Wednesday, February 3

Today is Wednesday of Week 2. Here is a link to the Week 2 assignments. Yesterday you did the reading overview, and today you have some actual stories to read in an Anthology; here's the Week 2 reading link. As you read through  the stories in the Anthology, look for a story you want to retell in your own way. If you're curious, take a look at the stories people have written so far. There are already stories in both classes, all so different from each other; that's the power of creativity: no two stories ever come out the same way.

Class Procedures and Reminders

Project Stack. So far, I've been keeping up with people turning in their Week 2 project assignments, getting projects back to people the next day. So, if you turned in a project assignment on Tuesday, I should be able to get that back to you today! As those projects come in, I add them to the "stack," and you can check the stack to make sure I have received your project.

Introductions. I'm working on the Introductions; it usually takes me all of Week 2 and Week 3 to read and reply to everybody. Plus you'll be getting some comments from other students as people start doing the Week 2 Comments, and you'll also be getting comments all semester on the Introduction posts as you'll see when you get to the Week 3 Comments (commenting on Story posts and on Introductions).

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Blog stream. One of my favorite blog posts to see pop up in the stream are Wikipedia Trails, and here's one that Amy did: Wikipedia Trail: Garuda to Majapahit. This Garuda statue she found is amazing: Garuda Wisnu Kencana in Bali, Indonesia:


You can see the god Vishnu there; Garuda is his vahana (vehicle); more Vishnu and Garuda images here.


Twitter stream. Yesterday I featured a request from Farid at the OUDaily for students who want to talk about online classes, and now Blake Douglas is looking for people who have information about OU classrooms; here's his tweet.



And here's a great storytelling idea: Ancestry.com ... for non-human beings. A Scott Hilburn cartoon I saw at Twitter:


And from Open Culture: good news about the power of the public domain! The Great Gatsby Is Now in the Public Domain and There’s a New Graphic Novel.


From OUr Mental Health at Twitter, make sure you get enough sleep! It's vital for good health... and for learning.


And something beautiful from Dust-to-Digital:


For a story-writing video, here's a TED talk by Kate Messner: How to build a fictional world.


Plus another TED video, this one from John McWhorter about fictional languages: Are Elvish, Klingon, Dothraki and Na'vi real languages?


February 3: Setsubun. Today is the Shinto holiday known as Setsubun, the "Bean-Throwing Day," which is part of the spring festival season. You can read more about this holiday at Wikipedia. The image below shows an antique demon mask used for the Setsubun festival; the bean-throwing is to ward off demons:


And here's a video: Spring Ogre Purification.



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