Week 3

I've done a little bit of research for my culture, considering I've come to a conclusion on which culture I'm doing for sure. Since I'm doing the Wicca culture, I must find people who practice the religion. My topic was for sure until I start browsing the internet for my other topic, Legends. Upon finding Wicca I figured, it would more in depth if I did it. At this time I have not spoken to interviewers. I have a few in mind. I'll have to contact them via email to find a time. I'll probably ask them how they go into it and if they enjoy it. Not everyone is born into Wicca. Some stumble across it and find that they like it more then anything else they've tried. I haven't visited my cultural site because it's a Wicca altar that people can set up in their house. They don't have churches like Christians do. That's probably a question I would ask; why do they not have churches? In doing research I haven't found any Wicca churches. I've done research here and there but I haven't gone to the library. I have a feeling most of my research will be from the internet.

I think there is a difference between academic and non-academic research. Academic research means you're looking into things for school to do a project or a paper. Some even write books and share their knowledge for the world to know; like archaeologists. Research that is non-academic is the research people do to help themselves or find out more about something they like. I feel like academic is more for school while non-academic is researching just because you like it. No book or paper or conference meeting is going to come out of it. A person is simply going to learn it and remember it because he wants to.

Week 2

I like to write fictional books, so I chose to learn about the cultures that created the legends that many stories have. Hopefully I'll learn more about the creatures I love to write about. The fields I could look into is actually going into the towns or village of the people but since that it hard for me to do, I'll stick around the campus and ask people what they know of the legends. Another fielsite would be the internet. It is littered with information about the legends as is the library. All would be good places for gathering information. I really want to learn whatever I can so it can help further me in my writing.

*Note: The culture is not completely decided on yet. I may do something else that is close but not a legend.

Culture- Subjective/Fixed

I haven't pinpointed a clear culture yet but I'm hoping to do one on cultures that have legends. I enjoy writing ficitonal stories in my free time. The stories are fantasy based which is a main interest of mine. By looking into the cultures that created a legend, I'm learning more about the legend and the people who believe in it. I don't have any fixed positions beyond what I know of the specific legend, if I know anything at all. I enjoy keeping my mind open and seeing the good and bad. Subjective postions may be more. I didn't live in the culture or the area. I didn't grow up hearing the legends, so to me they may seem fake and dumb, while the people see them as true. If I were to go into the culture to study them, they would see me as a outsider and it would be hard for me to understand more about them and their legend. I don't look like them and have not given them a reason to trust me. Not being able to speak their language is another reason it would be hard. I probably won't have any interviews in my paper because most of it would be document based.

Bed Time Rituals!!

Going to bed is a lot of fun. Well, if you make it a adventure. When I get dressed I have to locate my clothes which are usually sitting somewhere on my loft. Being too short to see completely I have to get up there and find them. Usually I'm up there because I like curling up in my blankets. It gets cold in my room and I like curling up to stay warm. After getting dressed I brush out my hair and crawl back in bed. I take my glasses off and pull the covers over my head. While listening to the fan, I drift off to sleep, where I don't remember the dreams I dreamt.

Frankenstein Essay

I enjoy writing stories and reading books. Frankenstein was a good book but it was one that didn’t catch my attention right away. Only certain parts did so when I had to write a paper on it I had to basically reread it and find out what I wanted to base my paper on. The paper was about archetypal literature and how things could mean something else. When I first started learning about this type of literature it was hard for me to understand and figure out what my teacher was actually asking. As I started the paper, I just started writing about random things that I thought fit together. During the first draft was when I actually figured out what archetypal literature really was. I was enthusiastic about learning to compare two things that no one would ever really see until they looked deeper. I’ve used this technique in my 103 class and was proud of the results. Not many people could see the strive for love and acceptance that Mary Shelly, who was the author, and Frankenstein’s monster wanted. Many readers just saw that the monster got made at Frankenstein and killed his wife. Frankenstein then went on the journey to find his monster and kill him. In the end, both creatures die. But in that time, the monster found peace as did Shelly. I enjoyed looking further into the book and finding other ideas and meanings behind the text on a page. I do it with movies and books every so often.