Class Procedures and Reminders:
My Schedule Today. I try to save up my out-of-office appointments to do them on the same day, and that day has arrived: I will be out of the office most of the day today, but if you send me an email I will be able to get back to you at the end of the day (for something urgent) or first thing on Wednesday morning.
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 Storybook Introductions this week. You'll find detailed instructions at the Internet assignment page - that assignment is ready to go now, and it 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. I probably will not be reading Storybooks on Tuesday, but I will get back to that when I am in the office again on Wednesday.
The following items are for fun and exploration:
New Tech Tip: For those of you interested in Pinterest, I've added a new tech tip on creating a Pinterest widget for Blogger. Being able to create widgets is one of my favorite Pinterest features!
Writing Resource: Grammar Rock. I grew up on these Grammar Rock cartoons from the early 1970s, and they are still fun to watch — and useful, too. I've collected them all here in a single post; below is my favorite: Conjunction Junction.
Foreign Words in English: Today's foreign word in English is venereal, which comes from the Roman name of the goddess of love, Venus. For details, see this blog post.
Featured Storybook: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Mystery of the Missing River. Sherlock Holmes and his faithful companion Dr. Watson have come to India for some rest and relaxation, but when they find a murdered woman in their rented room, they have no choice but to pursue the mystery which leads them into dangers strangely reminiscent of the events of the Ramayana.
FREE Kindle eBook: The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam as translated by Edward FitzGerald. Here is a link to the book at Amazon, and this blog post provides additional information about the contents of the book. The Persian philosopher Omar Khayyam lived from 1048 to 1131, and is famous not just as a poet but also as an astronomer and mathematician.
Words of Wisdom: Today's proverb poster is First lay the egg, then cackle (an Estonian proverb). Details at the Proverb Lab. In other words, don't boast before the deed is done!
Ramayana Image: Today's Ramayana image shows Hanuman and Rama. Rama is giving Hanuman his ring to take to Sita as a token of recognition.
Tuesday Event on Campus: The African and African-American Studies department presents The African Griot: Al Bostick along with the Essence of Dance Team and the OU Gospel Choir for an afternoon of spoken word, song, and dance starting at 12PM in Physical Sciences 108 (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.
February 18: Nikos Kazantzakis. Today marks the birthday of the Greek poet and novelist, Nikos Kazantzakis, who was born in 1883. You may know him as the author of the book The Last Temptation of Christ — but his special significance for those of you in the Myth-Folklore class is that he wrote a continuation of the Odyssey, a modern epic poem picking up where Homer left off: The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel. You can read more about his life and career in this Wikipedia article. Here is a photograph of the inscription on Kazantzakis's tomb: Δεν ελπίζω τίποτα, δε φοβούμαι τίποτα, είμαι λέφτερος (I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.).
Note: You can page back through older blog posts to see any announcements you might have missed.
