Feedback Thoughts

6 Bad Mental Habits That Sabotage Your Success: This article was extremely relatable to me and my previous experiences. In the past, I have had the bad habit of thinking of what-if scenarios and thinking of the worst that could happen. This is still somewhat true when I think of ideas for potential business ventures, I think of everything that could go wrong which deters me from actually pursuing ideas that could end up working out. However, my entrepreneurship courses here at OU have helped me stop thinking of all the negative things that could happen. The mindset I have acquired is being prepared for every situation, but not worrying about all those things because that is counter-intuitive.  

Why rejection hurts so much — and what to do about it: This article is also relatable to me and can help me in the future with my businesses. I usually tend to let rejection get the best of me which leads to bad decisions moving forward. I also tend to criticize myself too harshly especially when I'm doing bad in a video game. However, I know that I will be rejected plenty of times in the future especially since I want to start a business and not everyone is going to want to be a customer of my business. Letting that rejection get to me will surely hurt me and will ultimately lead to many failures. Being able to handle rejection and not let it get in my head will be a vital key to succeeding.  

I think feedback as a whole is tremendously helpful for anyone pursuing basically anything. Feedback lets you know how you can improve and evolve as a person. Not being able to take feedback only causes a person to not grow and potentially continue on a path that will lead to failure. When I was younger, I didn't like getting feedback because I felt it was a personal attack sometimes. However, going through football in high school helped me realize how good feedback can help me achieve my goals. I have also received important feedback here at OU that I needed in order to be where I am today.

(Get Feedback, Use Feedback: Aaron Goodwin, Flickr)

Topic Brainstorm

Ghost Stories: Horror is one of my favorite genres for film, television, and literature. In my opinion, ghosts and paranormal entities are the most iconic figures for this genre. Although I am not familiar with a lot of classic ghost stories, I am familiar with The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and The Woman in Black. I actually re-watched the movie version of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow the other day and it just had such a classic ghost story vibe the whole time. I would like to read other classic ghost stories and also research their origins because seeing the origin of those stories can be great reads as well. I think I would like to retell stories that have sinister entities in them because those are the ones that scare me the most. I would retell them like how remakes of horror movies these days do it and give it modern twists that make it more realistic for readers today. http://www.castleofspirits.com/classic.html

Urban Legends: This topic caught my eye because of my fascination with these types of stories. My previous knowledge of urban legends range from Slenderman to Bloody Mary. I have also watched the movie Urban Legend a long time ago which is a horror movie where the characters get killed in urban legend like ways, but it is actually just a serial killer that is making their deaths look like that. I would definitely like to read about more urban legends from the US and from different countries because I have seen some foreign ones before and those can be terrifying. I would like to retell some of the scarier urban legends because those are the ones that are most memorable to me. I think it would interesting to change the setting of these stories to make it more personal and ultimately more frightening for the reader. http://urbanlegendsonline.com/

Dante’s Inferno: I read Dante's Inferno when I was a senior in high school so I am very familiar with this topic. As I have said in previous posts, this story is one of my favorites due to how vivid it is and how it sticks with you. However, it has been some time since I last read it so some of the details are hazy. I would like to go back into more detail and especially research some of the people that were mentioned since it only gave small descriptions of the people in the version I had. I would ideally want to make this story more modern by incorporating historical figures that came after the original publishing since it is a very old story. I feel that having more recognizable individuals in the layers of Hell could make the story slightly more enjoyable for readers who might have not liked the original. http://www.worldofdante.org/inferno1.html 

The Greek Titans: Honestly, this topic grabbed my attention mostly due to the fact that I do not know much about it and it has a cool name. The only name I recognize from the titans is Cronus. However, I think I would enjoy learning more about them and what role they played in Greek mythology. I think researching how they were overthrown would also be fun to learn about since I am familiar with the gods who did it like Zeus. The stories I would want to retell would most likely be related to the war of titans and how that all went down. Possibly creating a story of the Olympians and their dialogue and "behind the scenes" moves they made to overthrow the titans would be something that would be enjoyable in my opinion. https://www.greek-gods.org/titans.php

(Oceanus at Trevi: Wikimedia Commons)

Week 2 Story: Peter and Gale's Metamorphosis

Peter was tired of all the girls in San Francisco on Tinder that seemed like they only wanted to hook up. He wanted someone whom he could spend the rest of his life with. Peter was a talented computer programmer who would built robots as a hobby. One day he realized he could make his perfect partner in the form of an artificially intelligent robot. Peter went down to his basement and started to create his masterpiece. After months of barely getting any sleep or going outside for fresh air, Peter had successfully built a female robot.

Peter did everything he could to make his robot look like a real female human. He gave it a realistic brunette wig, stylish clothing, and named it Gale. Peter had actually made a robot that looked amazingly similar to a human. However, anyone would be able to tell Gale wasn't really alive. Her voice was robotic, her movements were rigid, and she couldn't display emotions. This didn't deter Peter from loving Gale though. He treated her as if she were his high school sweetheart whom he had married. Peter showed off his "wife" to his colleagues and disguised his love for her. Everyone was impressed, but they all thought the robot was just a side project that Peter had made because he was bored. Unfortunately, no matter how much  praise he received, Peter longed for Gale to be sentient.

Being in Silicon Valley, Peter was connected to many prominent names in the technology industry. So one day he was invited to Elon Musk's birthday party. Peter became close with Elon during Elon's short time at Stanford. When Peter arrived, Elon warmly greeted him and showed him around. Peter had brought Elon a gift card to Sushirrito, the restaurant where they had hit it off and became close friends decades ago. Elon let out a laugh as Peter presented him this gift. They started reminiscing on old times and then Elon asked Peter what he had been up to recently. Peter told him all about Gale and Elon could see the excitement in his eyes. He could also see the sadness in his eyes when Peter mentioned how he wanted her to be sentient. They parted ways for the night and enjoyed the rest of the celebration.

The next day, Peter received a knock at his door which he did not expect. He looked through the peep hole only to see that is was Elon. He opened the door and happily let him in, but he was slightly confused as to why Elon was there. Elon told him that he wanted to see Gale. Peter hurriedly grabbed her and brought her to the living. Elon silently inspected her and asked if he could take her to the basement to make some modifications. Peter hesitantly agreed without asking any questions. Hours later, Elon emerged from the basement by himself. Peter asked where Gale was and Elon told him to go look in the basement. When Peter saw Gale, he felt that something was different about her. Then, she spoke to him in a perfectly normal human voice. Peter was stunned. Elon came down and told Peter he had installed software to could make robots sentient and as close to human as possible. All Peter could do was hug Elon and tell him how grateful he was.

Although Gale was still technically a robot, her and Peter's love was real. They lived the rest of their days together and even got officially married. Of course, Elon was the best man at the wedding. Since Gale couldn't have children of her own, they decided to adopt. Peter, Gale, and their three kids moved to the Hawaii where you can find them running their own surfboard shop.

(Actroid: Wikimedia Commons)

Author's Note: This story was based off of Ovid's Metamorphosis. In this story, Pygmalion creates his perfect woman by carving ivory. He loves the statue, but wishes she was real. The goddess Venus grants his wish of the statue being real after he gave an offering to her at her festival. The statue becomes real and her and Pygmalion get married and have a kid. 

Bibliography: "Ovid's Metamorphosis", translated by Tony Kline (2000), from Myth-Folklore Anthology. Web source: Metamorphosis 

Reading Notes: The Divine and Metamorphosis

Heavenly Beings: Susanoo and Orochi
As I mentioned in a previous post, I am interested in learning more about Japanese mythology since I do not know much about it and I find their culture interesting from what I know so far. I enjoyed this story for multiple reasons. For example, I like how it basically only took really strong alcohol to defeat Orochi. Some stories would have made them have an epic battle, but this story came up with a simple solution. The wording was a little awkward for me to read though. I feel that giving this story easier to read sentences would improve it for modern day readers.

Metamorphosis: Pygmalion
I chose this story to talk about because of its bizarre plot. The fact that he made a statue so perfect that he fell in love with it is so unbelievable to me. Also, I did not think this story would have a happy ending because the way the story was worded when he wished the statue to be real made me think that his words were going to be misinterpreted and he would not actually get his actual wish to come true. This story reminds me of the movie Mannequin from the 80s which I am sure it was based off of. I think this story could be recreated with an even modern twist like using artificial intelligence instead of a statue or mannequin.

 

(Pygmalion and Galatea: Wikimedia Commons)

Reading Options

Here are three units which grabbed my attention while browsing:

Japanese Mythology - I chose this unit mostly because I am not familiar at all with Japanese mythology. I would like to see how it is different from other types of mythology that I have learned about before. The overview of the unit seemed really interesting and got me excited about reading it. I hope to expand my knowledge and learn more about the Japanese culture as a whole throughout this unit.

Homer's Iliad  - This unit caught my eye since The Iliad is one of my favorite stories from Greek mythology. I mainly learned about it by watching the movie Troy which shows a depiction of the Trojan War. The movie made me want to learn more about the story in greater detail. One of my favorite characters from Greek mythology is Achilles due to how great he was at fighting.

Dante's Inferno - As I mentioned in an earlier post, Dante's Inferno is one my favorite stories. It is just so unique and interesting to read. The imagery is vivid to the point where you can imagine being in Hell. These are a few of the reasons why I chose this unit to talk about. Recently, I have been wanting to read this again so now will be the perfect opportunity to do so.

(Triumph of Achilles in Corfu Achilleion: Wikimedia Commons)