Class Procedures and Reminders
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, turn your Storybook in today or on Sunday morning. If you wait until Sunday evening, you will be farther down in the stack, and that means you will have to wait longer for my comments back to you.
Pinterest and Twitter. For those of you interested in a different (and fun, I hope!) type of extra credit, you might want to try the Pinterest/Twitter option. I've expanded the Pinterest Directory, so there is lots for you to browse through and enjoy, and there's lots to browse through in the Twitter stream from the past several weeks also. In addition, Pinterest can be a very useful tool when you are doing research for your Storybook project: it's a bookmarking tool that is especially good for keeping track of images.
Working Ahead. For those of you who find yourselves doing the work for this class at the last minute and really scrambling as a result, I would urge you to work ahead this weekend, even if it means just getting a day or two ahead of the due dates. For example, if you can do the reading for Week 4 this weekend, you will find that the week will be so much easier to manage!
Writing Advice: Revision. As writers, we are lucky to have the opportunity to revise our writing, and then revise it again, and again... unlike, say, a brain surgeon!
Indian Words in English: Today's Indian word in English is TANK, which comes to English from Gujarati. And yes, the English word "tank" in the sense of a military vehicle ultimately comes from "tank" in the sense of a pool or water reservoir. For details, see this blog post.
Featured Storybook: The Thin Line Between Tragedy and Comedy. In this "choose-your-own-adventure" Storybook, you get to decide the fates of Romeo and Juliet. Can they escape the doom that Shakespeare imagined for them? And will that simply lead to another tragic ending, or perhaps to a happily-ever-after ending worthy of a comedy? (This Storybook is by Taylor Marie who is in Indian Epics now, so we'll get to see another Storybook from her this semester!)
FREE Kindle eBook: The Arabian Nights by Andrew Lang. 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 source for the Arabian Nights unit in Myth-Folklore next week, and also for the Voyages of Sindbad.
Words of Wisdom: Today's proverb poster is Beware of Greeks bearing gifts (an English proverb). Details at the Proverb Lab. The saying, adapted from the words of Vergil's Aeneid, alludes to the Trojan horse; the Trojans did not listen to the words of warning and, by taking the Greek "gift" (the wooden horse) into their city, they brought about the destruction of Troy.
Ramayana Image: Today's Ramayana image shows Rama and Ravana engaged in battle.
Saturday Event on Campus: There will be a matinee showing of Maleficent at 3PM in Meacham (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.
September 6: Robert Pirsig. September 6, marks the birthday of Robert Pirsig, who was born in 1928 and who is still with us today: Happy birthday, Robert Pirsig! Pirsig is the author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I first read this book when I was 16 years old and I've read it again pretty much every year or every other year since then — so, yep, that's about thirty times by now. This is the only book I don't think I will ever catch up with: every time I come back to it, it seems a little more far out, in the best sense of that phrase, and I keep running right on after it, learning new things every time. The novel itself is about a motorcycle journey that Pirsig took across the country in 1968 together with his young son, Chris. Below is a picture from the trip showing the two of them on the bike; you can learn more about Pirsig in this Wikipedia article.
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.
