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.

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.

Stretching your wrists is important if you are typing a lot.

Source

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.




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

Source

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.

An image of David L. Boren Hall

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.

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

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.

Tech Tip Week 8: Canvas Notifications

Personally, I am a little anal-retentive about knowing what is going on in my classes so I have all of the notifications on Canvas turned on. This includes new files uploaded, grade changes, comments, and the whole nine yards. I think it is a little redundant when I get notifications from the app and through my e-mail but sometimes it is good when I swipe away a notification on my phone, only to check my e-mail later and be reminded of it.