Friday, February 18 - Sunday, February 20

HAPPY WEEKEND! You have reached the end of Week 5! The Week 5 Read and Respond assignment (blog commenting) is available now, and so is the Week 5 Internet assignment (Storybook Coverpage commenting). Please make sure you get started on those assignments soon; they are due this weekend.

Storybook Stack. If you turned in a Week 4 Storybook assignment on time, you should have gotten comments back from me now, with points recorded in the Gradebook. If you turned in a late Week 4 Storybook, or an early Storybook for Week 5 or Week 6, it is probably still in the stack. If you turn something in by Friday at noon, my goal is to get comments back to you by the weekend. Because the Introduction is often the hardest part of the Storybook for people to write, this is the week where it takes me the longest to read and reply to everybody's assignments... so, if I don't manage to finish up on Friday, I will get comments back to you on Saturday at the latest.

You really can call me Laura! (repeat announcement) Although I sign my emails to you all as Laura, some of you still seem to feel like you need to call me Professor or Dr. or something fancy. No need! Since I'm on a first-name basis with all of you, please do the same and just call me Laura.

Internet assignment - Ning Comment Wall. (repeat announcement) If you did not read the previous announcement about the Week 5 Internet assignment and the Ning Comment Walls, make sure you take a look at those announcements now - and you can even get extra credit for making your Comment Wall ready for visitors, both by making some more room on your Ning page, and also by adding a YouTube video to your page if you want, just for fun!

GoogleSites Tips. (repeat announcement) For the Week 5 Storybook assignment, you will be publishing your Introduction at your Storybook website. Here are some tips you might want to look at as you continue to work on the layout and design of your Storybook site: image size and placement - choosing a design template - site navigation options - site titles and page titles (which also includes instructions for how to suppress the site search and site map options if you want to "de-clutter" your pages).

MONDAY: Multilingual Poetry Cafe. Here's an announcement from Elizabeth Rucker... Love languages? Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Adams RSA, and the Adams Faculty-in-Residence are hosting Speak Up! The Multilingual Poetry Cafe MONDAY, February 21st at 7 pm at the Adams Faculty-in-Residence apartment (Adams Center, 1st floor). We'd love to see every language represented so bring your favorite poems, songs, and raps to share! Homemade cookies and lemonade will be provided! See the poster for more information - and if you have a campus event you want me to announce to the class, just let me know.

This Weekend: Roman Comedy. University Theater and School of Musical Theater "kick off" the spring season with the Tony Award-winning musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Show opens 8pm, Friday, Feb. 18 in the Rupel J. Jones Theatre; click here for more information about tickets and times. The show runs through February 27.

Thursday, February 17

Today is Thursday of WEEK 5 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 4 Storybook assignment yet, you have until noon on Thursday to turn that in 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.

GoogleSites Tips. For the Week 5 Storybook assignment, you will be publishing your Introduction at your Storybook website. Here are some tips you might want to look at as you continue to work on the layout and design of your Storybook site: image size and placement - choosing a design template - site navigation options - site titles and page titles (which also includes instructions for how to suppress the site search and site map options if you want to "de-clutter" your pages).

Internet assignment - Ning Comment Wall. If you did not read the previous announcement about the Week 5 Internet assignment and the Ning Comment Walls, make sure you take a look at those announcements now - and you can even get extra credit for making your Comment Wall ready for visitors, both by making some more room on your Ning page, and also by adding a YouTube video to your page if you want, just for fun!

Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the large stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in. If you turned in an assignment on Sunday, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, it is probably still in the stack, waiting for me to get to it - you can check and make sure I have your assignment by looking at the contents of the stack here. I will do my best to respond to everything in stack before the weekend, but sometimes during this week I end up doing schoolwork on Saturday because it is the very busiest week of the semester for me - we'll see how it works out this semester! I'll do my best to get everything returned before the weekend and, if not, then on Saturday at the latest.

February 17: Loreena McKennit. Today marks the birthday in 1957 of the Canadian musician Loreena McKennit. Happy birthday, Loreena! In the spirit of myth and folklore, Loreena has done wonderful work with traditional ballads and melodies from Celtic and Middle Eastern traditions and has created a distinctive wonderful style all her own. You can read about her work and career in this Wikipedia article, and you can listen to her MARVELOUS rendition of the traditional ballad, The Highwayman, here at YouTube.com.

Wednesday, February 16

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 5 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 4 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.

Week 5 Internet assignment. If you did not read yesterday's announcements, make sure you take a look at them now, especially the information about the Week 5 Internet assignment. I hope you will have fun looking at other people's coverpages. Plus, you might get some ideas for things you want to try with your own coverpage!

Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the large stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in. If you turned in an assignment by Sunday at 7PM, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in after 7PM on Sunday or on Monday or Tuesday, 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.

Writing Center and Grammar Review. For your Storybook assignments, you are expected to turn in a formal piece of writing, with correct English usage, spelling, and punctuation. If you would like some extra help with that, make a visit to the Writing Center where you can get free assistance. Whether you need a refresher course on English punctuation or some help in learning how to proofread your own work, the Writing Center is the place to go! For hours and services, visit the Writing Center website. You can also work on specific problem areas (commas, apostrophes, and run-on sentences are the most common problems people have) by reviewing these topics and then taking some extra credit Grammar Quizzes.

February 16: Christopher Eccleston. As some of you know I am a Doctor Who fan (fanatic), and today, February 16, is the birthday of Christopher Eccleston, who is my favorite of the Doctors; he was the Ninth Doctor in the 2005 season of the series. For those of you who have never watched Doctor Who, you can get it at Netflix - instant download! I've been watching Doctor Who literally all my life - the series began all the way back in 1963. You can find out more in this Doctor Who article at Wikipedia; the image below shows the Doctor and his time-traveling spaceship (it just looks like a police call-box) named the TARDIS:

Tuesday, February 15

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 5 of the class, and I've re-arranged the Quiz area in Desire2Learn so Week 5 is on top. This week's topic in the Myth-Folklore class is Rome, while those of you in World Literature will be reading the Hindu Hitopadesha - and in Indian Epics, Rama is about to begin his exile from Ayodhya. The Week 5 Internet assignment is available starting today! If you have not turned in your Week 4 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit.

Week 5 Internet assignment available NOW. For the next eight weeks (Week 5 through Week 12), your Internet assignment will consist of reading people's Storybooks and leaving comments for them. This is an assignment that you cannot do early - but on the first day of each new week in the class, that is, on Tuesday, the Internet assignment becomes available, and you have the rest of the week to complete it. So, today, Tuesday, is the first day of Week 5, and the Internet assignment for Week 5 is available. I hope you will enjoy looking at other people's coverpages and giving them some feedback!

The Ning Comment Wall. People will be leaving comments about your Storybook at the Ning Comment Wall which is part of your Profile page. In order to get your Profile page ready, I would strongly suggest that you make the latest activity and blog activity invisible, so that there will be more room on your Profile page for the Comment Wall. There is a Technology Tip so you can get extra credit for cleaning up your Ning Profile in order to make room for all the activity that will now start happening at your Comment Wall.

Storybook Stack. The Storybook stack is HUGE this week. If you turned in an assignment on FRIDAY, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in on Saturday, Sunday or Monday, 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. A word of warning: based on previous semesters, I can tell you that this is always the busiest week of the semester for me. I promise that if you turned it your assignment in on time, I will get comments back to you on or before Friday! If you turned something in on Monday or later, you may not get comments back from me until this coming Saturday, depending on how the week goes - but I will get comments back to you by the very latest on Saturday.

February 15: Matt Groening. Today is the birthday of Matt Groening, who was born on February 15 in 1954. Groening is best known for being the creator of The Simpsons... but before there was Bart Simpson, there was "Life in Hell" and the rabbits! The "Life in Hell" cartoons are truly brilliant and were a staple of my undergraduate college life - you can read about them here in this Wikipedia article. Below is one of the panels from the "School is Hell" series - click for a larger view. Happy Birthday, Matt Groening!

Monday, February 14

Today is Monday. Week 4 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 5 will begin tomorrow - and those assignments are available now if you want to get started!

You really can call me Laura! Although I sign my emails to you all as Laura, some of you still seem to feel like you need to call me Professor or Dr. or something like that. No need for that, really! Since I'm on a first-name basis with all of you, please do the same and just call me Laura. :-)

Storybook Coverpages. I'll be updating the list of Storybook websites for Myth-Folklore, World Literature and Indian Epics on Monday afternoon. You can continue to experiment with your coverpage design all semester long, of course - just make sure the address of the page stays the same. Everybody in class will be using the link you have sent me to access your Storybook for the rest of the semester. Starting tomorrow, Tuesday, for the Week 5 Internet assignment you will be looking at and commenting on each other's Storybooks via the class list. I'll have more to say about that in tomorrow's announcements!

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. You can then 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, beginning with the assignments turned in on Friday or Saturday. If you turned in your assignment on Sunday or later, you may have to wait a few days before you will get comments back from me.

Valentine's Day: Green M&M Legend. In honor of Valentine's Day, I decided to look for a Valentine's Day Legend from Snopes.com. Here is what I found: in 2008, the Mars Candy Company promoted the distribution of packages of all-green M&M candies because the green candies are supposedly an aphrodisiac - true or false??? Well, it is true that Mars promoted the green candies for Valentine's Day that year, but as to whether the green M&Ms really are an aphrodisiac, Snopes.com is not saying! Other legends about the candy colors are as follows: orange M&Ms are good luck, brown ones are bad luck, and if you get a red one last out of the bag, you should make a wish and it will come true. As for the green M&Ms being an aphrodisiac, no one is quite sure how this rumor got started - but it has been circulating since the 1970s! Happy Valentine's Day!