Tuesday, December 5

Today is Tuesday of Week 15 (a.k.a. Dead Week), and I've re-arranged the Modules area in Canvas so this week is on top. The first reading is due today; the only difference in this week's schedule is that the class is over this Friday at noon. For more information, see this week's assignments.

Class Procedures and Reminders

Project Stack. If you turned in your project on Friday or Saturday, you should have comments back from me now, and I'll keep working on the Sunday assignments today. 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. Even though this week is short, there is a full set of extra credit options available, and you don't have to wait until the end of the week to do those. Any combination of points you want to use to finish up the class is fine! Find out more in the extra credit section of this week's assignments.

Finishing up. Don't forget to fill out the form to let me know when you are done with the class, and if you have any questions as you are finishing up the class, just let me know.

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Class Twitter. From yesterday's Twitter @OnlineMythIndia, here is a 19th-century painting by Utagawa Kuniyoshi: it's a snow-cat!

Wisdom. If you are thinking about the "light at the end of the tunnel" as the semester comes to an end, I thought you might enjoy this mind-bending graphic:

Storybook Archive. This project is from the Myth-Folklore class: Gossip Girl: The Dirt on Hawaii's Elite. Gossip Girl dishes the dirt on Hawaii's kings and princes, queens and princesses, celebrities whose love lives are full of every scandal you can imagine.

Free Book Online: Today's free book is A Flowering Tree And Other Oral Tales from India by A. K. Ramanujan. See the Freebookapalooza blog for links and the table of contents. This is a quite recent book, made available free online thanks to the generosity of the University of California Press.

Story of the Day. Today's story is from Aesop's fable, and it's probably the most well known of all the fables today: The Tortoise and the Hare. "Slow and steady" is a good motto for Dead Week too: the Latin word "finis" here means "the end," or "finish line."

Video: The video for today is Is Doctor Who a Religion? I know I am not the only Doctor Who fan in the class, so I thought this video would be a fun one to share.

Growth Mindset: Today's growth mindset cat is focused: Pay attention and stretch your knowledge. You can find out more at the Growth Mindset blog.

Event on Campus: OU School of Music presents the annual Percussion Holiday Concert, complete with holiday treats and cider, at 1:30PM in Gothic Hall (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

December 5: Krampus. In Austria and other Alpine regions, the dark companion of Saint Nicholas is called Krampus, and he spends the first two weeks of December going around at night, rattling chains and ringing a bell to warn the naughty children of his presence. On December 5, it is traditional for people to dress up as the Krampus! You can see pictures of people dressed as the Krampus in this Wikipedia article, and below is a Krampus holiday postcard:

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