Commenting on Storybooks. (repeat announcement) Every week from now through Week 12 of the semester, you will be commenting on people's writing at their Storybooks. During these weeks as you comment on people's Storybooks, please provide as much detailed, specific feedback as possible! It's nice to get compliments, but it is also really good to get feedback about what things could be improved, especially now, early in the semester. So, do not hesitate to say when something is confusing, or when something seems repetitious, or if you think something important is missing. Every semester, students tell me that they wish they had received more detailed feedback on their Storybooks, rather than just generic compliments. So, try to be a really careful and attentive reader of each Storybook you visit, providing detailed, useful feedback in your comments, describing your own specific, personal experience as you read the Storybook.
The Ning Comment Wall. (repeat announcement) As you saw last week, people will now be leaving comments about your Storybook at the Ning Comment Wall which is part of your Ning Profile page. It would be great if you make the latest activity and blog activity invisible, so that way there will be more room on your Profile page for the Comment Wall. There is a Technology Tip for cleaning up your Ning Profile in order to get things all spiffed up and ready for visitors.
Storybook Stack. If you turned in a Week 5 Storybook assignment on time, you should now have comments back from me. There are still some late Week 5 and early Week 6-7-8-etc. Storybook assignments in the stack as of Friday morning. My goal is always to get every Storybook returned before the weekend that is turned in before noon on Friday. If you turn something in after noon on Friday, it will go to the top of the stack on Monday morning. For those of you who would like to get comments back sooner rather than later on your Storybook assignment, turn it in on Friday or on Saturday - don't wait until Sunday!
Weekend Events on Campus. Katlin, in Myth-Folklore, asked me to share an announcement: On Saturday my sorority, Alpha Sigma Kappa, is going to be having a bake sale at Kirkpatrick Manor at the corner of Cruce and Lahoma. We are going to donate the money raised to the Joplin Disaster Relief. We will start on Saturday at 2PM and go until 6PM. (for more information, contact Katlin via her Ning page). Find out more about this event and other events happening over the weekend at the Campus Calendar online.
Sunday, October 2: Birthday of Gandhi. The great Indian spiritual and political leader, Mohandas Gandhi, was born on October 2, 1869, over 140 years ago. On January 30 in 1948, after having led the fight for India's independence from the British Empire, Gandhi was assassinated. The image below shows the memorial in New Delhi where Gandhi's body was cremated. Written on the stone you can see what were reportedly Gandhi's last words: "Hey Ram" (Oh Rama!) - his invocation of the god Rama will definitely mean something to the students in the Indian Epics class. Although it is a matter of some controversy as to whether those were Gandhi's last words, here is something he wrote in December 1947, just weeks before his assassination: "In the end it will be as Rama commands me. Thus I dance as He pulls the strings. I am in His hands and so I am experiencing ineffable peace." If you look closely at the photograph, you will see the words "Hey Ram" written in Devanagari script, gold letters on the black stone, just behind the burning stick of incense:
