Class Procedures and Reminders
Please call me Laura. As you may have noticed, I sign my emails "Laura," and please call me Laura. No need to be formal and call me Dr. Gibbs, and since I'm not a professor, that title is actually not correct (more about that here). Since I'm on a first-name basis with all of you, please do the same and just call me Laura!
Blogs and comments. By the end of the day today, everybody should have their blogs up and running, and you'll be writing several blog posts this week. Then, on Thursday evening, I'll let you know about the blog groups for this week, and you can start commenting on each other's posts. I'll also be commenting on posts, too, although you will be doing most of the blog commenting, with new blog groups each week. I hope you will enjoy getting to know other students in the class this way; it's different than in a usual face-to-face class, and I think it is a lot of fun!
College of Arts & Sciences Online Orientation. You received an email yesterday about a D2L Orientation for online students. Since we are not using D2L for discussions, dropbox, etc. in this class, that CAS D2L Orientation is not important, and you do not need to complete it for this class, but if you are using D2L in any of your other classes, you will probably find it helpful.
The following items are for fun and exploration:
Happiness Jar. Especially for those of you who are starting your last year of college, you might want to make a "Happiness Jar" to keep track of your special year!
Indian Words in English: Today's word from India in English is JUGGERNAUT, from Sanskrit Jagannatha, World-Lord. For details of the fascinating story behind the adoption of this word in English, see this blog post.
Featured Storybook: Ancient Generals: Bragging at Elysian Fields. Alexander the Great awakens to find himself in the Elysian Fields, enjoying the company of the great generals of classical Greece: Themistocles, Leonidas, and Miltiades. The question naturally arises: who is the greatest of them all?
Free Book Online: The Book of Were-Wolves by Sabine Baring-Gould. This blog post provides additional information about the contents of the book, which is an essential 19th-century reference work for werewolf studies.
India Comic Book: Tales of Shiva: The Mighty Lord of Kailasa. This blog post provides additional information about the comic book which is on Reserve in Bizzell Library. You will find three wonderful Shiva stories in this comic book: Shiva and Arjuna, Shiva the Fisherman, and finally Shiva and Markandeya, in which Shiva rescues Markandeya from Yama, the god of death.
Words of Wisdom: Today's proverb poster is One generation plants the trees; another gets the shade (a Chinese proverb). Details at the Proverb Lab. That is something to ponder as you enjoy the shade of a tree on the OU campus!
Today's Video: Shankar Tucker's Hum Loag. I am a big fan of Shankar Tucker (he is a clarinetist who collaborates with many wonderful Indian musicians), and we actually had a back-and-forth on Twitter yesterday... that was VERY exciting for me (the power of Twitter!). I hope you will enjoy this recent video that he made in Mumbai, with people singing, dancing, and just having a good time!
Growth Mindset: Today's growth mindset cat advises: Open your mind with a new perspective. Details at the blog. This cat was inspired by an essay I found on cognitive biases that you can read about there at the blog post.
Event on Campus: There are two 45-minute-long Library Orientation tours today — one at 11AM and one at 4:30PM, no registration required — and I would really urge you to take one of these tours, especially if you have not visited the Library lately; there are some great new spaces and services available (details here). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.
August 25: Walt Kelly. The American cartoonist, Walt Kelly, most famous for his Pogo cartoons, was born on August 25 in 1913, which means he would have been 102 years old today (he died in 1973). You can read about Walt Kelly's life and career in this Wikipedia article. You might be interested to know, for example, that he worked at Disney and contributed to the classic animated films Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia, and Dumbo.The image below is from his Animal Mother Goose book in which he illustrated the traditional Mother Goose nursery rhymes with animal characters (larger version of the image), as here, where "Little Johnny Green" is an alligator, and "Little Johnny Stout" is an elephant!
