Famous Last Words: Week 7 Keeping on top of things

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.

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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. 

The beautiful St. Louis Art Museum (SLAM)

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.

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.

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Reading Notes: Mahabharata D

For the second part of this week's reading I think I am going to look at death in the Mahabharata which is everywhere in part D. We see some long forgotten plots like Amba's come to fruition. There were three main characters that I will focus to chose on this week. These characters are Abhimanyu, Krishna, and Drona.

Abhimanyu: The death of Abhimanyu was very tragic. He was first disarmed as he was so fearsome when he was armed that he could not be slain and he was blinded. After this Duhshasana leaps forward and bludgeons him in his face.

Krishna: Krishna's death is a lot more subtle than Abhimanyu's. It is not intentional. Krishna gets shot in the ankle by an arrow and dies. This is the one mortal spot he had, similar to greek mythology and the Achilles heel.

Drona: Drona's death is also tragic like Abhimanyu's. Drona is a great warrior and he has divine weapons like we say earlier and in the Ramayana. Still grieving over his son, Drona can not think to procure these weapons and instead charges at the other warriors and is slain that way.

Krishna's Death

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Source: PDE Mahabharata 

Reading Notes: Mahabharata Part C

In this set of reading notes I think that I am going to draw mainly from Life in the Forest. In this section the Pandava princes walk further into the forest where Draupadi followed them. A brahmin then tells the rajah to call on a sun god. He does in a prayer and then Surya appears. He gives him a copper pot that has infinite food in it. For twelve years the Pandavas lived in the forest.  One day Krishna comes to visit the forest.

Surya the Sun God

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Mahabharata C: Source

Tech Tip Week 7: Canvas Calendar

My time management skills for this class and school in general is to try and get things done on time before the due date. I really enjoy the flexibility that online classes give you however because nothing is really on that much of a schedule. I can do assignments when I have the time like at 10:45 at night. Not having to go to class either is really nice because in the same way, I can do the work in between my other classes. I don't typically use the Canvas calendar as I always just look at the "to do" section and go by the closest date there.