Class Procedures and Reminders
My weekend schedule. I try not to do schoolwork on weekends, but I do check my email occasionally — and this weekend I will be checking more often, just in case you have any questions as you finish up the Week 1 Orientation assignments and move on to Week 2! Meanwhile, if you want to be sure I received an assignment you turned in by email, you can check the stack. I'll be updating the stack periodically this weekend also.
Favorite Places Map. Reading the favorite places post last week, I noticed that sometimes more than one person mentioned the same place, so I made up a map of the places people listed — and that way you can find each other if you want to connect! So, just for fun, here you go: Favorite Places, listed alphabetically, with links to the blog posts. These are for the students in both classes combined; you'll be able to tell from the other blog posts who's in which class, Myth-Folklore or India.
Get ahead this weekend! (repeat announcement) This weekend is the absolute best time to get ahead in this class, before things really get busy in your other classes. If you can do some or even all the Week 2 assignments over this weekend, that will give you a cushion of extra time that will make the whole semester much easier to manage.
The following items are for fun and exploration:
Writing Humor: Word Crimes. I'm guessing you all have seen this Weird Al video on TV or at YouTube. It's not really strong on linguistic terminology, but the rhymes are very charming indeed!
Featured Storybook: Paranormal: The Ayodhya Files. Right here, right now, the brothers Rama and Lakshmana are battling demons in Boston and New York, unaware that they are caught up in a thousands-year old battle being fought all over again.
FREE Kindle eBook: Bhagavad-Gita by Edwin Arnold. Here is a link to the book at Amazon, and this blog post provides additional information about the contents of the book. This is the translation of the Gita which Gandhi first read - and yes, he first read the Gita in English!
Words of Wisdom: Today's proverb poster is When one door shuts, another opens (a Scottish proverb). Details at the Proverb Lab. This is a great proverb to remember at those pivotal moments in your life!
Ramayana Image: Today's Ramayana image is Rama as he engages in battle; his weapon of choice is the bow-and-arrow.
Saturday Event in Oklahoma City: The OKC Arts Council Storytelling Festival continues today with events from 9AM through 10PM at the Oklahoma History Center (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.
August 23: Khordad Sal. Today marks the birthday of the prophet Zoroaster, which is a holiday, Khordad Sal, in the Zoroastrian religion (Shensai calendar). Zoroaster is the ancient Greek form of his name; in Persian, he is called Zarathusti, and you might also know him by the name Zarathustra. You can read more about Zoroaster and Zoroastrianism at Wikipedia; although there are not many adherents of this ancient religion in the world today, there are followers of Zoroaster and his teachings who live in India, Iran and Afganistan, and also in the United States. The image below shows the Faravahar symbol, which is one of the central symbols of Zoroastrian iconography, as shown here in a carving from the ancient city of Persepolis:
Note: You can page back through older blog posts to see any announcements you might have missed, and you can check out the Twitter stream for information and fun stuff during the day.
