Indian Epics 2018

Out of all of the extra assignments, I have found the growth mindset challenges to be the most useful for my life. I always find myself to find the need to keep finding the motivation to improve myself. I tend to get stuck in the same ways that I always do things. This week I decided to look at an infographic. Since it is one of Doctor Gibbs favorites, I thought that it would be worth a look at. I always say "I don't know." One of the challenges that this poses is what do you do with that question. Do you stop there? Or do you keep moving from there? Do you find out more? From this lesson, I want to push myself to find the information myself. I am curious to see how far this idea of "I don't know" will go. The Power of I Don't Know ( source ).

Beginning Topic: Grand Trunk Road 1. Grand Trunk Road -This is the oldest and longest highway in Asia. I started with this road because it is interesting to see it's importance to India. 2. Chandragupta Maurya -I chose this link because I have never heard of him before. He (reign: 321–298 BCE) was the founder of the  Maurya Empire  in ancient India. 3.  Maurya Empire -Again, I have not heard of this empire before, so it was interesting to learn more about Indian history. This empire was important because it was the largest to exist in their history. ( Source ) 4. Largest Empires -This sparked my interest to see which nation had the largest empire to exist. The largest was the British Empire.

What a semester! This will be one of my final blog posts for the semester. How did the time go by so quickly? I am honored to have had the chance to meet all of you in both my Indian Epics section and the section for mythology. I have spent this final week catching up on some of the final points and assignments that I have been lacking. I have realized my portfolio finally came together at the end. It was really interesting to go back and reread what I have written back at the beginning of the semester and see how it has transformed in the revision process. I want to thank everyone who commented on my portfolio because your comments really did help me become a better writer. (Personal Photo of Me in Heidelberg, Germany on May 1, 2018) As for my life outside of class this week, I have been super busy (like always haha). My aunt surprised me in Heidelberg. I was not expecting her to come to Europe while I was here. I had a really nice time showing her around my city. We also deci...

This week I watched: Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir, "Fly to Paradise"  This video, in my opinion, was a great way to get the semester. It was really cool to see the influence of technology on the choir. The song has nothing to do with Rama, but it is an ending to a great semester. I hope you all have an amazing summer vacation!   In the blog feed this week, the sand art also stood out to me. I wish I could create something like this! India Item.  From the amazing sand artist  Sudarsan Pattanaik , Hanuman sand art:

( source ) If you can't tell by the image, I took a look at Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences . The concept is that humans can have different types of intelligence. For example, I could be good at one thing, but not at another. This is an important concept to grasp because we often forget that we have our own talents. So, if I were to fail at math, that doesn't mean that I am a complete failure. It simply means that I need to find something else that I could be good it.

Hey Everyone! This is my last tech tip for the semester. I decided to learn about Diigo. I have actually never heard of this before starting the class. I started to play with the extension a couple of weeks ago. Now, I will never go back. I cannot imagine life without all of my bookmarks. This past week, I have created the account (which is really easy to do). I will attach the instructions below if any of you are interested in creating your own account. Overall, I would suggest to get it because it just adds more organization to the mess of online sources. To Create Your Own Account Click HERE

Hey Everyone! This week I decided to get connected and download the Canvas App. I have attended OU for the past four years and I have seen the transition to Canvas. At first it was hard, but now I like the platform compared to D2L. For some reason, I never knew that they had an app. If you are a nerd like I am, I check my grades and assignments constantly. After downloading the app, I found it very easy to use. I highly recommend getting the app, if you use canvas as much as I do.

Title : Seven Secrets of the Goddess Author : Devdutt Pattanaik Year : 2016 Source Chapter 2.1 Kali's Secret "Nature is Indifferent to Human Gaze" -Kali is a part of Hindu mythology -Devi worship -Devotion to gods is important -Kali's tongue is seen as wisdom and shame -Woman are more put together -Wild vs Tame -Stories of long tounges -Long lives, happiness, and wealth -Sumita tries to kill Dirgha during sex -Buddism reject impulses -Puranas can be found in the epics -Goddess with flames for hair; rage and violence -Kali is a goddess that is very primal Chapter 2.2 -Kali is seen standing or sitting on Shiva -Sex and Violence -Popular -Women are sexually liberated -The woman is seen to be on top of the man during intercourse -But, sex is to reproduce -Compassion to Buddha -Everything is controlled -The human ability to be sensitive -'Everything and everyone has a soul that needs to be respected' ...

Time went by so fast this week. My semester in Germany finally started. I am so excited it is nice to see the city full of students for the semester. I will take a class on Digital Religions and another class to learn German. I am ready to get back in a normal routine again. How are we already at week 13? It is crazy to think how fast time has gone. I have gained more knowledge of Indian epics this week through the reading of the Jataka tales. I like reading these short stories because they sound like a children's story. So, they are very easy to understand and you are able to pull out a moral or lesson for the reading. I also started to read the stories from the other online class for Mythology. It is really cool to be able to meet the other students. Having an introduction page has been one of the biggest highlights of this class because there are so many people from different backgrounds. It is also interesting to be able to see how all of the projects are starting to wrap up. ...

This week I will pick a moto that I live by. ( cheezburger ) I picked to live fearlessly every day because it takes a lot of courage and effort to do something out of the ordinary. So, I must remind myself to live by this.

Here are some other stories that I enjoyed reading this week: Source 1. The Penny-Wise Monkey -The monkey stole peas -He dropped one on the ground -He gave up everything to get that one pea -The king said that he should be grateful for what he did have, "he gave up a lot to gain a little" 2. The Hawks and their Friends -Family of Hawks -The north part of the island: Lion, south: turtle, east: Kingfisher -The Hawks are in trouble -Hunters came and settled under the hawk nest -The turtle came to help, but the hunters tried to eat him -The lion came and scared away the hunters -"friends are friends" 3. Prince Wicked and the Grateful Animals -The Prince was cruel -The people tried to let the prince drown in the river -The prince could not be found -The prince was taken downstream -The prince was on a log with 3 animals -A poor man saw the prince and animals in the water -The poor man saved them -The animals and the prince told the man that i...

To wrap up this week, I will create my famous last words post. I find this assignment a good way to reflect what I have done with the week and what new information I have learned. I really enjoyed the reading this week. For me, I am able to retain more of the story from tales versus reading the epics themselves. After reading the different tales, I picked my top 3. The "Top 3 Readings" method has been very useful for my writing because I am able to go back and refer to the details to create my own story. I am looking forward to writing a new story for my portfolio next week. I feel that, as the semester is coming to an end, my writing style has started to improve. I still make mistakes, but it is getting better. As for my life in Germany, this week has been great. I finished up the first month of my German language course. I am so happy that I am finally able to say a few words in German. I was even able to have a short conversation in German the other day. It is nice to se...

This week I will explore growth mindset through cat memes. 1. Source I picked this image because it is so important to understand why things the way they are so you can improve yourself. 2. Source Self-improvement comes from recognizing what you are doing wrong. So, you need to take a good look in the mirror to grow your own mindset. 3. Source Learning is messy. This meme could not be truer. If it was perfect, you wouldn't be able to grow and learn.

Youtube has become such an important outlet in today's society. So, it only makes sense to utilize Youtube within the assignments of this course. I have not used a Youtube video for any of my assignments for this class because I never knew it was an option. But, I will start finding videos in the future! I would recommend embedding a video to your posts because, not only is it fun, but it helps the reader understand your topic in a different way. For more information about how to embed a Youtube video to your blog, please refer you this page . Here is a video just for fun! I hope you enjoy :)

Top 3 Readings of Part B: EXTRA CREDIT Source 1.  The Wise and Foolish Merchant -A Merchant bought goods to sell -A younger merchant was going to sell the same -One of the merchants had to travel first -The foolish merchant went first -The old merchant thought it was better for the young one to go to create a better path for him -The demon was going to take the fool merchants water -The wise merchant comes to save the day and is able to make it to town 2. The King's White Elephant -The carpenters live near a river and get lumber every day -They saw an injured elephant -They helped it -The elephant would stay and help them -The elephant's son also helped the carpenters -The kind bought the elephant 3. Why the Owl Is Not King of the Birds - Owls vs Crows -The owl was chosen as the king of the birds -But the crows didn't like that choice -They became enemies -The birds decided to not pick either Title : Jataka Tales Author : Ellen C. Babbitt ...

This week, I was finally able to read the last sections for Mahabharata. It took so many weeks for me to be able to wrap up the story, but I am so glad that I did. I really ended up enjoying the ending. It felt that there were no open ends left to talk about. Although I did not enjoy this epic as much as the stories of Rama, it was still entertaining to read.  Outside of working on my website, this week I ran into a website of another student in our class. Although I cannot remmeber her name, it has such a nice layout. It gave me inspiration in the formatting that I should use for my future stories for my porfolio.  These past weeks, my German language lecture finally started. For the past three weeks, I have taken a lot of time to study German. When I first arrived in Germany, I could not speak anything. Now, I am able to have a small conversation. It is crazy to see how much progress I made in a matter of weeks. I am really excited and motivated to learn German. The midd...

Going back to the meaning of growth mindset, one version of the definition is to stay open to new ideas or different ways of thinking to improve your own mindset. Since I like to travel, there are times when I am ignorant of different cultures because I have never had the chance to interact with people from that country. Each time I travel somewhere new, I try and take in a new culture by trying to understand why the people there act the way that they do. This in the future helps me grow my personal mindset and take down my personal stereotype that I had. Source

This is arguably one of the most important tech tips out there. An online bookmark is so important when taking an online lecture, or even a lecture on campus. When looking up resources, you can simply save your source or webpage to a folder to look at it again later. I personally have a "college" folder on my Google Chrome Brower. This folder holds more files for each of my classes during the semester. It makes it so easy to navigate to refer back to old webpages for the course. I would recommend to create a subfolder for each class. This will save a lot of time to find what webpage you are looking for. If you are unclear how to make a bookmark on your browser, please click the link for more information.

EXTRA CREDIT ASSIGNMENT My Top 2 Readings from Part D from the Public Domain Edition of  Mahabharata : 1. Horse Sacrifice -The wandering of the horses have ended - Yudhishthira was pure -   Arjuna  and Arjuna's Son brought a horse -12 days after the arrival, there was a big ceremony -They bathed in the Ganes -There was a sacred alter -Animals were scaraficed -Kings and other royals were to be blessed -They were to sarfice a horse  - "Pure indeed is the horse; verily the gods will accept the sacrifice. Strike now, O strong one." -The horse was very pure and full of "light" -For Vishnu This story was nice because it described a ritual. It was intresting to see the importance of horses or what it defined as "pure" in the epic.  Source   Source .  Indian Myth and Legend  by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913). 2. The Afterlife -The final section - Yudhishthira reachs complete bliss - Duryodhana  has the throne -Ev...

---I missed the Part B Reading for this week. So, I will use this assignment as my extra credit reading.--- My Top 3 Readings from Part B from the Public Domain Edition of  Mahabharata : Source 1. The House of Fire - Prince  Duryodhana  was plotting against  Prince  Vidura   -Vidura's mom was a slave -Could not rule the kingdom - Prince Yudhishthira and his brothers were in danger - Prince Duryodhana was trying to kill Yudhishthira -Vidura came up with a plan to dig a hole in the place for everyone to escape from a fire - Prince Bhima set fire to the house, killing  the guard and Purochana -The fire accidentally killed a poor woman and her children This story, so far, has been the most interesting for me. I liked how this section had action and a moral to it as well. Although the fire could have been seen as a good act, they were just being played by evil. Innocent people lost their lives, while everyone though...