Friday, November 7 - Sunday, November 9

HAPPY WEEKEND! You have reached the end of Week 11! The Week 11 Read and Respond assignment (blog commenting) is available now, and the remaining Week 11 assignments are due on Friday or on Saturday or Sunday - please make sure you get started on those assignments soon (this is the next-to-last Storybook commenting assignment; Week 12 will be your last time to comment on Storybooks, so use your free choice accordingly!) If you have not turned in your Week 10 Storybook assignment yet, you may turn it in BY FRIDAY AT NOON for partial credit. Also, Friday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Thursday.

Final Grade in Gradebook. There are already a few students who have finished the course completely - by working ahead and doing extra credit, they already have the 410 points needed to get an A in the class. Exciting! I've now added the Final Grade item to the Gradebook. This is where I will record your letter grade when you have finished with the class. That way you can be sure about the grade you will receive, even though I will not be filling out the actual grade report forms until the end of the semester in December. Congratulations to those of you who are finished with the class already!

Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in this week, and the deadline for turning in a late Week 10 assignment for partial credit is Friday at noon. If you want to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. Because of my schedule this Friday, I am not sure if I will have comments back to you before the weekend for anything turned in by noon on Friday - but if you turn something in by noon on Friday, I will be sure to get comments back to you sometime on Saturday at the latest.

Grading and points. (repeat announcement) Quite a few people have been asking me about the points and grading, so let me refer you again to this Grading Information page. In short, you need 410 to get an A, 360 points to get a B, and 320 points to get a C. When you get the number of points you need, you are done! It is fine with me if you decide to stop doing work for the class whenever you have the grade you want to receive (many of you are taking this class for Gen. Ed. requirements, which means you just need a C to get graduation credit). My only request is that you please let me know when you are done so I can adjust the comment assignments accordingly!

Thanksgiving. (repeat announcement) I have also received several questions about Thanksgiving in this class now that it is November. You will get a full week off for Thanksgiving break in this class. So, Week 13 will start on Tuesday, November 18, with the usual Tuesday-Thursday assignments due that week. Then, you have a week off. There are no assignments between Friday November 21 until Friday November 28 (Thanksgiving Day is November 27). You will have the usual Week 13 weekend assignments due November 29-30, with the usual grace period until noon on Monday, December 1. Then Week 14 will start up on Tuesday, December 2. I am guessing that many of you will probably already be done with the class by the time Thanksgiving break arrives!

Saturday, November 8: Bram Stoker. November 8 marks the birthday in 1847 of the Irish novelist Bram Stoker who is, of course, most famous for his invention of the modern literary figure of Count Dracula, published in 1897. Stoker's Count Dracula has in turn given rise to a whole genre of vampire fiction including the recent Twilight series of novels by Stephanie Meyer. You can read more about Stoker's life and career in this Wikipedia article. Stoker's Dracula has inspired many later novels, films and even comic books, but I will confess that my favorite Dracula is Count von Count of the Muppets! :-)

Thursday, November 6

Today is Thursday of WEEK 11 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 10 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit. For those of you in Myth-Folklore or World Lit, Thursday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Wednesday. (Indian Epics has no Wednesday assignments, so there is no Thursday morning grace period.)

Storybook Stack. There are still quite a few Storybook assignments in the stack and I am making my way through them in the order that they were turned in. If you turned something in on Sunday, you should have comments back from me already. If you turned something in later than Sunday (on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday), it is probably still in the stack. If you want to check and make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here.

Final Storybook assignments. (repeat announcement) For those of you who have been working ahead on your Storybooks, I wanted to let you know that in addition to the Week 13 assignment, I have also made the Week 14 and Week 15 Storybook assignment instructions available now, too. These are all revision assignments and you may find that they go quite quickly for you, so if you want to finish up your Storybook now in order to get those points recorded in the Gradebook, please feel free to work more than the usual two weeks ahead.

Grading and the end of the semester. Please make sure you read Monday's announcements, if you have not done so already - you will find important information there about grading in this class, along with information about the end of the semester and about Thanksgiving break.

Michael Crichton. The death of the American author Michael Crichton was announced widely in the news services yesterday; he died of cancer on November 4, at the age of 66. Crichton was a prolific novelist and was also involved in television and movie production. You can read more about Crichton's life and career in this Wikipedia article. I'm a big fan of science fiction, and Michael Crichton was the author of two of my favorite science fiction novels: The Andromeda Strain and Sphere. He has left behind a great legacy. Here are the covers of some of his books:

Wednesday, November 5

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 11 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 10 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit. Wednesday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Tuesday.

Final Storybook assignments. For those of you who have been working ahead on your Storybooks, I wanted to let you know that in addition to the Week 13 assignment, I have also made the Week 14 and Week 15 Storybook assignment instructions available now, too. These are all revision assignments and you may find that they go quite quickly for you, so if you want to finish up your Storybook now in order to get those points recorded in the Gradebook, please feel free to work more than the usual two weeks ahead.

My Wednesday schedule. I'm back to my usual schedule this week, doing most of my work during regular business hours on Monday-Tuesday and Thursday-Friday, while scheduling my out-of-office commitments on Wednesdays. That means I may be a bit more slow to respond to your emails on Wednesday than on the other days of the week - but if you send me an email during the day on Wednesday, I'll definitely get back to you by the end of the day.

Storybook Stack. There are still some Storybook assignments in the stack and I am making my way through them in the order that they were turned in. If you turned something in before 3PM on Sunday, you should have comments back from me already. If you turned something in later on Sunday, or on Monday or Tuesday, it is probably still in the stack. If you want to check and make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here.

Grading and the end of the semester. Please make sure you read Monday's announcements, if you have not done so already - you will find important information there about grading in this class, along with information about the end of the semester and about Thanksgiving break.

Roadsign in Wales and Welsh translation. I thought I would share with you all this wonderful translating mistake that happened in Wales, where the roadsigns are supposed to be both in English and in Welsh. You can see the sign below, which indeed has one part in English, and another part in Welsh - the problem being that the Welsh part of the sign reads "I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated." What happened was that someone had sent an email to a translator and got the translator's out-of-office email reply in Welsh... and thought that was the requested translation! You can read about some more Welsh mishaps in this BBC article, which is where I found this photo of the sign:

Tuesday, November 4

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 11 of the class. For those of you who are working ahead, Weeks 12 and 13 are also available! If you have not turned in your Week 10 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit.

Desire2Learn update. Apparently the problem with Desire2Learn has been fixed. If the problem starts up again, you can check alerts.ou.edu for the latest news. I have recorded all the email Declarations that people sent to me about the work they were not able to declare on Monday morning; you might want to double-check the Gradebook to make sure I recorded the correct Week 10 assignments for you. One of the advantages to this class is that even if one computer system is misbehaving, you can still keep on working, exactly because the class website is separate from Desire2Learn, which is separate from your email, which is separate from the Ning, which is separate from the students.ou.edu webpage server that you use for publishing your Storybook. Please do remember to save the class websites as bookmarks; that way, you are not dependent on Desire2Learn in the event of an outage. Here are the addresses: World Lit website, MythFolklore website, and Indian Epics website.

Storybook stack. Due to the various problems with Desire2Learn on Monday, I did not make as much progress through the stack as I normally would, so there is still a huge bunch of assignments in the Storybook stack. You can check the contents of the stack to make sure I received your assignment. As usual, I will be reading and reply to the assignments in the order they were turned in.

Grading and the end of the semester. Please make sure you read Monday's announcements, if you have not done so already - you will find important information there about grading in this class, along with information about the end of the semester and about Thanksgiving break.

Tuesday, November 4: Election Day 2008. Of course you all know today is Election Day - so go vote! And if you cannot vote because you are not registered to vote, why not use today as an excuse to get yourself registered - you can find voter registration forms at your local post office. Register now so you can be ready to vote in the next elections. Voting: it is your right and your responsibility!

(image source)

Monday, November 3

*** Desire2Learn is WORKING again! *** The problem earlier today with Desire2Learn has been fixed; check alerts.ou.edu for the latest news. I have recorded all the email Declarations that people sent to me this morning; you might want to double-check the Gradebook to make sure I recorded the correct Week 10 assignments for you. Thanks for your patience during this outage, and please do remember to save the class websites as bookmarks, so you are not dependent on Desire2Learn in the event of an outage. Here are the addresses: World Lit website, MythFolklore website, and Indian Epics website. (Updated at 5PM on Monday.)

Grading and points. Quite a few people have been asking me about the points and grading, so let me refer you again to this Grading Information page. In short, you need 410 to get an A, 360 points to get a B, and 320 points to get a C. When you get the number of points you need, you are done! It is fine with me if you decide to stop doing work for the class whenever you have the grade you want to receive (many of you are taking this class for Gen. Ed. requirements, which means you just need a C to get graduation credit). My only request is that you please let me know when you are done so I can adjust the comment assignments accordingly!

Mix and match points. Now that there are just five weeks of the semester left, you might want to plan to do some "mix and match" in terms of just which assignments you want to complete this semester to get the points you need for the grade you want to get. So, based on the assignments you enjoy most/least in the class, you can certainly skip some assignments, provided that you end up with the points you need at the end. My only recommendation is that you do this cautiously. You don't want to skip so many assignments that you end up not getting the points you need for your desired grade.

Thanksgiving. I have also received several questions about Thanksgiving in this class now that it is November. You will get a full week off for Thanksgiving break in this class. So, Week 13 will start on Tuesday, November 18, with the usual Tuesday-Thursday assignments due that week. Then, you have a week off. There are no assignments between Friday November 21 until Friday November 28 (Thanksgiving Day is November 27). You will have the usual Week 13 weekend assignments due November 29-30, with the usual grace period until noon on Monday, December 1. Then Week 14 will start up on Tuesday, December 2. I am guessing that many of you will probably already be done with the class by the time Thanksgiving break arrives!

Storybook stack. As always on Monday, I will have a huge bunch of assignments in the Storybook stack that were turned in over the weekend or on Monday morning. You can check the contents of the stack to make sure I received your assignment. As usual, I will be reading and reply to the assignments in the order they were turned in, starting with the ones that were turned in last week on Thursday and Friday, while I was out of town.

November 3: Dog in space. The dog Laika ("Barker") became the first animal in outer space on this day in 1957. Laika traveled aboard the Soviet spaceship Sputnik 2. You can read more about this cosmonaut dog in the Wikipedia article. While the Soviets launched dogs into space, the United States space program launched chimps instead (Ham the chimp, the first hominid in space, flew a Project Mercury flight in 1961). Laika proved that it was possible for an animal to sustain a weightless state in outer space, although she did not return to earth (she died during the mission from heat stroke when a heating unit in the space capsule malfunctioned). A monument was unveiled this year in honor of Laika; click on the image to view a Russian news video about the dedication of the monument: