Friday, March 1

HAPPY FRIDAY! You have reached the end of Week 7! Here is a link to the class calendar where you can find the link for Week 7 and also Week 8, which is a review week. It's the middle of the semester now... hard to believe, but it's true!

Class Procedures and Reminders

Project Stack. Yesterday, I replied to the assignments turned in before 11PM on Sunday, and I'll finish the rest of the Week 6 assignments in the stack today, plus as many of the Week 7 assignments as I can get to also. While you are waiting on comments back from me, you can check the stack to make sure I received your email.

Power of Revision! I want to thank everybody for all your good work on the revisions this past week. There is still half of the semester to go, and the projects are going to keep growing and getting better thanks to all the good revising. I hope that by the end of the semester I can convince you of the power of feedback and revision for creating great stories.

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Blog Stream. Here's a fun Wikipedia Trail that Mariah did from Hanuman to the goddess Durga.

Comic Book On Reserve. Today's comic book is Karna: Brave, Generous, Ill-Fated Prince. (Plus you could drop in for the knitting lessons in Bizzell today too; see below for details.)

Free Audiobook. Today's free audiobook is for any fans of Brer Rabbit out there (I am a huge fan!): Nights With Uncle Remus by Joel Chandler Harris. This is the biggest of the Brer Rabbit books, and it has illustrations by Milo Winter.

Featured Storybook. Here's a dramatic project: Tales of Davy Jones' Locker. One moment, our heroine is on a cruise ship, but after she's swept overboard, she wakes up on a pirate ship full of pirate ghosts.

Word from India. Today's word from India is the name of the game PARCHEESI. You can see a Parcheesi board in depictions of the famous gambling match in the Mahabharata:

India Video. I thought you might enjoy this Epified video about Samudra Manthan, the "Churning of the Ocean," and all the things that were created at that time:

Myth Video. Some of you read Egyptian stories earlier this semester, so I thought you might enjoy this TED-Ed video: The Egyptian Book of the Dead: A guidebook for the underworld.

And here's a proverb from Egypt: The basket that has two handles can be carried by two. Share the load!

Writing. I don't know about you, but I always feel better in the weeks when I write a story for class! Happiness is being creative:

Plus a thought for the end of the week: One day at a time.

Growth Mindset Cat. This cat knows that success is a process, not an event. Keep on spinning!

And speaking of success: Dungeons and Dragons Can Make You a Confident and Successful Person. (Yes, that is Mike Rugnetta of Crash Course, from his PBS days before Crash Course.)

Event on Campus: Today is the first "Fiber Arts Friday" in Bizzell Library this semester, starting with a Learn to Knit session. Come by Bizzell Room 126 at 2PM and start knitting (details).

March 1: Zero Discrimination Day. Today is world-wide Zero Discrimination Day, celebrating diversity, tolerance and inclusion. The global event is sponsored by UN-AIDS whose goal is to reach people who have HIV with treatment, eliminate HIV stigma, and reduce sexual transmission of HIV. You can find out more at the "I Stand for #ZeroDiscrimination" website at UNAIDS.org.

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