ocean and she swam faster to see them up close.

“What are these weird things? Why are they here? Did fish create this?” asked Athena to herself.

City of Atlantis as portrayed by Plato

 Athena swam around this underwater city looking at every statue and every building. She spent a long time looking around and noticed a really big building that was right in the center of the whole area. Athena swam right up to the building and saw some words that were inscribed on the front of it.

“The City of Atlantis. Huh. I wonder what that could be,” pondered Athena as she entered the structure.

When Athena entered the building she saw more stone figures shaped like humans next the walls of the hallway. However, these were different from the ones she saw outside of the building because they were talking and moving around.

“Whoa. What are these things? How come they’re making noises?” asked Athena.

Athena watched the moving stone humans in amazement and listened to their conversations. She was so intrigued by them that she almost forgot to ask them how to get out of the city.

“Hey, you. How do I get out of here?” said Athena to one of the statues.

The statue just kept talking to the others as if it could not hear Athena or even acknowledge that she was even there. With no reply, Athena swam towards the statue and rammed her head into the chest of it.

“Hey! What just poked me?” asked the statue.

“What are you talking about? There’s nothing there,” said another statue.

After Athena’s attempt to get the statue’s attention, they resumed talking as if she wasn’t even there.

“Am I invisible to them?” wondered Athena as she ventured down the hallway towards the center of the building.

When Athena reached the end of the hallway, she saw a big circular room with many more statues talking and walking around. She swam above them near the ceiling to observe their actions.

Athena saw that there were two statues holding long sticks with a sharp triangular tip and a large rectangular board standing at the entrance of the hallway where she came from. Then from the hallway to about two-thirds of the circular room, there were statues with wagons that had stone human food shaped items that were being traded with the other statues that were walking around.

A Roman soldier that is closely similar to the guards in the story

“What are they doing? Why are they here? Are they fish? They don’t look like fish,” wondered Athena. “Hey, that guy looks a bit peculiar.”

She swam towards the back of the room where there was a statue that wore an interesting looking hat sitting on a large chair. Next to the statue with the hat were two more statues with sharp sticks and long boards.

“King Atlas, your people request a few words of wisdom from you,” said one of the statues to the one on the chair.

“Alright then,” said King Atlas as he stood up.

All of the other statues, as well as Athena, stopped and looked at King Atlas as he stepped forward from his throne.

A king sitting on his throne with a large sword

“People of Atlantis, beware the yellow snow. Do not consume it because you will get sick and die,” advised King Atlas in his booming voice and sat back down.

"What is this 'yellow snow' that he is talking about?" wondered Athena.

The whole room cheered with happiness. Then after the words of their king, they all went back to trading and chatting.

“That King Atlas guy seems to be the leader of these stone humans. I must go and see if I can talk to him,” said Athena.

She swam next to King Atlas and began to speak to him, but in that instant Athena remembered that no one could see or hear her. Athena then wondered if she was ever going to get out of the City of Atlantis and be with her group again.

Author’s Note. The adventure of Athena and the Lost City of Atlantis was inspired by the Looking-Glass House from the Looking-Glass unit. Both female characters venture to a world that is different from their own. In the original story, Alice goes through a mirror world while Athena somehow stumbles upon the Lost City of Atlantis. My story goes through the views of a fish instead of a human like the original story. The main characters both witness something that is not part of their own world. I switched the species and the settings to create a new environment where magical and mythical things can happen. In Alice’s mirror world, she encounters tiny chess pieces that are walking and talking about. Even though she can interact with them, they cannot see or hear her at all. I used this aspect of the story to when Athena meets the statues in the large building.

I added the image of an Atlantic cod just in case some readers do not know how they looked. The Atlantic cod is a shoaling fish which mean that they only group for social reasons and feeding. The picture of the portrayed City of Atlantis gives some visual thought of how it could look.

Bibliography. “Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There” by Lewis Carroll (1871). Web Source: Internet Archive

Reading Diary A: Through the Looking-Glass

Through the Looking-Glass

Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter

Looking-Glass House:

This portion of the “Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There” starts off where Alice is beginning to investigate the mirror. When Alice begins to go through the mirror, I feel like she might be on some sort of medication. Being able to see chess pieces move by themselves and being self-aware would be a scary thing for me to witness. I don’t know how Alice didn’t freak out after seeing them unless it was all in her head.

Tweedledum and Tweedledee from Telltale Games: The Wolf Among Us

Tweedledum and Tweedledee:

Alice approaches two fat men who are standing very still. Once again, I don’t know why Alice would consider going up and looking at the two. After a weird introduction and greeting by the twins, they begin dancing around about four times. This part is funny because Tweedledum and Tweedledee are fat and cannot dance any more. The twins are still a bit confusing and don’t even bother answering Alice’s question and instead they decide to tell her a poem.

The Walrus and the Carpenter:

The Walrus and the Carpenter is the longest poem that the twins decide to tell Alice. The two characters are walking across a seashore and ask an odd question about how long it would take maids to clear the beach. Then the Walrus asks some oysters to come and walk with them. After a decent walk, all the oysters are out of breath. The young oysters fell for the Walrus and the Carpenter’s trick and were all eaten by the two. It was weird how the oysters had feet and followed them to be eaten. The old oyster was wise enough to not follow the two and stay in the oyster-bed. In the end of the poem, the Walrus is sad that they tricked the oysters but reveals that he ate most of them.

Ray the Super Shiny Goldfish and the Beautiful Serpent

Days passed by after Ray and the troubling of goldfish encounter with Dr. Evil Fish and his henchfish. Since then the Super Shiny Goldfish started to earn a heroic reputation all over the Lake of Plentiful.

Back at their cave, Ray and his friends were playing around and having fun. Soon Ray did not feel like playing with everyone.

“What’s the matter, Ray?” asked one of the goldfish.

“Oh, nothing. I just don’t really feel like playing right now,” answered Ray with a sad tone.

“Oh, really? Well, if, you feel like playing some more we’ll be right here,” said another goldfish.

Ray swam out of the cave and into the lake. As he swam around the lake, all the fish that saw Ray greeted him with the utmost respect and thanked him for saving the lake from Dr. Evil Fish. Ray just smiled and swam away trying to find some sort of solitude from everyone.

“What’s wrong with me? Why do I feel so lonely?” questioned Ray.

Small Lushan waterfall

The Super Shiny Goldfish then swam to the farthest part of the lake where a small waterfall was. He positioned himself under the rushing water and went into a meditation. Ray meditated for several hours trying to find out what was going on with him.

After coming out of his meditation, Ray realized that it was getting dark and that the others would be worried about him. He started slowly making his way back to the cave while he used his power to glow dimly so he could see.

About halfway back to the cave Ray noticed a change in the lake. The lake was much quieter than usual about that time. Ray immediately concealed his glow in hopes of not attracting whatever it was that made everyone run away so quickly back home.

“Aaahhh! I can’t see anything!” a voice screamed out.

Ray felt something whizzing by a few times so close that if he stuck his fin out, he would have hit whatever was going so fast.

“Maybe one of the guppies is lost,” thought Ray.

He then grew bright and saw whatever was swimming around so fast was right in front of him.

“Aaaahhh!” screamed the frightened thing crashing into Ray.

“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Calm down there. It just me, Ray the Super Shiny Goldfish,” said Ray trying to calm the aquatic animal down.

“It got so dark so suddenly. Where am I?” asked the aquatic animal.

“This is the Lake of Plentiful. Who are y-,” said Ray pausing to take a look at the beautiful creature that just crashed into him.

“My name is Lana. I’m a water serpent. Sorry for swimming into you like that,” apologized Lana.

“Uhhh,” said Ray dazzled by the beautiful Lana.

Milotic swimming around

 “Umm. Hello? Are you okay? I didn’t hit you that hard did I?” asked Lana.

“Uh, um, no I’m okay. I’m just uhh. Yeah, I’m okay. I’m okay,” replied Ray trying to not act so awkward.

“Hehe. You’re talking kind of funny. Do you know if there is a place I can stay?” wondered Lana.

“Y-yeah. I have a place you can stay at for the night or however long you would like to stay,” answered Ray still trying to collect himself.

The two swam back to the cave talking about where Lana came from and why she came to the Lake of Plentiful. Once they arrived at the cave, Ray used his ability to brighten the way to where the others were at.

“Hey, Ray! Where have you bee-? Whoa! Who’s the beauty?” asked one of the goldfish who was stunned by the beauty of Lana.

“I just went out for a long swim and bumped into Lana here who is a water serpent from several lakes over. She’ll be staying here for the time being,” answered Ray.

Ray led Lana to his side of the cave and said that she could sleep on his rock bed while he slept on a spare bed. The two never really fell asleep because they stayed up all night talking about their lives.

The next morning came by and Ray showed Lana around the lake and introduced her to all the inhabitants. They enjoyed each other’s company so much. Ray started feeling much happier as he spent time with Lana.

A heavenly sky

 After a couple days of spending time with one another, Lana asked Ray, “Hey, Ray. How would you like to come with me to the Heavenly Waters of the Sky?”

Puzzled, Ray asked, “What is the Heavenly Waters of the Sky? Where is that?”

“It is where all great aquatic creatures go to become immortal,” replied Lana.

“Let me think about it, okay?” said Ray.

“I will only give you until tomorrow afternoon to decide,” said Lana with a stern face.

Ray went back into the cave and lay on his bed thinking about what to do. If he left with Lana, then he would be the happiest he could be with such a beautiful serpent. However, he would leave behind his friends who he promised he would lead till the end of time. Ray became stressed over the situation and passed out from thinking too much.

When Ray woke up, it was nearly afternoon. He knew that Lana would be waiting outside of the cave for his decision so he swam out to meet her. All his friends watched Ray as he swam out of the cave.

“Hello, Lana,” said Ray.

“Have you made your decision?” asked Lana.

“Yeah, I have. I choose to stay here in the Lake of Plentiful with my friends,” answered Ray.

“What? You turn down a once in a life time chance to be immortal to be with your friends?” questioned Lana.

“Yep. I made a promise and I’m going to keep it,” said Ray.

“Suit yourself then,” said Lana as she revealed her wings and flew straight up out of the lake.

Ray turned around and swam back to the cave.

“You guys wanna party?” asked Ray.

Author’s Note: The Celtic story that inspired “Ray the Super Shiny Goldfish and the Beautiful Serpent” was Connla and the Fairy Maiden. The only aspect that they share in common is the appearance of a beautiful being who came to take a character away to become immortal beings. My characters are mostly fish and a serpent while the original story has human characters and a Fairy Maiden. Another difference between the two stories is that Connla chooses to go with the Fairy Maiden to the Plains of the Ever Living while Ray chose to stay with his friends and keep his promise.

The story of “Ray the Super Shiny Goldfish and the Beautiful Serpent” happens after Ray’s previous encounter with Dr. Evil Fish. Days after Dr. Evil Fish’s defeat, Ray has a problem about being lonely and in need of something new. The Fairy Maiden is replaced with Lana the beautiful water serpent. Both females offer the characters to a life of immortality, but that’s where I added my twist to the story where Ray stays with his friends because of a promise he made with them.

The pictures I use helps my readers imagine how the waterfall looks like as well as how Lana looks. I imagined Lana to look very similar to the Pokemon Milotic who is said to be the most beautiful of all Pokemon. The picture of the heavenly sky gives a rough imagery of how the Heavenly Waters of the Sky looks.

Bibliography. "Celtic Fairy Tales" by Joseph Jacobs (1892). Web Source: Sacred Text Archive