Monday, March 23, 2020

Week 10: Story Lab



For this week I want to write about what I did over spring break since today is the first day back! This spring break a couple of friends and I went to Colorado to visit Rocky Mountain National Park, Denver, and the other surrounding areas. We had a lot of fun and tried to stick to areas where there are not a bunch of people. Rocky Mountain National Park was gorgeous and the hike to get to the destinations were brutal. We were woefully unprepared so we were sliding all over the place. One of the biggest problems we had were the footwear that we chose to wear. We kind of figured that tennis shoes were going to be OK as none of us other than one had actually been to the park before and he had only been in the summer. As a result, we didn't know that the packed snow is basically ice. We slid all over the place. The views and scenery were worth it though. Below is a picture of me and my friends in the mountains.

My friends and I in Rocky Mountain National Park!

Week 10: Reading Notes A/B



For this week I watched all the Epified videos on Krishna on the two playlists. Krishna is a god that was born into the mortal world. A cruel King named Kamsa basically tries to stop him from being born by killing all the babies that are born. He does this to 7 but on the 8th one Krishnas father swaps him with a girl so that when Kamsa comes he laughs asking if a girl is going to kill him. The girl transforms to Durga and reveals that his killer has already been born and would come to him when he was ready. As Krishna grows up he gets the label as a naughty child.

In the second part of the reading for this week we have assorted examples of a grown Krishna performing divine things. An example of this is how when Brahma stole his friends and the cows, Krishna remade them using himself. Another good example that I think I might write about is Krishna riding Hastin. Krishna manages to ride the bull by being nice and feeding it, not by sheer force like other people have.

Image result for big bull


Bibliography:
Picture Source
Part A videos
Part B videos

Week 9: Wikipedia Trail - Virus to Corona Virus



Virus: For this week I wanted to learn a little bit more about the thing that is causing so much change in our daily life. This is why I read a little about what a virus is.

Corona-virus: From there, I navigated to the page for corona virus. This is a specific type of virus that is commonly found in humans and birds. In humans it causes an upper respiratory infection. 

SARS-CoV-2: This is the strain that is currently causing the coronavirus pandemic in the world. This specific strain has very close similarities to a strain found in bats, indicating that bats might be the origin.

Coronavirus disease 2020: This page is all about the current pandemic. Currently the death rate is at about 4% but can increase closer to 15% in older or already immunocompromised populations. There are confirmed cases on all continents but Antarctica. 
SARS-CoV-2 without background.png
A Picture of the Novel Corona Virus

Friday, March 20, 2020

Week 9: Learning Challenge-Deskercise

For this weeks learning challenge I looked at assorted exercise that I can do without getting embarrassed. I think I am going to do the neck stretch the most. I find that if I am staring at a screen for an extended period of time I tense my neck up and it gives me headaches. I can take a couple of minutes every hour to do this and hopefully prevent the headaches before they occur.

DEC15-deskyoga3The Neck Exercise

Growth Mindset Week 10: The Huff

One of the biggest cases of where having a growth mindset is helpful is when you are learning to play a sport. I keep this in mind every time that I  go and play basketball with my friends. Even though I might not be the fastest or the best at shooting, I remember that it is a team game for every time that I mess up and turn the ball over, that is a learning opportunity and I know what not to do for next time. One thing that really helps is that I always play with friends so they know what to expect from me and how to play to each other's strengths and weaknesses.
Image result for basketballSource

Week 9: Microfiction

Image result for big tree
A Shady Tree



Weary from sun, shade was underappreciated.

Two weary travelers stopped under a tree. They complained that the tree didn't provide anything, when in reality its shade is what they were using.




Authors Note: This microfiction is an adaptation of the story "The Plane Tree" from Aesops Fables. The moral of the story is that sometimes the most obvious blessings are the most underappreciated.

Week 9 Story: The Gang Gets Drowned



Kong opened his eyes and took a deep breath in. It was a bright early morning on the banks of the Nile River and Kong was ready to take on the day. Today was the day his wife, Nile, was expecting their first child. Kong was excited as he did not have any kids and it was expected that this first child was a boy. Little did he know, his day was about to take a turn for the worse.
 
As Kong walked to the nursery, he spotted a lone Nile crouched by the bank of the river. In her arms he saw a small figure, wailing with furious intensity. As he looked more closely he saw Nile drop the child into the river and saw him get swept away by the strong currents of the Nile River. 

Kong called out in shock and fear. "Nile! What are you doing that is our firstborn son. He is destined to be the next ruler of our kingdom!" Startled, Nile whipped around wondering when Kong had arrived.

"Remember the promise you made to me the day we married? The promise that you would never question me or ask me why I am doing what I do?" Defeated, Kong turned away and sobbed as the wails of his son faded away, down the river. 

The years came and went and Kong watched his next six children all meet similar fates but when it came to the eighth child Kong could no longer remain silent.

"Nile I can not sit quietly while you systematically drown all of out children! At least tell me why. Why are you doing this."

"Oh my king it pains me as much as it pains you, to watch your children get swept away in the same river that gives our kingdom life. Long ago I swore an oath. This oath said that I would give birth to the eight Vasus who were cursed to live mortal lives. I swore that when they were born into their mortal lives I would immediately kill them and release them from the curse." Frustrated, instead of drowning the last child, Nile took the child and left. 


Image result for nile river

The roaring banks of the Nile River

Authors Note: In this weeks story, I focused on the beginning of the Mahabharata. I drew my information from the first Epified video. I find that these videos are excellent to start as a foundation because they are short and sweet. They don't focus too much on the minute details so you can fill in these parts. 


Monday, March 9, 2020

Week 9 Reading Notes: Epified A and B



For this week I chose to watch the first two playlists on the Epified Mahabharata playlists. I really liked the story telling in these videos as they were all very short and in everyday language so they were easy to understand. I watched them all on twice the speed as well because they had non-auto generated subtitles so I could just read and watch the picture for each little story. The expressions the characters had were also very insightful. I think specifically I want to go back and look at episodes 15 and 16 to write my story for. These two episodes deal with Drona and Drona training the Pandavas. 

Image result for drona
Image of Drona
Source: Wikipedia


Bibliography: Epified Story 



Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Week 8 Wikipedia Trail



Mahabharata: This week I wanted to learn a little bit more about the background of the Mahabharata. For instance I learned that the author of the original Mahabharata is Vyasa.

Vyasa: Veda Vyasa is said to be the one that compiled all of the ancient Indian epics. He is thought to be one of the seven Chiranjivi that are still alive.

Chiranjivi: A Chiranjivi is one of seven immortal being that are supposed to be alive until the end of the current earth stage. These beings are supposed to be unaffected by any ailment.

Kali Yuga: Kali Yuga is supposedly the fourth and last of the life stages of the Earth. Interestingly these 4 stages are clearly labeled and Kali Yuga is supposed to have started in 3102 BCE and last for 432,000 years.

Vyasa Purana(Puranik)
A picture of Vyasa
Source

Week 8 Learning Challenge



For this week I looked into Deskercise! I think one of the most interesting things that I saw was just fidgeting. I already have a problem of fidgeting when I am sitting mostly still. I will do things like twiddle my thumbs or bounce my knee up and down. I never realized that it was good for me.
desk exercises
Stretching your wrists is important if you are typing a lot.

Week 8 Growth Mindest

For this week's growth mindset post I chose to look at the cats because who wouldn't want to look at cats honestly. I particularly liked this picture below. I think it is particularly analogous to writers block. Sometimes you get in one mindset are unsure how to proceed. Sometimes taking a break is better than continuing on.



cat is stuck
Link to Blog post

Week 8 Microfiction



Greedy he was.
Nothing he got.



There once was a man who was not satisfied with what he had.
In an attempt to get more, he lost what he had.





The Man and his Goose






Author's Note: For this week's microfiction I am going to stick to the theme of rewriting one of Aesop's Fables but in short. This week I went with The Goose & The Golden Egg. In this popular story there is basically a guy who has a goose that lays a golden egg everyday. He takes this egg and goes to the market and sells it everyday to get rich. He gets greedy and instead of waiting he kills the goose to get all of them at once, only to find that there are no eggs inside.

Week 8 Biographical Writing



This week, I am going to respond to where I lived my first semester of college and where I lived and how it contributed to my college experience. During my first semester of college here I was scared about who I am going to meet and making new friends. As I am from St. Louis I didn't know anybody who went or goes to OU. I moved into David L Boren Hall instead of the towers like most of the other freshman. I think the main reason for this is because I committed to OU pretty late as it was not my first choice of college. My roommate freshman year, Dylan Lloyd, who coincidentally I told about this class and is also in it, was and still is one of my roomates. He is from Kansas City and got paired with me as he also didn't commit to going to OU until very late as well. Luckily we got along very well and he is one of my best friends currently. In our hallway there was another guy that I met and became friends with name Evan. I also live with him currently. I think living in DLB instead of the traditional dorm setting. I remember the first day that we moved in, the faculty in residence that was in charge had a cookout or something like that where Evan, Dylan and I went. There, we met some guys that lived on the 4th floor of the building named Zach and Jose who were roommates. That night we played card games all night and two years later. Zach, Dylan, Evan, and I all live together and when Zach graduates this year. Jose is taking his place in the apartment. I think this first week and finding this core group of friends was vital to my college experience. Without this, although I am sure I would have made friends eventually, I don't know if it would have been the same kind of fraternal bond that we have.
Image result for david l boren hall

Monday, March 2, 2020

Week 8 Progress



To be honest I am not really happy with my progress so far. Although I am on pace for an A still in the class, I was hoping to get further ahead than I currently am. I think for the second half of the semester I need to try to do the assignments early in the week instead of the weekend they are due.

Image result for just do it shia

Week 8 Comments and Feedback



Overall, I think the comments and feedback that I receive is pretty helpful. Sometimes it is hard to take it into consideration though if people are doing their commenting into the week and I am doing my revisions earlier. One thing that I think could be changed is the introduction blog comments. I think that going back the something we wrote week one and commenting on it still seems kind of outdated. Maybe we could add an assignment like a mid semester update that we can shift to.

This is my favorite feedback cat that I found. I like it because it really shows that criticism isn't always a personal knock at a person but it is for developing your work to make it better.

Week 8 Reading and Writing



I think so far, my progress is most adequately reflected in my reading notes and blog. I think they are helpful to me when I go back and look at them when I am writing my story later. I think one thing that I can do to improve my reading notes is instead of being hyper specific, I need to write down more common themes that I read in my stories. This will help reflect in my stories so they are not super similar to the actual stories.
Image result for lion king
I think this picture has been my favorite that I have used so far. I mean look at it. It is just so regal and majestic. After all, they do call lions the king of the jungle (even though they actually live in savannas and not jungles).

Image source: Pixabay

Sunday, March 1, 2020

Week 7 Review

Personally, I really enjoy the mindset cats as they make me laugh a little. 

The video I watched was a crash course on the Mwindo Epic. I chose this video because I really like John Green and his Crash Course series. Even though it wasn't actually him narrating this one I still enjoy the style and easy to understand language that is used in them.

Famous Last Words: Week 7 Keeping on top of things



wall-e robot toy free photo
This week was pretty good as a whole. I thought the reading for this week was a little worse than the previous ones as there are a lot of names to keep straight and it is hard to remember all the characters without going back and rereading the previous week's reading but I guess that is what the reading notes and stories are for! For now, my other classes have let up as we are past the midterm season so I can now spend more time on this class. That means doing all the extra credit and getting ahead so that when my other classes pick up again I wont fall behind in this one. In particular, I think it is important to get ahead in the week too and as I have not a lot to do this Sunday, I will probably begin working on week 8. I am planning on going home to St. Louis next weekend to visit my family so getting ahead now is important as I don't want to be working on homework when I am there and I am going to be losing 14 hours due to driving time. Outside of school this week was pretty good as well. Most of my friends were in town this weekend and not busy so we all got to do things together this weekend where as usually we are scattered about. Last night we watched Wall-E which I had never actually seen all the way through. I had seen pieces here and there so I knew the general plot but I didn't actually know how it ended. A tear might have been shed. I'm a big fan of Pixar movies and I think they have a unique way of putting big life lessons into silly animated movies.

Week 7: Wikipedia Trail. SLAM to Louis IX



The SLAM: A lot of the twitter feed has stuff from the SLAM and I really like learning more about it because it is a place that I can visit and actually see the things I am reading about in real life. I think it is fun to learn the history of a place I have been to so regularly.

St. Louis: Similar to my sentiment with the SLAM, learning more about the city I grew up near to me is something that I enjoy. One thing new I learned with my reading of the article is that the St. Louis Botanical Garden is supposedly the second best in North America. I knew the zoo was one of the top zoos but I never realized the botanical garden was held so highly too!

Downtown St. Louis: In my reading of this article I learned more about WASHU and who it was named after and such. I didn't realize it was named after George Washington's birthday.

Louis IX of France: In this article I read about the namesake of St. Louis and a little more about who he was. 

File:StLouisArtMuseum.jpg

Week 7: Growth Mindset

My personal motto, is "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step". Personally, I like this quote a lot as a lot of the time I have problems starting things but after I do, I am able to work pretty efficiently to get it done. This especially applies to getting up in the mornings. I really enjoy my bed and it is very comfortable but if I muster up the energy to get out of bed at 7 versus just staying in bed and sleeping until 10 I feel like I've had a much more productive day.

Learning Challenge: Learning about Sleep



For this week I read An Underappreciated Key to College Success: Sleep. I always knew that getting a good nights rest is better than staying up all night studying before a test but I never knew that after being awake for 20 or more hours, your brain functions as if it is legally drunk. I think one thing that I want to experiment with is using white noise to sleep. Right now I usually fall asleep watching some random YouTube video which I know probably isn't the best for me but I think I use it more as background noise than anything. I wonder if using a white noise generator like the article mentions is better as I would not have to use my phone and can avoid the bluelight, although I do already have a bluelight filter that turns on on my phone past 10PM.
Image result for sleep

Week 7: Microfiction

Wolf!, he said.
They didn't come

The boy cried wolf when their wasn't one, over and over.
When the wolf actually came, the others didn't.

Authors Note: This microfiction is an adaptation of the boy who cried wolf. In this common fable a boy says wolf multiple times when there actually isn't a wolf but when it actually does come and he says wolf, nobody comes to his aid as they think he is lying. This is a good life lesson as when you become known as a liar, even when you are telling the truth, people will still think you are lying.

Source