Sunday, March 8

Today is Sunday of Week 8, and if you have any end-of-week assignments left for this week, today is the day to get those done! Here is a link to Week 8 and also to Week 9. (More about Week 9 and Spring Break below.)

Class Procedures and Reminders

Project Stack. I'll be updating the stack today as more projects come in. For those of you who have a free pass for Week 8, you'll be sending me an email; that's just a kind of email record that you were taking the free pass this week. See the Week 8 Project instructions for more information about how that works.

Spring Break. (repeat announcement) Yes, Spring Break is coming! The way that works is that during Week 9 (next week), there are the usual Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday blog post assignments on March 10-11-12. Then: Spring Break! So the end-of-week Week 9 assignments aren't due until that weekend after Spring Break: March 22. However, I would urge everybody to get ahead if possible so that you can finish all the Week 9 assignments before the break begins. That way, it can be a real Break!

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Blog Stream. I thought this was a cool Wikipedia Trail from Srikar in Indian Epics starting from the Mahabharata, and going up the Kali Yuga which is... now! He got from the Mahabharata to our age in just four hops: From Mahabharata to Kali Yuga. This image shows Vyasa, author of the Mahabharata:


Twitter Stream. Nathan Pyle is a wonderful cartoonist that I follow at Twitter, and he shared this fun animation for taking a deep breath; see the thread for more animations like this:


A Bigger Bookshelf. Today's free book is Stories from Quechan Oral Literature by A.M. Halpern and Amy Miller, available online from Open Book Publishers. You can read more about the Quecha people of South America at Wikipedia.


Indian Epics Today. Today's character is Urvashi, one of celestial apsaras from Indra's heaven. She famously cursed Arjuna when he rejected her. More about Urvashi, and here is a video about her: Urvashi's Curse.


Storybooks. This is the most elaborate Twine adventure anyone has ever created for this class: the entire Storybook is one big gigantic Twine story! Enter the Labyrinth.


Words from Mythology. And the word LABYRINTH is itself a word from ancient Greek mythology; it was the maze built by Daedalus to trap the Minotaur. Find out more.


Myth-Folklore Video. Here's another Crash Course video about tricksters, this time it's Hermes and Loki.


India Video. This is an ad for Google, but it is also a story, specifically, a story about the Partition of India... and a Reunion.


H.E.A.R.T.. This is one of my favorite quotes about learning. There's knowledge, and then there's wisdom: Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.


Mindset Cats. And this mindset cat knows that learning never stops: Keep on learning: I wonder...


Event on Campus. The OU India Student Association will celebrate Holi today in Walker-Adams Mall from 10:30AM-1PM (details). I'll have more about Holi in tomorrow's announcements too; this year's Holi festival falls on Monday, but come celebrate today on campus!


March 8: Daylight Savings. Daylight Saving Time begins at 2AM this morning: spring forward, fall back. So, we lost an hour, but if you have a couple minutes to spare, enjoy this faux-trailer: Daylight Saving. :-)



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