MLLL 4993 Posts

A lot of plot developments in these readings as well. I'm not a huge fan of Kaikeyi. That was pretty lame what she did to Rama. There are so many names and it is very difficult to keep them all separated in my head. The impressions that the stories are having will be easy to remember and I can just come back to the book and reread it for a refresher. Instead of renting the book out, I may order it off Amazon for easy access. $12 for a new paperback is not bad at all. Actually, I just tabbed over on my browser while writing this and ordered it. I won't have it until Friday, so I'll be able to use it for next week's readings. Once I get back from an event tonight, I'll look ahead and try to order some of the other books we'll need for the class. I see there's online versions too, but I like having a hard copy of books. If nothing else, it will be a fine addition to my bookshelf! In any case, lot's of good content came out of this week's rea

Through these stories, one thing that sticks out to me the most is the avatars of the gods. I find that story mechanic very interesting. It's like I can retell the same clash of rivals over and over throughout different time periods. It's definitely something to look into. I'm actively looking for villains to use in my stories, and I rather like the character Ravana. You just can't beat a 10-headed antagonist. I'm curious how far I can go with manipulating the story elements. I need to look deeper into old stories from previous students and see how they named different characters. I'd like to use different names just to make the story feel like my own, but at the same time I don't want it to seem ambiguous as to who I'm referencing with my characters. Back to Ravana though: Ravana is an devotee to Shiva, who I immediately started thinking could be the "background mastermind" for some evil plots. But as I did some more research into Shiva, I

Sources: Eight things students should do when they make a mistake 5 Tips For Taking Feedback Like a Champ I feel like these two articles go hand-in-hand. Receiving feedback can be a very hard thing to do. I actively avoided putting myself in a situation where I would be negatively critiqued for a long time. I have grown past it to an extent, but I definitely feel stress when receiving it still. That stress isn't a bad thing though, and the "5 Tips" article lays it out well why that is. If I feel simply feel comfortable when being told I'm doing something wrong, then there isn't any incentive to improve in that area. The part you have to learn is that it is OK to be uncomfortable and not be perfect in all aspects. Now for when you are feeling down about not being at 100 percent yet, I think the "Eight things" article helps explain what to do pretty well. When you're feeling down about your abilities (which will happen), it's

Here are some ideas for possible Storybook topics that I found: Supernatural Characters of the Ramayana There are many supernatural characters found in the Indian Epics. I can see myself using many of them in my stories. I plan on doing a portfolio, rather than a storybook. So I think using these characters as one-off characters in my stories will be helpful. Krishna the Hero Krishna is a very well-known god with many stories written about him. I usually would write about the characters Zedd and Richard in my stories, but I may write a story with just Krishna and his exploits. Some of the stories with Krishna look pretty cool, so I think there could be good stories written with him. Yama, the God of Death The topic here may not be exclusively about Yama, but rather death as a whole. But based on what I've read about Yama, I think I could fit him into a story very nicely. The idea I'd have with him wouldn't be a story set on a grand scale of events, but maybe with o

A group of children from the village were exploring in a nearby forest. They had been talking of stories about mythical monsters and brave heroes. The children had not been out in the wilderness by themselves many times and did not have the knowledge of what lurks in the forest. As they were playing and pretending to cut down a mythical monster they found, an apple tree, they heard a strange noise in the distance. The children immediately stopped playing and gathered together. They looked through the maze of trees and bushes where the noise had originated from. One child by the name of Richard was the informal leader of this band of child explorers. He told them all to get behind him, so they did. Richard picked up a rock laying near him and threw it towards the noise. As the rock landed in the bushes, a loud and ferocious roar bellowed out. Richard, in his fear, exclaimed, "RUN, THE DEMON OF THE FOREST HAS COME TO KILL US!" All the children turned and ran away with rec

The Foolish, Timid Rabbit Story about a rabbit who feared the world was going to end. A coconut drops on the ground behind him and he thinks the noise is the world ending. He runs away and through his false belief, convinces everyone else that the world is ending and causes chaos. The wise character (a lion) stops everyone and gets to the bottom of the issue. The lesson seems to be to not let fear or emotion guide you instead of reason and logic. The Turtle And The King The king's children mistake a turtle for a demon and the king ordered the turtle "demon" to be captured and killed. While the men were discussing how to kill the turtle, one suggests throwing him into the water that runs through a bunch of rocks, something that surely had killed several humans before. The turtle sees his chance and begs not to be thrown there, attempting to make it seem like such a decision who kill him. The king orders the men to do that and the turtle is thrown in the water where he

I rather like the stories I've read from the Mahabharata. Here are a few I liked that I could possibly use later in the class: Tales of Arjuna  - Interesting stories.  Several of the stories involve self-immolation. I wonder if that'll be prevalent in a lot of the stories. Mahabharata: The Great Epic of India  - A lot of events happen in this one. For sure could derive several stories from the ones in the comic. Subhadra: Beloved Sister of Krishna and Balarama  - Lots of romance in this one and quite a bit of drama. Could definitely be used to add some more layers to other stories. Arjuna is a big character in all these stories. His character stood out to me quite a bit for some reason, so I think I'll use him quite a bit. Here's a picture of a statue of him: Statue of Arjuna:  Source

When I first saw the amount of assignments posted in the "Grades" tab on Canvas, I got a little spooked. I saw that the majority of those assignments are Extra Credit, and felt much more reassured. I plan on adhering to the schedule that Professor Gibbs came up for me, but I think I may push a few assignments later into the week depending on the course load from my other classes. This semester, I'm planning on using a small planner to help me stay organized with my assignments each week. Here's a picture of it! Image Information: Personal photo taken of planner; photo from January 2018

I think the PBWorks site will be an incredibly useful resource for this class. I have been in courses where the professor hardly uses Canvas at all, and it is very hard to keep track of what is going on. I have some experience with HTML and image editing, so hopefully those skills will come in handy during the assignments for this class.  OUCreate  may be useful when it comes to web design aspects of this course. Here's a picture of the dashboard from that site. It's free to use for OU Students! Image: OU Create -  Source

I rather like the setup for this class. I'm hoping that I will be able to stick to the course schedule I received. Last semester was so hard to plan my time because my work hours were so fluid week-by-week. It was always 30 hours of work each week, but sometimes I would come in earlier, stay later, skip some days, work some weekends, etc. It was just hard to schedule things around (very much self-inflicted). This semester, I set myself an actual schedule which can change slightly if I really need to stay late or come in early some days. In any case, I think I'll be able to manage everything much easier. I think for the Storytelling assignment, I may try creating several stories based on the weekly readings and compile all of those like I saw in some of the past storybooks. I am also interested in the extra credit assignments. The "Tech Tips" one caught my attention. I know some HTML, so maybe I could post some helpful hints on how to format aspects of our blog posts

I found the Growth Mindset videos very interesting. I hadn't heard of that exact concept nor the presenter before, but it was enjoyable to listen to. I know that I definitely was in the fixed intelligence mindset for most of my life. It wasn't until I got to college that I started changing my thought processes to what I would consider a Growth Mindset. I used to be terrified of failing and because of that I stopped myself from doing a whole lot of things and sort of robbed myself of a lot of development. Fast forward to now, and I love a challenge. I love trying to figure something out and I don't worry too much about reaching the goal I'm striving for. Obviously attaining the goal I'm working for is ideal, but honestly I think you learn a lot more through failure than success. That's not to say I don't care about succeeding in things, but I have learned to value the journey since coming to college. One model that I think is somewhat applicable here is t

My name is Dawson Pleasant and I am a fifth year senior majoring in Information Studies. I'm from Tulsa, Oklahoma and lived there basically all my life. Since freshman year, I have been involved in the competitive Ultimate Frisbee club here at OU. We travel around the country playing against other college teams at organized tournaments and have flown out as far as San Diego, California to do so. Starting in the spring semester of my junior year, I have worked in the IT department here at OU. During my time there I found a passion for AV Design and Control Systems and am currently interning with the AV Engineering team within IT. I am hoping to work as an AV and Control Systems Programmer/Integrator after I graduate, whether it be with OU IT or another local company. I have been acquiring various certifications with companies involved in the AV Control industry over the last six months. A common denominator in the books that I read are that they are all in the fantasy genre. Boo

After reading through some of the old projects, I have a few ideas on how to tackle my project. I'll need to read a lot of the stories that will be posted in this course, but seeing how to incorporate them in these projects has been very helpful. Here are a few that stood out to me: 1. Gossip Girl Ayodhya ( Source ) This project was done by telling the story of an Indian Epic (of which I have not read) through the narration style of the TV show, Gossip Girl. I thought it was really interesting how this story was told. This was the first project I looked at, so it was pretty natural that it would stand out to me the most. I was able to find a picture relating to one of the stories she wrote on, so that makes me optimistic that I'll be able to find the images I need when I do my project. Here's the picture I found: 2. Voldemort's Reincarnation ( Source ) I thought this project was very cool as well. In his project, he was narrating the story through the eyes of a

One of my favorite places that I have been to is San Diego, California. The weather there was fantastic and the scenery was beautiful. Img Caption: San Diego -  Source

This is a test post for my MLLL 4993 Indian Epics class. I hope it works .