Wednesday, February 13

Today is Wednesday of Week 5. I hope you are enjoying this week's reading! Here is a link to the Week 5 assignments.

Class Procedures and Reminders

Project Stack. If you turned in your project before noon on Sunday, you should have comments back from me. I'll keep working on the Sunday assignments today, and you can check the stack to make sure I received your email.

Use the Suggestion Box. If there is something I can be doing to improve this class, you can let me know, either by email or via the (anonymous) Suggestion Box. I have gotten a lot of good ideas for improving this class from past suggestions. We all need feedback! You'll see the Suggestion Box here in the sidebar of the blog, and it's also a menu item there in Canvas.

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Blog Stream. As you keep thinking about giving and receiving feedback in this class (and anywhere), I wanted to share this nifty graphic from Corona's blog: Feedback Strategies for the Individual.

Free Film Online. Instead of the usual free books today, I wanted to share a free film online, a brand-new film by Nina Paley (creator of Sita Sings the Blues). It's about the Exodus story, and those of you who know Nina's work will recognize her style right away: Seder-Masochism. And for more from Nina Paley, see the video further down here in the announcements (the T-shirt she is wearing in that talk is one of the drawings from this new film).

Featured Storybook. This Storybook comes from Indian Epics: The Ravana Diaries. For many years, an archaeologist has been excavating ancient sites on the island of Lanka, seeking to learn more about Ravana, King of the Rakshasas. Finally one day he discovers just what he had always hoped to find: Ravana's own diary.

India Video. Here's a nice music video from India, with an appearance by Maati Baani: Yaara. Turn on the CC (closed captions) to see the English lyrics.

Myth Video. This is a Crash Course video on a famous mythological topic: Dragons and Serpents.

Myth Item. Here's a medieval dragon from a hilarious Buzzfeed list: Medieval Beasts That Cannot Even Handle It Right Now.

Writing. Meanwhile, here's a word-beast: Thesaurus-saurus.

Plus some procrastinatosaurs ... they missed Noah's ark!

Growth Mindset Cats. This growth mindset kitten knows no fear: Every day new and larger dragons come along.

Some of you in Indian Epics have been watching Nina Paley's genius film "Sita Sings the Blues" this week, so I thought you might enjoy Nina's TED talk: Copyright is Brain Damage.

Event on Campus. There will be a teach-in on Blackface today, 5PM-6:30PM, in Zarrow Hall 145.

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

February 13: Lupercalia. Today is the Ides of February in the Roman calendar, which means it is the first day of the festival of the Lupercalia. Lupercus was the god of shepherds and his festival was intended to insure fertility in the coming spring. The Luperci priests would run through the streets, dressed in goatskins, and lash the women of the city with the thongs. You can read more about Lupercalia in this Wikipedia article and at NPR.

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