Sunday, April 30

Today is Sunday of Week 14. It's the last Sunday of the semester! You can find all the assignments at the Class Calendar. If you can finish up today, that will give you a Dead Week in this class next week.

Class Procedures and Reminders

Finishing the Class. This is the last day of Week 14, and you should have your plan in place now for finishing up the class. The last day of class is this coming Friday, so you need to have everything finished by Friday noon at the latest. As soon as you have the points you need for the grade you want (410 for an A, 360 for a B, 320 for a C), you are all done. If you have any questions about that, just ask!

Project Stack. If you are turning in a final story, try to do that as soon as you can today, and that way you will get comments back sooner, with more turn-around before the Week 15 revisions. I'll check my email periodically today so you'll be able to check the stack to make sure I get your email.

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Life. I really like this Sylvia Duckworth graphic: Life is like a Camera.

Myth. Here's a mythological comparison: Facebook-as-Siren.

Words from India. Today's word is JULEP, from the word gulab, rose-water.

Featured Storybook. This project is from the Indian Epics class: Rama vs. Sita: Love on Trial. Witnesses give evidence, and Sita speaks in her own defense: what will the citizens of Ayodhya choose as the fate of their queen?

Free Book Online: Today's free book is The Mythological Zoo by Oliver Herford. See the Freebookapalooza blog for links and the table of contents. These are little poems about the mythological creatures with illustrations by the author:

Words of Wisdom: Today's saying is Beware of Greeks bearing gifts. (an English proverb). Find out more at the Proverb Lab. I chose this one to go with the Odysseus cartoon above because Odysseus was also the inventor of the Trojan horse trick.

Video: I am a huge fan of Matt Harding who has been traveling the world and doing his dance for ten years; here are his videos from 2006 and 2016. As you can see, he now has friends who come dance with him everywhere, unlike his solitary dancing when he first got started!

Growth Mindset: Today's growth mindset cat understands neuroplasticity: Picture your brain forming new connections. You can find out more at the Growth Mindset blog.

Event on Campus: At 3PM in Catlett, the OU Combined Choirs will perform “Voices of Light” while Carl Theodor Dreyer’s 1928 film, “The Passion of Joan of Arc” plays behind them (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

April 30: Walpurgis Night. The night of April 30 is celebrated as Walpurgis Night in many countries of northern and central Europe, often with bonfires late into the night. The holiday is associated with magic and witchcraft, and it thus shows up in the Harry Potter books, where the Death-Eaters are referred to as the "Knights of Walpurgis," which is a play on words with "Walpurgis Night." You can read more at Wikipedia, which is also the source for this image of a Walpurgis Night bonfire in Sweden:

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