Tuesday, October 24

Today is Tuesday of Week 10. The first reading is due today, and I hope you will have fun with the new topics: it's Native American stories in Myth-Folklore and in Indian Epics, it's a choice between Krishna stories or Jataka tales. Here is a link to this week's assignments.

Class Procedures and Reminders

My schedule. I'm still out of town, with limited Internet access, but if you have a question, send me an email, and I'll get back to you when I am next online. I was able to get through the Monday emails yesterday evening, and I should be able to do the same this evening.

Project Stack. This week I'll start replying to projects when I am back in the office on Thursday, and while you are waiting on comments back from me about your Project assignment, you can check the stack to make sure I received your email.

Extra Credit. Keep an eye out for anything you are curious about in the reading, and then you can do a Wikipedia Trail post for extra credit! Find out more in the extra credit section of this week's assignments.

Aesop at Creighton. The reason I am here giving a seminar at Creighton is because one of the professors has an amazing collection of Aesop books: over 8000 books of Aesop's fables from all around the world, including some very valuable Renaissance and early modern books. I have been in contact online with this professor for many years, and this is the first time I have visited the Aesop collection in person; it is really exciting to get to see the actual books. If you are curious, here is more information: The Carlson Fable Collection.

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Class Twitter. From yesterday's Twitter @OnlineMythIndia, here is something from Sententiae Antiquae: A Typology of Fear, In Anticipation of Halloween.

Proverb. This is a proverb from Liberia: An untouched drum does not speak. Let your drum speak!

Storybook Archive. This project is from the Myth-Folklore class: Hotel California. In this eerie Storybook, Daphne and Felix Cross check into the Hotel California and — just as you would expect — they can check out any time they like, but they can never leave . . .

Free Book Online: Today's free book is Creek Folktales by Earnest Gouge, edited and translated by Jack B. Martin, Margaret McKane Mauldin, and Juanita McGirt. See the Freebookapalooza blog for links and the table of contents. Margaret Mauldin was the founder of the Creek language program at OU!

Story of the Day. Today's story is from the Buddhist Jatakas: The Well-Trained Elephant. A king becomes jealous of his own royal elephant and seeks its destruction.

Video: The video for today is a beautiful India-Pakistan coproduction by Maati Baani: Rang Rangiya. Turn on the captions or look at the YouTube page for the English translation.

Growth Mindset: Today's growth mindset cat is going his own way: There are many paths to success. You can find out more at the Growth Mindset blog.

Event on Campus: Via Akriti in Indian Epics: The India Student Association will be tabling today and all this week in the Union from 11AM - 4PM with information about Diy-a-lloween coming up on October 30 and Diwali Night on November 3 (details).

October 24: Gene Roddenberry. Today marks the death in 1991 of Gene Roddenberry, the visionary creator of Star Trek; he was born in 1921. You can read more about Roddenberry's life and many accomplishments in this Wikipedia article, and also in this wonderful cartoon: It's Going to be Okay. Roddenberry is third from the right in this photo (to the left of Leonard Nimoy), watching the Space Shuttle Enterprise rolling out of the Palmdale manufacturing plant in 1976 (image source).

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