Friday, November 14 - Sunday, November 16

HAPPY WEEKEND! You have reached the end of Week 12! The Week 12 Read and Respond assignment (blog commenting) is available now, and the remaining Week 12 assignments are due on Friday or on Saturday or Sunday - please make sure you get started on those assignments soon. If you have not turned in your Week 11 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.

Storybook Stack. As of 6PM on Thursday, I had read and replied to all the assignments that had been turned in. If you turn something in on Thursday evening or on Friday morning before noon, I will do my best to get comments back to you before the weekend. As always, you can see the contents of the stack here.

IMPORTANT NOTE: IT Maintenance. On the third Sunday of every month, IT does maintenance on its servers. There will be a maintenance window this Sunday, November 16. This often causes service outages, which may affect you if you are trying to publish webpages at that time. The maintenance window is in the morning, and the maintenance should be completed before noon on Sunday. For specific information and updates, see the IT Alerts page at alerts.ou.edu (this is also a good page to check if you are experiencing problems with Desire2Learn, email, or other IT services).

The following are REPEAT ANNOUNCEMENTS which you should read if you did not catch them during the announcements earlier during the week.

Grading and points. As you can see in the Grading Information page, 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. My only request is that you please let me know when you are done so I can adjust the comment assignments accordingly!

Overview of remaining Storybook assignments. For Week 12, you are adding your final new story, and the Week 13 assignment consists of revising that final story. The Week 14 assignment is to do a final revision of your Introduction. The Week 15 assignment involves revisions to your bibliography and image information for each story, making sure they are all complete. If you want, you can skip the Week 12 and Week 13 assignments, and proceed directly to Week 14 and Week 15 if you want. Be careful: if you take this option, you cannot go back and add a new story later - but if you are close to finishing, and do not need the points from the Week 12 and Week 13 Storybook assignments, feel free to proceed directly to Week 14!

Overview of Week 12 and Week 13 Internet assignments. In Week 12, you have your last assignment commenting on other people's Storybooks - it is all free choice this time! Then, for the Week 13 assignment (available on Tuesday, November 18), you will be voting on your favorite Storybooks for the semester. After you turn in your nominations, I'll set up a ballot so everybody can vote for the best Storybooks - it's not for a grade or anything, it's just for fun, and it gives the folks who have done really excellent work on their Storybooks a chance to get some well deserved recognition.

Thanksgiving. 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 15: Birthday of Johannes Secundus. As many of you know, I used to be a Latin professor, and one of my favorite Latin authors, Johannes (or Janus) Secundus, was born on November 15 in the year 1511. Yes, that's right: 1511. Johannes Secundus is what is called a "neo-Latin" poet who learned Latin in school, rather than a classical Roman writer. He is most famous for a series of poems he called Liber Basiorum in Latin, or The Book of Kisses. If any of you have studied Latin, you might enjoy taking a look at these delightful poems, which you can find online at The Latin Library. To learn more about Johannes Secundus and his all-too-short life (he died when he was just 24), you can take a look at this Wikipedia article, which is also the source for this image:

Thursday, November 13

Today is Thursday of WEEK 12 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 11 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 assignments in the Storybook stack. If you turned in your assignment before Monday, you should have comments back from me now. Assignments turned in on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday are probably still in the stack. You can check the contents of the stack to make sure I have received your assignment. Please check Tuesday's announcements for the option of skipping the Week 12/13 Storybook assignments if you do not need the points.

Thanksgiving. (repeat announcement) 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!

November 13: Vine Deloria. Today, November 13, marks the death just three years ago, in 2005, of the Sioux Indian author and political activist Vine Deloria, Jr. You can read more about Vine Deloria's life and career in this Wikipedia article. Deloria is most famous for his 1969 book Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto, and also for his various works in religion and theology, such as God Is Red: A Native View of Religion and Red Earth, White Lies: Native Americans and the Myth of Scientific Fact. Deloria's writings are thoughtful and thought-provoking, and very witty, too, as you can see in one of Deloria's most often cited quotations: When asked by an anthropologist what the Indians called America before the white man came, an Indian said simply, ‘Ours.’ If you are curious to hear Vine Deloria, you can check out this webcast from the Library of Congress from 2002, as part of the National Book Festival.

Wednesday, November 12

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 12 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 11 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.

My Wednesday schedule. I'm on 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 quite a few assignments in the Storybook stack. If you turned in your assignment before 5PM on Sunday, you should have comments back from me now. Assignments turned in on Sunday evening or on Monday or Tuesday are probably still in the stack. You can check the contents of the stack to make sure I have received your assignment. If the points you will be getting for the Storybook assignment(s) you have turned in will give you the points you need for your final grade in the class, let me know and I'll check on the points total for you! Please check yesterday's announcements for the option of skipping the Week 12/13 Storybook assignments if you do not need the points.

Grading and points. (repeat announcement) As you can see in the Grading Information page, 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. My only request is that you please let me know when you are done so I can adjust the comment assignments accordingly!

November 12: Bahaullah. Today, November 12, marks the birthday in the year 1817 of the great religious leader named Bahaullah ("Glory of God") who founded the Bahai faith. The Bahai faith is a monotheistic religion in the tradition of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and it has gained followers around the world. Estimates place the number of Bahai faithful at between five and six million ... including a Bahai community in Norman. The life of Bahaullah is filled with many dramatic events, as you can read in this detailed Wikipedia article, which is also the source for the image below. He was born in Tehran, the capital city of what was then called Persia (Iran) and the image below shows Bahaullah's Persian (Iranian) passport:

Tuesday, November 11

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 12 of the class. For those of you who are working ahead, Weeks 13 and 14 are also available! If you have not turned in your Week 11 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit. Counting Week 12, there are FOUR WEEKS of class remaining, which means 120 points of regular assignments, plus extra credit.

Storybook Stack. As usual at the beginning of the week, there are still LOTS of Storybook assignments 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. If you need just the points for the Storybook assignment(s) you have turned in in order to finish up the class, let me know and I will put your assignments up at the top of the stack.

Overview of remaining Storybook assignments. In Week 11, you turned in revisions for your Storybook. In Week 12, you will be adding your final new story, and the Week 13 assignment consists of revising that final story. The Week 14 assignment is to do a final revision of your Introduction. The Week 15 assignment involves revisions to your bibliography and image information for each story, making sure they are all complete. After you receive my comments back on your Week 11 assignment, you can skip the Week 12 and Week 13 assignments, and proceed directly to Week 14 and Week 15 if you want. Be careful: if you take this option, you cannot go back and add a new story later - but if you are close to finishing, and do not need the points from the Week 12 and Week 13 Storybook assignments, feel free to proceed directly to Week 14!

November 11: Kurt Vonnegut. Today, November 11, is the birthday of one of the greatest American writers of the 20th-century, Kurt Vonnegut. You can read about Vonnegut's life and career in this Wikipedia article. Vonnegut was the author of many novels and short stories, including Cat's Cradle (1963), Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), and Breakfast of Champions (1973) - it is the last one, Breakfast of Champions, which is my own personal favorite. Here is a quote from that book where Vonnegut talks about the fact that he was born on Armistice Day in 1922, shortly after the end of World War I: "When I was a boy, all the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month. It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind." Sadly, Kurt Vonnegut died in 2007... but left behind many wonderful stories for us to remember him by!

Monday, November 10

Today is Monday. Week 11 of the class is now over. Monday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Friday/Saturday/Sunday. Week 12 will begin tomorrow - and those assignments are available now if you want to get started. The Week 13 assignments are also available now, too! (Week 14 will be available tomorrow.)

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. I will be reading and replying to the assignments in the order they were turned in - if the points you will be getting for the Storybook assignment(s) you have turned in will give you the points you need for your final grade in the class, let me know and I'll check on the points total for you! :-)

Overview of Week 12 and Week 13 Internet assignments. In Week 12, you will have your last assignment commenting on other people's Storybooks - it will be all free choice this time! Then, for the Week 13 assignment (available on Tuesday, November 18), you will be voting on your favorite Storybooks for the semester. After you turn in your nominations, I'll set up a ballot so everybody can vote for the best Storybooks - it's not for a grade or anything, it's just for fun, and it gives the folks who have done really excellent work on their Storybooks a chance to get some well deserved recognition.

Grading and points. (repeat announcement) As you can see in the Grading Information page, 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. My only request is that you please let me know when you are done so I can adjust the comment assignments accordingly!

November 10: Neil Gaiman. Today marks the birthday in 1960 of the genius writer, Neil Gaiman. You know, I'm not a person prone to be intimidated by other people's amazing achievements but here is this guy, just four years older than me, and he's got a list of books that is simply breathtaking - he makes me feel so LAZY by comparison...! You can find out about Neil Gaiman's life and career in this Wikipedia article. My very favorite of all his books is American Gods - it is one of the most ingenious adaptations of traditional legends and myths that you will ever read! Happy birthday, Neil Gaiman!