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Showing posts from March, 2020

Extra Credit Reading Notes

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Epified: Mahabharata Part C Karna's Quest: Karna was a boy who was found floating in a basket in a river. He went to go to find Drona to be taught to fight, but was denied because he wasn't a kshatriya. Even though he was, he didn't want to dishonor his family by telling Drona he was. He found a different guru who was willing to teach him. The Kshatriya: Karna was taught by Parashuram, he told him he wasn't a Kshatriya, but a Brahmin. He become one of the Parashuram's best students. Parashuram eventually found out Karna was a Kshatriya, and put a curse on him that the day Karna needed his skills the most, he would forget them. Karna Becomes King: A tournament was organized so the cousins could display the skills they were taught. Karna appeared during this tournament to challenge Arjuna. Karna was refused the title of victor because he wasn't invited to the tournament. The Pandavas challenged Karna to a battle to prove their strength. Karna would have to

Extra Credit Reading Notes

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Epified: Mahabharata  Part B Son of the Sun: When Kunti was a young woman, she was given a gift by the sage Durwasa. When she spoke a mantra, the Sun God appeared before her. Not only did she summon the god, but she was in his embrace. She had a son but she couldn't keep him or claim him as her son, so she placed him in a basket and placed him a river. Pandu's Curse: Pandu and his wives decide to go to the forest. Pandu made a mistake while hunting in the woods, and accidentally shot a hermit and his wife while they were intimate. The hermit placed a curse on Pandu that he will die the moment he becomes intimate with a woman. Pandu decides to not return to Hastinapur. Kunti told Pandu about the gift from the sage. Pandu tells Kunti to waste no time and give Hastinapur its future kings. Sons of Pandu: Kunti called upon Yama first, and gave her a son named Yudhishthir. Then Kunti had a son with Vayu named Bheem. The last son was from Indra and was named Arjun. Kunti refuse

Extra Credit Reading Notes

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Epified: Mahabharata Part A Shantanu the Unfortunate: Shantanu fell in love with Ganga and she made him promise not to question any of her decisions. As Ganga continued to throw each of their children in the Ganges he couldn't stay silent and asked why. Ganga was supposed to birth the eight celestial spirits and free them from morality. After she told him, she took the eighth child and left Shantanu. Devavrata Returns: When Shantanu was back on the Ganges one day, he found a mighty archer. Then Ganga appeared and she told him the archer was his son, Devavrat. Shantanu brought his son back to his kingdom with him. Shantanu eventually fell in love with Satyavati, but her father didn't want them to marry since Shantanu already had a child. Devavrat left to talk to Satyavati after seeing his father's sadness. Devavrate Becomes Bhishma: Devavrat went to Satyavati's father and offered to never take the throne and never have a child of his own so his father could marry

Reading Notes: Nine Ideal Indian Women Part B

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Nine Ideal Indian Women by Sunity Devee Uttara Uttara was the princess and pride of the kingdom of Birat. She was taught singing and dancing by Arjun who was disguised as a woman. Uttara leaves with the Pandavas to become the wife of Abhimanyu. Uttara and Abhimanyu were very in love. She was devastated when she found out that Abhimanyu had become the general for the Pandavas. She reluctantly agreed to let him fight in the battle, and helped him get ready for battle. When she went to tell Subhadra the news, she fell to the ground lifeless. Uttara was motivated to get up when she remembered she is supposed to have Abhimanyu's son. Abhimanyu dies as he cries his wife's name. When Uttara found out about Abhimanyu's death, she fainted. Uttara begs to be able to join her husband, but the whole family encourages her to stay strong and have faith. Even after her son was born, she wanted to do a funeral pyre. Krishna tells her that she can't because she has a son who needs

Reading Notes: Nine Ideal Indian Women Part A

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Nine Ideal Indian Women by Sunity Devee Savitri Savitri is the only child of the king and queen of Abanti. She sees a man in the forest and falls in love with him. She met an old blind man and his wife and discovered that the man she fell in love with was their son. The old blind man they had met turned out to be an exiled king. Savitri's parents didn't approve of her marrying Satyaban. King Ashwapati discoveries that Satyaban is destined to die in a years time. When Savitri finds out, she still insists on marrying Satyaban. Once married, Savitri and Satyaban join his parents in exile, which upsets Ashwapati. Satyaban died while he was getting wood with Savitri. As Death takes Satyaban's body away, Savitri tries to convince Death to either give her husband life again or take her as well. Death tells her he cant, but he offers to grant her a wish instead, so she gets her father-in-law sight. She continues to follow Death until he grants her another wish, which is giving

Tech Tip: Twine

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For my Week 11 Tech Tip, I wanted to learn about Twine. I read someone's project who had used twine and became interested about what it was. I think the way it has been used in project's makes the stories interesting and really creative! To my surprise, Twine was really simple to use. I think twine would be really fun to use for a story in the future. Choose your own adventure with Twinery ( Flickr )

Tech Tip: Google Timer

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For this weeks tech tip, I learned about the Google timer. I struggle to manage my time well and find myself putting in way too much time into one subject because I lose track of time. This causes me to focus only on one subject and neglect my other tasks for the day. Also, I think it will help know when I should take study breaks. I think I read somewhere that the most effective studying is done by studying for 45 minutes then taking a 5 minute break. I think I'm going to use this timer when I study to improve my time management. Timer ( Wikimedia )

Tech Tip: Canvas App

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For this week's tech tip I wanted to write about the Canvas app. I mainly only use the canvas app to be able to check my grades as soon as they're entered or double check the syllabus whenever I need to. Other than that, I don't find the canvas app very useful. I can't take my quizzes through my phone, so it doesn't help me in terms of completing assignments. I also always check the class average on an exam or assignment, which the canvas app doesn't have as a feature. Overall though, I really enjoy being able to check my grades at anytime! Canvas Logo

Week 8 Progress

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Looking back, I am happy with the progress I have made throughout this half of the semester. My schedule each week is drastically different because of organizations, other classes, and friends, so I still don't really have a "weekly routine". I prefer to do as many assignments I can and get ahead whenever I have time to, so I don't have to worry about then when I'm short on time. I think this method has been the best method in keeping me on track and finishing my assignments. I originally favored the reading assignments, but I've almost started to enjoy the storybook projects more ever since I decided what I wanted my topic to be. I try my best to take advantage of every extra credit assignment every week, this has been SO helpful for me to keep my grades up and be able to miss an assignment without worrying about the impact it will have on my grade. I am looking forward to getting further in my storybook project and begin writing my stories during the second

Week 8 Comments and Feedback

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I think I've received good feedback from other students in the class. My favorite feedback comments are suggestions to fix my mistakes. For example, in one story, I didn't explain why the sloth trusted the tiger in the first place. I didn't explain why because I couldn't think of a reason why, so I decided to skip giving the sloth a reason. One person suggested that I could give the sloth a backstory, I thought this was the most helpful of my comments. Instead of simple pointing out a flaw, they gave me a good idea to fix the problem. I've received a lot of positive feedback, which makes me feel more comfortable about the work I'm posting. Since I find suggestions the most helpful on my blogs, I try to do the same for other students, although sometimes this isn't possible since there are so many great writers in this class! I have many ideas from other students as I read their stories and have even used their style my story telling style. I have a sense of g

Week 8 Reading and Writing

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I reviewed my blog site and made some slight changes. I didn't realize I had my "Labels" category in the side bar twice, so I fixed that. Now, I'm happy with the layout and design of both my blog and website. Overall, I think the reading and writing assignments have started to become easier for me. I feel like I still struggle a bit to "read like a writer" and end up writing a lot during my reading assignments to make sure I don't forget any information. More recently, I've been trying to fix that problem by focusing on the only the plot or on one character. This new strategy has helped me read what I think will be helpful for my weekly story writing and my storybook project. I haven't gotten far on my storybook project yet, but I really like the direction and plans I have for it. My favorite readings so far have been the extra credit reading assignments using books I got from the reserves at the library. The short readings of the comic books are

Review: Week 7

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I have completed the backup and checkup and reviewed the past announcements. My favorite quote this week was the "Life is like a Camera" from Slyvia Duckworth. I liked the pictures because it contains advice about a growth mindset, attention, and happiness, which are three things that I am constantly trying to improve about myself. My favorite video this week was   "Story of Karna" by Epified. The video explained the birth of Karna from Kunti and the sage. I was interested in Karna's antagonist role in the Mahabharata, and even used him for my Wikipedia Trail, too.  Life is like a Camera by  Sylvia Duckworth

Famous Last Words: Tired

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This week I was extremely that I worked so hard last week to get ahead of my assignments. It gave me more time to study for my exam and prevent me from feeling overwhelmed with all the school work. I think my favorite reading from Week 7 was my extra credit reading of Sita’s Ramayana. The book told the Ramayana through Sita’s perspective and focused on her feelings and emotions during her traumatic experiences. I thought this book was extremely interesting and intend on using a lot of the information I read for my Storybook project as I begin to write Sita’s feelings in her journal entries. My favorite writing from this week was my Week 7 story. The narration of my story was based on the narrator’s from “Sita Sing’s the Blues”. I felt like the narrators in those stories were constantly confused on the details of the Ramayana, and it reminded me of my own internal monologue as I read. I thought this made my writing sound a lot better, since I wasn’t as focused on making the writing soun

Growth Mindset: Padlet

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The first quote I found on Padlet was a quote about managing stress. I really enjoyed this quote because I constantly battle with stress. This quote puts the idea of stress in perspective for me, and reminds that I'm in control about handling my stress. I think I could apply this quote to my everyday life with school and work, instead of being so overwhelmed by the stress it causes, I'm going to change how I react to and handle the stress from everything. Stress quote ( Padlet ) The second quote I found was a quote was a motto about rain. I really liked this because I have always been a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. Even though I may not see the positive side yet, a tough time or "rain" will lead me to better opportunities. I will keep this quote in mind in my daily to help me remain optimistic when life gets tough. Rain quote ( Padlet )

Wikipedia Trails: Karna to Maurya Empire

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Karna I started my Wikipedia Trails with Karna, because I thought his character was interesting in the Mahabharata. I was interested in Karna because of his role against the Pandava brothers, despite being their brother. Surya From Karna, I clicked on Surya's link. He is the Sun deity and a primary deity in Hinduism. Ashoka From Surya, I went the Ashoka's clink because the previous Wikipedia link said he had ancient works attributed to him. Ashoka the Great was an Indian emperor of the Maurya Dynasty. Maurya Empire Maurya Empire is the Dynasty that Ashoka was the emperor of, so I wanted to learn more about it. It was a historical power based in the Magadha and founded by Chandragupta Maurya. Territories of the Maurya Empire  ( Wikipedia )

Biography: Unfortunate Events

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Anyone that knows me personally, knows that I am notoriously unlucky. I’m not sure what mirror I shattered or maybe this is all karma for something I did years ago, I’m not sure. Some of the most recent events of my unlucky streak include: -Getting $120 worth of parking tickets in Stillwater last week. I assumed parking outside the Greek houses wouldn’t require a parking pass and they would have free parking on weekends anyway. I didn’t go to my car Fri-Sun, but the parking services made sure they stopped by and ticketed me. -Last finals week, my phone broke beyond use right before my exams and I didn’t have time to get it repaired, which meant I didn’t have an alarm for my 8 am. Luckily for me though, I had to stay up all night anyway to study for my exam, so I didn’t need the alarm too badly. -Pulled over for my tag being almost a year expired and got a ticket (I know this is one is my fault, but in my defense, I don’t know car things my dad does this for me). Bonus