Wednesday, April 18

Today is Wednesday of Week 13. The second part of the reading is due today, and I hope you are getting some good ideas for a story... especially if this might be your last storytelling post for the semester! (I'm guessing a lot of people are going to be finishing up this weekend.) Here is a link to the Week 13 assignments.

Update: I accidentally put the Thursday announcements here briefly; sorry for the time-warp! :-)

Class Procedures and Reminders

Success Tip: (Re)Discover Your Creativity. Here is a long list of ideas for unleashing your creativity, courtesy of the remarkable Amy Burvall: 50 Ways to Cultivate a Creative Habit (and I've shared one of her mash-up videos below).

Project Stack. If you turned in something by 3PM on Sunday, you should have comments back from me now, and while you are waiting on comments back from me, you can check the stack to make sure I received your email.

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Blog Stream. Here's a wild Wikipedia Trail from Meredith. It starts with something we all know, procrastination, and ends up in a very weird place indeed: From “Procrastination” to “Algolagnia.”

Myth Item. Check out all seven animated gifs: Ancient Ruins Wondrously Restored. Here is Hadrian's Wall in England:

And here's the Nohoch Mul pyramid in Mexico:

India Video: In past announcement,s I've shared some of Amy's videos about European classics, and here is her Mahabharata video: The Mahabharata ("Abracadabra" by the Steve Miller Band).

Myth Book Online: Today's free book is The High Deeds of Finn and other Bardic Romances of Ancient Ireland by T. W. Rolleston. See the Freebookapalooza blog for links and the table of contents.

Proverb of the Day: Today's proverb is about multitasking: He that hunts two hares will catch neither. Find out more at the Proverb Laboratory.

Writing: Here's one of the most astounding storytelling resources online... but be careful: you can disappear into TVTropes and not come out for hours; it's dangerously fun. You can use The Periodic Table of Storytelling to find the different areas of TVTropes:

H.E.A.R.T.: See the blog post for a transcription: 10 Things We Can Learn From Superheroes.

Growth Mindset: Today's growth mindset cat is experiencing all the emotions: The emotions of learning: surprise, awe, interest, and confusion. You can find out more at the Growth Mindset blog.

Video: It's Waffles for Writers today (see next item), so I wanted to share this OU Writing Center video: Write with Us.

Event on Campus: And here it is... Waffles for Writers, on the third Wednesday of every month at the Writing Center in Wagner Hall, 9AM-11AM (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

April 18: Akshaya Tritiya. Today is Akshaya Tritiya, a spring festival that is celebrated by both Hindus and Jains. You can find out more about this holiday at Wikipedia. Some people believe that Vyasa started reciting the Mahabharata on this day, while Ganesha wrote down his words. Here is a holiday greeting with Vishnu:

And here is a video at YouTube about the Akshaya Tritiya pooja, where you can also learn about more legends associated with this holiday:

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