Epics of India

After completing the backups and checkups, I scrolled through the announcements page and found one image and video which I found interesting. For the image, I chose one of Hunter's scuba diving photos , specifically the one with the giant turtle. Although I have been in the ocean many times, the idea of scuba diving that deep is interesting although terrifying to me. The idea of descending that far into the unknown is quite daunting, although I can relate it though to another image in the announcements page about following your own natural curiosity. Although I would be scared, I think I'd make myself do it just for the experience. For the video, I chose the Chaiyya Chaiyya/Don't Stop Mash-Up . This idea of doing mash-ups is quite fascinating to me as I'm very passionate about music, although I can imagine that the musical and editing skills needed to create a mash-up like this would be fairly elevated. It was very enjoyable to listen to, and the constant back and

Th e first article I c hose to read was titled Preschoolers and Praise: What Kinds of Messages Help Kids Grow? by Deborah Farmer Kris. I found this article interesting because it talked about providing feedback to children, which is generally the area most people disagree on how it should be handled. There's the argument between coddling kids versus being honest with them, and having real success versus giving participation awards. One idea that was mentioned which I found fairly insightful is why it's so important we manage the feedback kids get. The reason for that is that they are just beginning to understand their self-concept, i.e. how they fit into the world and how the world views them. The feedback they receive starting at a very young age goes a long way into shaping this, and should thus be handled with care. This article also once again brought up the topic of a growth mindset, which is quite important for kids, and how we can instill that type of mindset in them f

After looking over my storybook notes, I've decided to do pick Dasharatha as my topic to do more research on. The first story I'd like to focus on is Dasharatha's killing of Shravana . Dasharatha was evidently a prolific hunter, and used mainly sound to determine the type of animal, direction, and distance. Using these senses, he somehow mistook Shravana for an elephant and killed him. Shravana was getting his blind parents water, and upon hearing the news curse Dasharatha, which is what he believed killed him shortly thereafter. The second story I'd like to focus on is Dasharatha granting Kaikeyi two boons . Dasharatha was in a war against the Asuras, and upon being injured severely in his chariot, Kaikeyi saved his life. Dasharatha granted her two boons then, although Kaikeyi originally just said she was just happy to save his life, although we know she called in those favors later. This short story about him being in was, her saving his life, and then her calling

Link to updated story in my portfolio. "See ya later Percy!" Perseus had just gotten off the bus, a sophomore at Westlake High, and was walking towards his house. His friend shouted at him from the bus window, but Perseus had other things on his mind. His father was a believer in polygamous relationships, and his third wife had recently moved into their home. Perseus wasn't very fond of her, though he did like her son, Jason, who had moved in with her and was about the same age as Perseus. He got to the door and hesitated, not knowing what he should expect on the other side. Finally he opened the door and found his father looking rather distressed on the couch.  "What's wrong dad?", Perseus asked.  "Son, we need to talk." "What is it?" "Well, a long time ago, Jason's mother did something very kind for me, so I in turn gave her an IOU...." Perseus was confused at his dad's struggle to get to th

Reading B: Public Domain Edition of the Ramayana For my reading notes over part B, I chose to focus again on character development. Almost all of part B took place somewhere in the woods, which I've learned are extremely vast and full of rakshashas. Each encounter Rama has with creatures in the woods has seemed to teach him and maybe us a lesson about either loyalty, courage, or keeping one's word. It's also interesting that almost all of the people Rama encounters have been aware of his coming for quite a long time. Another interesting comment I noticed was the brief mentioning of atheism by one of the Brahmins when speaking to Rama. Rama immediately disregarded this with arguments of moralty and faithfulness and the story continues, but it was of interest that it was brought up at all. The ruse that Ravana uses to steal Sita away was odd, and I'm sure I'm thinking too logically about it but I'm not quite sure how that would work. Surely Rama would immedi

Reading A: Public Domain Edition of the Ramayana For my reading notes over Part A this week, I chose to focus on the character development. First and foremost, there are a ridiculous amount of names. I'm sure it's much more difficult for me just because most of the names sound so foreign, and that I'll get used to it as the semester goes on, but it's certainly making the reading more difficult right now. It was also interesting how the stories switched back and forth from a narrative tone to a poetic tone. This didn't necessarily make the stories easier to follow, but it was interesting nonetheless. The development of Rama over the first part of the reading reminded me of some of the stories of ancient Greek heroes. What was unique though was that Rama didn't go through any serious hardships in his upbringing, which is unlike those stories of Ancient Greece. It was fascinating as well to see the role rituals, sacrifices, and other traditions played in the up

For my Week 2 extra credit reading, I chose to focus on a couple of stories. Both stories are from  The Giant Crab, and Other Tales from Old India by W. H. D. Rouse. The first story I wanted to take notes over was The Mouse and the Farmer. On a side note I like the fact that most of these stories use animals to convey human thoughts and emotions, and often the humans are the unintelligent ones in the story. Regardless, my first thought about this story and many of the other stories was how much luck and randomness seems to be involved. I understand that the point of the stories are to convey a certain lesson or moral, but in this story for example, how unlikely is it that the farmer's land is completely covered in gold that he's just not aware of. And that the only reason the gold is included in the story is to eventually lead to the cat being overly greedy about food. I know I'm overanalyzing this but it, like many of the other stories, seem like quite a stretch to get

The first article I chose to discuss is  Make Good Art: Neil Gaiman’s Advice on the Creative Life, Adapted by Chip Kidd. I chose this article because pushing your own limits and trying new experiences is something I've been trying to focus on a lot in recent years, and this article discusses the importance of that. The first important piece of advice he gives, and I'll relate it to myself personally and trying new things instead of just making art, is that it's important to push your limits on your bad days as well as your good days. No matter what happens in any given moment, there are chances for you to push yourself, to try something new, and to be successful at it. Take advantage of it. The second thing he said that really stuck out to me was the idea that constantly trying new things changes you as a person. I think a lot of people have it ingrained in their mind that at a certain point we stop changing as people. I think that if we want to experience life as it is t

For my first topic idea of my storybook, I've chosen Dasharatha , one of the stories in the Ramayana. I wrote about this topic in my reading overview blog post, and was initially drawn to it by the moral dilemmas it seemed to pose. I'm fascinated by open-ended questions where there is no clear side to argue for, and this topic appears to provide plenty of those. I have no previous knowledge on the topic, but I'm interested to learn how the Ramayana and specifically the epics about Dasharatha approach moral conflicts. Due to my interest in the situations this topic will provide, I think I could use the dilemmas involved to practice expanding my creativity, and I think it will be more feasible for me to stray away from the original story more and just focus on the morals. I'm specifically interested in the topic of Dasharatha's end, where he makes an ultimate choice that ends his life. I'd like to make a story revolving around this idea, where a character makes th

There was once a powerful monkey king, Brahmadatta, who lived in the jungle. He was surrounded by a tribe of all female monkeys, as he had killed any son that had been born into the tribe. One day, one of the female monkeys was going to give birth and, fearing for the life of her son, escaped far away to the outskirts of the jungle. The son, Bodhisatta, was born and was safe, and soon grew to be much larger and stronger than was normal for a monkey of his tribe. One day, Bodhisatta's mother decided to tell him about his father. "Your father is a powerful monkey king who lives in the heart of the jungle", she said. "Why did you take me away from him?", asked Bodhisatta. "Your father is fearful of losing his power, so he would've killed you had I not." "I want you to take me to him", said Bodhisatta. His mother reluctantly agreed, knowing that if she didn't he would go by himself. When Bodhisatta returned to the tribe, his fath

For these reading notes, I've chosen to focus on a couple of stories, which are linked below, and to focus on the plots of each of them, as they were interesting and similar but had a few key differences. The Cunning Crane and the Crab by W. H. D. Rouse The Monkey who Gathered Lotuses by Robert Chalmers The Cunning Crane: I enjoyed this story because it was not only about the use of wit for both good and bad, but also about karma and one's ability to think for themselves. In this story there are two ponds, one that dries up every summer and becomes very warm, and another that is always cool and covered by shade. The warm pond is filled with fish, who are consequently miserable every summer as the pond heats up. A crane lives at the cool pond, and he convinces the fish that he could carry them in his beak to the nicer pond. After convincing them, he manages to eat every single fish, and somehow still being hungry tries to convince a crab in the warm pond of the same thi

For week 3, I've chosen the public domain version of Ramayana. I've chosen this mostly because it'll be free, but also because it will be interesting to see the many different writing styles involved from all of the authors who contributed to it. For the comic books on the Bizzell web page, I've chosen Dasharatha: The Story of Roma's Father and Kubera: The Lord of Wealth . I chose Dasharatha because it appears to tell the story of a life filled with tragedy and learned lessons, which seems interesting, and I chose Kubera because it tells the tale of a virtuous struggle between brothers and seemed thought-provoking.  For videos, I've chosen Ancient Technology - Atlantis and India and Rama and the Ramayana . I chose the first video because a discussion of the technology developed in ancient India seemed fascinating, and I chose the second video because it was created by Crash Course, and I've always found their videos to be very informative.  Image

One time management I'm using this semester which wasn't discussed in either of the articles I read is keeping a detailed schedule. I have an app on my tablet where I keep track of everything I'm doing this semester day by day. It's something I've done in the past as well, and I've found that it works extremely well. Outside of this strategy, I read 3 Steps to Recapture Time by Joynicole Martinez and Four Questions to Help You Overcome Procrastination by Peter Banerjea. Both of these articles were quite helpful, and I found that aspects of each of them are being utilized by my scheduling method detailed above. Image about time being a valuable resource Time Management

I am somewhat familiar with the technology used in this class, although the browser extensions for spell check and word count are new to me. I've created a website before for other purposes, so I think the creation of our class project shouldn't be too difficult for me. Every class I've had before this has used Canvas, so this environment is new to me, although it makes sense and does seem fairly easy to pick up. I feel fairly confident in my ability to use technology, so I guess I would just like to retain that familiarity and continue to improve on it this semester. Image Representing Technology Technology

The structure of this class as a whole is fairly new to me, although I've enjoyed it thus far and feel like it is an efficient way to run an online course. I'm not generally a creative person, so I may struggle with the storytelling aspect of this class from time to time, though I'm looking forward to giving it a shot. The Growth Mindset, HEART, and Extra Reading all seem like appealing extra credit options for me, and I like how you can do those whenever you want to throughout the week. I appreciate how you can make this class your own and get what you want out of it, and I think that will make it a far more enjoyable experience instead of just a box to check off. The image below is not exactly relevant to the class, but to me it represents all of the different ways you can achieve your desired grade in this class, since there do seem to be quite a few. Image of Different Ways to Get an A Class Structure

I'm familiar with the concept of a growth versus a fixed mindset, although I had never heard of Carol Dweck before. It was interesting to hear her thoughts on the differences between the two, and how process over achievement should be encouraged, although I agree more with Paunesku's concerns over stressing it too much. Despite the statistics Dweck gave on how emphasizing a growth mindset can improve a student's performance, it seems quite likely that there are going to be some students who will naturally struggle with this type of thinking, and that teachers who are told to emphasize growth over fixed will struggle much more to teach those students. I agree that it's important for people and students to recognize the importance of the process, but I don't think we can abandon every other teaching principle currently in place for the sake of focusing on just the process. I'd say that when it comes to schoolwork, I have more of a fixed mindset, but I'd say

To begin, my name is Dylan Lloyd and I'm currently a junior here at OU. I'm from Kansas City, Missouri, and am majoring in mechanical engineering. I chose this degree because I've always loved math and science, but what I've found throughout my search for internships is that the coolest thing the degree offers is a wide variety of options. I've applied to everything from basic engineering positions to consulting and technical positions, as well as financial and management positions. It seems that there is high demand for people with engineering degrees, and mechanical engineering may be the most broad of them all. The best class I took last semester was Engineering Leadership. It was a 4000 level course, and was very different compared to the other classes I took. Almost all of my engineering courses up to this point have been about engineering fundamentals and how to apply those to problem solving. None except Engineering Leadership talked about how you think as an

The first storybook I found that I liked was one called The Good Place. This one stood out to me because it is based off of a show that I've heard of and that some of my family members watch, and seems to have a lot of positive lessons to be taken from it. For the actual stories in this storybook, I thought it was quite creative and different in the way it was laid out, with the text resembling that of a typewriter and appearing somewhat old-fashioned. The images and author's notes were helpful in understanding what the show was about, especially for someone who has never seen the show. The introduction did a great job of explaining the stories and how they relate to the actual TV show. The Good Place The second storybook I found that I liked was one called Musical Battle. I was drawn to this one immediately because I have a passion for music, regardless of how it's used, and the artwork on the home page was quite colorful. The introduction did a good job of explaining how

My favorite place is probably San Francisco, otherwise known as Fog City, in California. I enjoy the hustle and bustle of living in a big city, but I also enjoy nature, and San Francisco offers a perfect combination of the two. The city itself is massive, with beautiful hills, plenty to do, and a wide variety of different communities such as Nob Hill, Fisherman's Wharf, and Chinatown to name a few. 20 minutes outside of the city, just across the Golden Gate Bridge, is a little town called Sausalito, which is quaint and quite scenic. This town rests just below the Muir Woods, which contains many of the world famous redwood trees native to the bay area. I could go on, but I'll end by saying that the city provides numerous different environments in which you can explore, and that's why I enjoy it so much. San Francisco as viewed from Twin Peaks San Francisco

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