Spring 2021

 I loved reading the Jatakas this week because they reminded me of tales that I read as a child. I also am very fond of stories that contain animals due to the way they are whimsical and fun to read. My favorite story in this Part A was How the Turtle Saved His Own Life. This story contains all the elements of a classic children's story. It starts out with excited children who turn out to be quite naive and think that the turtle is a demon. Then, the adults must be naive as well because they do not know what a turtle is either and begin to plot ways to destroy the "demon". And, lastly, after the men plot many horrid deaths, one idea is given to throw the turtle into the lake. When the turtle hears this he acts as if it is the worst idea of all while he knows that this is his perfect plan of escape and they will take him right back to his home in the river.  Turtle from Wikimedia Commons My second favorite story was The Turtle Who Couldn't Stop Talking. I don't kno...

 This weeks story on the Mahabharata was very interesting and unique. I enjoyed reading from the author Kincaid and found him to be different from some of the other authors I have encountered in this course. My favorite story in this section of reading was The Adventures of Prince Arjuna. Prince Arjuna is boy who embodies all the characteristics of what you would imagine a young prideful prince to have. The following sentence structure is one that I think would be good to come back to and use as it is different than my usual writing. "But Prince Arjuna, in the pride of his youth and courage, laughed at their warning, and, stripping off his garments, he plunged into the cool waters of the river." This sentence makes good use of commas, which is something that I am not always great at, and it also does a good job of painting a picture in the readers mind. Kincaid continued on using great imagery in the way that he depicts Prince Arjuna's dreams and visions. I think in addin...

 I never realized that there were so many different things that I had the ability to add or remove from my profile on blogger. I configured my site to show author name as well as profile when looking at my page. I made all the changes to my profile to make it more unique for me.

 So far in the course, I am a little ahead of where we are to be to keep on track. I am only about a week a head. However, I found last semester it was really nice to finish up ahead of schedule and not have to worry about as much at the end of the semester. I am hoping to work and get ahead in the next week or two. I am proud of where I am at due to the stress and workload of this semester. I would like to be more ahead but at this point I am glad I am not behind. I do think that I can do better in the second half of the semester at keeping a better schedule and staying on track better each week. I want to work to get most of my assignments out of the way at beginning of the week instead of the end. Motivation from iStock

 So far, I think that my blog and website page are coming along pretty well. I enjoy the layouts of both and have had fun tweaking them and trying out different things. I also think that working to change up the overall theme will help me to have a better project in the end. Writing began to be kind of difficult when I narrowed down my topics so much and hit some writer's block. My favorite readings so far have been those about the Ramayana. I don't think the reading notes have helped me too much so far just because I have been looking at them from one perspective and wasn't seeing it. I think now that I am going to use different outlooks I can go back and reuse these notes for new stories. Ramayana from Snappy Goat This picture is one of my favorites because of the characters it depicts from the Ramayana. Moving forward, I know that my project is just going to keep getting better and better. I am really excited to see how it turns out.

 For Part D of the Mahabharata Notes I actually switched up which version I was reading. The public domain version ended up being much easier for me to read as I realized the other was more of a condensed overview and was why I was so lost. Most of the stories contained in part D gave me visions of Africa, particularly Egypt. Particularly, the story The Mongoose made me think of Bible times in Egypt when there was a great famine. I think this story is one that could be changed into a love story where the god in this story could be a king or princess. When after the whole family has given up their small portion of food and the feeble daughter gladly gives her portion over to their guest, that is when the family realizes it was their ruler. The ruler is so grateful for his kind servants that he takes the daughter as his wife and brings the whole family into the palace where they have all the food their hearts desire. One thing that would need to change is that the young girl be the ...

 The Mahabharata Part C was once again very interesting to read. These stories are unlike any I have ever read before and I am amazed at the different things I am learning each and every week. Once again I am captivated by just how many different characters are contained within each part of this whole story. I have never been much good at writing a story with more than three or so main characters and just a few supporting characters. Throughout this one section there are more than twenty characters who play a role in the story in some way. I want to be able to better incorporate this into my own Story book with the Looney Tunes characters. However, I am having trouble keeping all their different personalities and characteristics straight and correct throughout the entirety of my project. Some of the individual little stories contained within the Mahabharata are also somewhat more violent and dark than what I am use from the perspective of the Looney Tunes. I think this would defini...

 This past week was super busy and eventful. It is crazy to me that we are almost to the halfway mark of this Spring semester. That is so bittersweet to me as a senior. I feel as if I just started my college career yesterday and somehow the past four years happened in the blink of an eye. This past week however I was accepted into the University of Oklahoma College of Law! Norman will not be getting rid of me to fast! I cannot wait to spend the next three years here and I know that they will fly by just as fast as the last four. It has been so stressful waiting to hear back and know that I am official in and so that was a huge weight off my chest. The week also ended with one of my bosses telling me that he was going to give me a raise! And finding a new house here in Norman to sign a lease on for next year, another big stressor gone.  I was able to finish the week enjoying the beautiful Spring weather we are finally being able to experience here in Oklahoma after all the cold...

 This week I watched a video of a rendition of Bob Marley's "One Love". I love music and super popular songs like this that have been remade are really interesting to me. I enjoy hearing a different artists take on the same song. This picture also stood out to me because I often catch myself spewing questions when I should maybe sit and ponder what the answer is on my own. Asking Questions by Grant Snider

 This week I decided to spruce up the look and feel of my blog. The background photo I have chosen is of the sunset and gives off a very chill vibe. I really recommend personalizing your blog to make it reflect yourself and your writing style better.

 I found part B of the Mahabharata to be just as interesting and enjoyable to read as I did part A. However, for me it was somewhat difficult to follow along with all of the different characters. On the other hand I feel like it might be due to how much time I spend trying to pronounce the names correctly and not knowing if I am right or wrong. On the other hand, I think because I am using the Looney Tunes as the basis of my Project, that these stories may carry with them lot of ideas on how to incorporate a plethora of characters all at once. Throughout this Part B, I realized how the characters names are recited over and over again in order to help make them familiar in the reader's mind. It also helps to try and keep things right in the reader's mind by not using many pronouns such as he, she, his and her and instead used the individuals names. On pg. 55 and pg. 66 the first game of dice and the second are both ones that I could see using the Looney Tunes in place of the ori...

 I really enjoyed reading Mahabharata Part A. This is a new and unique reading style and I thought it was very interesting. The way in which the story continues on fluently is different. I feel like it is different that most things I have read because it almost used characters as if they were disposable. The story flows on without much of a specific character staying present. While at the same time, the characters are all linked and connected in one way or another. I found the part about the way in which children were born with difficulties based off of what their parents had done to be a unique twist. I think that this would be an interesting twist that I can use for my own storybook. Obviously, the Looney Tunes are not having kids but the characters could do something that comes back and punishes them. Mahabharata from Picryl

  I enjoyed checking this site out. My father is a programmer/web designer and he always has been about using alternative sites to Google. I personally find myself only really using Google but could see how it would be useful to use others as well. This site is one that I have never seen though. I really liked it and will definitely use it again.