Friday, Feb. 24 - Sunday, Feb. 26

HAPPY WEEKEND! You have reached the end of Week 6! The Week 6 Read and Respond assignment (blog commenting) is available now, and so is the Week 6 Internet assignment (Storybook commenting), along with the remaining Week 6 assignments that are due on Friday or on Saturday or Sunday - please make sure you get started on those assignments soon. Friday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Thursday.

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 select the content being automatically displayed on your page so that way there will be more room for the Comment Wall. There is a Technology Tip for cleaning up your Ning Profile in order to get the page really ready for visitors.

Storybook Stack. I still have a few items in the stack as of Friday morning. My goal is always to get every Storybook returned before the weekend that is turned in to me before 8AM on Friday. For those of you who would like to get comments back sooner rather than later on your Storybook assignment, turn your work in on Friday or on Saturday - don't wait until Sunday! If you wait and turn your assignment in on Sunday, you will have to wait longer to get comments back.

Friday Events on Campus. The Spring Bedlam Blood Battle blood drive will be happening from 11:30AM - 5PM at tne OU ROTC Armory on W. Brooks Street (time/location/details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

February 24: Wilhelm Grimm. Today, February 24, marks the birthday of the German scholar Wilhelm Grimm in the year 1786. Wilhelm Grimm was the younger of the famous "Brothers" Grimm; his older brother Jacob was born just one year yearlier, 1785. You can read learn more about the Brothers Grimm and their fairy tales and folktales in the Week 10 unit of the Myth-Folklore class; the image below is a portrait of the two brothers:

Thursday, February 23

Today is Thursday of WEEK 6 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 5 Storybook assignment yet, you may turn that in on Thursday morning for partial credit. Thursday morning, until noon, is also the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Wednesday.

Commenting on Storybooks. 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 is 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.

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 an assignment in on Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday, your assignment 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. Friday at 8AM is the deadline if you want to get comments back from me about your Storybook before the weekend.

Thursday Events on Campus. The World Literature Today Book Club will meet at noon in the 105 Monnet Hall to discuss The Bog of Cats, a play by Marina Carr. Lunch will be provided. Copies of the play are available in the WLT office at 110 Monnet Hall. Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

February 23: Majel Barrett Roddenberry. As a lifelong fan of Star Trek in all its incarnations, I am also a fan of Majel Barrett in all her Star Trek roles - and today, February 23, is Majel Barrett's birthday. She was born in 1932 and died in 2008; her husband, Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, died in 1991 - and sometime this year, in 2012, their ashes are scheduled to be launched into deep space. Majel Barrett provided the voice of the computer for Star Trek: The Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager, and she also played Nurse Chapel in the original series and Lwaxana Troi in Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. Here's a picture of her from back in the Nurse Chapel days, along with the rest of the cast of the original series:

Wednesday, February 22

Today is Wednesday of WEEK 6 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 5 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. I'm still working my way through the large stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in. If you turned in an assignment before 5PM on Sunday, you should have comments back from me now. If you turned something in later on Sunday or on Monday or Tuesday, your assignment is probably still in the stack, waiting for me to get to it. You can check to make sure your assignment is in the stack; here are the contents of the stack.

Week 6 Internet assignment. If you did not read yesterday's announcement about the Week 6 Internet assignment (reading and commenting on Storybook Introductions), please make sure to take a look at that - the assignment is available now!

Working ahead. In this class, unlike in traditional classroom-based classes, you have a lot of options for scheduling your work and managing your time, including the option to to work ahead - and I would really urge you to do that in order to reduce the stress and make better use of your time. If you can just work a day or two ahead, you can save yourself the stress and anxiety of trying to do the work for this class while watching the clock ticking. By working a week ahead, you can get extra credit just for working ahead, and also have the luxury of taking a week off in this class when things get busy in your other classes. Click here for some more good reasons for working ahead in this class!

Wednesday Events on Campus. As part of the Ruggles Native American Music Series there will be a performance of Five Native Flutists from Oklahoma, 8PM in the Sharp Concert Hall of Catlett Music Center. The performers will be Terry Tsotigh (Kiowa), Tommy Wildcat (Cherokee), Thoma Mauchahty-Ware III (Kiowa-Comanche), Calvert Nevaquaya (Comanche) and Timothy Nevaquaya (Comanche). Tickets are $5 for students (time/location/details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

February 22: Rashi. Today marks the birthday in the year 1040 of the great French rabbi Rashi, who wrote one of the most important commentaries on the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible. His name, Rashi, is an acronom: his actual name was Shlomo Yitzhaki, so from his name and title, Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki, we get the nickname R-SH-I (it's kind of like the way we use JFK or LBJ to refer to John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson). You can read about his career in this detailed Wikipedia article. The image below comes from The Rothschild Miscellany, an illuminated manuscript from the Middle Ages that contains Rashi's commentary on the Biblical Book of Proverbs; the image show King Solomon, the putative author of Proverbs, expounding their meaning:

Tuesday, February 21

Today is Tuesday of WEEK 6 of the class, and I've re-arranged the Quiz area in Desire2Learn so Week 6 is on top. This week's topic is the Middle East in Myth-Folklore, and in Indian Epics, Hanuman is on his way to Lanka! If you have not turned in your Week 5 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit.

Week 6 Internet assignment available NOW. Now that Week 6 has begun, the Week 6 Internet assignment is also available. You will be reading and commenting on four different Introductions this week. You'll find detailed instructions at the Internet assignment page - that assignment is ready to go now, and will be available all week.

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 later on Sunday or Monday, 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. It is really important that you check to make sure your assignment is in the stack. Every week, it seems that at least one email is mysteriously gobbled up by the OU email system (either an email from you to me or from me to you) - and the sooner you can let me know about that, the better!

Tuesday Events on Campus. There will be a classical guitar performance by Christina Auda as part of the A&S Focus Week; come listen at 11AM in 230 Kaufman Hall (time/location/details). There are actually quite a few free musical performances happening around campus at various times today! Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

February 21: Mardi Gras. Last Thursday, I mentioned the holiday of "Fat Thursday" which comes before Lent, and today is the more famous holiday of "Fat Tuesday," or Mardi Gras in French, a traditional time of celebration before the Lenten fast begins on Ash Wednesday. You can read about the holiday of Mardi Gras in Wikipedia and for a great mixture of Mardi Gras and mythology, I highly recommend the Brazilian film Black Orpheus, which is set in Rio during the extravagant Mardi Gras Carnival which is held there every year:

Here is a scene from the movie, courtesy of YouTube:

Monday, February 20

Today is Monday, and Week 5 of the class is now over - and that means you have completed one-third of the semester. Wow! Week 6 will begin tomorrow - and those assignments are available now if you want to get started. Monday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Friday/Saturday/Sunday.

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 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, beginning with the assignments turned in on Friday afternoon or on Saturday. You need to wait on my comments to any Storybook assignment you have in the stack before going on to the next assignment - so, if you want comments earlier rather than later, turn your assignment in on Friday or Saturday instead of waiting until Sunday. Usually around 60 people or so turn their assignments in on Sunday, so it takes me a while to get through them all!

Tech Tip Emails. This week I should have time to reply to the big pile of Tech Tip emails that has accumulated over the past two weeks. It often takes me a week or two (or more) to get around to replying to those emails, but please don't let that hold you back - you can keep on doing Tech Tips for Week 6 and 7 and 8 and all the way through Week 15 if you want; you don't need to wait for a reply from me before going on to do another tip.

Monday Events on Campus. There will be a lecture by Robert Lemon on "The Viennese Cafe: Austrian Coffee" examining the role of coffee in society; the lecture is part of the A&S Focus Week and will take place at 2PM on Monday in 230 Kaufman Hall (time/location/details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

February 20: Maha Shivratri. This year, the festival of "The Great Night of Shiva" falls on February 20, the moonless day of the month (since the festival is based on the lunar calendar, it moves from year to year). You can read more about the Maha Shivratri festival at this Wikipedia article and at the MahaShivratri.og website. In particular, the festival marks the occasion of Shiva's great cosmic dance. You can read about the great dance of Shiva in this article online, Shiva, Lord of the Dance, which is also the source for the image below: