Friday, October 14 - Sunday, October 16

HAPPY WEEKEND! You have reached the end of Week 8! The Week 8 Read and Respond assignment (blog commenting) is available now, and the remaining Week 8 assignments are due on Friday or on Saturday or Sunday - please make sure you get started on those assignments soon. Have a great weekend!

Flexible Storybook Schedule. I'd like to call everybody's attention to the information here about the alternate Storybook schedule. Right now, about one-quarter of the class is either one, two or three weeks off the regular schedule. Being on an alternate schedule is not a problem; you only start to run into real problems if you get four weeks off schedule, and if you become more than five weeks off schedule, things get really serious (you cannot turn in any more Storybook assignments if you are more than five weeks off schedule). So, as the workload gets heavier in your other classes, remember that you can indeed miss a Storybook assignment and go on an alternate schedule; if you have any questions about that, let me know.

Writing - Revising. For those of you on the regular Storybook schedule, you will be adding your second story to your Storybook for Week 8. The pattern of the last four weeks - writing, then revising - will repeat for the next six weeks of the semester. In Week 8, Week 10, and Week 12, you will be adding new stories to your Storybook. In Week 9, Week 11, and Week 13, you will be revising, along with some final revision assignments to complete your project in Week 14 and Week 15. I know that for many of you having to do all this revising is something unfamiliar, since in many university courses there is not a lot of emphasis on revising. By including revision - lots of revision - as part of the writing process, I hope everybody will wind up with something they can be really proud of by the end of the semester!

Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in this week. My goal this week is to return comments to you before the weekend for any assignment submitted before 8AM on Friday. If you want to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here.

Friday Events. An announcement from Mary Stanfield in Myth-Folklore (you can contact her via her Ning profile page): GLBTF, a group for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and LGBT-friendly students at OU, is having an Open Mic Night for Coming Out Week at 8PM on Friday at Second Wind Coffee House (564 Buchanan Avenue) - We'd love to have anyone come out and listen, or share their experiences with coming out/having a loved one come out. Find out more about other events happening on Friday at the Campus Calendar online.

Festival of Sukkot. The Jewish Festival of Sukkot, known as "Feast of the Booths" or "Feast of the Tabernacles" in English, is going on at this time; the week-long festival began this year at sundown on October 12. The word Sukkot in Hebrew is the plural form of the word Sukkah, which means a booth or hut. During the festival, people build special huts in which to celebrate the holiday. You can read more about the Festival of Sukkot at Wikipedia, which is also the source for the image of a festival booth below:

Thursday, October 13

Today is Thursday of WEEK 8 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 7 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that on Thursday morning for partial credit. For those of you in Myth-Folklore, Thursday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Wednesday.

Storybook Stack. If you turned in a Week 7 assignment on time, you should have comments back from me now, although there are still quite a few assignments in the stack - either late Week 7 assignments or early assignments for Week 8, Week 9 and so on. If you want to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. Today, Thursday, at noon is the final deadline for turning in a late Week 7 assignment for partial credit. If you want comments back on a Storybook assignment before the weekend, make sure to get that assignment turned in by Friday at 8AM. I'll try to get to anything turned in by noon on Friday but I've been finding that hard to do - so if you want to be sure to get comments back before the weekend, make sure your Storybook is turned in first thing on Friday morning.

My Thursday Schedule. I will be out of the office for a while today, so I may not be as quick to respond to email as usual. I'll definitely get caught up by the end of the day, though - so if you have a question or problem, please do send the email and I'll get back to you by the end of the day, just not as quickly as I might usually.

Spring Enrollment. (repeat announcement) Enrollment will be starting for Spring classes, and these online classes fill up really quickly. If any of you would like to enroll in MLLL-3043 Myth-Folklore or MLLL-4993 Indian Epics for Spring, please let me know BY NOON TODAY at the latest so that I can save you a space in the class.

Thursday Events on Campus. You can see OU Opera Theatre's The Coronation of Poppea tonight, with showings through the weekend also - and check out the OU Daily article for more information: "'The season’s first opera will highlight the power of love, lust and ambition in Rome during Emperor Nero’s reign,' said professor Bill Ferrara , the director of the show." (time/location/details). Here's an image from the OU Daily article: Amore (top) played by Suzanne Stanley, watches on as Nero (Jonathan Murphy) threatens Drusilla (Kelli Tucci) after the attempted murder of Poppea. (Kingsley Burns/The Daily)

Wednesday, October 12

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.

Congratulations, Bethany! Some of you may have seen Bethany's Storybook in Indian Epics already - yes, it has all four stories in it, all nicely polished and revised... and Bethany has in fact finished the class, too, since she's been working ahead on the other reading and writing assignments as well. Here's her Storybook for anyone who would like to take a look at the first finished Storybook of the semester - it's excellent! Misunderstood Women of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Congratulations, Bethany!

Storybook Stack. There are still quite a few 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 in by 10PM on Sunday, you should have comments back from me already. If you turned something in later on Sunday or 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.

Week 8 Internet assignment. (repeat announcement) The Week 8 Internet assignment is now available. Once again, you will be commenting on the Storybooks that already have at least one STORY available for you to read. Most of the Storybooks do now have at least one story, since many folks who did not publish a story in Week 6 did publish a story for Week 7. Check the assignment instructions for details about how to find your Storybooks to look at for this week!

Spring Enrollment. (repeat announcement) Enrollment will be starting for Spring classes, and these online classes fill up really quickly. If any of you would like to enroll in MLLL-3043 Myth-Folklore or MLLL-4993 Indian Epics for Spring, please let me know by noon this Thursday at the latest so that I can save you a space in the class.

Wednesday Events on Campus. FREE POPCORN from the Union Programming Board in the Union first floor lobby, from 11:30AM to 12:30PM (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Wednesday at the Campus Calendar online.

Sita Sings the Blues. The folks in Indian Epics have now finished up the Ramayana (this week is a review week), and then they will be moving on to the Mahabharata. There are many different versions of the Ramayana, of course, in many languages and styles, in addition to the two books we read in class - including a recent animated film by Nina Paley, called Sita Sings the Blues. You can see a trailer for the film at YouTube, or you can visit the Sita Sings the Blues website - and you can even view the movie online since Nina Paley (a personal hero of mine) has released the film under a Creative Commons license. As she explains at the website: From the shared culture it came, and back into the shared culture it goes.

Tuesday, October 11

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 8 of the class, and I've re-arranged the Quiz area in Desire2Learn so Week 8 is on top. Yes, this means the semester is now about half over! In the Indian Epics class, you have a Ramayana review week before you start the Mahabharata in Week 9. In Myth-Folklore, the choice is Africa or Jamaica. If you have not turned in your Week 7 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit.

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 on Friday afternoon or on Saturday, you should have comments back from me already. If you turned something in on Sunday or Monday, 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.

Week 8 Internet assignment. The Week 8 Internet assignment is now available. Once again, you will be commenting on the Storybooks that already have at least one STORY available for you to read. Most of the Storybooks do now have at least one story, since many folks who did not publish a story in Week 6 did publish a story for Week 7. Check the assignment instructions for details about how to find your Storybooks to look at for this week!

Spring Enrollment. (repeat announcement) Enrollment will be starting for Spring classes, and these online classes fill up really quickly. If any of you would like to enroll in MLLL-3043 Myth-Folklore or MLLL-4993 Indian Epics for Spring, please let me know by noon this Thursday at the latest so that I can save you a space in the class.

Tech Tips. I got caught up on Tech Tip emails on Monday evening - those really tend to pile up during the super-busy weeks as people are getting their Storybooks started! Thanks for your patience with that, and thanks also to those of you who have been doing the tips. It's always fun to go through the pile of Tech Tip emails and see which tips people are interested in trying. So, please keep right on doing that - a point here and there may not look like much, but if you have been doing them all semester, believe me, they add up!

Tuesday Events on Campus. There will be free BINGO in the Union, Crossroads Lounge, from 11:30AM-12:30PM, with prizes provided by the Union Programming Board (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Tuesday at the Campus Calendar online.

October 11: Thich Nhat Hanh. Today marks the birthday in the year 1926 of the Vietnamese writer and Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh. You can read about his life and career in this Wikipedia article. Over 40 of his books have been translated into English, and they are a wonderful way to learn about Buddhism. There is a collection of quotes at Wikiquote, including these words which will certainly resonate for those of you who have been looking at the notion of karma in the Indian Epics class: The present moment contains past and future. The secret of transformation, is in the way we handle this very moment. The photo below comes from Thich Nhat Hanh's website, PlumVillage.org:

Monday, October 10

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.

Spring Enrollment. Enrollment will be starting for Spring classes, and these online classes fill up really quickly. If any of you would like to enroll in MLLL-3043 Myth-Folklore or MLLL-4993 Indian Epics for Spring, please let me know by noon this Thursday at the latest so that I can save you a space in the class.

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 8AM 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. It is really important to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack; during these revision weeks, I have no way of knowing that you have completed the assignment except for the email that you send me.

Writing Center. For those of you who are finding it difficult to proofread your own writing, the Writing Center is the place to go for help. Whether you are struggling with the overall organization of your writing or whether you have questions about writing mechanics (especially punctuation), the tutors at the Writing Center can help. For hours and services, visit the Writing Center website. The Writing Center is there to help with the writing assignments you have in this class, as well as any writing assignments you will have in your other classes, too.

Monday Events on Campus. As part of the Masala World Music Series there will be a concert of Himalayan Folk Music of North India on Monday at 8PM in Sharp Concert Hall in the Catlett Music Center (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Monday at the Campus Calendar online.

October 10: R.K. Narayan. Today, October 10, is the birthday of the Indian novelist R.K. Narayan, who was born in 1906 and who died in 2001. This name is familiar to those of you in the Indian Epics class, since you are reading Narayan's versions of both the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Narayan was one of the most famous Indian novelists who wrote in English, and he was shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Literature more than once, although he did not win the award. You can find out more about Narayan's life and work in this Wikipedia article. The image montage below is from an article celebrating the centenary of Narayan's birth: 100 years of RK Narayan, The Master Storyteller.