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Showing posts from April, 2018

Tech Tip: SpeedTest Chrome Extension

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https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/speedtest-by-ookla/pgjjikdiikihdfpoppgaidccahalehjh?hl=en This extension adds the SpeedTest icon to your Chrome browser so that you can see how fast your current internet connection is: SpeedTest: Souce - Personal Screenshot It will tell you your current ping, download, and upload speed. This can be very useful when you are trying to diagnose connection issues! The link to the extension is at the top.

Reading Notes: The Life of Buddha Part One

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King Suddhodana And Queen Maya The story describes the land briefly and then introduces the King and Queen. The queen makes several requests of her King, which he grants. She now resides at the top of the tower. Maya's Dream Maya receives a dream sent to her by the gods. She goes to some area in the palace and requests the presence of the King. The King comes but feels incredibly uneasy when he gets to the gates. The Gods speak to him and tell him that he will have a son. The King asks for guidance from his brahmans and they tell him that he and the Queen will sire the Buddha. The Birth of Siddhartha The Queen felt that the time was close for her son to be born. She walked through gardens that were decorated heavily by the King. As she walked, she found a "rare" tree. She stood there motionless and her servants received her son (that's all the detail that was given). They named the son Siddhartha. Asita's Prediction An old sage, Asita, comes t

Tech Tip: Following at Twitter

I've had a Twitter account for a long time, but I don't really use it for anything. I went ahead and followed @DRoughnecksLive for this assignment. This Twitter account live tweets game updates for the Dallas Roughnecks, a Professional Ultimate Frisbee team in Dallas. I play Ultimate Frisbee and have several friends who play on that team, so I like getting updated on how their games are going.

Reading Notes: Twenty Jakatas Tales Part B

The Two Pigs Two pig brothers were raised by an old woman. After some time, the men of the village got drunk and wanted to eat the pigs. The old woman offered up one of the pigs and that pig got terrified. His brother consoled him and told him that this is what they were born for. The people were moved by the pig's words and the king gave them a lavish lifestyle for the rest of their lives. The end of this story felt very much like Rama being exiled for some reason. The Patient Buffalo A monkey tried to annoy a buffalo. The buffalo was unconcerned with the monkey and let him do whatever he wanted. Eventually, a fairy appeared and asked the buffalo why he let the monkey do these things. The buffalo explained that nothing the monkey does is worth getting angry over and that nature did not give him a large brain, so it's not his fault. The fairy sent the monkey away and gave the buffalo a charm that would make it do where no one would mess with him again. The Sarabha There

Reading Notes: Twenty Jataka Tales Part A

The Monkey-Bridge I read the same story in an earlier week written by Ellen C. Babbit. This story was much more detailed and had the Monkey-King end up dying to save his people, which inspired the king to treat his people well. Interesting change in the storyline. The Guilty Dogs A group of dogs in the palace ate the royal saddle during the night. The king was furious and commanded that every dog in the city was to be killed. The chief of the city dogs marched up to the palace and showed the king that they were all innocent and that the royal dogs were to blame. Banyan Ellen C. Babbit wrote a similar story. This one was much more detailed. Two deer kings and their herd were rounded up into the king's area. One was killed each day until a mother with a newborn doe was up to be killed. One of the deer kings went to give his life instead and the human king was overcome with emotion and promised to never kill another animal again. The Tortoise and the Geese This was one of th

Famous Last Words: Week 12 Issues

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It sucks that I was not able to get the readings done for this week. There were a lot of assignments in other classes, a test, and a weirdly busy week at work. I have to  make sure to not only do all the required assignments this week but also a lot (if not all) Extra credit assignments so that I’m not putting myself in a horrible situation at the end of the semester. I really liked the story I started this week for Thursday’s assignment. My past two stories have been really good (in my opinion), but this week I’m trying to push myself out of my comfort zone to write this story. In Thataka’s Retribution , I really relied on visual language to paint the story. In The Demon of The Forest , I relied on the structure of the original The Timid, Foolish Rabbit to tell the story for me and just changed the characters into humans. For this story though, I am sticking with animal characters and really trying to add in a lot of detail to the thoughts and setting of the characters in the st

Growth Mindset: Change yourself!

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Three Simple Frameworks for Feedback - Source Of these frameworks, I especially like the +/Delta list. It's very easy to remember and recreate for different applications. I think one of the main things I like about it is that it feels like I have control of the things I do and areas that could use improvement. If I were in a teaching position, I think it would really push students to consider the things they do well, because recognizing your strengths is an important part of growth. Likewise, areas that need improvement are framed in a positive light as well. It's not "things I suck at", instead its "things I could change". Change : Source

Tech Tip: Canvas App

The Canvas App for your smartphone is an incredible app that has been very useful to my coursework since it was implemented at OU. Being able to view documents and grades through the app itself is a great feature that would make it worth downloading by itself. However, the most useful feature I have found is the ability to submit assignments from the App. That feature alone has saved me so many points in class because I would forget to do it before getting to class, but was able to while sitting in the class before it starts.

Week 12 Storytelling: Words Heeded

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**PORTFOLIO UPDATE: https://sites.google.com/view/dawsonpleasant/words-heeded Vashi and Targo were brothers born to a great king. The king had kept their herd safe for years and years under his watchful eye. This world carried many dangers for their kind and if they weren’t careful, death would find them in the blink of an eye. When the cold winds started to fade away and the suns warmth once again covered the land, the king knew it was time. Their herd had a powerful desire for the crops that the humans grew each year. Inevitably, some of the foolish deer in their herd would wander into their fields and get caught by the traps that the humans set for them. After the king’s own brother was lost to the humans, he decided to enact a plan to save the lives of his herd. When the crops started to become ripe, the king would split the herd into thirds. Each herd would go far away from the human settlements and stay there until the humans had finished their work with their crops. E

Growth Mindset: Try to Fail

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https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/252620 I really liked the introduction paragraphs before the actual maxims in his article. This statement in particular stood out to me, "[I] see challenges as exciting rather than threatening..." I found it hard growing up to put myself out there and risk failing at something. Because of this, I think I deprived myself of a lot of development that I could have gotten much earlier, rather than later. Today, I love trying new things out. I may not be able to "succeed" at every single task that is thrown my way. However, trying something new is very fun and even if I don't reach the intended goal of the task, I can usually learn something new. "Try to fail" feels like a good quote for me, haha. It doesn't mean that I shouldn't try to succeed in something, but rather I should continually push myself into difficult situations so that I can learn and grow from them. Motivation! : Source

Tech Tip: Browser Bookmarks

Bookmarks have been such a useful feature in my Google Chrome browser. A lot of my regularly used sites are right on the bookmark bar for easy access. There are other ones that I don't frequent every day, but it's still good to have on there. For most of those sites though, I put them in a specific folder so that my bookmark bar doesn't become unmanageable. It's really important to use descriptive names on those folders though so that you know what kind of sites are in each. I have different folders for this class, sites I frequent for my job, and a couple of others. Bookmarks are great!

Reading Notes: More Jakatas Tales Part B

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How The Monkey Saved His Troop A king and his people found mangoes and wanted to eat all of them. The monkeys that tried to eat them too were going to be shot down by the king's archers. The Monkey King saw this and grabbed two different tree branches across a river and the rest of the monkeys went across his back. The king was impressed and took care of them for the rest of their lives. The Hawks And Their Friends A hawk family settled down at a lake that had a Kingfisher, a turtle, and a lion living there. The Hawks made friends with them. After hunters try to come and eat the hawks, the friends that the Hawks had made came and saved them. An important note here is that the Hawks were good neighbors and were rewarded for their effort. Maybe you can make a story out of the same premise? The Brave Little Bowman A small Bowman joined up with a larger guy to get hired by the king. The large guy eventually did the little bowman wrong. As an army came, the large man abandoned hi