Feedback Strategies

The two articles I read are Be A Mirror and How to Give Bad Feedback Without Being a Jerk. I chose the first article because, honestly, I didn't know what being a mirror meant and I wanted to know more about what the article could possibly be about. This article talked about the five different qualities of feedback that people with a growth mindset have. Being a mirror involves giving feedback in a way that promotes these 5 qualities.

The second article that I read is about how to give negative feedback without sounding like a jerk. This is something that I struggle with and I either sound too mean or I just neglect to mention the negatives. I think the biggest point is that you need to explain why you are giving feedback. If people understand that you are trying to better them they will be more willing to accept it and not look down upon you.

Being a mirror

Source: Pixabay

Topic Research: The Weapons of the Ramayana

 

The weapons of the Ramayana that I have encountered so far have really fallen into two categories. These are the "mortal weapons" like the bow and arrow that was used or "celestial weapons" that the gods used. Whenever times get really tough Rama seems to draw upon a celestial weapon to do a lot of damage.

When looking more into these celestial weapons I learned that each deity has a different celestial weapon that they are associated with. Here are three examples of this.

The Trishula: The trishula is a trident that is wielded by Shiva the Destroyer and is said that it can not be stopped by anybody but Shiva himself.

The Manavastra: This weapon is commonly wielded by Manu and was used by Sri Rama on the demon Maricha. We have already seen Maricha in theses epics taking the form of a golden deer to lure Rama out of hiding.

The Gada: The gada is a mace that Hanuman carries. This weapon is particularly interesting to me as it is one of the most recognizable weapons in Hinduism. You see it in basically every picture of Hanuman, resting on his shoulder. Interestingly, I never actually knew what it was called but the word "Gada" in Telugu, the language I speak basically means lump so I thought this was a fun little connection. 

Lord Hanuman with his mace

Source: Flickr

Week 3 Story: A Lions Game

Once upon a time in a land far far away, there lay a lioness and a lion under a great big tree. This lion and lioness rules all of their kingdom, with their reach being far and wide. These two lions ate antelope exclusively and the hyenas that also lived in the kingdom knew this. One day, one of the hyenas decided to paint itself like an antelope. This hyena was big so it looked like a big antelope when it was painted. This made it look nice and juicy for the other lions. The King Lion was convinced by the Queen lion to go follow the big juicy antelope around until he catches it. The King Lion chased the “antelope” around and through his whole domain. Eventually he catches it, and when he does he killed it with a humongous bite. After he killed the hyena’s soul came out of the body and talked to the King Lion. Turns out the hyena was actually possessed by a demon! The hyena’s soul let out a big roar, the same way the King Lion did. The roar was the same type of roar that the lion made when he was in pain. This roar carried for miles, as lion roars carry on for long distances. The Lioness heard it and got concerned. She talked to her trusty adviser the monkey and he told her that he is not to leave her side. After much more convincing, the monkey finally leaves to check on the Lion King.    

A portrait of the Lion King from my story

Source: Pixabay

Authors note: This story is a retelling of The Golden Deer and The Chase from the Ramayana Part B. In these stories Rama is convinced by Sita to go chase a golden deer but the deer was actually another form of a Rakshasa. The deer gets killed and the Rakshasa comes out and starts talking like Rama. Sita hears and convinces Lakshana to go and check on Rama.  

Source: PDE Ramayana 

Reading Notes: Ramayana Part B

Battle with Khara:

• Kind of a sinister setting. Animals howling with a red sun that gets swallowed.
• Rama wants to fight them alone.
• Laksmana and Sita go and sit in a cave
• The Rakshashas appear and come after him looking like a black cloud because they are so dense
• Thousands of weapons are thrown at him as he starts shooting flaming arrows.
• Rama gets a celestial weapon and slays Dushana.
• Sita comes out of hiding and kisses Rama

The Golden Deer:

• Maricha takes the form of a golden deer
• Maricha sings to Sita and has her convince Rama to go follow the deer

The Chase:

• Rama chases a deer and shoots it through the heart
• Maricha comes out of the deer and in Rama's voice calls out to Sita
• Sita gets scared and asks for help to check for what Rama is doing
• Sita gets mad because Lakshmana will not leave her side to go check on Rama
• Lakshmana gives in and goes to check on Rama

Maricha as a Golden Deer

Courtesy of Wikimedia

Source: PDE Ramayana 

Reading Notes PDE Ramayana-A Week 3

• 2 kingdoms
• Koshala: King Dasharatha
• Mithila: King Janaka
• Capital of Koshala was Ayodhya. Big grand city lots of temples and stuff. Lots of wildlife
• King of Koshala sad because no sons from his three queens
• Horse sacrifice. Horse wandered around for a year and came back and along with 21 other animals was sacrificed
• Gods promised 4 sons to king
• One of the sons born is a reincarnation of Vishnu and was born in order to defeat the king of the rakshasas Ravana. Vishnu born as Rama. Brahmin recognizes this and tells the king
• A wise sage comes and asks Rama to fight against the rakshashas. Reluctantly, Dasharatha agrees
• Rama fights Thataka and cuts off her arms. She turns invisible and then starts throwing boulders so he shoots her with an arrow.
• Suddenly rakshashas appeared and attacked Rama but he killed them all.

Source: PDE of Ramayana, Multiple Authors

Battle of Lanka

Source: Wikimedia

Tech Tip Week 3: Firefox

For this week, I installed Firefox on my PC as a secondary browser. I've used Firefox here and there but it has never been my primary browser. I like the clean look of Chrome more. The plugins available on Chrome are also very nice as there is something for basically everything.