Wednesday, March 4

Today is Wednesday of Week 8. Here is a link to this week's assignments. Instead of the usual reading and storytelling this week, there are some review assignments. You may have completed all three of those review posts already, in which case you can just go-go-go, finishing up the rest of Week 8 now!

Class Procedures and Reminders

Project Stack. If you turned in something before noon on Sunday, you should have comments back from me now, and I'll keep working on the Sunday items today. As always, you can check the stack to make sure I received your project.

Hump Day of the semester. In honor of the hump-day of the hump-week of the whole semester, here is some beautiful shaved-camel art from India, specifically from Rajasthan:

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Blog Stream. If you need a boost this time of the semester, here's a friendly face: it's Jessica's adorable dog. What a cutie! Here's her blog post.

Twitter Stream. I learned about this delightful website, ValidatingPonies.com, from a friend at Twitter. It's kind of like the mindset cats... but with ponies. The intended audience is graduate students but, hey, students are students, and we're all students of life. You'll see a pony at random when you go there; here's the pony I got:

A Bigger Bookshelf. Today's book is Old Indian Legends by Zitkala-Sa, and this beautiful book is one of the reading options coming up in Myth-Folklore after Spring Break. There is a free audiobook version of this book too! You can find out more about the remarkable Zitkala-Sa at Wikipedia; she was a Yankton Dakota Sioux writer, educator, and political activist.

Indian Epics Today. The epic character for today is Bhishma, great-uncle to both the Pandavas and the Kauravas, and a leader of the Kaurava army during the Mahabharata War. More about Bhishma; his mother was the goddess Ganga, which is how he gets the name Gangaputra, i.e. Ganga's son.

Storybooks. From lsat year in Myth-Folklore, here's a Storybook about the Irish epic hero Cu Chulainn: The Relentless Rage of Cu Chulainn.

Indian Music Video. And for your listening and viewing pleasure, here is a song by Maati Baani with a Bharatnatyam dance  by Mubina Bandukwala; see the YouTube page for English lyrics: Jao Priya.

Words. Here is a word from mythology for the day of the week today: Wednesday, which is the Day of Woden, also known as Odin. More about Wednesday.

H.E.A.R.T.. And here's a thought for the rest of the semester: The Book of Life. You can't rewrite yesterday's pages, but tomorrow's are blank, and you have the pen . . . so, write something good.

Mindset Cats. And the mindset cat reminds you to keep moving: To learn and grow, movement is required.

Writing Video. And here are some fun thoughts on grammar and spelling: Grammar Lessons with Food. Beware the man-eating chicken, but not the man eating chicken. :-)

Event on Campus. Okay, my favorite science fiction film of all time is showing today at 6PM in the Couch Storm Shelter, thanks to the CAC Film Series and Lunar Sooners: INTERSTELLAR. Free food too! (details)

March 4: Toru Dutt. Today marks the birthday in 1856 of Toru Dutt, an Indian poet who wrote in English. 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 Wikipedia.

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.