Friday, November 30

Today is Friday of Week 14... you have reached the end of Week 14, and the end of November too! Here is a link to the Week 14 assignments and also to Week 15. Hopefully the remaining Week 14 assignments will give you everything you need to finish up, but there is a whole week of Week 15 (Dead Week) assignments if you need those to finish up the class.

Class Procedures and Reminders

Week 14 Blog Comments. After the grace period this morning, I'll update the randomizer with any new stories from this week. Because things get a little hectic now at the end of the semester, you'll see that the commenting assignment works a little differently than usual: I've combined both classes into one randomizer. That could mean you might be meeting new people too! Details here: Blog Comments.

Project Stack. I made a lot of progress yesterday, and I hope to get through all or almost all of the stack today. As usual, you can check the stack to make sure I received your email.

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Blog Stream. It's always fun when someone finds a meme to go with their reading notes, and here's one from Laura M.'s blog with notes on The Little Mermaid. It's Hipster Ariel:

Featured Storybook. This is a beautiful and eerie Storybook from last year: Destrus in the Pale City. Destrus has lost his son, and against his wife's advice he is willing to risk everything in a journey to the Pale City, hoping to restore his son to life.

As the semester winds down, I am repeating favorite items from earlier announcements; these items come from Week 9:

Myth Video. This is a video from the BBC: Talking Drums.

Myth Item. And here's a wonderful proverb from the Congo: Little by little grow the bananas.

India Video. This is a video from Epified: Symbols of Divinity.

India Item. Here's a proverb from Kashmir: The snake goes crookedly, yet it arrives straight within its hole.

Writing. Here's an amazing resource, based on the TV Tropes website: The Periodic Table of Storytelling. (That's something you can explore for the Week 15 Story Lab if you want!)

And here is some reading advice from Hermione: When in doubt, go to the library!

Growth Mindset Cats. This growth cat knows the value of the library: I will train my brain by reading books.

And here's another great video from Mike Rugnetta, from his time at PBS before Crash Course: Are LOLCats and Internet Memes Art?

Event on Campus. The Royal Ball will take place at 7PM in the Union Ballroom, a night of dancing, poetry, and food in support of the Boys and Girls Club of Norman (details).

Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

November 30: Mark Twain. Today marks the birthday of Mark Twain in the year 1835. My favorite of Twain's books is A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, which you can read for free online. His Diaries of Adam and Eve are also a fabulous storytelling experiment. The image below shows Twain accepting an honorary degree at Oxford University in 1907:

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