Storytelling Week 2: The Kingdom of Greed

King Dakin slammed the tankard on the table in celebration.  He was the most powerful king in all the kingdoms and he had just heard news of his first boy being born. As King Dakin finished the warm red wine, the rest of his council around him sang the kingdom’s hymn with celebration for the future king. Once finished, Dakin walked up the stone staircase to his chamber to meet his exhausted wife, Kiya, holding a sweet little boy. With a quick swift of the king’s massive hands, the little prince was in the arms of his father. King Dakin looked down in awe at his new boy and muttered, “Welcome to the world, Khal.”

Source: Castle 

As the years passed Khal grew into his large frame. He became known as one of the strongest men in the kingdom, even rivaling his father. He quickly became an expert with the long-blade sword, and even better with an eight-foot spear. It was rumored he could through it clear over the nearby mountain.  All the boys in the kingdom envied his strength and swordsmanship. By the time he was eighteen, he had seven siblings: six sisters and one half brother who was a hundred moons younger. The brother was born to his father’s mistress Harriet, which brought many issues to the kingdom. The question of which son would come into power and be the great king would now be an issue. Khal’s brother’s name was Kaydo. 

Now the half-brothers got along most of the time, but Kaydo was consumed with the greed of wanting to be the king instead of his brother. Furthermore, Harriet desired her son Kaydo to become king instead of Khal. They conspired a plan to kill the king and pin it on the eldest prince. The mother and son wrote the plans on a scroll in order to give to one of the guards that hated King Dakin as much as they. The guard would ensure that the men protecting the king when the assassination was going on would not stop the plan. The plan would be implemented  on the first hunt of the winter months.

Finally, on a cold winter night, the King went on a hunting trip with the two boys for sport. The men crept along the frozen stream, swords and spears in hand. Just when they were about to give up, they heard a rumbling noise in the distance. Out of nowhere jumped a huge boar with tusks longer than the spear Khal possessed. As the boar attacked the king, Khal launched his spear with blistering speed into the side of the boar’s head. The boar let out a deafening cry as it took its last breath. The king, breathing heavily, grinned at Khal looking at their hunting feat. Just as Khal and King Dakin embraced in victory, Kaydo slid his sword into the back of the King, mortally wounding him. Khal yelled out in horror, seeing his father fall down and breathe his last breath. Kaydo quickly turned his attention towards Khal.  He tried to give him the same fate as the King. In disbelief, Khal picked up his bloody spear out of the boar and in utter anger threw his spear into Kaydo’s stomach. Kaydo was slowly dying as Khal peered down at him. Kaydo realized what a terrible mistake it was to try and take over the kingdom from the brother and father that he loved. Greed and his mother’s advice had gotten in the way of what was truly important: family. . As he lay there dying, he spoke to Khal.

Source: Hog

“Khal, trying to murder our father is the worst decision I have ever made. My crooked mother Harriet persuaded me and forced me to commit these crimes. There is a scroll in my chamber that has the details of our plan written out. Goodbye, my brother, I will miss thee.”

Khal, in despair, walked back to the kingdom and then directly to Kaydo’s room. He turned Kaydo’s chamber upside down, finally locating the scroll. As he entered the kitchen, he looked right into Harriet’s face and dropped the scroll onto the table. In utter disbelief that Khal had located the scroll, the mistress broke down crying for she knew of her fate, death. Khal, in his mercy, spoke the words: “You shall be banished to the forest for every moon until darkness.” 

As Kaydo wept for what happened, he realized he was now the King. He had to be what everyone thought he was, a strong and intelligent King. As he walked out of the kitchen and onto the balcony, he looked out at his new kingdom where his father would no longer reside. He was  ready for a new beginning. 

Author's Note: My inspiration for the Prince Khal is of Rama and his excellent wielding of weapons, along with his strength and knowledge. In the Ramayana, Kaikeyi exploits King Dasaratha by forcing him to exile Rama. This is because she wants her son Bharata to be the king instead of Rama. This parallels my story in that the mother of the younger brother wants her son to be king. However, Bharata is very loyal to Rama unlike Kaydo with Khal. I wanted Khal to be like Rama, so he had sympathy for his father’s mistress. Instead of killing her, he banishes her. This is inspired by Rama himself because he is a very forgiving and empathetic king. This was great to include in my story because I feel that empathy is one of the best characteristics of a king. Khal is now the king of all these kingdoms as he watches the woman be exiled. Also, the mistress (Harriet) trying to make her son a king is inspired by Kaikeyi in the original Ramayana. Unlike in my story, though, Kaikeyi does not want to kill the king, but simply wants to get rid of the next in line key. Khal is very similar to Rama, but I do not think Rama would have killed his brother. The circumstances were different, though, so we do not know how Rama would have acted. Furthermore, I have gained inspiration for my story from the Game of Thrones book/movie series. Robert Baratheon, the king, is accidentally killed in a hunting trip. He is killed by the hog they are hunting, but in my story I changed what happened. I changed it into making the king be killed by the people he is with. 

Bibliography: Mackenzie, Donald, "Kaikeyi and Dasharatha." (1913). Web Source: Project Gutenberg

Martin, George, Game of Thrones.1996. Publisher: Bantam Books

Week 4 Review

Source: Weekly Announcements

This was my favorite announcement for this week. It is funny that people in the Middle Ages actually did the same things as we do nowadays. This may be why the Romans created the Roman Numeral numbering abbreviations. It would allow for people to quickly communicate without wasting too much time. I wonder if people will look back at some of our documents and find our abbreviations to by historically important. 

Week 4: Famous Last Words

This week’s reading was very interesting. I found that the Divine Archer did not differ very much in terms of the major plot points. It was a great reminder of the story and I understood what was going on much better than my first time reading the Ramayana. Also, I was able to better understand what the motives were for the characters. For example, Ravana’s sister Surpanakha had her nose sliced off and was beaten by Lakshmana. I missed this aspect in the original story so it was great realizing why Ravana was so mad in the first place to kidnap Sita. However, I did not necessarily enjoy the battle between Ravana and Rama. I felt it was extremely quick for such a vital plot point in the story.

My best writing was definitely my story I wrote this week. I focused on the two monkey brothers Vail and Sugriva. I am glad that I changed the story in that Sugriva and Vail had a relationship with Sita before they met Rama. This should make the motives more important. I felt that I wanted to include a reason for Sugriva to be so vengeful against his brother. I am looking forward to continuing my story with Sita and the two monkey brothers.

My other courses have really started to pick up. My homework assignments have been weekly and take a lot of time. My production homework took me and my friends more than 8 hours to complete. I also attended my first course on the drilling simulator at OU. This course allows you to simulate all of the surface operations such as tripping in and out of the well. (Tripping) I cannot wait for my other classes on the drilling simulator.

Souce: OU's Drilling Simulator

Finally, I watched the Super Bowl with all of my friends. I happy to announce that the Broncos won! Also, my 21^st birthday is this Tuesday so I am looking forward to celebrating with all of my friends.

Overall, it was a great week. 

Week 4 Learning By H.E.A.R.T. Challenge

Source: H.E.A.R.T. Challenges

This is very funny to me. I am have definitely been at this point during late night binge watching sessions. Although this is funny, it does display some real negative aspects of how people spend their time now. I think this can be connected and changed to both happiness and reading. Instead of watching Netflix by yourself, we should spend more time with friends and family. 

Week 4 Growth Mindset

I found this to be a very interesting meme. One of the big things to be successful is to constantly have that drive to learn. In the Petroleum Engineering field, there is so many things to learn because it is such a broad field. For example, you can work on facilities, production engineering, or even a drilling engineer. All of these are different and important in order to be a good PE.  It is vital to learn new topics every single day in order to work your way up in a company. Every person should make learning new things important in everyday life!

Source: Growth Mindset Blog

Week 4: Extra Credit Reading

This week I chose to read about the great rakshasa Kumbhakarna. He was one of my favorite characters and enemies in the original Ramayana. This was a great story that included how the gods, demons, and people on earth interacted. It is crazy that a demon can defeat a god in battle which is why I loved reading about him.

Source: Kumbhakarna

The army of Rama is frightened and worried to fight this mighty giant in battle. Many of the men are killed because of his great strength. I enjoyed the story having the animals/monkeys fighting the giant. The Ramayana is very detailed with many of the characters being animals.  Rama finally defeats the great giant. The battle scene is awesome and the way Rama defeats him is important to the Ramayana. Overall, this was great to focus on this character.

Week 4 Storytelling: Revenge Will Soon Come

The story begins in the great town of Bihar where two monkey brothers attended the nearby school. The eldest, Vali, was the most popular monkey in the school with all the girls, except one. Her name was Sita and she was dating the younger brother Sugriva. The story begins on a brisk night where Vali simply could not take not having the beautiful Sita any more:

“Sugriva, get up from your nap now! We are going to be late to the dance” Vali screamed up the tree to his younger brother. Vali was irritated.

Sugriva had stayed up all night writing a letter Sita, singing out loud whatever he wrote. They had been dating for a year now and he could not wait to give her the carefully written letter before the school dance. He yelled back at his borther, “I am coming brother! What, did you wake up on the wrong side of the limb today?” Both of them quickly ate their bananas for dinner and swung as quickly as possible to school.

As the two arrived, Sugriva quickly went searching for his Sita while Vali went straight for the food. Sugriva finally saw Sita. “Sita my love! You look so beautiful!” Sita was wearing a long, bright blue dress that went all the way to the ground. The two embraced and Sugriva handed the letter to Sita. As she read the sweet words of her boyfriend tears rolled down her face. As she finished, she looked up and smiled at Sugriva. The two began dancing to the slow paced song that was being played. All was right in the world, except for Vali. He looked at the two with detest. He wanted Sita and he could not understand why she had no interest in him. As he drank a glass of fruit punch, rage poured into him more and more. All of a sudden he snapped.

“Sugriva! You do not deserve such a beautiful woman. I am the most handsome monkey in Bihar and I want what you have!” He quickly sprinted to Vali, hands tightly bound into fists.

Sugriva, in total shock, was not ready for what was happening. He dodged the punch of Vali just in time. The two brothers fought in the middle of the dance as the other students looked in horror. Sita cried out as Sugriva punched his brother and Vali punched back. Sita begged and begged for the two to stop, but all she got in return from Sugriva was, “Shut up Sita!”

Source: Sugriva and Vail

Finally, the teachers ran to the two monkeys and broke up the fight. Both bloody, the two were pulled back from each other. Sita could not take what just happened. She did not want to date and love a monkey that was so quick to anger and disrespect to her. She ran up to Sugriva and spoke words that sliced through his heart.

“Sugriva, you were my love. However, your quick reaction to anger and rude comments to me does not make me desire your affections anymore. I am through.”  As tears ran down her face, she walked out of the dance. Never to be seen again by Sugriva.

Sugriva filled with rage! As the teachers let him go. He spoke these words of revenge to Vali. “I do not care what happens in this world, however I do know one thing. You will pay for this one day.” Sugriva walked out of the dance and swung away to a place far, far away to plot his revenge.

To be continued…

Author’s Note: I wrote this story in reaction to the Divine Archer I recently read this past week. I felt the story was very similar to the original Ramayana, therefore I wanted my own twist. I wanted to have more of a connection between the monkeys, Sugriva and Vali, and Sita. Allowing the two to be in love and them end due to Vali will make his revenge even greater when Rama needs help.  I felt that creating a story that connects all three of these characters early on in their lives would help explain why Sugriva even helps Rama get her back in the first place. I am wanting to continue my writing on this in order to apply my own twist to the Ramayna and Divine Archer. The desire to get Sita back from Ravana will be even more because Sugriva actually loves Sita. I plan on applying a major twist in the original story in my upcoming stories. 

Bibliography: The Divine Archer. F.J. Gould. 1911. http://iereadingguides.blogspot.com/2014/05/reading-guide-week-1-gould-divine-archer.html

Week 4 Reading Diary Wednesday: Part B

I am continuing my reading diary of the Divine Archer.

•     Hanuman is heading towards Lanka in order to find Sita before Rama attacks. I enjoyed how they described the monkey’s powers as magical because he is able to jump over the serpent Surasa.
•       As Hanuman makes his was to Sita, he notices Ravana making advances towards Sita (similarly to the Public Edition of the Ramayana). I do find it strange that Hanuman is described as having magical powers and is sneaky enough to get to Sita, but is caught after he talks to her. Maybe the rakshasis have more power than Hanuman and were able to detect him.
•     When Hanuman is caught, he has his tail set on fire. This causes the entire city of Lanka on fire except the house Sita is located.

Source: Hanuman's Tail on Fire

•       I find it interesting that they added many of the demons in trying to persuade Ravana to return Sita. Ravana is too prideful and thinks he is untouchable though, a tragic flaw in my opinion. 
•      I do find it interesting that Rama shoots Ravana’s crown off in this take on the Ramayana. He should have just killed Ravana if he could have hit his crown off. However, in the Public Edition, Rama is criticized for not fighting Vali but simply sneak attacking him. I felt this author wanted Rama to be more of a hero and attack the enemy head on.
•       I did enjoy the description of Rama defeating the brother of Ravana. I felt it was great diction that his, “soul went up to the shining gods”. The battle was quick and Rama defeated the demon king Ravana.
•      Sita and Rama are reunited, however, she has to be tested for fidelity. Even though she proved she was, people in the kingdom talk about her in such a way that Rama exiles her. I was really hoping in this edition that Rama would not banish Sita. I feel that there was no point in all of these battles and deaths for them not to be together, especially when she proved she had not cheated on Rama. I hope to either write about this in this week’s storytelling or read about this in another weekly reading. 

Week 4 Reading Diary Tuesday: Part A

This week I decided to choose the Divine Archer for my readings. I felt that the title really emphasized Rama and his ability to wield a bow and arrow, therefore it caught my attention. Below is my analysis on Part A:

·       The story starts off in many of the same ways as the Public Edition of the Ramayana that we read last week. For example, the King Dasaratha has four sons from his three wives. Rama, of course, is the best and most skilled son. I do find it interesting that Rama possesses the skill of being able to read Vedas. I feel this was overlooked in the original Ramayana. His ability to have great knowledge could have further developed his character.

·       The sixth avatar of the god Vishnu, Parashurama, enters after Rama breaks Shiva’s bow to win over Sita. I felt this was interesting to allow two avatars of the same god to interact. I enjoyed the diction when Rama first received the bow and how it tightened just to his liking.

Source: Boldsky

·       The idea of karma is once again mentioned in the death of Dasaratha. He was cursed a long time ago for killing a boy instead of an elephant.

·       Shurpanakha is beaten/tortured by Lakshmana because she attempted to seduce him and Rama. This is vital in the plot of the Ramayana because she is the sister of Ravana, the leader of the demons.

·       Ravana, in revenge, then kidnaps Sita in the same manner as the Public edition of the Ramayana (the golden deer/hermit). I still find this to be my favorite part of the Ramayana because of the unique way to capture Sita. I do not remember though Ravana asking Sita to be his queen before he kidnapped her. I thought this was an interesting take on the Ramayana.

·       Rama teams up with the monkey Sugriva to get back Sita. This is similar to the original Ramayana.

Overall, I found that is wasn’t that different than the one we read last week. However, it was good to read again to get a further grasp on the storyline. 

Tech Tip: Embedding a YouTube Video

Hey everyone, I uploading one of my favorite college football YouTube videos. It involves some of the best trick plays in the history of college football. Check it out in my introduction!

Thanks everyone for reading and watching!

-Trevor-