Context presentation

My group consisted of myself, Levi of the Lost Marbles, Nate the Enigma, and Tearful Tristan. We were assigned Kane's chapter on Context, the last chapter in his book. Our story was "To Hermes" which explains the birth of Hermes which is also the birth of music. The story explains how Hermes is born being able to walk and talk and he kills a turtle to make a Lyre (handheld harp). He then steals Apollo's cattle and when he is confronted he explains that he is just a helpless baby and then he farts in order to push Apollo away. However, the smell leads him to his cattle. Then Hermes plays the Lyre for Apollo and he takes Hermes to Mt. Olympus so he can be made into a God. Nobody trusts Hermes still so they appoint him the task of being messenger between boundaries.

My group mates and I decided that since it is a story of the birth of song we should put the story into a poetic song and play instruments, even though non of us are considered musicians. Levi chose an ancient drum, Nate played the sound board on his keyboard, Tristan had some finger cymbals, and  I had a thing that I call a finger dingy thingy (pieces of metal that are tuned differently). We split the story into 4 parts and wrote each part however we wanted. This was to demonstrate how each of our backgrounds and experiences can give different contexts. We also had not put it together until we were in front of the class so that we would not feel like we needed to 'fix' anything.

"The contexts through which myth is remembered are also the contexts in which myth is reinvented by each succession of peoples" (248).

Levi started the story, then Nate, then Tristan, and Me

             To Hermes
(Levi)

Maia of Kyllene was the mother of Hermes,

Zeus came at night to her

She was clean, beautiful, and free from venereal disease,

Little did Hera know

She was asleep all alone,

While Zeus was with Maia playing Barry Manilow

Ten moons later,

A child popped out

That looked like Darth Vader,

He came out walking and talking

Shooting craps with the men,

Picked up the lyre and by noon he was rocking

Mama put him a luxurious cradle,

But he slipped from the cave

Just as soon as he was able

He saw a tortoise outside,

And said “hey nice to meetcha”

“Why don’t you come inside so the birds they don’t eatcha?”

Hermes scooped up the turtle,

And carried him inside

The turtle said to Hermes,

“That was a hell of a ride”

The tortoise thought to himself,

“What a bit of good luck”

But as Hermes grasped his neck he screamed,

“Hey man! I can’t get unstuck!”

Then he killed the poor turtle,

And scooped out his innards

Set them aside and thought,

“I’ll have them for dinner”

Then Hermes strung up the shell,

With the guts of a sheep

They smelled kinda bad,

But hey, it was cheap

Then Hermes pondered again,

Where could more mischief be had

He saw Apollo’s cows,

And began to plot something bad

The small child began to drive them around,

In a gray Cadillac so they wouldn’t be found

Then an old man spied him,

With cattle and Caddy

And said to the boy,

“I’m going and telling your daddy”

The infant replied,

“Go ahead gramps”

“I’ll beat you so bad”

“That you poop in your pants!”

(Nate)

(Tristan)

(Angela)

Then on his lyre, Hermes played

To the Gods, songs of praise

He sang of etiologies

And each Gods mythologies

Apollo’s soul was filled with awe

At Hermes songs that had no flaw

“No one holds such a gift of song

Not even the muses with which they belong

Off to Olympus, where you will find fame

I promise you this, they will know your name”

Then crafty Hermes said “take up my art

Hold on to my lyre deep in your heart

This gift will help you find glories

And help you to tell future stories”

Then Apollo touched each string at a time

Nothing sounded so pure and sublime

They sat and watched the cattle graze

And played reed pipe for many days

Off to Olympus the brothers played

The songs were heard and joy was made

Then Hermes gave Apollo the pipe of reed

Apollo said “I think this is a trick to mislead

My house I am afraid you will steal

But I am willing to make you a deal

The art of prophecy is what the sisters taught

Go to them and they will tell you a lot

But promise me you will not come near

If you agree then we are clear

So Hermes became the lord of the earth

Between boundaries his messages show worth

With the heralds staff and sandals with wings

Either luck or tricks is what he brings.

What I have Learned

Coming to a close to this class I decided to flip back through my notes and give a summary of words and terms we learned as well as suggested books and movies throughout the semester.
Mythos - Story
Polytropos - Many turns
Polymetis - Many wisdom
Mnemosyne - Memory - Mother of the Muses
Muses - Music
Loci - Location
I Am A Strange Loop - Book
Epithet - by-name
Fliteing - fight with words
Fahrenheit 451 - Book and Movie
Memory - Mneme
Recollection - Anamnesis
Ephemeral - Pass out of existance
Bosch - Artist
Dante's Inferno - Book
Logis - Logic - Speech
Cave of Forgotten Dreams - Movie
Hypnerotomachia  - Book
"In my room are many mansions"
"Magical connections lead to scientific theory"
Freytag - Linear story line
Chinese Boxes - story line used with oral traditions
Secondary Orality - shift from literacy to orality such as with images
Oedipus Rex - Book
Episodic - Series of parts or events
Iliad and Odyssey - Books
Psychopomious - Hermes the guide of souls
Man who Fell to Earth  - Movie
"Literally Literally means Letters"
Little, Big - Book
Finnegan's Wake - Book
Your Brain on Fiction - Article
Sunset Limited - Book/Movie
Petite  Madeleine  - French Pastry

Class Epithets

We were told at the beginning of the semester that we would have to learn all of our classmates epithets. I believe that I have them all and I can give a close estimate on the seating.

Levi of the Lost Marbles	Patient Parker	Sweet and Spicy Shelby	Ashley Kicker of Puppies	Breanna of the Fidgeting Whales		Rio Man Behind the Curtain
Jennifer of the Falling Waters	Tia the Crawling Ant	Grace the Epithetless			Swift Footed Seth
Atypical Angela	Megan Mother of the Muses			Jennifer the Charmed		Copious Kyle
Down the Rabbit Hole Jacky		Cameron the Terminator	Nick of the Poptarts			Tearful Tristan
	Downtown Abby	Spencer the Soft Spoken Shaker		Quentin the Inquisitor	Nate the Enigma
Walter the Ghetto Prophet	Craig the Grump	Cassidy Euterpe	Louie of the Winded Woods

Nostalgia

"From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The term nostalgia describes a yearning for the past, often in idealized form.^[1] The word is a learned formation of a Greek compound, consisting of νόστος (nóstos), meaning "homecoming", a Homeric word, and ἄλγος (álgos), meaning "pain, ache". It was described as a medical condition, a form of melancholy, in the Early Modern period, and became an important trope in Romanticism.^[1]

In common, less clinical usage, nostalgia sometimes includes a general interest in past eras and their personalities and events, especially the "good old days," such as a sudden image, or remembrance of something from one's childhood."

When I went back home this weekend I experienced nostalgia. There was a flood of memories that filled me. There were so many experiences that I had that I wish I could share with other people.  When going into my old bedroom I see the bright pink carpet that I begged for until I was in tears at about 4 years old. The nails are still on the walls that held 5 dozen roses from my high school sweetheart. My mom tells me that we need to clean up my old room so they can make it into a guest room and I tell her that she has to do it because I have trouble getting rid of the stuff myself. My cat Milo that was born when I was a junior is still lazying around the house. He looks much older and it is a visual for the years that have pasted. The pet deer Cutie is also still around. She is fixing to have her 5th set of twins.  My dad has accumulated more pet deer. You can stand out on the deck and feed a heard of 20 that stand right on the lawn. There is a pet calf that is being bottle fed so I volunteered to do that. It reminds me of our calf Bandit that I raised and we still have. He is a large bull but is still so tame you can stand right next to him and feed and pet him. All these memories are so precious to me but I know that nobody else will understand or have the same nostalgia as I do.

Memories in animals

In one of my earlier posts from cracked.com, I found an article about animals and their memories. I decided to look for some more information on animal memories and I came across this National Geographic article that I found interesting.

 http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/08/0822_030822_tvanimalmemory.html

Scientists Rethinking Nature of Animal Memory

Bijal P. Trivedi
National Geographic Today

August 22, 2003

An elephant never forgets—or does it?

Scientists have long believed that animals do not have so-called episodic memory—the kind that allows humans to remember past events. But recent experiments with scrub jays, chimpanzees, and gorillas have led to rethinking of the nature of memory in animals. Animal memory researchers first face the challenge of communicating between species. "You can't exactly ask the animals where they were, and what they were doing, when Bambi's mother was shot," says Nicola Clayton, a professor of comparative cognition at University of Cambridge in England and a leading researcher in the field of animal memory.
Over the past six years Clayton has devised a series of ingenious experiments that seem to show that scrub jays can recall past events and use the information to plan for the future.
"We have traditionally regarded animals like machines, or automata, believing that they just have reflexes and habits," says John Pearce, a professor of psychology at Cardiff University in Wales. "Clayton's work is revolutionary because it challenges these ideas and suggests that animals have richer memories than previously thought."
Clayton chose scrub jays because she was fascinated by their food-caching behavior: They stash food to recover later. The jays adapt their caching habits to the perishability of the item, Clayton discovered. In one experiment, Clayton left out worms and peanuts for the jays to store. The birds preferred to retrieve the worms, unless a long period of time had elapsed. Then the birds went for the peanuts—a preference they presumably "remembered" from finding spoiled worms.
Mental Time Travel
One of Clayton's later experiments with the resourceful jays involved observing how they behaved when stashing food in caches that might be robbed by other birds. Jays with experience of such avian robbery were much more cautious about their stashes.
"It is as if the pilferer recognizes that its food could be stolen in the future and makes sure no one sees his cache," Clayton says. "This is the first time we have seen evidence that an animal other than a human recalled the social context of an event and adjusted its future behavior."
Psychologists say that episodic memory mediates the ability to remember—or to engage in a form of "mental time travel." The question is whether that ability is uniquely human.
"There are many beautiful examples of complex behavior that occur without higher thought or consciousness," cautions Endel Tulving, a cognitive psychologist at the Rotman Research Institute of Baycrest Center for Geriatric Care in Toronto. In his book "Elements of Episodic Memory," Tulving wrote that animals can adjust, adapt, and learn, but they cannot "travel back into the past in their own minds." But he enjoys the fact that scientists are challenging his ideas.
Neither Clayton nor Pearce are completely convinced yet that the jays have episodic memory and can replay past events in their minds like humans do. But the jay experiments have inspired similar studies in other species. Bennett Schwartz, a cognitive psychologist at Florida International University in Miami, is studying memory in a western lowland gorilla named King.  
Memory in Chimps and Gorillas
 King, a 450-pound (205-kilogram) male silverback in his 30s, communicates with caretakers via picture cards. Using the cards, he has shown that he can remember who gave him certain foods—even when his caretakers cannot remember.
Recently Schwartz and his colleagues staged events in front of King using 33 people that the gorilla had never seen before. Different individuals would do jumping jacks or "steal" a phone from King's trainer or play the guitar.
When King was asked to identify the person by activity, he was correct more than 60 percent of the time. "It's a little like targeting one person out of a police lineup," Schwartz says. He is now beginning to teach King the concept of time—yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
For studies at Georgia State University in Atlanta, anthropologist Charles Menzel is working with a female chimpanzee named Panzee, who uses a keyboard with more than 256 lexigrams.
Outside Panzee's enclosure, Menzel and his colleagues hid more than 30 different items, one at a time—kiwis, pineapples, rubber snakes, balloons, and paper—while Panzee was watching.
In more than 90 percent of the cases, Panzee correctly identified which type of item was hidden where, and directed her caretakers—unaware of the hiding places—to find the specified toys and fruits. Menzel points out that Panzee herself initiates the communication—significant because the act of "remembering" is spontaneous.
"Animals are using something related to episodic memory, but not necessarily the same as in humans," Menzel says. "Animal memory systems have always been underestimated—the upper limits are not really known."

Memories of Home

I am currently taking Regional Lit. and we were asked to do a poetry prompt paying off of another poem called county. I decided to post it because it came from memories that I have of my home county.

The county of enumerable sagebrush
County of gravel roads
County of broken fences
Fences always needing fixed
County of grazing cattle
County of rocky mountain oysters and Ice cold beer
After a hard day of branding
County of playful calves in the spring
And hunting for food in the winter
County of the Saturday night bonfires
And the non existent police
County of scarce traffic
And town with no stop lights
Where the highway ends
County of more bars and churches
Than of any other businesses
County where everyone knows everyone else
And no invite is needed
This I call Home.

Memory on Crack

Cracked.com is one of my favorite sites that I browse when I'm bored or procrastinating. I found some interesting articles about memory on this site. I am not sure how accurate the articles are but they are interesting and fun non the less. I will give you a brief overview of some of the articles and provide the link where you can read more.

 http://www.cracked.com/article_19518_5-seemingly-random-factors-that-control-your-memory.html
5 seemingly random factors that control your memory
5) Walking through doorways
4) Ridiculous fonts
3) Deep Voices
2) Looking at the floor
1) Hand gestures

http://www.cracked.com/article_18704_5-mind-blowing-ways-your-memory-plays-tricks-you.html
5 Mind Blowing ways your memory plays tricks on you
5) Other people can manipulate your memory with repetition
4) Your brain is half blind
3) Your brain just makes shit up
2) Your memory can be fooled by manipulated images
1) Your mood skews your memories

http://www.cracked.com/article_19583_the-6-weirdest-things-that-are-ruining-your-memory.html
6 Weirdest things that are ruining your memory
6) Advertising
5) Peer pressure
4) Google
3) Birth Control and Sex
2) Being single
1) Being fat

http://www.cracked.com/article_19535_6-animals-with-better-memories-than-you.html
6 Animals with better memories than you
6) Chimpanzees' visual memory can top yours
5) Sea Loins never forget
4) An Elephant keeps track of dozens of other elephants at one time
3) The Octopus can turbocharge its memory 
2) A cat's short-term memory is 20 times longer than yours
1) The Clark's Nutcracker is freaking amazing

Musey Room

My Musey Room I compared to a slot machine. The outside was a box representing a persons head. The front of the box had a face which opened up to reveal the memory. The memory was 3 wheels each wheel containing five sides. Each side has a color also so that the colors can match up. Most of them were a person, place, and action. They were as follows:

My BF Jess, we met at my home town of Winifred, and he was playing guitar
My friend Jenny, we met at the fitness center, we were doing pink gloves boxing
My friend Mariah, we met by the bobcat grill, I met her through Jenny
My friend Kelsey, we met at the Madison river, we were going floating
Prof. Sexson, we met in Wilson hall in 2006, he was teaching mythology

This machine can be an example of how the memory works. Often times I will see someone I recognize but can't get their name so I start thinking about where I might have seen them and what I was doing. Their could be many more wheels however consisting of anything from names, dates, attributes to an infinite amount of characteristics. There can also be an infinite amount of sides on each wheel.

This machine can also be used as a memory technique. For example I could place Grace's 5 things like this:

The rock, the river, skipping rocks (blue for water)
The bunny, a stuffed rabbit, I've had since I was a baby (yellow for my blanket because my blanket and rabbit came everywhere with me)
A pen, green gel pen, was my favorite in Jr. High (green for color of pen)
A seashell, a giant shell, I found at the beach in Oregon (Orange for the color of the shell)
The Moon, poster that I made of the moon phases, in Mr. Lee's class in grade school (White for the light off the moon)

Sing with Me

A while back Prof. Sexson had us recite our memorable songs from childhood. We all knew the ABCs. I believe it was Gage who could even recite them backwards. I also remember Twinkle Twinkle Little Star which goes by the same tune as the ABCs.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
How I wonder what you are
Up above the world so high
Like a diamond in the sky
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
How I wonder what you are.

Anther one of my favorites is:

I'm a little teapot short and stout
Here is my handle here is my spout
When I get all steamed up here my shout
Tip me over an pour me out.

Imaginal people in my life

On Feb. 8th we talked about Imaginal people. One of the Imaginal people that I remember from my life was my Imaginary friend Squeako. He lived in my blankey which I still have. I remember many times my brother making fun of me and he would throw my blanket over my head which used to make me so mad. He never really had a specific look to him and I'm not quite sure why I named his Squeako, I think maybe because he squeaked a lot. But one this is for sure. I will remember him for my who life. When I reached a certain age I knew that I was too old to have a imaginary friend so I pretended that he moved from my blankey to this big tower that we had in one of our pastures. I visited him a couple times after that but the visits soon dwindled down to nothing.

When Prof. Sexson talked about throwing a party for our Imaginal people this movie came to mind: http://theperfecthostmovie.com/

This makes me wonder about people and their pets. Many of us talk to our pets. I do quite often talk to my cat Tokin. Of course I never expect him to say anything back or to even understand me. So what is it that makes us want to do this?

Flyting

On Jan. 23rd the class discussed flyting or the exchange of insults. This can often be seen during rap battles. Many of us have probably participated in flyting without realizing it. We were told to describe one of these situations which can be seen during wars with siblings.
I have one sibling, an older brother named Kevin. He is 6 years older than me so the only time we really fought was when I was maybe 5-7 making him 11-13. Before that I was too young and after that he was too old. Of course at that age my vocabulary was very limited and usually the only insults that I threw at him were very childish, consisting mostly of meany and butthead. The names that I remember mostly from him were spoiled brat and baby. Me being the younger by quite a bit meant I usually got away with more. Although our time of flyting was limited, we still get in our share of disagreements. But anymore I learn to keep my mouth shut and walk away because he has a way of twisting words making it impossible to reason with.

Welcome to my Bedroom

On Jan. 20th we were asked to describe our bedrooms in as much detail as we can, so much so that everyone in the class can picture as if they were there. My bedroom is shared by my boyfriend and we have lived in this place since Dec of 2009.

My bedroom is one of my favorite places. It is a place of privacy, a place of comfort, and a place of memories. The carpet is a blue-grey color that had many stains from before we moved in. Memories from lives before. The carpet can barely be seen from underneath the many clothes that cover it.  The ceiling is a popcorn ceiling which we both hate and have talked many times about getting rid of but still after 2 years haven't. On the West wall is the door leading into my room from the kitchen. To the left of the door is a 4 drawer dresser which my boyfriend uses. We were lucky enough to get this dresser with the trailer. On top of the dresser is a mirror and candles. Next to the dresser is a door to the walk in closet that was nominated to be my space. A space full of clothes, some of which are no longer worn but still have not been taken to the good will. Inside the walk in is a 3 drawer dresser that I have had for as long as I can remember. Continuing around the room on the North wall is the window. Often times my cat Tokin will sit by the window and watch the birds in the trees or sometimes the cat next door duck under its trailer. I also have a garden that can be seen outside this window. On the East wall is a small nightstand where I keep a stuffed bunny that I have had since I was born. There is also a lamp that is used for my bedtime reading. Then there is the bed. The bed takes up 1/4 of the bedroom. It has a $2,000 tempra pedic mattress which also came with the trailer. The right side of the bed is mine and the left side is his and my cat usually sleeps next to me because I don't kick him off. One of the things on the bed that holds a lot of memories is a pillow that my boyfriend has had for a long time. I have pictures of him from 2005 where he has the same pillow. Even when there are different pillow cases on it, he still knows when you switch them. Next to his side of the bed is the door to the bathroom and next to the door is a papasan chair which no one ever sits in because clothes usually get piled on top of it. On the South wall is a huge bureau that has 7 drawers and one cabinet. This also came with the trailer. On top is a mirror that covers 1/3 of the wall. The top of the bureau is usually cluttered. Next to the bureau is the TV. The walls of the room are brown as well as our sheets on our bed. The curtains over the window are a deep blue color. These natural colors help me to feel comfort.

Banned Books found throughout the sub

I have already listed my 51 items but neglected to tell you how I did it. I chose 51 banned books that I have not read and would like to. The list came from "120 Banned Books." 

The book has the banned books organized in alphabetical order within categories.The categories are book banned for political, religious, sexual, and social reasons. I also knew that I need a large space for all 51 items so I chose a place that we are all familiar with...The Sub. I know the sub very well because I work there and it is my study place. So here it goes...

I come in the south entrance by the big glass doors and there is a Black Boy sitting on the bench. I go down the stairs and my locker is on the left. Inside my locker is a hamburger for Burger's Daughter. Down the hall way is a Doctor Zhivago. At Freshens where smoothies are made, there are two angry grapes yelling at each other and dueling which stands for Grapes of Wrath. At the sweet shop next to the pretzel machine is someone covered in nacho cheese yelling I am the Cheese. On the stairs next to the sweet shop by the west entrance is Adolf Hitler writing Mein Kampf. On the wall next to the elevator is scribbled 1984 as if the elevator is a time machine. Right inside the bookstore where they sometimes to book signings is a table with a book that has a plain white cover and just has black letters that say Novel Without a Name. In the hallway next to the cat card office are beautiful trees and blind people walking around for Paradise of the Blind. I associate the Bobcat Grill with hamburgers which i associate with slaughterhouses so I get Slaughterhouse 5. In the corner is a Uncle Tom's Cabin and inside he is reading The Bible. In the Rec Center there are bowling alleys with children bowling for Children of the Alley. One kid is sitting off to the side reading The Koren. On one of the pool tables is a sexy nun which stands for The Last Temptation of Christ. Next to the door is a guys named Oliver who's body is all twisted (Oliver Twist) and he is chanting Satanic Versus. Sitting at one of the tables next to the north stairwell is a man dressed patriotically and crying (An American Tragedy). In front of the stairs Aladdin is sward fighting a thief (The Arabian Nights). Written on the walls down the hall in graffiti is The Art of Love. In the financial aid office is a girl with The Bluest Eye. On the desk next  to that lone computer is some candy (Candide). Next to the east entrance is an elevator platform and on the platform are two people making love and trying different positions (The Kama Sutra). Right next to the door is a woman chatting with her lover and hearing the echo that the entrance makes (Lady Chatterley's Lover). At the top of the stairs is a young girl who has been raped and is barely crawling up the stairs (Lolita). Going into the Procrastinator Theater is a 19th century french woman named Madame Bovary. Sitting down right before Leigh Lounge is Mo and Flanders from the Simpsons talking (Moll Flanders).  Laying on one of the couches in Leigh Lounge is a girl I know named Pamela. The double LL in Leigh Lounge help me to remember the double PP in Peyton Place.  Outside the window I can picture Snow Falling on Cedars. In Avogadro's a girl named Sophie is making the choices for her sandwich (Sophie's Choice).  Next to Avogadro's Number is a kiddy pool with a crab in it (Tropic of Cancer). Next to the kiddy pool is Ulysses S. Grant sitting in a chair. The small west entrance is the door to a Brave New World.  In one of the quite rooms through the secret door is my friend talking about being Black Like Me. In one of the seating areas next to the pillars there are cans being buried by a creature with a tail (The Canterbury Tales).  Next to the counter with the microwaves and condiments are people playing catch. A couple are catching 22s and another couple are catching rye bread (Catch-22 and The Catcher in the Rye). On the wall to the left when you walk into the Union Market is a clock that I have pictured as an orange (A Clockwork Orange). The entrance of the kitchen is guarded by Cujo. In the kitchen I have placed Fahrenheit 451. On the other doorway of the kitchen I have angels falling (Fallen Angels). Going out of the dining area toward the ask us desk I have as The Final Exit. Go Ask Alice is at the ask us desk. The west entrance is the Last Exit to Brooklyn and outside a see a tree with Leaves of Grass. Continuing down the hall there is a Manchild in the Promised Land. In the Exit Gallery there is naked art and the person watching the gallery is eating lunch (Naked Lunch). At the SRO coffee shop are a bunch of crazy people because coffee makes people hyper and crazy (One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest). And finally in the lounge area next to the coffee shop is a women meeting her other lover and wearing an A (The Scarlet Letter).