Friday, October 28 - Sunday, October 30

HAPPY WEEKEND! You have reached the end of Week 10! The Week 10 Read and Respond assignment (blog commenting) is available now, and the remaining Week 10 assignments are due on Friday or on Saturday or Sunday - please make sure you get started on those assignments soon.

HALLOWEEN. Although it is not Halloween until Monday, there are some extra credit options for the Internet assignment this weekend - and one of those options includes a list of Halloween-themed Storybooks, which is to say, Storybooks about ghosts, demons and devils, witches, magic, etc. Enjoy!

NEW RESPONDING GROUPS. The blog responding groups have been shuffled around this week, so you should find some new people to read and respond to when you do the blog responding assignment for Week 10. If somehow I've accidentally left anybody off the list, please let me know. This is done completely at random, so you may be with someone you have been in a group with before, or you may have all new people - that is the magic of randomness!

Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in. I've read and replied to all the Week 9 assignments turned in on time, but if you turned in a late Week 9 assignment, or an early assignment for Week 10, 11 or 12, it may still be in the stack. My goal is to get comments back to everyone by the end of the day Friday for assignments turned in before Friday at 8AM. If you want to check and make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here.

Friday Events on Campus. There will be FREE screenings of the final Harry Potter film, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2" on Friday at 6PM, 9PM and MIDNIGHT in Meacham Auditorium (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Friday at the Campus Calendar online.




Thursday, October 27

Today is Thursday of WEEK 10 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 9 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that UNTIL 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.

My Thursday schedule. I try to schedule my out-of-office commitments on Wednesday or Thursday. This week, I am going to be out of the office for part of the day on Thursday. That means I may be a bit more slow to respond to your emails today than on the other days of the week - but if you send me an email during the day today, I'll definitely get back to you by the end of the day.

Storybook Stack. There are still some items in the Storybook stack. If you turned your Week 9 Storybook in on Sunday, you should have comments back from me; if you turned something in on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday, it is probably still in the stack. You can check to make sure you assignment is in the stack here. If you want comments back from me by the weekend, please get your Storybook assignment turned in by Friday at 8AM so that I can get comments back to you on Friday afternoon.

Finishing up the class: Storybooks. (repeat announcement) As I've mentioned before, there is no absolute requirement about the number of stories in a finished Storybook, and based on your strategy for getting your points in the class, you can finish your Storybook when it has two stories or three stories or four stories - it is up to you! The Week 14 and Week 15 Storybook assignments are final revisions, so if you are stopping with just three stories, for example, you can skip Week 12 and Week 13 (the fourth story assignments) and go straight to the final revision assignments for your Storybook. So, you would turn in Week 10 (third story), Week 11 (third story revisions), and then the Week 14 and Week 15 final revision assignments.

Week 10 Internet assignment: Extra credit option. (repeat announcement) The Week 10 Internet assignment is available now and, in addition to the usual assignment of reading three Storybooks and commenting on them, there is an additional "extra credit" option where you can read three more Storybooks and comment on them for an additional 6 points. I hope you will have fun with that - the extra credit option is something you can use to visit Storybooks from the other class and/or visit some Storybooks for Halloween! :-)

Thursday Events on Campus. John Abney will be performing in the Union Food Court at noon as part of the "Mid-Day Music" series (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Thursday at the Campus Calendar online.

October 27: Birthday of Erasmus. Today marks the birthday in the year 1466 of the Desiderius Erasmus, one of the greatest scholars of the Renaissance (some sources give October 28 instead as his date of birth). You can read about Erasmus's remarkable life and career in this Wikipedia article. Of all the great thinkers and scholars in the history of the world, Erasmus is a personal hero of mine. One of his books in particular has been very important in my own life - a huge collection of thousands and thousands of Latin proverbs, with little essays about each one, called the Adagia. Erasmus is also one of the most important figures in the history of critical editions of the Bible in Greek and in Latin. Below is a famous portrait of Erasmus by Hans Holbein the Younger; along the edge of the book facing the viewer the letters read "The Labors of Heracles" in Greek (ΗΡΑΚΛΕΙΟΙ ΠΟΝΟΙ = HERAKLEIOI PONOI), alluding to the amazing feats which Erasmus accomplished in his life as a scholar.

Wednesday, October 26

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 10 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 9 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 10 Internet assignment: Extra credit option. (repeat announcement) The Week 10 Internet assignment is available now and, in addition to the usual assignment of reading three Storybooks and commenting on them, there is an additional "extra credit" option where you can read three more Storybooks and comment on them for an additional 6 points. I hope you will have fun with that - the extra credit option is something you can use to visit Storybooks from the other class and/or visit some Storybooks for Halloween! :-)

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 9PM 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 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, see Tuesday's announcements for additional information about finishing up your Storybook with three stories if you want to do that.

Wednesday Events on Campus. The University Theater production of Sunday in the Park with George (a Stephen Sondheim musical) is showing tonight in Holmberg Hall at 8PM with additional shows through this weekend. (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Wednesday at the Campus Calendar online.

Diwali 2011
. One of the most important festivals in the Hindu calendar is Diwali, also known as the "Festival of Lights." The festival takes place over a five-day period, and you can read about all the stories and legends associated with each day of the festival in this Wikipedia article. The word Diwali is a contraction of "Deepavali," which means "row of lamps," and one of the Diwali rituals is the lighting of candles and lamps to symbolize the triumph of good over evil. Those of you in the Indian Epics class might be interested to know that the lighting of these lamps is also associated with the lamps that were lit for Rama in honor of his having defeated Ravana and returning to his kingdom after his years of exile. The image below shows a Divali festival in Chandigarh, India:

Tuesday, October 25

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 10 of the class, and I've re-arranged the Quiz area in Desire2Learn so Week 10 is on top. This week's topic is fairy tales in Myth-Folklore and in Indian Epics you're finishing up Narayan's Mahabharata. Note: If you have not turned in your Week 9 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit.

Week 10 Internet assignment: Extra credit option. The Week 10 Internet assignment is available now and in addition to the usual assignment of reading three Storybooks and commenting on them, there is an additional "extra credit" option where you can read three more Storybooks and comment on them for an additional 6 points. I hope you will have fun with that - the extra credit option is something you can use to visit Storybooks from the other class and/or visit some Storybooks for Halloween! :-)

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

Finishing up the class: Storybooks. As I've mentioned before, there is no absolute requirement about the number of stories in a finished Storybook, and based on your strategy for getting your points in the class, you can finish your Storybook when it has two stories or three stories or four stories - it is up to you! The Week 14 and Week 15 Storybook assignments are final revisions, so if you are stopping with just three stories, for example, you can skip Week 12 and Week 13 (the fourth story assignments) and go straight to the final revision assignments for your Storybook. So, you would turn in Week 10 (third story), Week 11 (third story revisions), and then the Week 14 and Week 15 final revision assignments.

Tuesday Events on Campus. An announcement from Whitney in Indian Epics: A Stonewall Teach-In, hosted by LGBTQ Advisory Board, will take place on Tuesday, October 25th at 6PM in the Heritage Room OMU. Learn about the history of the Stonewall Riots with a film screening and panel discussion. Free food too! (contact Whitney via her Ning Profile for more info). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Tuesday at the Campus Calendar online.

October 25: Picasso. Today, October 25, marks the birthday in 1881 of the artist Pablo Picasso, who died in 1973. You can read about his life and career in this Wikipedia article. In addition to being a painter, Picasso was also a sculptor; the image below shows a sculpture called "Head of a Woman," cast by Picasso, which is on the Princeton University campus:

Monday, October 24

Today is Monday. Week 9 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 10 will begin tomorrow - and those assignments are available now if you want to get a head start!

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. 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; please check to make sure that I received your assignment!

Writing Center. In addition to the writing you are doing for this class, you are probably now working on end-of-semester writing projects in your other classes, too. Whether you are struggling with the overall organization of your writing or whether you have questions about writing mechanics (especially punctuation), or even if you just need some tips on how to proofread your work, the tutors at the Writing Center can help. For hours and services, visit the Writing Center website. Everyone can benefit from an extra pair of eyes, and the writing tutors are there to help you improve your writing, at any level and for any class you are taking. They won't do your proofreading for you, but they will help you learn to do a better job with that on your own.

Monday Events on Campus. There will be a noon concert featuring Thomas Glenn in the Union Food Court (time/location/details). Find out more about this event and other events happening on Monday at the Campus Calendar online.

Friday, October 24: United Nations Day. Each year, October 24 is "United Nations Day," commemorating the signing of the United Nations Charter on October 24, 1945. In announcing the observance of United Nations Day in 2008, Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the U.N., proclaimed, "The United Nations must deliver results for a safer, healthier, more prosperous world. On this UN Day, I call on all partners and leaders to do their part and keep the promise." You can read more about the United Nations in this Wikipedia article, and at the United Nations website, un.org. The image below shows the flags of many countries flying outside U.N. headquarters in New York City: