Tuesday, May 4

Today is Tuesday of Week 15; here's a link to all the Week 15 items. If you are doing the reading this week, you'll want to do the Reading A today per the usual schedule... and working ahead is definitely good too since this week is short, ending on Friday at noon.

Class Procedures and Reminders

Finishing the class. When you have the points you need (410-A, 360-B, 320-C), you can fill out the "Finished" form that you will see in Canvas: you're all done! 

Week 14 comments/feedback. The Week 14 blog comments and project feedback assignments are still available in Canvas; you'll see them at the top of Week 15, and they'll be available all week until Friday at noon. So, if you didn't get those done for Week 14, you can do them now if you want, and I'll be very grateful if you choose to do that: the commenting gets very ragged here at the end of the semester, and it's nice when people can get some comments on their work.

Project Stack. I'm focusing right now on the items where people need comments back from me to do the Week 15 final revisions. I hope to get through the rest of those today, and then I'll move on to the rest of the items in the stack. Thank you for your patience with that different approach this week! Meanwhile, you can check the stack to make sure I received your form.

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Blog Stream. Charley has a wild Wikipedia Trail that goes from "Animal Sacrifice in Hinduism" to "Brigitte Bardot," via the Gadhimai Temple of Kali in southern Nepal:

A video for today from Crash Course: I'm sure you know Maui is the name of an island, but did you know he was a hero too? Ma'ui, Oceania's Hero.

Plus here is some beautiful music from Maati Baani in India for some good feels during Dead Week: Tore Matware Naina.

And some beautiful thoughts from the philosopher Alan Watts, with music by Hans Zimmer (Interstellar):

This is an Estonian proverb with a photo of one of the famous dwarves of Wroclaw in Poland: The one who is not strong enough to lift the stone must roll it. This is good advice for the end of semester: just keep rolling that stone!

And if you find yourself in a negative space, here are some tips for managing negative thoughts.

For a visual illustration of some of these same ideas, check out Grant Snider on the trap of negative thinking (larger view). It all depends on how you look at it!

These are some items from the announcements back in Week 8:

A PSA from India featuring divine examples to promote helmet safety: What Gods wear before they ride.

Something cool for any fans of Outlander: Sam Heughan Wants to Tell You a Story.

And finally, some typo humor from Tom Gauld.

Star Wars Day. Yes, May the Fourth has arrived... so, without further ado: MAY THE FOURTH be with you! You can read more about this Star Wars holiday at Wikipedia.

And of course I have to share Tushar Lall's India-themed Star Wars music:

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