Story Bank

I'm playing catch-up with this week's assignments so please bear with me. On Monday, I concentrated on studying and beginning to write my educational philosophy and yesterday I was in Belgium for the day!

For Monday's assignment I choice the second option- to create "idea banks" for various settings, characters, etc.

Setting Bank

1. List ten places that you have lived in your lifetime. It need not be 10 different towns. Different places in one town are fine. Summer camp, visits to grandma, college dorm, basic training—they all count as places you’ve lived

1. Bayonne, NJ
2. Swarthmore, PA
3. Vienna, Austria
4. Siena, Italy
5. Bochum, Germany
6. Houston, TX
7. Poconos Basketball Camp
8. College dorm
9. "Treehouse" apartment
10. Nick's basement

2. List ten places to which you feel a strong emotional connection. The emotion can be positive or negative. Either is powerful. (it’s okay to have repeats in the bank. That can tell you something useful about where your heart lives.)

1. Paris, France
2. Tromso, Norway
3. Bayonne, NJ
4. Swarthmore, PA
5. Vienna, Austria
6. Bochum, Germany
7. Houston, TX
8. Santa Monica, CA
9. Nana's house
10. Dad's house

3. List ten places you’ve visited on vacation or places you’d love to visit in your lifetime were money and time no object.

1. Tromso, Norway
2. Malaysia
3. Cayman Islands
4. Fort Worth, TX
5. Svalbard
6. Chefchaouene, Morocco
7. Cambodia
8. India
9. Lebanon
10. Madagascar

4. List ten places from which your ancestors or in-laws come.

1. Lugo, Spain
2. Havana, Cuba
3. Roscommon, Ireland
4. Houston, TX
5. England
6. Poland
7. Small town
8. Large City
9. Italy
10. Farm

5. List ten books or movies that have settings you’ve found particularly captivating. (you may want to include a brief note about what attracted you to the setting.) This one was hard for me!

1. The Nightmare Before Christmas (Halloween town, my favorite holiday!)
2. Coraline (imaginary "otherworld")
3. The Help (time period)
4. Finding Nemo (LOVE the ocean... loved the attention to detail to the sea life in the background, thought the shipwreck details were fabulous)
5. To Kill a Mockingbird (poor rural southern countryside setting description brought a detailed image immediately to my mind)
6. Pans Labyrinth (dark, imaginative)
7. ALL of the Harry Potter BOOKS 
8. The Metamorphosis (Kafka did an amazing job describing the bedroom and the apartment)
9.  Eat, Pray, Love (my favorite setting of the book was when she was in the meditation camp)
10. Three Cups of Tea (appreciated the description of the mountains and mountain life in Pakistan)

6. List ten jobs whether paying or volunteer that you’ve done in your life.

1. Marketing Intern for an art appraising firm
2. Teacher
3. Home appraiser
4. Babysitter
5. Summer intern at NYC art museum
6. Camp counselor at sports camp for low income neighborhood
7. Art gallery assistant
8. Visual Resources assistant for art history dept. slide library
9. Columnist for NJ newspaper
10. Volunteer at art museum

7. List ten famous people, historical or contemporary, that you would love to share a meal with.

1. Hieronymus Bosch
2. Susan B. Anthony
3. Anthony Bourdain
4. Clara Barton
5. Ghandi
6. Michael Pollan
7. Bill Hicks
8. Natalie Portman
9. Babe Ruth
10. Martin Luther King

8. List ten ethnicities, religions, tribes, cultural groups, gender or sexual orientations, or political philosophies that are represented in your extended family.

1. Hispanic
2. White
3. Catholic
4. Atheist
5. Agnostic
6. Heterosexual
7. Bisexual
8. Liberal
9. Conservative
10. Indigenous Mexican

9. List ten people who can make you laugh.

1. My Dad
2. Mitch
3. Louis C.K.
4. Bill Hicks
5. Jon Stewart
6. Colbert
7. Daniel Tosh
8. My sister
9. Ellen DeGeneres
10. Conan O'Brian

10. Complete this sentence ten times. “I’ve always wanted to _____ like ____________. For example, Dance like Gene Kelley.

1. I've always wanted to have ab muscles like the Tone It Up girls.
2. I've always wanted to dance like Usher.
3. I've always wanted to sing like Mariah Carey.
4. I've always wanted to travel like Anthony Bourdain.
5. I've always wanted to write like J.K. Rowling. 
6. I've always wanted to be good at math like Mitch.
7. I've always wanted to play basketball like Kobe Bryant.
8. I've always wanted to be an artist like Leonardo Da Vinci.
9. I've always wanted to travel to space like Buzz Aldrin.
10. I've always wanted to be a ichthyologist like Maurice Kottelat.

Wow, that took me a long time to complete! I tried to answer the questions as accurately as possible. I hope to one day use this bank for future stories.