Saturday, March 7

Today is Saturday of Week 8! Here is a link to Week 8 also a link to Week 9 if you want to get ahead on that too. I hope you will enjoy the commenting and feedback this weekend after you got a chance to reflect on how things have gone so far, and of course there are lots of extra credit options to make up for missing work and/or to get ahead. :-)

Class Procedures and Reminders

Congratulations! I hope you all got a sense of accomplishment by looking back at your work during the review week... and you should take a moment to congratulate yourselves for all the new things you have explored in this class (stories, technology, everything) and also for all the things you have shared with the class. I hope you will have a great second half of the semester!

Project Stack. I ended up with some items left in the stack on Friday, so those will be at the top of the stack on Monday when I start working through the projects in the order they came in. You can check the stack to make sure your project is in the stack.

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Blog Stream. I am such a fan of the "just keep swimming" motto, so I really liked this graphic that Jake found for his blog post this week: Just keep reading.

Twitter Stream. I thought this exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art looked so cool; that's a Mayan rain god there in the picture:

A Bigger Bookshelf. Today's book is Oral Literature in Africa by Ruth Finnegan. This book is a wonderful introduction to a wide range of African storytelling traditions, free to read online.

Indian Epics Today. Today's character is Ulupi, the Naga serpent-woman who married Arjuna, one of the Pandava heroes. More about Ulupi; here is an illustration by Warwick Goble:

Storybooks. This is an amazing mash-up Storybook: Waffle House: Creating Magic in Ancient Egypt. Yes, it really is a Waffle House for the gods and goddesses of ancient Egypt, with stories about the origin of Egyptian magic.

India Video. The stories of India's gods and goddesses are known throughout South Asia and Southeast Asia, and they have inspired some beautiful artwork as at Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

xxx

Myth-Folklore Video. Today's video is a Native American creation story: The Ojibway Creation.

Proverbs. Here is an English proverb that invokes King Arthur: Arthur himself had but his time.

H.E.A.R.T.. Don't procrastinate; your species may depend on it! Here's some dinosaur-Noah humor from Dan Regan:

Mindset Cats. Today's mindset cat is not giving up: You must persist despite setbacks.

Event on Campus. I got a message from Chase Gaddis who was a student in this class last semester; he's got a team for Soonerthon if you are looking for a team to support! Find out more about today's event at the Soonerthon website and at this OU Daily article.

March 7: Stith Thompson. Today marks the birthday in 1885 of Stith Thompson who became one of the great folklorists of the 20th century. He pioneered the classification of stories by their basic elements, which he called "motifs," and his Motif Index is still a widely used standard. Those of you in Myth-Folklore may be reading stories from his book Tales of the North American Indians during Weeks 10 and 11:

And he also worked on Indian folk traditions too:

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