First, the pumpkin toadlet is not considered endangered. It’s a toad found in South America and is less than an inch long. They are a bright-yellow orange because they possess a neurotoxin. These toads skip the tadpole stage too and are born as very small toadlets. All very interesting information, but rather tame. So, why did I want to do a post about them?
Well, the pumpkin toadlet has underdeveloped ears, so it can’t hear it’s own calls. They have to communicate through motions of their throat sac and arms. It’s believed they have actually evolved to not really need the sounds and still do it because they haven’t gotten rid of the ability completely. Loud noises can lead to them being discovered by predators, so better to be silent.
Pretty cool, but still not the reason I picked them for a post. 😀
Nope . . . Here is why I chose them:
Yeah. They can jump, but are terrible at landing. At least they keep trying.
This past week didn’t start off really well, especially if you decipher the title. So, I can’t say I made much in the way of progress.
So, I made it through work on Monday and was home helping my son with homework. I leaned against the wall and my feet started to slide forward. Being in socks, I couldn’t stop myself, so I grabbed the chair in front of me. That slid forward and under the table, which pulled me down. I had my phone in one hand and the heavy chair in another, so I couldn’t protect my head. The chair landed on me too, so my back, shoulders, and neck were in rough shape for about 24 hours. Worse was that the blow to the back of my head was enough to give me a mild concussion. I had to take two days off of work and did my best to take it easy the other two.
Tuesday was the worst because all I could do was rest in bed after doing some necessary shopping. I had to rest up to get my son and spend time with him since I won’t see him again until Wednesday night. I couldn’t even watch TV or use my phone for long without getting a headache. Even the white of the paper that my book was printed on was hard to work with, so I’m still trying to finish chapter 1 of Darwin & the Beast Collector. By Wednesday, I was able to walk outside for an hour before feeling any fatigue, so I’m able to work now.
All of that being said, the real drain was me getting stressed out and there were a few things that emotionally knocked me down. One of them resolved on a high note and the other is now a potential issue that I can’t do anything about. So, this hasn’t been a great week and I can’t even talk about most of it.
There were two really good things on Thursday and Friday though. I got to go out with some of my students on Thursday, which I typically don’t get to do. This meant I had time to talk to one who I worked with a lot for two years, but now I don’t get to interact with as often. Missed talking about nerd culture, the future, and just random stuff even though my scrambled brain made it hard to keep up at times. For Friday, I worked with another student that I don’t get to work every day and it was a fun, nice way to end a really rough week. I definitely needed all of the positivity after the concussion and a personal disaster that I need to stop dwelling on.
With all of that, I’m stepping into Winter Break, which means sleeping in for the next 9 days. Then, it’s about 7.5 weeks with a day off. I’m going to try my best to get at least 5 chapters of Darwin & the Beast Collector done before my son is with me. It’s freezing and gross out all week, which means I can’t do much in the way of Pokemon Go. The only real event with a time table is today from 2-5 and I won’t be out there for the whole thing since I’m saving money. Sunday through Wednesday can simply be a single trip to the mall for 30-40 minutes of Pokemon then editing for the rest of the day. Even when my son is here, I might do some work since he wants to work on his drawing. Guess there is a benefit to having miserable weather, but at least it’s getting out of the way this week and not the one after.
Can’t think of anything else that I did . . . Well, there was the Super Bowl party, but I lost interest in the game fairly quickly. It’s amazing how some injuries pretty much put everything on pause. Then again, it was my brain and most of my goals involved some exertion and thinking. Didn’t even get to the April blog posts, which I should work on a bit next week. Can I get them all done? Probably not, but I’m going to slip them in when I need an editing break.
You know, I’m just going to dive right into the questions. I mean, I’ve made a post about fallen apprentices and another about hubris. Covers the topic pretty well for only having a week to do so.
If you were a teacher, how would you protect your apprentice from hubris?
What is a personality trait that can prevent a apprentice from falling?
How would you handle anyone who suffers from hubris, egotism, or narcissism?
The fallen apprentice and most other characters who fall from grace tend to succumb to a specific personality trait. Some may call it egotism and others narcissism. I’m going to use a different term that is popular in fiction:
Hubris
This word comes from ancient Greece and was deigned a major flaw of mortals in their mythology. Through hubris, a person will defy the gods, display extreme vanity and pride, and may even go so far as to claim divinity themselves. We can even see this in real life examples where a person acts superior until they are knocked down a few pegs. In fiction and reality, they lack any sense of consequences. Even in the face of the results of their actions, they may continue to demonstrate hubris and blames others. This is why narcissism can be closely related to this personality flaw.
As far as the apprentice archetype, it isn’t too hard to see how this can come about. If one is gifted and continually praised by their mentor, they might feel that they are superior to those around them. Whatever ideas and beliefs they assume are considered the best even if it causes them to hurt others. The egotism becomes so strong that a moment of not being the best can cause them to crash. It’s almost unheard of their mind for them to lose, so they begin going down a dark path. Maybe it’s to gain more power outside of their mentor’s teachings or to grab that they would normally earn at an earlier date. The hubris-fueled actions of these characters can lead them to do horrible things to the heroes because they become an emotionally wounded animal.
The funny thing about hubris is that you don’t really see the turn that much today. Yet, it’s clearly still being used as a plot device. So, one could say the concept is hardwired into our natural psyche. It could even be an instinctive warning for humans not to get too confident since we weren’t designed with built in weaponry. I mean, we’re predators, but I don’t think we would be apex predators without our technology. So, a sense of not messing with things stronger and more dangerous than us could be part of our natural mindset. Since it isn’t as common a problem anymore, we demonstrate the continued existence of this instinct through fiction. Probably explains why we become fascinated by real life people falling from their pedestal too.
Hubris isn’t a permanent state either. One can learn humility and pull themselves out of the dangerous position. A subplot can always be such a character learning to listen to others and accept they could be wrong. This is a challenge since a major aspect of hubris is a sense of superiority. This is why one normally can’t change until they suffer severe consequences. Happens in real life too. Unfortunately, the consequences can be fatal, which there’s no coming back from. They can also, as previously stated, push a person into a vengeful and more sinister mindset. Always dangerous popping someone’s inflated ego.
So, what do you think of the use of hubris in fiction?
Legends of Windemere 