Sunday, January 22

Today is Sunday of Week 1. Make sure you finish the Orientation assignments today, and you might want to do some extra credit assignments also! You can find all the weeks and assignments at the Class Calendar.

Class Procedures and Reminders

Orientation. It's important that you finish all the Orientation (Week 1) assignments today. In future weeks, you can make up missing assignments with extra credit, but the Orientation assignments are different: you need to complete them all in order to be ready for Week 2 and the rest of the semester.

Extra Credit. There are extra credit options available for Week 1, as there will be each week. The extra credit is meant to be fun and also useful, and doing extra credit early in the semester is a great way to build up a cushion so that you can take time off in this class later on when you have midterms in your other classes. I highly recommend the Review extra credit option because it gives you a chance to catch up on this week's announcements to see what you might have missed.

Project Stack. If you are turning in a Week 2 Project assignment today, you can check the stack to make sure I received your assignment. I'll be updating the stack periodically throughout the day, and then I'll start replying to the Project assignments on Monday based on the order in which they were turned in.

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Wisdom. Here is some Advice from a Tree.

Time. I really like this animated gif. It's a great way to try using your breath to practice mindfulness.

Words from Mythology. The Roman god Janus gave his name to this month: January.

Featured Storybook. This project is from the Myth-Folklore class: Demigod Daycare. It is a special occasion at Demigod Daycare: the Muses themselves have come to tell stories to little Heracles and Perseus and all the little sons and daughters of the gods and goddesses.

Free Book Online: Today's free book is Folktales of Bengal by Lal Behari Day. See the Freebookapalooza blog for links and the table of contents. The illustrations are by Warwick Goble, and for more about Goble, see the announcement below.

Words of Wisdom: Today's saying is Jove weighs affairs of earth in dubious scales, and the good suffers while the bad prevails (a Greek proverb). Find out more at the Proverb Lab. This saying comes from an English translation of Homer's Odyssey.

Video: The video for today is from Anoushka Shankar's latest album, Land of Gold. Find out more at Deutsche Grammophon, and I've also included a video trailer for the album:

Growth Mindset: Today's growth mindset kittens don't worry about making mistakes. You can find out more at the Growth Mindset blog. By the end of the day today, you will have all been introduced to Carol Dweck's "growth mindset," and I hope you will enjoy the growth mindset cats in each day's announcements!

Event on Campus: The wonderful Bizzell Library is open on Sundays from noon until 2AM. If you're looking for a new study space, give it a try! (details)

January 22: Warwick Goble. Today marks the anniversary of the death of the book illustrator Warwick Goble in 1943; he was born in 1862, and you can read more about his life and career at Wikipedia. He is one of my favorite book illustrators, and here are some more paintings from his Bengali folktale illustrations (see book above):

Check out the Twitter stream for information and fun stuff during the day, or click here for past announcements.