Class Procedures and Reminders:
D2L Sunday Morning Outage. There will be a Desire2Learn outage today, Sunday, from 6AM until noon. I'll be checking to make sure that D2L is back online in the afternoon. You should be able to do your Declarations on Sunday afternoon or evening with no problem (and there will be the Monday morning grace period as usual also).
Storybook Stack. I don't update the Storybook stack as often on the weekends, but you can check there to make sure I received your assignment; I'll update it at least once or twice over the weekend. If you want comments back on your assignment sooner rather than later, don't wait until Sunday evening. If you wait until Sunday evening or the Monday grace period (or even later), you will be farther down in the stack and will have to wait longer for my comments back to you.
Storybook Schedule. As you decide just how you want to finish up the semester, here is a general guideline to keep in mind: if you want to have four stories total in your Storybook, you must turn in your third story this week, Week 11 (if you have not turned it in already). If, however, you are going to finish up with just three stories total in your Storybook, you can turn in that third story this week, or in Week 12 or 13, based on what works best for you.
The following items are for fun and exploration:
Featured Tech Tip: Google Translate. Although the results are far from perfect (and sometimes are incredibly funny), Google Translator is a way to cope with a webpage (or any other digital text) you want to read in a foreign language.
Featured Storybook: Tales from the Love Gods: Cupid and Kamadeva. This Storybook from last year features the Roman and Hindu gods of love, sharing stories of their successes and failures.
FREE Kindle eBook: Mahabharata, Vol 1-3 translated by K.M. Ganguli. Here is a link to the book at Amazon, and this blog post provides additional information about the contents of the book. If you want to read a literal, unabridged translation of the Sanskrit text, you can read Ganguli's version. This book contains the first three parvas: Adi Parva, Sabha Parva, and Vana Parva. The Vana Parva is the "Book of the Forest" and covers the twelve-year exile of the Pandavas, including the many stories they heard while in the forest, including the story of Nala and Damayanti.
Words of Wisdom: Today's proverb poster is An untouched drum does not speak (a Liberian proverb). Details at the Proverb Lab. So, if you have a drum - real or metaphorical - let your drum speak!
Mahabharata Image: Today's Mahabharata image is the Pandavas in Drupada's Court. King Drupada is the father of the Pandavas' bride, Draupadi.
Diwali 2013. 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, starting this year on Sunday, November 3. 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. Coming up on Saturday, November 9: Indian Student Association's Diwali Night; tickets will be on sale at a booth in the Union Monday-Friday from 11AM to 1PM. More about that in future announcements!
Note: You can page back through older blog posts to see any announcements you might have missed.
