Thursday, February 8

Today is Thursday of Week 4. If you have not written a story yet for this week, that means today is Storytelling Day. Go wild and try a new style! Here is a link to all of the Week 4 assignments.

Class Procedures and Reminders

Success Tips: Use the power of paragraphs. Especially when you are writing online, you need to use the power of paragraphs to help focus your reader's attention. Dialogue is easier to read when you have a new paragraph for each change in speaker, and the action of a story is easier to follow if you start a new paragraph for each new event.

Project Stack. If you turned something in before 8PM on Sunday, you should have comments back from me, and I'll keep working through the Sunday assignments today. While you are waiting on comments, you can always check the stack to make sure I received your email.

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Blog Stream. Chelsea did one of my favorite growth mindset challenges: Passing it on. (Here's how that challenge works if you want to do it too!)

India Item. Everyone in Indian Epics knows Hanuman now, so I wanted to share this story of Hanuman and the Ebony Tree.

Myth Video: Here's a Crash Course video that connects up with the flood stories in some of the Myth-Folklore reading this week: Floods in the Ancient Near East.

India Comic Book: Today's comic book is Heroes of Hampi: The Mythology of Kishkindha. See the Amar Chitra Katha blog for the Bizzell Reserve call number and more information. This is one of my favorite ACK comic books because it has stories of Vali and Hanuman and the other monkeys of Kishkindha!

Proverb of the Day: Today's proverb is: from ancient Rome: Bacchus has drowned more people than Neptune, where the god Bacchus stands for "wine" and the god Neptune stands for "water" (their Greek names would be Dionysus and Poseidon). Find out more at the Proverb Laboratory.

Writing: Here's some writing advice from the Writing Laboratory: Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.

H.E.A.R.T.: Here's some advice both for writing and for life itself: Use the whole box of crayons.

Growth Mindset: Today's growth mindset cat is also about getting started: Standing still is not growth. Take a step forward. You can find out more at the Growth Mindset blog.

Video: It's hard to show the writing process visibly, but I thought this video was great for showing the creative process in art: Floating Away. Watch the process from start to finish:

Event on Campus: What great timing for the Myth-Folklore class! Today at 5PM in the Bizzell Community Room there will be a lecture by Ron Hendel on Genesis and Science as part of a Presidential Dream Course (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

And I just found out in an article from the OU Daily about this event: it's ASEAN Night tonight in Meacham, 7PM-9PM.

February 8: Nirvana Day. In some Buddhist countries, February 8 is celebrated as Nirvana Day or Parinirvana Day (in other countries the holiday is celebrated on February 15). This is, by tradition, the anniversary of the day on which the Buddha left this life; as he died, he achieved "nirvana" which is a release from the cycle of life, suffering, death and rebirth. You can read more about this holiday at the BBC Religions website. The image below is a depiction from Thailand of the Buddha's parinirvana:

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