Story: Bradley and Ramon

Bradley and Ramon

Heat rippled off the ground in long, thin tendrils, bending and waving through the light like smoke. It’d been hot the whole summer as it always was in the deep south of Makom, Texas. It was about thirty miles south of Dallas. It was the sort of small suburb you found outside every big city in America.

Bradley was the youngest of three brothers and still lived with his parents. Bradley’s mom was not the mother to either of his brother and neither of his brothers shared the same mother either. Bradley’s father, Damien, hadn’t had the most success with marriage in the past given this was his third try and though this one had lasted the longest, it was going downhill. Bradley’s mother, Maria, had met Bradley’s father in the hospital where she was working as a nurse. His dad had wound up in the emergency room after getting bitten by a rattle snake while moving logs. The two had ended up dating for a few months afterward and then Maria got pregnant with Bradley and the two got married quickly after finding out. Such was the tradition in towns like Makom.

Bradley’s brothers Ramon and Larry had always been kind to him through childhood. The three got along very well despite having different mothers. They grew up fast, always excelling in their classes. As they came into young adulthood, they worked for their father’s construction company, impressing others with their great knowledge and strength for their age, but Ramon was the strongest and smartest, and yet Bradley and Larry didn’t envy him for it. The three all respected one another.

Near Ramon’s 18th birthday, his father was growing ill and told his wife and Ramon that if he passed he wanted Ramon to take over the business. Ramon was young but Damien insisted that the workers respected him and would listen to him. Maria did not like this arrangement though for one of her coworkers’ sons had just been promoted to VP at the bank where he worked. As Damien lay in bed resting late at night, Maria came to him and said

“Do you remember on our wedding night when you promised me anything in the world you could provide in exchange for me saving your life that one time?”

“I do,” Damien said.

“I beg you to please let Bradley manage the company when you pass. He greatly deserves it,” Maria pleased.

“What? I cannot do such a thing. Bradley will not even be 18 for two more years. He isn’t even ready if I wanted to put him in charge,” Damien said.

“Please. If you don’t do this, I’ll kill myself too. Please wait for Bradley to take charge. Send Ramon to travel the world for a few years. He is smart and will do well. That way, he will be ready for the world and will find his own job somewhere with his great skillset. Then, Bradley will be old enough to take power long before Ramon returns. If you were to pass, I could manage the company until Bradley was old enough. “

“No. I cannot betray my son that way. Bradley wishes to and deserves my position. It is only fair to give it to him.”

“But you promised me this! You must!”

“Please don’t make me do this!”

But the wife could not be swayed and the father gave in. The next morning, he told Ramon and Larry of what had transpired. Larry rejected the decision immediately but Ramon silenced him and said,

“It’s okay, dad.”

Larry promised to go with Ramon. If Ramon was to leave, then Larry would go with him. Ramon and Larry packed their things and went on their way, while their father mourned for their leaving. All this while, Bradley was still in class during the day and when he returned that night, his mother told him what had transpired.

“You can’t be serious. My brothers are gone! And it’s because of you! I don’t even want to be in charge. I want to go to college. How could you do this?” Bradley shouted.


“I did what I did for you!” Bradley’s mother pleaded, but Bradley would not listen. He grabbed his things and began running to the bus station to catch his brothers and stop them.

(Bharata meets Rama in Chitrakoot, wikimedia commons)

Authors Note: I based this story on parts 21-23 of reading B. I tried to do a modern retelling of the tale because it seemed like an interesting challenge. I changed the names up a bit and had to change some events to make them make more sense and even then some of it was a stretch, but it was a fun exercise. 

Bibliography: Public Domain Ramayana

Reading Notes: Public Domain Ramayana, Reading Part B

This section of reading seems to take a much more narrative tone. The descriptions have grown much lighter and the story seems to move into a more narrative style. This could just be the author’s for these individual pieces’ styles though. I could defiantly take the form though and use as a more mid-story form of my pieces. I could start with a more traditional style with heavy description and matter of fact elements and then move to a more narrative style that engrosses the reader with more events and actions. This more traditional story-telling style is really clear in Bharata Returns and it’s definitely a style I would like to emulate in my own writing. It’s not as cut and dry as much of the reading has been. The pieces in general though for the first several stories in this section are all heavily driven with scene rather than description which makes the reading process much more pleasant.

The theme of brotherly love and commitment is really clear here in these pieces. Bharata has everything going for him. The throne is his if he would only take it and yet he knows it is rightfully his brother’s and so he forgoes taking it for himself and even begs his brother to return home. It’s a very powerful image – this giving up of power in the name of fraternal love. It’s definitely something I would be interested in trying to include in my writing. It is a bit weird that the sandals become the figurative ruler of the city in Rama’s place, but it’s still a very powerful image. It might be worth re-writing a modern telling using sneakers or something more modern to really show the strangeness but significance behind the actions taken.

As I’ve been reading more and more of the pieces in verse, I definitely am leaning towards writing in prose instead. While the poetic form can be attractive, I feel that this type of story lends itself better to direct narrative form of prose rather than verse. I’ll probably avoid writing verse here unless I have to. The direct narration and strong images and scenes really are far more attractive to the average reader. It could still be fun though to mess around in verse in the future. I’m not writing it off completely but I am leaning against doing it.

(Rama defeats Khara, wikimedia commons)

Bibilography: Public Domain Ramayana 

Reading Notes: Public Domain Ramayana, Part A

Throughout much of the reading for Part A, I’ve found the use of strong figurative language and imagery to be a constant. The use of metaphors and similes is especially useful because it provides a more universal context to scenes that may not be familiar to a reader not used to the names and places given. Phrases like “the soft winds were wont to beat back the white water-blooms from the honey bees as coy maidens are withheld by the impulses of modesty from their eager lovers” and “warriors fierce as flames of consuming fire” from King Dasharatha provide a solid parallel between the somewhat foreign setting to a more universal image. This occurs time and time again. It seems that many of the pieces use figurative language in order to convey more complex settings or events through common or universal images.

Besides just strong figurative language, there is a constant barrage of new information that appears certainly cultural in nature. The direct links to Wikipedia give the reader much needed context for understanding the happenings that are taking place. In a retelling, it would make sense to maintain certain links to things that the reader may not know about, otherwise very important context could be lost. It would be probably be worth it to include links for certain things and characters.

The few battle scenes are described in a very matter of fact manner which in some ways is useful because it gives the text a certain weight to it. It’s almost historical in tone and thus sets up the image as being a historical narrative rather than a fictitious one. It would be useful to maintain the certain distant tone in my own retellings to maintain that sort of omniscient and almost historical tone about the piece.

I’ve very intriqued by the use of time in the Ramayana. This is especially clear in Bhagiratha andGanga. Often small events take entire years and it isn’t uncommon to see tens of millennia described. I could write my stories with similar time usage to maintain the form and style of the piece while I could then change the actual events. The form would be set but the content would have a bit more personal flair.

I’m especially interested in the poetic form of Ahalya, Rama Wins Sita, and several others. It could be fun to a do a retelling that retells a story not found in a poetic form in one or vice versa. 

(The death of Dasaratha, source)

Bibliography: 

Public Domain Ramayana, Link

Tech Tip: Blogger Template

So I decided to change up my blog template. I really liked the format of the Travel ones and so I went with one of those. The colors definitely give some more visual flair to the blog.

Famous Last Words Week 1

So this week sure went by very quickly. I'm working two part time jobs this semester and so I don't really have much time to slow down and think. Thankfully my classes haven't been too difficult as of yet but they'll probably get much worse as things progress. I've really enjoyed getting to read other people's posts from this week - the stories and introductions were especially interesting. It was cool getting to see all the different kinds of interests people have and I especially enjoyed Kimber's pictures of her pets. It looks like it's going to be a fun semester, I think. Writing the story based on a fable was also quite a bit of fun.

I unfortunately haven't really found many parallels between my main courses in chemical engineering and this class. Laura did give me some information about the Indian god of engineering and so that was pretty cool, but alas I haven't really found much overlap as of yet. I'm sure it'll come up eventually! Maybe. Possibly. But not really. Either way, I think this class will be a fun break from the monotony of my regular courses. I get to do very fun reading on materials that I'm not really familiar with and I get to do writing which I always enjoy and rarely get to do outside of the technical format for my major.

As things start to pick up and classes really get rolling these next few weeks,I hope to be able to stay on top of the material with all my classes. Thus far, it seems like I should be able to even be a little bit ahead at all times and I hope to keep that going for the rest of the semester. I've been able to get all my homework done early enough that I can ask my professor's questions if I have any. I've one major change this semester and that has been actually reading the textbooks for my classes before we start the lectures on that chapter. It really gives me a leg ahead when we start the homework on the new material. Overall, I think this will be a pretty good semester.

Week 1 Review

Though I haven't been able to read every day's announcements as they come up, I have enjoyed looking back through them, I especially enjoy all the cat-themed motivational memes. I especially enjoyed Saturday's cat meme. It seems like this is going be a fun class! I don't have any events to add at the moment but I'll be sure to do so in the future if I find any.

(Growth Mindset Cat)

My thoughts on the Growth Mindset

I had never heard of the growth mindset or Carol Dweck before but I really liked the idea of a growth mindset. I've had many classes that were purely graded on correctness, but I've always felt like I didn't really learn much in those classes. I learned how to give the correct answer - what I would call memorization-based classes. You don't learn the whole process - the why, the how, the little details - you just learn what it is and how to do it. I've had many other classes though in chemical engineering where I was graded on my attempt and the quality of that attempt. I might still be completely wrong, but when I'm wrong, I'm not completely discouraged because I can see where I can improve. When most of my exams are two hours long and only have two questions on the exam, it'd be very discouraging if we were graded purely on correctness when a simple error can screw up a multi-page calculation. The idea of always being able to improve really resonates with me over the standard discouragement I feel when I screw up on an assignment in some classes. On the first day of one of my classes this semester, the professor said "When you get something right, you don't learn anything. You move on. But when you get something, wrong, that's when you have the opportunity to really learn something and grow from your mistakes."

(From Growth Mindset memes, made with cheezeburger)

Starting The Semester: Some personal tips

(Planner, pixabay)

I've always been fairly organized. I keep a calendar above my desk and write down major deadlines or exam dates so I can glance up and see what kinds of things are coming up. Basically, my biggest tip is just keeping track of your assignments and deadlines somehow. I personally use a calendar, but a planner, an app, or anything really that lets you record upcoming dates would work. It helps you stay on top of the material with just simple checks. I've put together a few others but the main tip I can give is just to keep track of your assignments and exams.

My tips:

1. Keep track of upcoming deadlines, exam dates,  important events in an easy to check manner.

2. Set reminders for yourself. I use post it notes to remind myself about something that I need to get done immediately when I have some free time. I just set the note on my desk so I see it when I get home.

3. Try to work in advance whenever possible. This class gives you the opportunity of working ahead and that's a great thing. If you have a test one week, you can work in advance so you can spend that week studying instead of having to do other work.


I hope these help!

Reading Options

I am choosing to use the public domain edition of the Ramayana. While I was somewhat interested in the novelized version, I ultimately felt that the advantages of being able to access it freely online was what pushed me to choose to read the public domain. If I really like the material, I may end up getting the novelized version just to read for fun.

I've always been very interested in literature from cultures other than my own and this class gives me the opportunity to really get to read some pieces that I might not otherwise ever get to. After looking through some of the materials, I've really liked the artistic pieces that have shown up. I really like the style and I appreciate that every one the individual pieces of the Ramayana have an image with them and I especially like the artistic ones rather than just the photos. For example I've shared one of them below. Ultimately I took this class because I needed a non-western culture class but I really am personally interested in the subject matter. I've taken several classes at OU on various religions found in the US and I've really enjoyed those. In those classes we never went very far into Hinduism or Buddhism and I hope this class will let me delve further into them. Hopefully this class will expose me to some new and exciting materials.

(Shiva Catches Ganga Falling to Earth)

My Storybook Favorites

So I really liked quite a few of the storybooks I looked through, but there's just a few that really stood out and for different reasons. The first one I wanted to share is called "If Dragons Took Over the World "by Kaylee Johnson. The title is ultimately what pulled me to the piece because I'm a fan of reading various fantasy pieces. The story is definitely light-hearted fantasy about a world inhabited by dragons. The introduction really sets the stage up for all the information the reader is going to receive without giving away too much about any individual piece. Ultimately what stuck out to me the most about this was the style and presentation used. The formatting is very colorful and the use of complex ambient background images really adds some visual flair to the storybook. The visuals were really what stands out from this storybook. It makes excellent use of color and images.

Another storybook I wanted to mention because I found the topic material extremely interesting was Weather Gods. The formatting wasn't as impressive as "If Dragons took over the world", but the material in the actual stories is done very well. I really liked the historical aspect of the pieces and the writer does a pretty good job of presenting these places by combining strong descriptions with images. The idea for the story is extremely interesting. The narrator and protagonist is going back in time to talk with various weather gods. It's just such a specific and interesting idea that I found it unique enough to draw me in. The background use of clouds is a cute little addition to the weather theme as well.

This final storybook really grabbed me with its title: "The Four Elements: Birth and Death stories". The title seemed almost biblical and I was very interested in looking through it. The idea of the piece is excellent. The writer goes through and presents how various birth and death stories in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata relate to the four elements of earth, wind, fire, and water. The formatting is very ambient and definitely fits in with the sort of beginning and end, we come from dust, we go to dust, naturalistic theme going on. The really impressive thing here was the introduction of the piece about to be discussed at the top of each individual story piece. It definetly lets the reader get into the story before the writer is going to give their take on it. I appreciated the more formal nature of this piece honestly as well. It's somewhat more technical but it's done in an easy to read manner.

(Image used on the home page for The Four Elements Birth and Death Stories, Geninne's Art)

Story: Old King Cole

(Wikimedia Commons)

“Send in my jesters, three!” the man yelled from his throne.

The small door at the end of the hall opened up and in danced three little jesters prancing around in colorful outfits of patchwork purples and greens, occasionally tripping on their long, cloth shoes and giggling madly as they did so.

“What jesters are these?” asked the old man on the throne. “I asked for jesters, three. These are children!”

“Yes, of course,” the younger man standing to the right of the throne said. You asked for jesters, three, so we went and found you three jesters that all happen to be three years old.”

“This is ridiculous!” Old King Cole shouted.

“No it’s what you asked for.” The prince said.

“Well what can they do?” Asked the king.

“Not much. They’re three.”

“I KNOW there are three of them!” The king roared.

“No, I meant they’re three years old,” the young man said.

“I’m going to slap you,” the king said. The Jesters giggled as they watched. They had all taken seats on the floor and were now playing with the long floppy socks on their feet.

“Well you asked for jesters, three and so we found this troupe of triplet jesters that all happened to be three. It’s exactly what you wanted – to the note.”

“No it isn’t!” the king shouted.

“Well they’re here now,” the prince said.

The three young jesters all watched this exchange, rocking back and forth while they laughed.

“Well then I guess I’ll tolerate them. Jesters, show me what you can do! Come on up here. Stand before me and perform!” The jesters jumped up and skipped over in their colorful little onesies and stood right before the old man and the prince. The jesters all looked at the prince as if waiting for something.

“Well go on,” the prince said.

“Grandpa, do you have Minecraft?” one of the jesters said. The prince coughed and broke out into hysterical laughter.

“No guys, do the_” the prince was too busy laughing to finish his sentence. “Do the little dance and finish the scene, you guys!”

“It’s fine. Come on, kids. Give me a big hug. We’ll try acting another time. You’ll have to learn to appreciate the theatre when you’re older.” The old man rose from the chair and the little kids ran up to embrace him. “Now what the jiminy doo dad is Minecraft?”

“It’s a game they all play. You won’t have it,” the younger man said.

“I have plenty of board games,” the old man said.

“It’s not a board game, dad. You’d think they’d be more interested in acting given their lineage.” A door opened at the end of the room and an older woman leaned in.

“Lunch is ready, you guys,” the woman said. The little jesters jumped up and sprinted for the door.

“Well it was worth a shot. Thanks for trying, dad.”

“Of course. I’ll take any chance I get to play with my grandchildren.” The two men smiled at one another in silence for a brief moment.

“I guess we should join them,” the old man said.

“I guess we should,” the younger man said.

Authors Note: You can obviously tell I've deviated quite a bit from the source material on this one. The original rhyme just talks about a jolly old man and his three fiddlers. I enjoy writing intentional misdirection in  my stories quite a bit and so this story is meant to let the reader feel at first their in some sort of medieval time that might fight the original time of the rhyme. I left the name the "Cole" the same and used three jesters instead of fiddlers as it added more comic effect, I felt. I wrote it to seem as if they're acting out a little play made from the nursery rhyme but the kids don't end up playing along, but in the end, everyone is still happy and jolly just as in the original rhyme.

Bibliography: This story is based on the nursery rhyme "Old King Cole" found in "The Nursery Rhyme Book" edited by Andrew Lang

Introduction to a Chemical Engineering Student

Hello, My name is Jeff Green!

Well summer is now over and school is back in session. I spent my summer working as an intern at Advanced Chemical Technologies Inc. in OKC. They mainly manufacture water-proofing products for concrete along with a variety of other products. I worked there doing R&D for new products and had a pretty good time but I really don't have any exciting stories of my summer to share. I also got my Lean/Six Sigma Green belt during this summer. It's a certification in a optimized process mentality mainly used in manufacturing. Dr. Pulat teaches it here at OU and it's worth doing if you're in the college of engineering as it looks pretty good on your resume.

I'm a chemical engineering student at OU in the college of engineering and I'm minoring in English writing (I've always followed the mantra "Major in where you can find work. Minor in something you enjoy"). Chemical Engineering has been a very difficult major but I feel that ultimately it's been worth the extra work required to succeed. This will be my fourth and final year here at OU as I will be graduating this upcoming spring semester. By graduation, I hope to have a job lined up so I can move directly into the workforce. I don't really have any specific career goals as to what company I want to work for, but I'd like to get into the chemical or energy industries. If I can get a company to pay for it, I'd love to pursue an MBA and move into chemical engineering management. My overarching career mentality right now is basically "Get a job" as I'm in my last year of school.

Well now that I've gotten the boring stuff out of the way, I guess I'll give some slightly (and I mean very slightly) less boring tidbits about myself. I absolutely love to make things and it can be anything - food, furniture, massive spreadsheets used for modeling complex reaction systems for. I do really love to cook though and I'm not bad at it. I smoked quite a bit of meat in my smoker this summer as well. I just smoked a pork shoulder a few weeks back for pulled pork and a few weeks before that I smoked two twenty pound briskets about a week apart. Outside of cooking, I'm a pretty normal college-aged guy. I play video games and watch Netflix in my free time. I love to read though I really haven't been able to read for fun as much as I would like. Most of what I read nowadays is formal reports or instructions about running certain ASTM tests or about the performance of a certain reactor - you know, super fun and exciting stuff like that. I keep sliding back to the boring, technical stuff here, don't I? Engineering can be kind of boring that way. Well here's some pictures of some of the food I made this summer to sum this mostly boring introduction up on a more enjoyable note. Enjoy!

(Personal photo of split smoked brisket, July 2016)

(Personal Photo of Caprese salad, June 2016)

(Personal photo of homemade blueberry jam, June 2016 - Will gladly give away some. I'm getting a little sick of it at this point,)

(Personal Photo of Rum Cake, June 2016)

Route 66, A favorite Place (or Road)

Route 66: 

(Old Route 66 near Amboy, Ca, Wikimedia Commons, photo by Dietmar Rabich)

I don't really have a specific favorite one place or even places. My dad and I used to go on regular road trips along route 66 either east or west during the summer and we'd visit countless places during our trip. We never really had a destination - we just set out to drive and so we did. There's countless great restaurants, museums, and sightseeing opportunities along the way. It goes through small towns, big cities, and through massive stretches of vast emptiness and beautiful landscapes. It's a fun drive if you ever are looking for a fun trip to take that's not too expensive or difficult. All you need is a car and a map. We used the Route 66 EZ guide to navigate and it worked really well for us, though we still got lost from time to time as the road isn't the easiest to navigate always (it goes through a parking lot at one point and under a single house at another). I could spend hours talking about the trip, but I guess I'll just share a few photos from my trips.

(Personal Photo from the J.M Davis Historical Gun Museum in Claremore, OK)

(Personal Photo of the famous Shoe Tree on Route 66)

(Personal Photo of long abandoned Bar along RT 66)

Comment Wall

Hello. Welcome to my blog!

Test post, please ignore

Test post, please ignore this text too