Monday, April 13

Today is Monday of Week 13. No kidding: Week 13 already! Here is a link to Week 13 and also Week 12 which is available all this week. You can see how all the extended grace periods work on the class calendar.

Class Procedures and Reminders

Project Stack. As always, you can check the stack to make sure I received your project. My goal today is to reply to all the projects that were turned in on Thursday and Friday of last week, and I should also be able to reply to some weekend items too!

Choose your grade. A couple of people wrote me this weekend to ask if it really is okay to stop when they have a grade of D (301 points) which is a P/passing grade in this class, and the answer is  of course it's okay! The reason OU adopted this P/NP option is because the pandemic has affected people's lives in really serious ways. You can find out more here: Grade Policy. The P/NP option applies to all of your classes, but it really makes sense for this class, which is a Gen. Ed. class that is usually not part of anyone's major. If you have any questions about that, let me know!

The following items are for fun and exploration:

Blog Stream. Wikipedia Trails are always fun, and I thought this was so cool: Jessica was Zooming with a friend, and they did this Wikipedia Trail: From Indian Epics to Informant... with a detour by way of "canon" to this Pachelbel Rant video.

Twitter Stream. Tom Gauld has a new book coming out this week! Here's one of the cartoons he shared at Twitter (larger view):

And in a Covid-related item, here are objects from the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford... turned into jigsaw puzzles! Access puzzles here. It's part of the #MuseumFromHome stream at Twitter.

Writing. Here's another fun one from Tom Gauld: Magical Items for Fantasy Writers.

And here's a great graphic from Sylvia Duckworth about superpowers: 10 Things We Can Learn From Superheroes.

Indian Epics Today. The character of the day today is a member of Ravana's family: his giant brother, Kumbhakarna. This beautiful illustration shows Kumbhakarna falling in battle; you can see that the artist has drawn it like an animation, showing you the fall as if it were frame by frame:

Myth-Folklore. Some of you encountered genies in the Myth-Folklore readings this semester, so I thought I would share this brilliant Cyanide and Happiness cartoon:

Myth-Folklore Video. Here are some goddesses from Crash Course: Fire and Buffalo Goddesses.

April 13: Alfred Mosher Butts. On this day in 1899 Alfred Mosher Butts was born, the man who invented Scrabble in 1938. So, if you have ever enjoyed a good game of Scrabble, think a happy thought for Mr. Butts today. You can read more about Mr. Butts at Wikipedia. I think I'd like to get one of these giant outdoor Scrabble games: doesn't that look like fun?

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