Friday, September 4 - Sunday, September 6

HAPPY WEEKEND! You have reached the end of Week 2. The Week 2 Read and Respond assignment (blog commenting) is available now, and the remaining Week 2 assignments are due on Friday or on Saturday or Sunday - please make sure you get started on those assignments soon. If you do not finish them on Friday, you will need to make sure you finish them over the weekend.

Blog Read and Respond. As you saw last week, the blog "read and respond" assignment has a random element to it. That means some weeks you may get lots of comments, and other weeks you may just have one or two comments. You'll also see that I sometimes leave comments on the blog posts - but my participation is also very random. So, if you feel like you did not get a lot of comments in one particular week, don't worry: the power of random will work its magic, and over the course of the semester you should end up receiving just about the same number of comments that you are leaving at other people's blogs.

Labor Day: Monday, September 7, is the Labor Day holiday. Since you do not have any assignments that are due on Monday, there is no adjustment to the assignment schedule for the holiday. (There is a grace period on Monday morning for the final assignments of Week 2 - but that is a grace period, not a due date, so it is not affected by the holiday.)

Week 2 Internet assignment: Publishing webpages. I'm available via email Friday to help you with any problems you run into as you publish your first webpages. Over the weekend, I am not as quick to answer email - so please make sure you get started on that assignment on Saturday at the latest. That way, if you run into trouble, you can contact me on Saturday and there will be time for me to send you a reply on Sunday, in time for you to finish up the assignment over the weekend. If you put the assignment off until Sunday and run into problems, you might want to give the GoogleSites alternative a try - you might find it easier than using Composer to get your website up and running.

Storybook assignments over the weekend. If you want to receive comments from me about a Storybook assignment before the weekend, please turn it in by noon on Friday. I always do my best to read and reply on Friday afternoon to all the assignments turned in before noon. If you turn in an assignment on Friday afternoon or over the weekend, I'll be updating the list again on TUESDAY (Monday will be a holiday for me). So, on Tuesday morning, you can check the list of assignments in the Stack and you'll be able to make sure I received your assignment; I'll then start reading through the assignments in the order received to send you back comments. Please do NOT go on to the next Storybook assignment until you get comments back from me about the assignment you have turned in.

EXTRA CREDIT. I would like to encourage everybody to be doing some kind of extra credit to build up some extra points. That way if you miss some assignments in the weeks to come, you won't even have to worry about it. There are three kinds of extra credit: you can get Early Bird Extra Credit for working a week ahead (no extra work involved - just work ahead!), there is some extra credit available each week which you will see listed on the weekly assignments page (Technology Tip, Famous Last Words)... plus there are some Grammar quizzes which are available for extra credit, too. If you want to pile up a lot of extra credit at the beginning of the semester, before you get busy in your other classes, that is a great idea! The Technology Tips, in particular, are good to do at the beginning of the semester - and you will find Technology Tip extra credit every week that you can declare. So, if you do multiple technology tips, just declare them like any other work in the class - Week 2, then Week 3 and Week 4 and so on; there is a Technology Tip extra credit Declaration for every week up to Week 15.

September 6: Birthday of Robert Pirsig. Sunday, September 6, marks the birthday of Robert Pirsig, who was born in 1928 and who is still with us today: Happy birthday, Robert Pirsig! For those of you who have not already had your lives changed by his amazing book, Pirsig is the author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I first read this book when I was 16 years old and I've read it again pretty much every year or every other year since then - let's say twenty times or so. I just finished reading it again two weeks ago, as a matter of fact. You can learn more about Pirsig in this Wikipedia article - and truly, if you are interested in life itself (and who is not interested in life, eh?), then I recommend that you give this book a try. It's the only book I don't think I will ever catch up with - every time I come back to it, it seems a little more far out, in the best sense of that phrase, and I keep running right on after it, learning new things every time. The novel itself is about a motorcycle journey that Pirsig took across the country in 1968 together with his young son, Chris - here's a picture from the trip showing the two of them on the bike:

Thursday, September 3

Today is Thursday of WEEK 2 of the class. 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.)

Ning blogging tips. Many of you will be posting at the Ning tonight. If you need reminders about images and links in blogs, just check in the Ning FAQs and Tips section on the main page of the Ning, left-hand column, and you should be able to find the information you need - especially about links and images. It's important that the image you use be the right size - if you have a giant-sized image, use this Technology Tip to Resize Images so that you can make a smaller version of the image (and get extra credit for it, too, as a Tech Tip).

Week 2 Internet Assignment: Webpages. This week, your Internet assignment will be to publish your first webpages. I am available during the day on Thursday and on Friday to help you with this if you run into any technical difficulties. So, if this is your first time to publish webpages in your OU webspace, please make sure you get to work on this assignment now, and do not put it off until the weekend. I check my email less frequently over the weekend, so in order to make sure you are able to ask questions and get help if needed, please get started on publishing your first webpages now.

Storybook Stack. There are just a few Week 2 and Week 3 assignments in the Storybook stack (you can check the contents of the stack here). If you turned something in on Tuesday or on Wednesday it is probably still in the stack, but I will be sure to get comments back to you today, Thursday. This is the only assignment during the week for which I record the points for you in the Gradebook, and I record those points at the same time that I send the comments back to you. If you ever have any question about the comments I send back to you (for example, if I don't explain something clearly) or if I forget to record the points (it does happen sometimes), please just let me know!

Week 2 Read and Respond (blog comment) assignment. The Week 2 blog commenting assignment is not available yet; it will be available starting on Friday, September 4. The blog commenting assignment is the only assignment you cannot complete early, because people will still be adding posts to their blog today, Thursday. So, after midnight tonight, starting on Friday, you can do that Read and Respond assignment; you have Friday, Saturday and Sunday to finish that assignment, where you will be reading some more blog posts at random from people in your assigned blog group.

September 3. This day marks the 70th anniversary of England's declaration of war against Germany in 1939, who had invaded Poland on September 1 1939; see this timetable of World War II for more details about the momentous events of September 1939. The image below shows the Royal Castle in Warsaw on fire after being bombed by the Germans; below, you can see the Royal Castle as rebuilt today.

Wednesday, September 2

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 2 of the class. 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 do most of my work during regular business hours on Monday-Tuesday and Thursday-Friday, while scheduling my out-of-office commitments on Wednesdays. This Wednesday I will probably be away from my desk in the late morning and early afternoon. 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. I'm still making my way through the stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in. I've read all the Week 1 assignments, and most of the early Week 2 and Week 3 assignment people have turned in. If you turned in an assignment before 5 PM on Monday, you should have comments back from me. If you turned in an assignment after 5 PM on Monday or during the day on Tuesday, it is probably still in the stack. If you want to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. Remember: save the emails I send you back about your Storybook assignments. My comments are marked with ==> in the body of the email, and you will need those comments when you go on to the next week's assignment.

Friday September 4: Final day to drop with refund. Friday, September 4, will be the final day to drop a class and get a full refund. So, if you are finding out that this class does not fit into your schedule after all, or that the workload is too demanding, you can still drop the class and get a refund. The Week 2 assignments will give you a sense of what the regular weekly assignments will be like for the rest of the semester, so you will have a good basis on which to make your decision. If you have any questions about the class you'd like to ask before you make your decision, let me know!

September 2: Death of J. R. R. Tolkien. Today, September 2, marks the death in 1973 of the great English author, John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, who is best known for creating the marvelous fantasy world of Middle Earth, in which he set his novel The Hobbit and the trilogy known as Lord of the Rings. I first encountered Tolkien when my fourth-grade teacher read The Hobbit to us in class, and I spent all of junior high reading and re-reading The Lord of the Rings. The recent films by Peter Jackson brought a whole new audience to these books, and I am very curious what the forthcoming films by Guillermo del Toro based on The Hobbit will be like! You can read about Tolkien's life and career in this Wikipedia article, which is also the source for this drawing that shows Tolkien's own design for the covers of The Lord of the Rings trilogy:

Tuesday, September 1

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 2 of the class. I've moved the Week 2 Quizzes and Declarations to the TOP of the list now. This week in Indian Epics you are starting Narayan's Ramayana, while it's Buddhist Jataka Tales in the World Literature class, and it's Ancient Near East week in Myth-Folklore. I really hope you will enjoy the readings!

Storybook Stack. A very large number of Storybook assignments came in over the weekend, and I've been reading through those in the order that they came in. If you turned in a Storybook assignment before Sunday at 5PM, you should have comments back from me, with points recorded for you in the Gradebook (check and make sure!). If you turned something in later on Sunday or on Monday morning, it is probably still in the stack waiting for me to get to it. If you want to check and make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. I hope to get through the rest of the stack today, Tuesday.

Storybook Comments via email. When I send back Storybook comments to you via email, you will see that my comments are inserted into your email, and are marked with ==> to make them easy to find. The comments for each week should help you when you do your assignment for the next week, and possibly in future weeks, too, so make sure you save the emails that I send back to you about your Storybook assignment so that you can consult them later as needed.

Publishing Your First Webpages. This week, your Week 2 Internet assignment will be to publish your first webpages. Although this assignment is not due until the weekend, I hope you will get started on it early. I am available during the week to help you if you run into any snags as you create and publish your first pages, but I am not as easy to reach over the weekend. So, especially if this is the first time you have published webpages in your OU webspace (as it is for most of you!), please get started on this assignment now if possible, and don't put it off until the last minute. For those of you interested in using GoogleSites to publish your webpages instead of your OU webspace, I've added some more tips on using GoogleSites - it's quite an impressive web publishing system and very easy to use.

Myth-Folklore: Gilgamesh OR Egypt. (REPEAT ANNOUNCEMENT) Those of you who are in the Myth-Folklore class will have a choice of readings each week. This week, the choice is between Gilgamesh OR Egypt. You will do only one set of readings, and take the background quiz and reading quiz based on your choice of Gilgamesh OR Egypt. This means that will end up with some blank items in the Gradebook; please don't worry about that. Your goal is to get 30 points per week, and if you do the quizzes for just one of the reading selections, you will end up with the points you need.

September 1: Edgar Rice Burroughs. Today marks the birthday in 1875 of the American author Edgar Rice Burroughs, who is best known for having invented the story of Tarzan. You can read more about Burroughs's life and career in this Wikipedia article, and you can read many of his books online as they are in the public domain. Here is an inventory of Burroughs books online, including the Tarzan books - over 20 of them! There are even 5 Tarzan audiobooks available for free download from LibriVox. So, get in touch with your inner ape and spend some time today with Tarzan if you are so inclined! The following image is for the LibriVox edition of Tarzan of the Apes:

Monday, August 31

Today is Monday, and Week 1 of the class is now over. Monday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the Week 1 assignments that were due on Friday/Saturday/Sunday.

Monday: Time to work ahead. You do not have any assignments due on Monday, which makes it the PERFECT chance to work ahead on the Week 2 assignments. Believe me: if you put off the assignments in this class until the day that they are due, you are going to be under a lot of stress. If you can work at your own pace just a day or two ahead of the deadlines, you will find the class much easier to manage!

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 - the Week 1 Storybook assignments from Myth-Folklore and World Lit., plus early Week 2 and Week 3 assignments from all three classes. The first thing I will do on Monday morning when I get to work is to update the list of items in the Storybook stack. So, after 8 a.m. or so on Monday, you will be able to check the contents of the stack to make sure I received your assignment. I will then start reading the assignments in the order they were turned in. For those of you who are working ahead: please do not go on to the Week 3 Storybook assignment until you get Week 2 comments back from me. Thanks for your patience with that!

Myth-Folklore: Gilgamesh OR Egypt. Those of you who are in the Myth-Folklore class will have a choice of readings each week. This week, the choice is between Gilgamesh OR Egypt. You will do only one set of readings, and take the background quiz and reading quiz based on your choice of Gilgamesh OR Egypt. This means that will end up with some blank items in the Gradebook; please don't worry about that. Your goal is to get 30 points per week, and if you do the quizzes for just one of the reading selections, you will end up with the points you need.

August 31: Kinetoscope Patent. On this day in 1897, the American inventor Thomas Edison was issued a patent for the Kinetoscope, an early motion picture device. The image below shows an advertisement from the early 1900s promoting the use of a projecting version of the Kinetoscope for home viewing. We've come a long way in the past one hundred years, with technology like the DVD making movies as familiar in the home as books on a bookshelf! You can read more about the history of the Kinetoscope in this Wikipedia article. (Click here for a an larger view of the image.)