Monday, November 30

Today is Monday. Week 13 is now over... and Week 14 has begun. Monday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you did not finish the final Week 13 assignments. This week is the last week of reading in class, so I hope you will enjoy your choices!

Class Procedures and Reminders

Project stack. I'm sure there will be a big bunch of assignments in the stack that were turned in over the holiday break. So, the first thing I will do on Monday morning when I get to work is to update the list of items in the stack. Then you will be able to check the contents of the stack to make sure I received your assignment, and I'll be replying to the assignments in the order received, starting with the ones from last Sunday, November 22.

Week 14 Reading. (repeat announcement) Week 14 is the last week of reading for class! For those of you who want to get a head start on next week, you can do the reading today. In Myth-Folklore, it's another week of European options, and for Indian Epics, I've made a list of one-week online options that might be of interest!

Announcements in D2L. (repeat announcement) Blogger made a change recently that allows me to display the announcements inside D2L. I hope this will make it easier for everybody to keep up with the announcements — and don't forget: there's a Review extra credit option which gives you a chance to review the past week's announcements too!

Course Evaluation. You should have received an email explaining that the course evaluation window is now open at eval.ou.edu, and I hope you will take a minute to evaluate this course along with your other courses — you might even win an iPad! Your feedback is incredibly important, especially for the online course program. Online courses are still considered something new at the university, and that means your input will actually determine the future of online courses at OU. So, when you have a few minutes to spare, please log on to eval.ou.edu and share your thoughts!

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Dante's Inferno. Some of you in Myth-Folklore might be reading Dante this week, so I thought this would be a fun comic to share!
Indian Words in English: Today's word from India in English is SWAMI, from Hindi swāmī (Sanskrit svāmin), meaning "lord, prince, master," a term of respect. For details, see this blog post. Here is a photograph of the amazing Swami Vivekenanda, who played a key role in transmitting both Vedanta and Yoga to Western audiences:


Featured Storybook: Folly Governs the World: Tracking Till Eulenspiegel. Like all great tricksters, Till Eulenspiegel pops up where you least expect him, and this Storybook features the famous hero of medieval legend causing all kinds of trouble on the social networks of modern-day America.


Free Book Online: Fairy Tales of the Slav Peasants by A. Chodzko. This blog post provides additional information about the stories in this book, which include "The History of the Invisible Knight" and "The Story of the Plentiful Tablecloth and the Avenging Wand."


India Comic Book: Sati and Shiva: Perfection Rewarded. This blog post provides additional information about the comic book which is on Reserve in Bizzell Library... along with a couple of hundred comic books for you to choose from! If you have not tried the comic books as a reading option yet, now is the week to do that. :-)


Words of Wisdom: Today's proverb poster is Every day a person grows more wise (a Polish proverb). Details at the Proverb Lab. Here's the Polish: Co dzień człowiek mędrszy.


Today's Video: Guru Brahma. Here's Shankar Tucker in an incredible jam session inspired by a traditional Sanskrit shloka.


Growth Mindset: Today's growth mindset cat appreciates the power of YET: What is this? I don't know . . . yet. Details at the blog.


Event on Campus: There will be a free performance by the Clarinet Studio at 8PM in Sharp Concert Hall (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

November 30: Mark Twain. Today, November 30, marks the birthday of Mark Twain in the year 1835. As the author of Huckleberry Finn, Twain is one of the most important authors in the American literary tradition — and also one of the funniest. My favorite of Twain's books is A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Courtwhich you can read online here - with illustrations, too! The image below shows Twain accepting an honorary degree at Oxford University in 1907:




Note: You can page back through the 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.