Showing posts with label week09. Show all posts
Showing posts with label week09. Show all posts

WEEK 9 WEEKEND: March 27-28

Today is THE WEEKEND of Week 9! Here is a link to Week 9 and you can find all the weeks to come at the class calendar. If you are doing project feedback today, you'll see there's something new: if you want, you can take a look at a project from the other class (Myth-Folklore or Indian Epics). There are lots of great projects in both classes!

Class Procedures and Reminders

Plan ahead. As we get into the final stretch of the semester, it's a good time to plan how you want to finish up. You can get more help here: Progress Chart. I've recorded the Week 10 break points in Canvas: you might use those points to take Week 10 off next week, or you might just keep on working and finish early, or you might need those points to make up missing items from previous weeks. So, check the chart to see how you're doing, and if you have any questions about that, just let me know!

Project Stack. I'll be updating the stack today, and I'll start reading and replying to the assignments in order on Monday. As always, you can check the stack to make sure I received your project.

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Blog stream. This is not a blog post (although you can do the same thing with a blog post): for her Storybook, Catherine has embedded a map of a place in Guatemala, and it's interactive: you can zoom in and out, getting the detail, and also seeing just where Guatemala is located: Mayan Folktales.


Twitter stream. From the great Awkward Yeti, Heart and Brain are still trying to figure things out! (larger view)


Some life-advice via Chitra Divakaruni:


And here's a comic about books from Grant Snider (larger view):


Some music for the weekend from Maati Baani: Rang Rangiya.


And a really fun animated gif from Europeanaeu: 


Plus Google has this lovely Ramayana item:


Need a writing break? Here's a fun one: pen-drumming.


March 27: M.C. Escher. Saturday marks the anniversary of the death in 1972 of the artist M. C. Escher; he was born in 1898. You can read more about Escher's life and work in this Wikipedia article. I am sure you are familiar with many of his drawings and paintings. Here is Drawing Hands, along with a Vimeo video inspired by Escher's way of seeing the world. Enjoy!




March 28: Marc Chagall. Sunday marks the anniversary of the death of the painter Marc Chagall in 1985; he was born in 1887. You can read more about his life and work in this Wikipedia article. Chagall created amazing dreamscapes combining motifs from the Jewish tradition and from other religious and mythological traditions also. The painting below is entitled Les Fiancés de la tour Eiffel.


This is a video showing more of his work:



Check out the Twitter stream for information and fun stuff during the day, or click here for past announcements.
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Friday, March 26

HAPPY FRIDAY! Today is Friday of Week 9. Here is a link to Week 9 and also to Week 10 for those of you who are ready to work ahead in order to finish the class early (see more about that below). 

Class Procedures and Reminders

Project Stack. Yesterday I replied to all the projects turned in before 11PM on Sunday, and I'll finish up all the Week 8 projects in the stack today, plus as many of the Week 9 (and beyond) assignments as I can (and then anything left in the stack today will be at the top of the stack next week). As always, you can check the stack to make sure I received your project.

Finishing the class early. Another person has finished the class, so that now makes three people who are all done! If finishing early is your goal, I can recommend doing extra credit and also working ahead. If you can finish up Week 9 today, you can get started on Week 10 this weekend, and maybe have time for some extra credit too. More about class progress and finishing up the class here: Progress Chart.

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Blog stream. This is not something from the blog stream, but instead an announcement from Maya in Indian Epics: she is giving her senior recital this weekend, on Saturday evening at 8PM, and you can watch the livestream here. Here's what Maya shared with me: "I will be singing a program of music, but I also wrote a poem to connect the songs together." I will definitely be listening in!


Twitter stream. Yes, the Suez canal ship has become a meme already. This is from one of my favorite professors at Twitter, Kevin Gannon:
How is the writing going? A whole goddman year of pandemic-induced overwhelming anxiety. A new spreadsheet to track daily writing goals.


Meanwhile, the folks in the Suez clearly need help from this marvelous dog:


And about the pandemic, here's an image of the Goddess doing battle with the COVID-demon: Kolkata Pandal Goes Viral.


For your listening pleasure, the grooviest music:


Do you like coloring books? I do! And here are some coloring book pages from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to download and color. :-)


Another lovely comic from Grant Snider (larger view): 


And something about monsters from Crash Course:


March 26: Khordad Sal. March 26 marks the birthday of the prophet Zoroaster, which is a holiday, Khordad Sal, in the Zoroastrian religion. Zoroaster is the ancient Greek form of his name; in Persian, he is called Zarathusti, and you might also know him by the name Zarathustra. You can read more about Zoroaster and Zoroastrianism at Wikipedia. The image below shows the Faravahar symbol, which is one of the central symbols of Zoroastrian iconography, as shown here in a carving from the ancient city of Persepolis:


Here's a short documentary about Zoroastrianism:


The Zoroastrians of Iran (and India) are called Parsees, and one of the most well known members of the Parsee community was Freddie Mercury! 



Check out the Twitter stream for information and fun stuff during the day, or click here for past announcements.
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Thursday, March 25

Today is Thursday of Week 9. Here is a link to the Week 9 assignments. For many of you, today is storytelling day, and I hope you have fun with that! Tomorrow I'll be able to update the randomizer with all those new stories. :-)

Also, I hope you will consider taking advantage of this opportunity to get vaccinated on Friday; you can register here: CovidVaccine.ou.edu. Find out more at the OU Daily article.


Class Procedures and Reminders

Microfiction Storytelling post. I wanted to remind everybody about the microfiction option for the Storytelling each week: instead of a 300-word story, you can always write three (or four or more!) 100-word stories instead. For example, here is my Brer Rabbit post with several tiny stories: Brer Rabbit and Brer Terrapin. You might give it a try and see what you think!

OU email outage. There were some serious problems with OU email yesterday morning, plus related log-on problems. If that caused you a problem with doing a Canvas Declaration yesterday morning, just let me know and I'll mark whatever you missed manually, no problem.

Project Stack. Yesterday I finished replying to all the projects turned in before 8PM on Sunday, and I'll keep working on the Sunday assignments today. As always, you can check the stack to make sure I received your assignment.

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Blog stream. The Wikipedia Trail option is especially useful for those of you doing Storybooks, hopping around to see what you might learn about your topic. Ashley is doing a Storybook about vahanas, so she went from Vahanas to Parvati. Here's a picture of Parvati carrying baby Ganesha while riding her vahana, a lion: so cool!


Twitter stream. And here's a cat that doesn't look big on the outside... when your cat is secretly a fifth dimensional elder god.


This also cracked me up: For Sale, Not Haunted.


I'm very excited about this Google Art project on Indian miniature paintings:


And here's a video to ponder the spread of religions (and as those religions spread, so do the stories that are part of those religious traditions):


I often tell people this class is "mythological fan fiction," and this wonderful article addresses exactly that topic: Every King Arthur Retelling Is Fanfic.


Plus a cat to inspire your reading (via Sudesna Ghosh):


And an alphabet for the writer's life from Grant Snider (larger view):


March 25: Tolkien Reading Day. This Tolkien celebration has been organized by the Tolkien Society since 2003 to encourage fans to celebrate and promote the life and works of J.R.R. Tolkien.


Here's an interview with Tolkien from back in 1968 on the subject of inventing languages:



Check out the Twitter stream for information and fun stuff during the day, or click here for past announcements
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Wednesday, March 24

Big email problems Wednesday morning at OU that may affect your ability to log on to Canvas also. Check alerts.ou.edu for the latest info. For anybody who was trying to use the grace period this morning for Tuesday reading, just let me know if you need me to record something for you manually in Canvas when they get this fixed. (I'm logged in to Canvas, but it sounds like if you were logged out, you can't log in at this time; also, email is not deliverable and is being returned to sender.)


Today is Wednesday of Week 9. Here is a link to Week 9, plus a link to Week 10 for people who are working ahead. Also, I hope you will consider taking advantage of this opportunity to get vaccinated on Friday; you can register here: CovidVaccine.ou.edu. Everyone should have gotten an email with details!


Class Procedures and Reminders

Project Stack. I made good progress on the stack yesterday! If you turned something in before 2PM on Sunday, you should have comments back from me, and I'll keep working on the Sunday afternoon items today. As always, you can check the stack to make sure I received your form.

Microfiction Storytelling post. For those of you who might be doing your storytelling for the week today, I wanted to remind you about the microfiction option: instead of a 300-word story, you can always write some 100-word stories instead! That's actually all I write these days myself; here's my Week 9 Storytelling post with three stories each told in 100 words: The Adventures of Anansi. You might give it a try and see what you think. For me, thinking about stories in terms of short episodes has really given me a new perspective, and it's also helped learn to appreciate the power of each and every word.

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Blog stream. I really enjoy seeing the artwork that people include in their reading notes, like this gorgeous sun-and-moon in Chris's post about the Nigerian sun-and-moon folktale.


Twitter stream. Yesterday was National Puppy Day, so there were all kinds of lovely dog and puppy items in the Twitter stream, including this from Professor Nair in OU's History of Science department: The Seizure Dog.


And perhaps you have heard of Cerberus, the three-headed hound of hell in Greek mythology? Well, here is puppy Cerberus! :-)


And from Cherokee Nation Twitter, greetings for Spring!


Here's a thread of art from Svetlin Vassilev, a Bulgarian illustrator based in Greece. This is his Daedalus and Icarus: wow!


And here is an amazing depiction of the Goddess-as-Kali:


Plus some nitty-gritty writing advice: Comma Types That Can Make Or Break a Sentence.


March 24: William Morris. Today marks the birthday of William Morris in 1834. He was one of the most gifted designers in the English tradition, as well as being an author and activist. You can read all about his life and career in this Wikipedia article, and here is one of his paintings, La Belle Iseult:


He did a version of The Tale of Beowulf which you can read free online:


And here is a free audiobook online: William Morris's Defence of Guenevere and Other Poems. 




Check out the Twitter stream for information and fun stuff during the day, or click here for past announcements.
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Tuesday, March 23

Today is Tuesday of Week 9. Here is a link to Week 9 and also a link to Week 10 for those of you who might be working ahead (I know some people are working ahead now in order to finish up early).

Class Procedures and Reminders

My schedule today. I'll be away from my desk for most of the late morning and early afternoon, so I will be slower to respond to emails today: I got my vaccination appointment at last! I should be back at my desk sometime in the afternoon and will be able to catch up on any email then. Thank you for your patience with that today.

Week 10 Break (or Week 9). I sent around an email yesterday with information about the Week 10 Break. I put those points into Canvas on Monday afternoon, so you all saw a 30-point bump. You can use that for a break in Week 10, or take Week 9 off, or finish early, or just let the points fill in any point gap you might have from missing items earlier. It all depends on what's best for you! More information here: Spring 2021 Break Weeks.

Project Stack. If you turned in a project last week or on Saturday, you should have comments back from me, and I'll start working on the Sunday items today. As always, you can check the stack to make sure I received your assignment.

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Blog stream. People have been adding some really great music and playlists to the Padlet, and here's a music-to-study-by video that someone shared:


Twitter stream. From Grant Snider, a new cartoon in honor of spring (larger view):


And from Nathan Pyle, a cartoon all about point of view (larger view):


A fan of Chitra Divakaruni's new novel about Sita created this lovely Sita Graphic to share at Twitter:


I learned about this very cool book at Internet Archive: these are Gothic Alphabets. For example:


I know everybody in these classes now appreciates the value of openly licensed images to use online, so here's some good news from John Overholt about images from the Folger Shakespeare Library: Folger Reference Image Collection.


From the distant past: a devil-frog, Beelzebufo; you can find out more at Wikipedia.


And something to inspire your creativity from John Spencer: A Bigger Definition of Creativity.


March 23: Kurosawa. March 23 marks the birthday in the year 1910 of the great Japanese film director, Akira Kurosawa. You can read about his long career and many cinematic achievements in this Wikipedia article. His most famous film is probably The Seven Samurai. Of all of Kurosawa's films, my personal favorite is Dersu Uzala, a story set in Siberia around the year 1900, when Russian mapmakers rely on the skills of a native Nanai tribal member, Dersu Uzala, to survive the harsh Siberian climate. It's a fantastic movie, which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1975. Highly recommended!



Check out the Twitter stream for information and fun stuff during the day, or click here for past announcements.
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Monday, March 23

Today is Monday of Week 9. We are officially into the second half of the semester now! Here is a link to Week 9 ... and also a link to Week 8 for those of you using the grace period this morning.

Class Procedures and Reminders

Reading and Storytelling. This week in Indian Epics you will be choosing a a one-week version of the Mahabharata or of the Ramayana to explore (details) and in Myth-Folklore, there are more African and Asian stories (details). I hope you will enjoy this week's reading!

Project Stack. Today I'll be working on the projects that were in the stack from last week, and then I'll start working on the assignments that people turned in over the weekend. As always, you can check the stack to make sure I received your email.

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Blog stream. There were a lot of great motivational memes and quotes in the Progress posts from Week 8. I liked this one from Matt's blog post. :-)


Twitter stream. Hilarious new cartoon from Tom Gauld (larger view):


Something beautiful about ghatams (pots) which are used as musical instruments in India:


Here is a ghatam concert:


And another art-form from Indian: shadow-puppet theater.


Something very cool from Peru: they are finding new Nazca "lines" ... including a cat! Nazca Lines in Peru. 


Here's a classical Greek myth about the origin of love, as told in the film Hedwig and the Angry Inch:


And another video about the same myth: The Myth of the Missing Half.


March 22: Caldecott. Today marks the birthday in 1846 of Randolph Caldecott, one of Britain's most famous book illustrators. Here is an illustration from Caldecott's illustrated book inspired by the nursery rhyme, The House that Jack Built, and you can read more about Caldecott's life and career at Wikipedia.


You may have heard of the Caldecott medal for illustrated children's books; here is a video about those medal-winners: 



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