Sunday, November 15

Today is Sunday of Week 12. Make sure you finish the end-of-week assignments today, and you might want to do some extra credit assignments also! This is the last week for the extra credit blog comments and extra credit project feedback.

Class Procedures and Reminders

Project Stack. I don't update the Project 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 in your project on Sunday morning or Sunday afternoon; don't wait until Sunday evening.

Thanksgiving Schedule. Week 13, which starts on Monday, lasts for two weeks: one week of school and one full week of Thanksgiving Break. Here's how that works:
   * Week 13 MTWTh assignments are due in the coming week, as usual.
   * Week 13 Friday/weekend assignments are due after Thanksgiving.
   * Grace period for those assignments will be Monday morning, Nov. 30.

Working Ahead. For those of you who have some time during the holiday break, I would urge you to work ahead so that you can finish this class early and focus on your other classes in the last weeks of the semester. If you have any questions what you need to do as you finish up, just let me know!

My Schedule. I'll be out of town for part of this week, with limited Internet access while I am gone. If you have something in the stack, this is what you can expect:
   * Mon-Wed (Nov. 16-18): I'm in the office.
   * Thurs-Mon (Nov. 19-23): I'm out of town.
   * Tuesday (Nov. 24): I should be at work all day.
   * Wed-Sun (Nov. 25-29): I'll be on Thanksgiving holiday.
   * Monday (Nov. 30): Week 14 begins per usual.

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Extraterrestrial Procrastination. I think it's reasonable to imagine that even alien species have procrastination problems too!


Indian Words in English: Today's word from India in English is PUNCH, which is from Hindi pancha meaning "five," the idea being that the original punch had five ingredients. For details, see this blog post.


Featured Storybook: Sigurd the Sailor. Instead of a faithful steed, this Sigurd rides a magical ship, sailing forth to do battle with sea-dragons as he seeks adventures worthy of a hero of the Volsungs.


Free Book Online: East O' the Sun and West O' the Moon by Gudrun Thorne-Thomsen. This blog post provides additional information about the stories in this book — familiar ones like "Billy Goats Gruff," along with many wonderful stories you have probably never read before.


India Comic Book: Ganga: The Divine Beauty. This blog post provides additional information about the comic book which is on Reserve in Bizzell Library. It tels the story of Ganga's descent to earth in order to purifty the 60,000 sons of King Sagara.


Words of Wisdom: Today's proverb poster is Without people even paradise gets boring (a Polish proverb). Details at the Proverb Lab. The Polish rhymes: Bez ludzi i raj siÄ™ znudzi.


Today's Video: Vishnu's Secret: Detached Engagement Brings Order. This is a reading option for Indian Epics, and I thought it might be of interest to everyone. Pattanaik's videos are really fascinating, and you'll find links to Wikipedia in my notes for additional background.


Growth Mindset: Today's growth mindset cat is making an effort because... Effort ignites ability and turns it into accomplishment. Details at the blog.


Event on Campus: Something fun at the Huff: you can come learn "American Dances through the Decades" from 8PM-10PM — learn popular American dances from the 1920s to today (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

November 15: Birthday of Johannes Secundus. One of my favorite Latin authors, Johannes (or Janus) Secundus, was born on November 15 in the year 1511. Yes, that's right: 1511 — not in ancient Roman times, but in Renaissance Europe. Johannes Secundus is what is called a "neo-Latin" poet, rather than a classical Roman writer. He is most famous for a series of poems he called Liber Basiorum in Latin, or The Book of Kisses. To learn more about Secundus and his all-too-short life (he died when he was just 24 years old), you can take a look at this Wikipedia article, which is also the source for this image:


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.