Brett's Blog

Image The two articles that I read ("Why It's So Hard to Hear Negative Feedback" by  Tim Herrera and "How To Get Past Negativity Bias In Order To Hardwire Positive Experiences" by  Katrina Schwartz ) seem a bit contradictory at face value, but in reality they talk about the same principles. Herrera writes about seeking out negative feedback instead of running from it in order to help yourself grow, while Schwartz writes of prioritizing the positives over the negatives due to the fact that our brains overreact to negative stimuli. One could argue that it might seem impossible to actively seek out negative feedback while also trying to prioritize positive experiences at the same time, but the practices that both authors write about heavily involve changing one's mindset to where receiving feedback is always a positive experience. Giving and receiving feedback should always be considered a positive thing, as it is always an opportunity for improv...

Old Stormalong, The Sailor Folk Hero of Massachusetts: Image Topic 1: American Avengers As I had spoken about in my Reading Overview post, I'm very interested in learning more about westernized American folklore and myths. That same post will also clue you in to the fact that I love stories of heroes. Stories like this are as old as time and are present in every culture known to man, and I think it would be interesting to understand the stories and myths of my own country. Here's Audacity: American Legendary Heroes by Frank Shay would be my main point of research and information on the topic. This book includes stories of heroes from all different regions and cultures of the United States, making it a very well-rounded jump-off point for a project. With the rise of superhero culture in our country, I think it would be interesting to go down a more comic-book flavored route for this project, with "issues" for each character that present different art styles ...

Pygmalion, by Edward Burnes Jones: Image Pygmalion was the finest sculptor in the entire city of Paphos. The works he created astounded the city's other denizens, and he was paid very well for his art. Yet, despite all this, Pygmalion was not satisfied. The sculptor considered himself a romantic, yet he was unable to find love with any of the women of Paphos.  "I don't understand," Pygmalion would think to himself. "I'm such a nice guy! I buy all the girls wonderful gifts and tell them how beautiful they are. I watch them as they go about their day, so I can surprise them when they're feeling down. I even tell them about the wonderful life they could have as my wife, watching me work on my sculptures. But they still want nothing to do with me!" The sculptor lamented at his awful luck with love for a long while, until finally he came to a realization. "The problem isn't with me, it's with those dumb women!" Pygmalion c...

Who needs Tinder with decor like this?  Image My favorite story of the anthology is the story of Pygmalion the sculptor, only because I find the story so ridiculous and pointless. The story is relatively short and succinct, but the fate of the sculptor of Paphos at the end of the story baffles me. Pygmalion's ego combined with his weird, lusty obsession with an inanimate object is for some reason just rewarded by the gods with no downsides, which is exceedingly rare in Greek/Roman mythology.  The Greek/Roman gods are not nice, and usually, if they aren't already battling with one another, they're terribly bored if they aren't meddling in mortal affairs. Usually Greek/Roman stories use some form of punishment/conflict with the gods as a way of conveying a lesson through the story (Arachne and Daedalus' hubris, Narcissus' obsession, and Midas' greed are all perfect examples of this). However, apparently this doesn't really apply to Pygmali...

Choose from CLASSICAL and/or BIBLICAL units for Weeks 3 and 4. Week 3: Dante's Inferno Week 4: Ovid I Choose from MIDDLE EASTERN and/or INDIAN units for Weeks 5 and 6. Week 5: Sindbad Week 6: Ramayana Choose from ASIAN and/or AFRICAN units for Weeks 7 and 9. [Week 8 is review week.] Week 7: Chinese Fairy Tales Week 9: Japanese Myth Choose from NATIVE AMERICAN units for Weeks 10 and 11. Week 10: Native American Heroes Week 11: Cherokee Myths Choose from BRITISH and/or CELTIC units for Weeks 12 and 13. Week 12: Celtic Fairy Tales I Week 13: Celtic Fairy Tales II Choose from EUROPEAN units for Weeks 14 and 15. Week 14: Beowulf Week 15: Italian Tales Beowulf, one of many heroes whose stories I will learn of this semester Image Like many readers, it is clearly shown in my reading interests that I'm drawn to tales of heroes. I'm excited about a quite a few of these stories, as there are many that I have always wanted to read about but have never had the chance to ...