Friday, October 21 - Sunday, October 23

HAPPY WEEKEND! You have reached the end of Week 9! The Week 9 Read and Respond assignment (blog commenting) is available now, and the remaining Week 9 assignments are due on Friday or on Saturday or Sunday - please make sure you get started on those assignments soon.

Week 9 Internet assignment. (repeat announcement) The Week 9 Internet assignment is available now! For this week's assignments, you will have three free choices - one Storybook you have not visited before, and two you have visited before, all your free choice. Just like last week, there needs to be a new story for you to read - most people already have two stories now at their Storybook, so hopefully you will find a story to read even at the Storybooks you have visited already and which you wanted to re-visit.

October 21: Jack Kerouac. Friday, October 21, marks the death in 1969 of Jack Kerouac, the great American novelist of the "Beat" generation of writers. You can read more about Kerouac's life and career in this Wikipedia article. He is most famous for his novel On the Road, which he wrote in a burst of inspiration during the month of April in 1951. In order to keep pace with his writing style, he taped pieces of paper together in a continuous roll of paper that was 120 feet long which he could then feed into the typewriter without having to stop to put new pages into the typewriter. Just imagine what he could have done with a word processor, eh? The actual roll of paper has been preserved; here is the start of the novel at the top of the roll (click here for a larger view - and you can also see a display of the scroll rolled out):



Storybook Week 9 and Week 10. For the Week 9 Storybook assignment this week, most of you are turning in a revision assignment. Then, for Week 10, you will be turning in a new story. Remember that you do not need my comments on your Week 9 revisions before you start writing your new story - so don't let that hold you up! You can add your next story this weekend, too, if you want. My only request is that you turn in only one Storybook assignment at a time (otherwise, we will both get confused). If you get your next story published, you will have it all ready to turn in as soon as I get comments back to you about your revision assignment.

Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in this week. If you turned in your Week 8 Storybook assignment on time, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned in a late Week 8 assignment, or an early Week 9 or Week 10 assignment, it might still be in the stack. In order to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. I will do my best to get comments back to any assignment that is turned in before 8AM on Friday. If you turn in something after 8AM on Friday, it will go into the stack for Monday.

Grading. For those of you who did not see the Tuesday announcements, check there for information about the number of points remaining the semester so that you can plan out your strategy for the rest of the semester for this class.

Friday Events on Campus. The OU Libraries' Book Sale will be open from 10AM-4PM on the Bizzell Library sidewalk - get there early for the best selection! The sale is open from 10AM-1PM to members of the OU community only; from 1PM-4PM it is open to the general public (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Friday at the Campus Calendar online.

Thursday, October 20

Today is Thursday of WEEK 9 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 8 Storybook assignment yet, you may turn that in BEFORE NOON today 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. I've still got quite a few items left in the Storybook stack. If you turned in an assignment by 9AM on Monday, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in later on Monday, or on Tuesday or Wednesday, your assignment is probably still in the stack, waiting for me to get to it. If you want to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. Also, if you want comments back from me before the weekend, please get any Storybook assignment turned in by 8AM on Friday morning.

Extra Credit. As you make your plan for finishing up the class, remember that extra credit points go straight into your total and can help you either to make up for missed work or to finish the class early. There are some extra credit assignments available each week (like the "Famous Last Words" post), and there are also some extra credit assignments you can do in advance (like the "Technology Tips," which you can do now for Weeks 9-15). Plus, you can get "Early Bird" extra credit points just for working ahead - no extra work, just managing your time so that you are working ahead. For more information about grading and points, see Tuesday's announcements.

Thursday Events on Campus. Kent Stroman, a professional nonprofit fundraising consultant, is offering a free seminar on fundraising strategies for student groups; the seminar will take place from 6PM-8PM in Ellison Hall 132 - and you need to RSVP to afpsooners@ou.edu (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Thursday at the Campus Calendar online.

October 20: Birth of the Bab. Today, October 20, is a holiday in the Bahai religious calendar, celebrating the birthday of the Bab, one of the three central figures in the Bahai tradition. He was born in Iran in 1819, and took the name "Bab" (meaning "Gate") when he announced his claims to be God's messenger in 1944. His radical religious claims were not accepted by the Muslim clergy of the time, and he was executed in 1850. You can read about his life and religious teachings in this detailed Wikipedia article, where you can also read this detailed article about the Bahai faith. The image below shows the Shrine of the Bab which is located in Haifa, Israel:

Wednesday, October 19

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 9 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 8 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 MANY 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 before 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. While you are waiting on comments back from me, you can keep on adding stories to your Storybook (that is a great thing to do, in fact!) - but please only turn in one Storybook assignment at a time; if you have something in the stack now, please don't turn in another assignment until I get that one back to you.

Grading. For those of you who did not see the Tuesday announcements, check there for information about the number of points remaining the semester so that you can plan out your strategy for the rest of the semester for this class.

Wednesday Events on Campus. There will be a seminar on "Note-Taking" in the Housing Learning Center, Adams Tower on Wednesday 2PM-3PM (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Wednesday at the Campus Calendar online.

October 19: Yorktown Day. Today, October 19, is the anniversary of George Washington's victory at the Battle of Yorktown (Virginia) in 1781, the last major battle of the Revolutionary War, which ended with the surrender of the British forces commanded by General Cornwallis. If you are a U.S. history buff, you probably also recognize the "Yorktown" as being famous as the name of a U.S. aircraft carrier which fought and was sunk at the Battle of Midway in WWII. The painting below showing Cornwallis's surrender can be seen in the U.S. Capitol rotunda in Washington:

Tuesday, October 18

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 9 of the class, and I've re-arranged the Quiz area in Desire2Learn so Week 9 is on top. This week's topic is Robin Hood or King Arthur in the Mythology-Folklore class, with the Mahabharata getting started in Indian Epics. If you have not turned in your Week 8 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit.

Week 9 Internet assignment. The Week 9 Internet assignment is available now! For this week's assignments, you will have three free choices - one Storybook you have not visited before, and two you have visited before, all your free choice. Just like last week, there needs to be a new story for you to read - most people already have two stories now at their Storybook, so hopefully you will find a story to read even at the Storybooks you have visited already and which you wanted to re-visit.

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 by Sunday at 3PM, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in later on Sunday or on Monday, it is probably still in the stack. Please check the contents of the stack to to make sure I received your email.

Grading. With the beginning of Week 9, that means there are a total of seven more weeks of the semester (Weeks 9-10-11-12-13-14-15), which means 210 points of regular assignments available, plus extra credit. You may want to start planning now how you want to finish up the class - one person already finished the class already! For a chart that shows you week by week point totals and other information about the grading system, you can consult this Grading Chart page. Many people take these classes just to get the Gen. Ed. credit and just need to pass the class, so it's fine with me if you want to finish the class with a grade of "B" when you get 360 points or "C" when you get 320 points; for an "A" you need 410 points. When you have reached the the points required for the grade you want to take, just let me know. As soon as you get the points you need, you are done - you do not need to do any more of the class assignments

Tuesday Events on Campus. Gregory Lee's Violin Studio will offer a free noon concert in the Sandy Bell Gallery at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Tuesday at the Campus Calendar online.

October 18: Veerappan. Friday, October 18, in 2004 marks the death of Veerappan, the famous Indian bandit and smuggler whose outlaw exploits made him a kind of modern-day "Robin Hood." You can read more about his life and outlaw career in this Wikipedia article. Veerappan was famous for his dramatic moustache, as you can see in this sand sculpture created by Sudarsan Patnaik, an internationally famous sand artist:

Monday, October 17

Week 8 of the class is now over. Monday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of those end-of-week assignments. Week 9 will begin tomorrow - and those assignments are available now if you want to get started.

Storybook stack. As always on Monday, I will have a huge bunch of assignments in the Storybook stack waiting for me to look at. 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 9AM 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 replying to the assignments in the order they were turned in. During a "new story" week, it takes me quite a while to get through the stack, so I would really urge everybody to check the stack to make sure your assignment is there. If you have not turned it in yet, please do that as soon as you can!

After 10 Years of War. SDS and Friends and Friends (FaFs – the Quaker student organization on campus) organized a vigil on the occasion of our 10 years of war in Afghanistan (one of the students organizing the event was someone who took Indian Epics last semester). They have just written that up in a blog post, and you can find there a statement from Stephanie, a student who is the Myth-Folklore class this semester and who is also a member of the Oklahoma Army National Guard, preparing for deployment to Afghanistan. I would really urge everybody to read her statement; thank you, Stephanie! You can contact her if you want via her Ning Profile.

Monday Events on Campus. A Trombone Choir concert - a wide variety of music performed by the trombonists of OU! The free concert is at 8PM in the Sharp Concert Hall (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Monday at the Campus Calendar online.

October 17: Adam Michnik. Today marks the birthday of Adam Michnik, born in 1946, who was a leader of the Polish Solidarity movement and who is now the editor-in-chief of Gazeta Wyborcza, a newspaper which was first published on May 8, 1989, just as Poland began to win its freedom; the motto of the newspaper in Polish is: Nie ma wolności bez Solidarności ("There is no freedom without Solidarity" - in Polish, it rhymes). As some of you know, I used to live in Poland (back in the late 1980s, when Poland was still under communist rule), and Adam Michnik has been a hero of mine for all these decades. Some of his work has been translated into English; his essays on political freedom are brilliant. You can read more about his life and career at Wikipedia. Here is the book cover of his latest collection of essays in English: