Week 11: Essay

Week 11: Essay

Cartoon

This week I chose to do the cartoon essay because I have fun reading all of them. This week the cartoon I chose was one that I actually connect with. The reason I connect with this cartoon is because it is about two coyotes and one asks the other "Wait...Did you just say 'LOL'?" LOL of course means "laugh out loud." I connect with this because I have found myself wanting to say "LOL" out loud in a conversation on a few occasions over the last few years. However, I hope I never do that because that would be so embarrassing and incorrect. I also have lately caught myself saying "JK" out loud a few times in conversations. JK means "just kidding." I have not only done this once, but several times. I think the world is becoming so technology based and we spend so much time on social media sites and writing short hand that we are all going to start saying things such as "LOL" and "JK" in every day conversations. I also have accidentally written things such as "probly" and "gonna" in important papers for class and in homework. It is so bad and I really hate that things such as texting, emails, and Facebook are contributing to these types of writing. I have tried to really work on my shorthand in texting because I feel as I get older it makes me look bad. I feel like things such as "ur" instead of "your" and "r" instead of "are" or "u" instead of "you" are just making me look uneducated and like a child. Also, I do not want to develop such a habit that I do start really adding these things into my writing for school or work. So I have really been working on that and that is why I chose this cartoon for my essay this week!

Week 11: Storytelling: Alice in Horrorland

Week 11: Storytelling

Alice in Horrorland

Haunted Forest of Horrorland

Once Alice had finally landed at the bottom of the rabbit hole, she fell to the coldest and hardest ground she had ever felt. She quickly stood up and looked all around her. 

All around Alice were dark trees and fog as far as she could see. She had no idea where she was or why she was there. Alice decided to walk until she found someone or something that could help her get back home. 

An hour later, she could finally see a house in the distance. She walked and walked until she eventually came up to the dark and rundown old house. She made the questionable decision to knock on the door.

Haunted House 

When she knocked, the door automatically opened. Alice quickly walked in and immediately the door slammed shut. She hurried into the next room and found a black cat with such large teeth showing a grin beyond evil. Alice thought to herself, "I did not know that cats could grin so evilly."

The cat screeched and ran off leaving Alice alone. Immediately, Alice heard the cackle of what sounded like a witch. When she turned around, Alice saw the most horrible-looking woman she had ever seen watching her. She was quite a tall, chubby woman and she was wearing a long white dress. The dress looked like it had hearts painted on with blood.

Alice closed her eyes and shook her head. "Surely I am dreaming. This cannot be real life," she thought to herself, terrified. When she carefully opened her eyes, the evil woman was still standing there in her blood-painted dress. "Welcome to my house, little girl! If you didn't already figure it out, it is haunted!" exclaimed the woman. "I am the Queen of Hearts, and I am ready to take yours," the queen screamed. 

Horrorland

Alice had never felt her stomach drop like that before. She started running towards the front door to escape the murderous queen. She slammed the door behind her but that did not stop the queen. The queen started chasing after Alice through the haunted woods of Horrorland. Alice finally found a large tree to hide behind. 

Everything got real quiet for a few minutes. Alice had a slight feeling of hope when all of a sudden she heard what sounded like a branch crack. She held her breath and tried not to make a sound, but the queen was getting closer and closer. 

Alice started to cry and could not contain herself. The queen heard a noise and followed the sound. She found the tree which Alice was hiding behind. The queen of hearts screamed "OFF WITH YOUR HEAD!!!" and took an axe to Alice, cutting her head clean off. She started laughing and used the blood to draw another heart on her white dress. She went home and waited for another victim to come knocking on her door.

Author's Note: I changed this story a lot. I decided since it is the week of Halloween, I would do a horror themed story. My goal was to make the queen like someone we usually see in horror films. I was thinking someone similar to Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees. I was initially going to just add Michael Myers into the story as the killer, but after I chose my reading unit I thought the queen would be perfect. I did not describe Alice falling down the rabbit hole because I felt it did not need to be explained, and it was not that important to my story. I really wanted to focus on the actual haunted woods and the chase. I added little things such as the cat who I changed to have an evil grin instead of a happy one. I also wanted to add in the haunted house because there are a lot of times where Alice goes into a house or is trying to open doors. I turned the meaning of queen of hearts into a very gory one. I thought it would make for an interesting twist while still having her keep her name. I changed the name of the story to "Alice of Horrorland" instead of "Alice in Wonderland" because it fits the story better, and also because of my Halloween theme. I felt that since this story is very well known, I could really change it a lot, even just simple details, and people would know the differences I made to my version. 

Bibliography:

Book: Alice in Wonderland

Author: Lewis Carroll

Year: 1865

Web Source: Un-Textbook

Week 11: Reading Diary: Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland

Down the Rabbit Hole:
This is about when Alice follows a talking rabbit down a rabbit hole which happens to have her falling for a long, long time. She ends up in a hallway with a lot of doors, but only one key. The key only opens a tiny door too little for her to get through. This door leads to a garden so Alice wants to go through that door. She drinks a potion that makes her smaller, but realizes she left the key on the tall table and cannot reach it. So then she eats cake to hope that it will make her bigger so she can reach the key.


The Pool of Tears:
After she eats the cake, she becomes very large. She is more than 9 feet tall and cannot see her feet anymore.


The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill:
She sees a mushroom and finds a caterpillar smoking a hookah on top of it.


Advice from a Caterpillar:
Alice meets the caterpillar and they have a rough conversation. He doesn't understand anything she tries to tell him about her size issues from that day. Alice then tells the caterpillar a rhyme and he criticizes it. She pleads to the caterpillar to be taller and he tells her the mushroom would do the trick. However, one side would make her taller and the other would make her smaller. She first at the side that made her smaller. Quickly she ate the other side, but it made her neck super long and she went into the clouds. A pigeon thinks she is a serpent and is scared of Alice. She finally ate both sides of the mushroom back and forth until she was normal sized.


Pig and Pepper:
Alice goes to a house where a fish footman is handing a letter to a frog footman. The letter is an invitation for the duchess from the Queen for the duchess to play croquet. Once Alice gets into the house, we meet the Cheshire Cat. The duchess was kind of rude to Alice. The duchess left to go play croquet and left her baby with Alice (which was really a pig). She runs into the cat again and asks it for directions and has a conversation about being "mad." She finally came to the house of the March Hare and saw that the house had chimney ears and a fur roof.


A Mad Tea Party:
Alice goes into a house where the Mad Hatter and the March Hare are having a tea party. They are rude to her at first because she sits down uninvited. They talk about time and how the Hatter keeps it at 6 o'clock always.


The Queen's Croquet-Ground:
Alice stumbles on a deck of cards painting white roses red. They had to paint them because the queen wanted red. Then the queen appears and asks Alice who she was. She tried to have her beheaded, but Alice would not have it. They played a very strange game of croquet with hedgehogs and flamingos.