Thursday, October 15 - Sunday, October 18

Today is Thursday of WEEK 8 of the class. Thursday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Wednesday. Also, because this is OU-Texas weekend, there will not be announcements on Friday - so please make sure you read today's announcements to know what is going on for the rest of Week 8!

FRIDAY MORNING: Desire2Learn maintenance. For those of you who will be doing schoolwork on Friday, please be aware that Desire2Learn will be down for scheduled maintenance on Friday morning between 7AM and 9:30AM. So, if you need to use the Friday morning grace period to finish up your Thursday assignments, you'll need to be aware of this maintenance downtime. There is the usual grace period on Friday morning until noon, but you won't be able to use Desire2Learn between 7AM and 9:30AM - so you either need to log on before that time window, or afterwards.

SUNDAY MORNING: IT Maintenance. On the third Sunday of every month, IT does maintenance on its servers. There will be a maintenance window this Sunday, October 18. This often causes service outages, which may affect email, web publishing, and other OU IT services as well as any webpages on the ou.edu system and possibly Desire2Learn. 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.

Storybook Stack. I've finished reading and replying to all the Storybook assignments that were turned in by noon on Wednesday. If you turned in something after noon on Wednesday or later, it will go into the stack on Monday. So, first thing on Monday, you can check the contents of the stack to make sure that I did receive your assignment.

NEW GROUPS. (repeat announcement) For the second half of the semester you have been put in NEW GROUPS for the Blog Responding assignment, and you will also be reading Storybooks from people in your group, in addition to the random Storybooks and the Storybooks you choose from the whole class. The Week 8 Internet assignment is available starting today, Thursday, so make sure you check to see who is in your group before you start reading the Storybooks for that assignment.

OU-Texas weekend. (repeat announcement) Friday is not an official holiday on the academic calendar, but I know many of you will be out of town. So, this week only, the Blog Responding assignment will become available on Thursday. That way, if you are planning to be out of town on Friday, you can get your assignments done before you leave, including the Responding assignment. It may be that quite a few people will not have posted their Week 8 blog posts (since those are not due until Thursday), but that's okay - you have new people in your blog groups, so you can read their Week 7 story and essay even if they have not yet posted anything for Week 8. So, when you do the Week 8 Blog Responding assignment, make sure you check to see what your new group assignment is!

Friday, October 16: Oscar Wilde. Friday marks the birthday in the year 1854 of the great Irish writer, Oscar Wilde. You can read more about Oscar Wilde's life and career as a writer in this detailed Wikipedia article. Wilde is probably most famous for his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray and his play The Importance of Being Earnest - and also for his conviction in 1895 of "gross indecency" (homosexuality). He spent two years in jail as a result, and died three years after his release from prison, penniless and in self-imposed exile. My favorite works by Oscar Wilde are his fairy tales, which you can read online at SurLaLune. The image below is an illustration by Jessie King for Wilde's fairy tale entitled The Fisherman and His Soul:

Wednesday, October 14

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 8 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 7 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.

Storybook Stack. There are still quite 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 on Sunday, you should have comments back from me already. If you turned something in 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.

FRIDAY MORNING: Desire2Learn maintenance. For those of you who will be doing schoolwork on Friday, please be aware that Desire2Learn will be down for scheduled maintenance on Friday morning between 7AM and 9:30AM. So, if you end up needing to use the Friday morning grace period to finish up your Thursday assignments, please be aware of that D2L will be unavailable during that maintenance window.

The following announcements are repeat announcements, reflecting the special schedule this week:

Storybooks this week: Wednesday noon. (repeat announcement) Because this week is shortened, the deadline for getting a Storybook in order to get comments back from me is today, Wednesday, at noon. So, if you want comments back before the weekend, make sure you get it turned in this morning, and I'll be sure to get comments to you before the weekend. If you need to turn in a late Week 7 Storybook assignment for partial credit, you can still do that up to Thursday at noon, but you will not get comments back until Monday of next week. So, be warned: if you turn in a Storybook assignment after noon today, you may not get comments back until next week.

NEW GROUPS. (repeat announcement) For the second half of the semester you have been put in NEW GROUPS for the Blog Responding assignment, and you will also be reading Storybooks from people in your group, in addition to the random Storybooks and the Storybooks you choose from the whole class. The Week 8 Internet assignment is available starting today, Tuesday, so make sure you check to see who is in your group before you start reading the Storybooks for that assignment.

OU-Texas weekend. (repeat announcement) Although Friday is not an official holiday on the academic calendar, I know many of you will be out of town. So, this week only, the Blog Responding assignment will become available on Thursday. That way, if you are planning to be out of town on Friday, you can get your assignments done before you leave, including the Responding assignment. It may be that quite a few people will not have posted their Week 8 blog posts (since those are not due until Thursday), but that's okay - you have new people in your blog groups, so you can read their Week 7 story and essay even if they have not yet posted anything for Week 8. So, when you do the Week 8 Blog Responding assignment, make sure you check to see what your new group assignment is!

October 14: e e cummings. Today, October 14, marks the birthday in the year 1894 of the American poet, Edward Estlin Cummings - better known as e e cummings. Cummings experimented with spelling and typography and the conventions of the English language in ways that were unheard-of at the time. You can read about his life and career in this Wikipedia article. I have reproduced in an image below the unusual layout of one of his poems, the sky was candy luminous:

Tuesday, October 13

Today is Tuesday, the first day of WEEK 8 of the class. Yes, this means the semester is one-half over! (In the Indian Epics class, you will see it is a review week before you start the Mahabharata in Week 9.) If you have not turned in your Week 7 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit.

NEW GROUPS. As I explained in the announcements from yesterday, for the second half of the semester you have been put in NEW GROUPS for the Blog Responding assignment, and you will also be reading Storybooks from people in your group, in addition to the random Storybooks and the Storybooks you choose from the whole class. The Week 8 Internet assignment is available starting today, Tuesday, so make sure you check to see who is in your group before you start reading the Storybooks for that assignment.

OU-Texas weekend. Although Friday is not an official holiday on the academic calendar, I know many of you will be out of town. So, this week only, the Blog Responding assignment will become available on Thursday. That way, if you are planning to be out of town on Friday, you can get your assignments done before you leave, including the Responding assignment. It may be that quite a few people will not have posted their Week 8 blog posts (since those are not due until Thursday), but that's okay - you have new people in your blog groups, so you can read their Week 7 story and essay even if they have not yet posted anything for Week 8. So, when you do the Week 8 Blog Responding assignment, make sure you check to see what your new group assignment is!

Storybook Stack. As usual at the beginning of the week there are still LOTS of Storybook assignments in the stack. If you turned something in before 4PM on Saturday, you should have comments back from me already. If you turned something in later on Saturday or on Sunday or Monday, 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.

Storybooks this week: Wednesday noon. (repeat announcement) Because this week is shortened, the deadline for getting a Storybook in order to get comments back from me this week is Wednesday at noon. So, if you want comments back before the weekend, make sure you get it turned in by Wednesday at noon, and I'll be sure to get comments to you before the weekend. If you need to turn in a late Week 7 Storybook assignment for partial credit, you can still do that up to Thursday at noon, but you will not get comments back until Monday of next week. So, be warned: if you turn in a Storybook after noon on Wednesday, you will not get comments back until next week.

October 13: Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Monday, October 13, marks the birthday in 1948 of the great Pakistani qawwali singer, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Sadly, he died in 1997, but he left behind an amazing musical career with many beautiful recordings. You can read more about his musical career and legacy in this Wikipedia article. I was lucky enough to hear him perform in 1994, and it was one of the most marvelous concerts I have ever attended. Qawwali is a musical style traditionally associated with Sufism (that should mean something to those of you in World Literature, and also to those of you in Myth-Folklore who read about Rumi back in Week 6). There are some wonderful concert recordings at YouTube - and here is a picture that give you a sense of what his ecstatic concert performances looked like:

Monday, October 12

Today is Monday, and Week 7 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 8 will begin tomorrow, on Tuesday. There are some new announcements related to OU-Texas weekend, so please make sure you read today's announcements: THEY ARE IMPORTANT. Please read them carefully, and if you have any questions, let me know.

Week 8 starts on Tuesday: NEW GROUPS. After the Week 7 grace period expires at noon on Monday, I'm going to be shifting the groups for the second half of the semester! So, when you do the Week 8 Internet Storybook comments assignment (available starting on Tuesday) and when you do the Week 8 Blog Responding assignment (available starting on Thursday, see below), you will see that you have new people in your groups. These will be the groups for the rest of the semester. So, when you do the Week 8 Internet and Week 8 Responding assignments, make sure you check the assignment instructions carefully to see which group you are in now.

Friday Holiday: OU-Texas Weekend. I know that many of you will be out of town for the OU-Texas football game. So, there will be one change to the schedule to accommodate the Friday holiday: the Week 8 Blog Responding assignment will be available starting on Thursday, so that you can finish that assignment before the Friday holiday. Now, that does mean quite a few people probably will have not posted their Week 8 blogs yet, but that is okay: since you have new people in your blog groups this week, that means you will be looking at totally new blogs! So if you are reading some Week 7 posts instead of Week 8 posts, that is fine: there will be plenty of new posts for you to read, from either Week 7 or from Week 8.

Storybooks this week: Wednesday noon. Because this week is shortened, the deadline for getting a Storybook in order to get comments back from me this week is Wednesday at noon. So, if you want comments back before the weekend, make sure you get it turned in by Wednesday at noon, and I'll be sure to get comments to you before the weekend. If you need to turn in a late Week 7 Storybook assignment for partial credit, you can still do that up to Thursday at noon, but you will not get comments back until Monday of next week. So, be warned: if you turn in a Storybook after noon on Wednesday, you will not get comments back until next week.

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 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 be reading and reply to the assignments in the order they were turned in.

October 12: Columbus Day / Día de las Culturas. As you know, today is celebrated as Columbus Day in the U.S. as a federal holiday, but throughout many of the countries in Central America and South America it is designated instead as Día de la Raza (Day of the Race) or Día de las Culturas (Day of the Cultures) to honor all the cultures of the Americas, including those exterminated by the European invasion. If you would like to learn something new today about a nearly-lost Native American tradition, take a look at Cliff's Storybook for World Lit. this semester, which contains legends told by the Tejas Indians - the Indians whose tribal name gives us the name of the state "Texas." Especially if you are planning a trip to Texas this weekend, you might want to take a few minutes and learn something about the Tejas Caddo people who lived there long before the Europeans came. Here is a great story they tell: Why the Woodpecker Pecks, which you can see illustrated in the image below - to find out just what it is you see there in the image, read the story: it is really powerful!

(Why the Woodpecker Pecks image)