More prompt responses.  Again, I have gotten behind with this, but I have thought about these things, so I will now post about them.
Anyway,

Tell and analyze the creation myth of our nation, a town, or a cultural institution.

The creation myth of the USA would, I suppose, have the following four stages.  First, the Early Years, beginning with the discovery of the continent by Christopher Columbus.  This would continue through the years of colonization, the Queen Anne's War and the age of Caribbean piracy.  Then, the Revolution and Expansion, with the Revolution against England, from the Boston Tea Party and the Revolutionary war, followed by Washington's refusal to be King, the Lewis and Clark expedition, and the Louisiana Purchase.  This age would continue through the Civil War, the "wild west" age, the Gold Rush, and the Guilded Age, and ending with World War I.  America is then a major power in the world, and a new age begins.  The "roaring 20's" arrive after the war, making the United States a wealthy place, followed by the Great Depression.  These are trial years for the country, and end witht he onset of World War II, which drove America out of the Depression, and established the country as a Superpower.  There follows a time of uneasy peace, the Cold War, while the middle class gained strength, and "suburbia" was invented.  This age continued until the end of the Cold War in 1989, and there began what I would call the Computer Age.  This age is what continues today, as computers and machines become more and more central to American life.

Review Classmate's Myth blogs.
I did this, it was very informative.  Due to the great variety of people who are in the class, I was able to get a large sampling of how others feel about the things being discussed in class , which was very intersting.

Describe and comment on a contemporary destructive myth sighting. 
It seems like there are a lot of destructive myths in the world in general.  People are concerned about the zombie apaocalypse, a friend in high school told me she was concerned about a penguin apocalypse, and theories abound about Yellowstone erupting, asteroid impacts, and nuclear war.  The most intreaguing to me, however, are those involving the end of the world in 2012.  According to a friend, the world will end at that time because the planets will be lined up just so that they will make sea levels rise dramatically, flooding the planet.  This is interesting on many levels, as it is not only a destruction myth involving the earth, but it is a deep space destruction stroy as well.  It is also said that the world will end because the Mayan calender ends in 2012, making it a semi-religious destructive myth as well.

Write an Ethnography of a Modern Rite of Passage.
The greatest rite of passage I know of in the modern world is that of getting one's driver's license.  There are many steps to this.  First, the future driver sees others--parents, and other authority figures, driving, and perhaps older siblings as well.  This often causes the future driver to want to drive.  Next there is an initation of sorts, driver's education.  This is very boring, and can be difficult to get through, but the wait is rewarded by a second initiation, driver's trianing.  Here a great deal of comradery can be created with embarassing stories of first times behind the wheel, and the driver becomes much more confident over this time.  They also learn to drive from parents.  Eventually, they driver must go to the DMV and take a test with a teacher who will evaluate if the driver is ready to go out alone on the road or not.  This is the final test, and afterwards the individual has a licence.  This gives him or her much more freedom than they had before the licence was obtained, they can go places they could not before, and are much more in charge of their own life as they do not need others to take them to and from places.

Play with a Proppian Analysis of a familiar story
I will use the example of one of my favorite stories, that of Star Wars.  For this, I am using only Luke's part in the original movie.
The story begins with Luke on Tatooine, Luke is the hero, and his feeling of loss and lack of purpose is the lack.  He meets several donors, in quick succession; first, R2D2 and C3PO.  R2, in a way, tests him, when he shows Luke a portion of the message from Princess Leia and tells him he needs to find Obi-Wan Kenobi.  Luke is then tested when R2 runs away, and Luke and 3PO are attacked by sand people.  He meets a second donor after this encounter, Obi-Wan (Ben) Kenobi.  Luke then recieves a magical agent, the lightsaber that Kenobi gives him. Luke is then transferred to a magical place, the city of Mos Eisley. They meet another set of donors, Han Solo and Chewbacca in a bar, but the droids are discovered, and the hero is branded as an enemy of the Empire, and is transferred again, going into space on the Millenium Falcon.  Luke is then branded again, this time as a Jedi as Obi-Wan begins his training en route to Alderaan.  There is then combat with a villain when they go to rescue Princess Leia on the Death Star; they sucessfully rescue the Princess (another donor) and Kenobi is stuck down.  The group goes to rendevous with the rebellion, Luke arrives unrecognized as the Jedi that he is, and he is tested again, this time be Leia and the rebellion, challanged to destroy the Death Star.  Luke, with the aid of the Force and Obi-Wan's spirit, accomplishes this when several others had failed, and along the way battle with a villain, Darth Vader, who comes to shoot down Luke's ship.  Luke, however, is rescued by Han and Chewbacca, and returns, now recognized as a hero, as are Han, Chewey, and the two droids. 
Describe and comment on current/national mythologies.
In national and cultural mythologies, the hero (the country or culture) never seems to lose.  An easy example of this is the myth of my home state, California.  In California people can live and party at the beach all the time, there is always sunshine and palm trees, "California girls" as the song calls them, are the prettiest in the country, and the boys are all tan and have sixpacks and call one another "dude".  San Francisco is the most beautiful city in the world, the tallest trees are in California, there is wonderful skiing in the Sierra Nevada mountains, we had a movie star for a governor, people make movies in Hollywood, down in Southern California, the 49ers have never lost a Superbowl...I could go on, but it is not necessary.  We are all aware of the attitude that Californians have about their state.  We choose to ignore the fact that California is also an earthquake capitol of the world, that there is indeed rain and fog a lot in the state, that Los Angeles has some of the worst air quality in the country, that we as a state are heavily in debt, that the expensive homes people build on the coast are eroded away or lost in landslides, that wildfires sweep the landscape every summer and fall.  All of this is also true of California, but we do not acknowledge it.  Never.  California is the best.  It is just the way it is.  This attitude is mirrored by the country at large; despite the flaws of this country, we will never admit to them.  This attitude is frequently parodied; in an episode of the sitcom 30 Rock,  the late dictator Kim Jong-il (portrayed by Margert Cho) creates a propaganda film about North Korea's many wonderful attributes, claiming the country to be sunny and beautiful all the time, all for humorous effect.

Respond to Karen Armstrong's conclusion about the need for new mythologies to meet the crises of our current times.
            The need for mythology is now as present as it ever was.  It is however, a different type of mythology than what humans had in ancient times.  We have our national and cultural mythologies, which roughly correspond to creation myths and to a lesser extent, ritual myths; we also have the religions of the world, which all have their own myths, whether in the scriptures of that denomination or in the "creation" of that religion itself.  We have a great many destruction myths, from plausible, and frankly frightening ones such as those concerning extraterrestrial impacts and nuclear war, to those that are strange and unlikely such as the zombie apocalypse and alien invasions.  In addition, we have scientific myths that we have faith in, the ideals that science can answer all of our questions, among other myths, and, in our increasingly industrial world, we humanize animals.  For instance, the hyena and the wolf are frequently villainous, bullying species, the lion, the tiger, the bear and the elephant are regal and majestic, monkeys and apes are cute and innocent, and mice, rabbits, raccoons, and weasels are "trickster" species.  We also have mythic heroes (and villians) in the form of athletes, actors, politicians, religious figures, and soldiers.
Basically, we do need myth to connect us to the world around us, and to the past and the future.  We create these myths ourselves  based upon our feelings about these people, animals, and events, and use them to relate to the world.  Regarding the "hero" myths, and the animal myths, it is interesting to note that we especially like to turn to athletes and soldiers and politicians from the past rather than the present because they have already been idealized for us.  We do not think of modern day athletes, whom we know to be flawed, but instead idealize Michael Jordan, Babe Ruth, and Steve Young; we mock active politicians and praise the names of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roseveldt; and we do not know anything about living soldiers or generals but love stories about Leonidas, Hannibal, Alexander, Robert E. Lee, and Robert Patton.  As animals get rarer and their homes more remote, we humanize them more and more.

Evaluate and Comment on the Journey through myth you've made through your journal.

I feel like I have learned a lot by writing this blog.  It has helped me to understand what myth truly is, and how much the myths that I create and that others have created for me have affected my life and the way I see the world.  It also helped me to see how much myths that others have created affect them.  Basically, it has greatly enhanced my view of world culture, and of the human conciousness.

Myth sightings

OK, some other myth sightings I have seen lately:
For one thing, the music site "Pandora" named for the Greek figure.  This is kind of an unusual one, I think, as the site probably alludes to Pandora's box, which contained all of the world's horrors, but also hope.  If this site is Pandora's box, none of the music there can be much good, right?  But I suppose that maybe the music is the hope, which is certainly a good thing.  I hope for the latter.
Another interesting note from the scientific world is that of the family of arachnids, the name scientists give to spiders scorpions, tics, etc.  The name comes from the Greek myth of Arachne, who challanged Athena to weave better than she could.  As punishment, Athena turned Arachne into a spider, where she spun for the rest of her days.
Some more myth sightings:  in Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song", Valhalla is refferenced.
In the books "A Series of Unfortunate Events" a fictional deadly mushroom features prominently in one of the books, an homage to the Greek monster Medusa.
A game I came across once called Heroscape has many references to mythologies.  Valkyrie, elves, dwarves, a troll, a giant, and many dragons are playable in the game, all from Norse mythology, there are also many figures derived from Greek and Roman myths, as well as many more recent science fiction mythologies.

Oh, this is another one, not sure if this is really a refference to myth, but, on the flash cartoon website Homestar Runner .com, reference is made to a "sweet, sweet rainbow bridge back to Free Country USA", which reminded me of the rainbow bridge to Asgard in Norse mythology.  It is entirely possible, however, that the cartoon's creators were just trying to be funny with this rainbow bridge.

Myth Journal

Are you, or have you ever been, a mythic figure?

After a lot of thought, I believe thaWhat we have all, in some way, been a mythic figure.  Myth is full of storeis about not only gods, but heroes and monsters as well.  People who are brave and who help others are concidered often concidered heroes.  We have all helped others in our own ways, and to them we are thought of as heroes, spun into the myths in their own lives.

I have been writing these in an actual journal, so they are now being copied onto this blog.  anyway, here goes...
What is the mythology of your family? 

One of my favorite parts of my family mythology is the traditions.  Some of the earliest memories I have are of visiting my dad's family's
sheep ranch in Utah.  The major "rite of passage" there is learing to drive the 4-wheelers, and of fishing at the lake there.  Another "rite of passage" for me anyway was learing how to kill spiders.  As most of my family is arachnophobic and my dad is often working and thus unable to squish them, I had to learn how to do it.

Is Gilgamesh the first and Archetypal Superhero?

I would have to say yes to this question.  Like so many more modern superheroes, he comes from supernatural heritage (Superman is from Krypton, Spiderman was bitten by the spider, Hulk was exposed to radiation, etc), he has the respect of his people but they also mistrust him (Batman, Spiderman and many others are constantly hunted by the police), he fights with, but later teams up with, a fellow human with supernatural powers (Enkidu in Gilgamesh's case; many superheroes join forces in comic books), he does battle with forces threatening his people, and he ventures into the unknown himself, going to supernatural places in his quest to find out about himself and to protect his kingdom.

Practice a Jungian analysis on a simple fairy tale of your choice.  Try it with more than one character.

I chose Peter Pan.  Not exactly a fairy tale, but a kid's story that I grew up with, so...
The obvious choice as the dreamer would be Peter.  Peter has many of the same influxes into his persona that a normal boy might have; he has his friends, his lifestyle, etc, but he also is missing some very key elements.  Most importantly, he has no family.  Peter is also a law unto himself, he is the ruler of Neverland, and only has to answer to himself.  However, the lack of family creates a void in him, which I would all the shadow.  He knows that most boys have a mother, have a family, which is why he goes to take Wendy, John, and Michael to Neverland.  Peter has no anima, as he does not concider the Lost Boys or the Darling sons to be his equals, but Wendy is clearly his Animus.  She completes him as his mother, the most important thing to a boy his age in the real world, might. 

The other person I wanted to try this with is Captain Hook.  Hook is, like Pan, his own master, but unlike Peter, he has to listen to what other laws say, as he aims to directly counter them with his actions.  Hook is also ctrongly influenced by what he terms to be "good form".  Despite his evil actions, he always tries to be a gentleman, and constantly wishes Peter to show "bad form".  Perhaps these good qualities JM Barrie shows in Captian Hook are his shadow.  Hook is reported to be a good musician, he likes flowers, and he wishes to be a "classy person" as we might put it in modern days.  Hook has several animas and animuses.  The major anima is Peter Pan, who, unlike Hook, seeks to fight fairly, is selfless, and is unafraid of death.  The major animus is the Crocodile (in fact female in the original story).  The crocodile, while she does not display inverses of Hook's personality, is constantly on the lookout to destroy him. 

How do you see mythic thinking in the world today?  How might these observations help you form motivating questions for further research and learning abotu mythology?

One thing that I see as a real parallel to myth in the modern world is how our "gods" and our "heroes" (politicians, athletes, movie stars, artists, etc) are just as immoral as the gods in ancient myths, Zeus in particular coming to mind, but we listen to them and we love them just the same.  We also look to politicians in particular to fight "monsters" today:  climate change, terroism, national debt, etc.  We still look to heroes who often claim to be more capable than they really are to protect us from the things we fear most.

Myths in Paleontology

As a paleontology major, the first "myth sightings" I came across are in my own field.  Many ancient animals are named for mythic figures that reminded the scientists of the animals they discovered.  Perhaps the most famous is the gigantic long-necked dinosaur Sauroposeidon, meaning "Lizard of Poseidon".  Poseidon was the Greek god of earthquakes, and Sauroposeidon, some 108 feet long and weighing about 85 tons surely lived up to its namesake.
Other names I have come across that allude to mythology include the indricothere, a giant prehistoic rhinoceros named for the Russian monster Indrik; Quetzalcoatlus, the largest of the pterodactyls, which was named for Quetzalcoatl, an Aztec god; Minotaurosaurus, an armored dinosaur with unusually long horns; Achelousaurus, a horned dinosaur with a bony mass on its face rather than the long horns known on its relatives, which remined the paleontologist who named it of a Greek figure who's horn was broken by Hercules; and the prehistoric sperm whale Livyatan, meaning "Leviathan", a monster mentioned in the Book of Job in the Old Testament.  This simply goes to show that myth affects science and is present in places one would least expect it.