Sunday, March 4

Today is Sunday of Week 7. Make sure you finish the end-of-week assignments today, and you might also want to do the Week 8 Review assignments today too; that will make the coming week that much easier to manage! You can find all the assignments for this week and next week at the Class Calendar.

Update. There was an intermittent outage at OUCreate where I host the randomizers and images for this class, but I think it is working fine now. If you do run into any problems, let me know!

Class Procedures and Reminders

Success Tip: Google the words. I'm sure you are all familiar with Google search... but do you know about the "define" parameter? Just add "define" to your Google search to turn Google into a dictionary. Find out more at the Google Dictionary Tech Tip. For example, here is cryptozoology:

Project Stack. I'll be updating the stack periodically today so that you can check the stack to make sure I received your email. Then, for many of you Week 8 will be a free pass week where you will not need to turn in a project assignment.

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Blog Stream. The Japanese tanuki ("raccoon-dog") is one of my favorite folklore tricksters, and Dakota's story expresses just how delightful and dangerous the tanuki can be: To Trap a Tanuki.

Myth Item. There are all kinds of weird creatures in medieval art, and here are 44 Medieval Beasts That Cannot Even Handle It Right Now. I guess this is my favorite: NONE of this dragon’s heads can cope with this.

India Video: As you know, I am a fan of musical mash-ups, and I think this version of Leonard Cohen's Hallejuah by Karsh Kale is brilliant: Hallelujah. You will hear Ajay Prassanna on flute and Shilpa Rao singing the Hindi song Jhoola, plus guitar by Warren Mendonsa, all merging with Leonard Cohen's beautiful music and lyrics.

Myth Book Online: Today's free book is Tales of Folk and Fairies by Katharine Pyle. See the Freebookapalooza blog for links and the table of contents. You will find stories here from Europe, the U.S., the Middle East, and India too!

Proverb of the Day: Today's proverb comes from the Congo: When the bee comes to your house, let her have beer; you may want to visit the bee’s house some day. Find out more at the Proverb Laboratory.

Writing: Here are wise words about the writing process... or about any learning process: Don't give up in the middle.

H.E.A.R.T.: At this time of the semester, you might indeed find yourself somewhere in the Stages of Procrastination.

Growth Mindset: And today's growth mindset cat knows that we all struggle. You can find out more at the Growth Mindset blog.

Video: Here's a video to watch if you are frustrated with English spelling: Why is English Spelling So Weird?

Event on Campus: There will be an Oscars Watch Party in the Heritage Room in the Union starting at 6:30PM (details). Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

March 4: Toru Dutt. Today marks the birthday in 1856 of Toru Dutt, a remarkable Indian writer. Although she died at a very young age (she was only 21 when she died in 1877), she is the author of several books, one of which is of interest to students in the Indian Epics class: Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan. You can read more about her at Wikipediawhich is also the source for this image.

And here is a lecture about her at YouTube:

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