Epic Observations About Indian...Epics.

In 6 Bad Mental Habits that Sabotage Your Success, the author constructs her advice well. Rather than just saying what you  are doing wrong, which I have seen some authors do and just leave it at that, she gently encourages the reader to be positive in concrete ways. She suggests making an extra effort to focus on what you can do rather than what you can't or what's holding you back. She suggests being less harsh with yourself by talking to yourself like you do your good friends, which is something I learned to do not too long ago. It helps immensely. The author seems to understand that you can't just throw ideas at people and make them figure out how to enact them. It helps to be helpful. The author does this in the way that she points out problems and offers simple, concrete solutions. In Recalibrating the Perfectionist Mind , though it is after a longer description, the author of this article also begins to offer solutions to letting go of perfectionism, such as makin...

Nagini: Naga seem like they're kind of like the snake version of a centaur. There's a lot of really great sculpture that features them. It'd be interesting to do something from the perspective of a Nagini, which is a female Naga. I'm not sure exactly what the premise would be, but so far, the core idea I've been toying with is putting together a tumblr blog for a specific character, surrounding the four main stories with aesthetic posts and other reblogs to make the blog seem more realistic. It seems like their depictions vary between good and evil, and it could be interesting to explore that. Goddess: It would also be interesting to put together a blog from the perspective of a goddess. Vaishno Devi , the goddess of the hills, looks like an interesting character. There's even a comic about her, so maybe I could utilize some of those photos in her tumblr blog. It seems like she's a mother goddess, so maybe she could run an advice blog. There's also T...

"I bet you won't do it." Buddy frowned at Devon. Devon was always taunting him, trying to get him to do things he shouldn't. He hugged too hard, and he even tried to bite him once. Buddy tried to play nice, but it was hard sometimes. Today, Devon was trying to goad Buddy into picking flowers from the house on the end of the street. All the kids on the block were scared of the house on the end of the street. It was dark, with an overgrown garden, and it had a tall wire fence around it to keep people out. It took up the entire end of the cul-de-sac. All of the kids used to just avoid it, but ever since someone had realized they could squeeze through the fence, now all of the kids dared each other to sneak onto the property to ring the doorbell or pick flowers from the garden. "You're just scared." "No I'm not," Buddy replied in his most grown-up voice. "It's just that my Mommy says I can't." "Buddy's scared!...

Rabbit : The foolish and the wise, and the perils of not distinguishing between them. Turtle : One turtle takes advantage of the lack of knowledge found in others. The other turtle is foolish, and cannot stand the mockery of others, and it causes his death. Crane and Crab : Bit dark. Crane eats all the fish, then the crab chops his head off. Yet another trickster tale. Monkey : Crocodile tries to eat the monkey by drowning him in the river. Monkey tells him his heart is in a tree. Crocodile has no heart to give his wife. The monkey is Buddha. Crocodile : The crocodile pretends to be a rock, and the monkey Buddha knows how tall all the rocks are. Crocodiles close their eyes when they open their mouths. Lotus : The ogre carries the monkey Buddha's flowers because the monkey Buddha is the most cleverest. Devadatta is the one that always tries to kill him. Unruly Monks : If you're an unruly deer, you die. If you're a rooster and you don't crow at the right times, yo...

So we're supposed to look through some of the readings. It feels a bit different, flipping ahead. I don't think I've done this before in any other classes. There are a lot of options to consider. I'll probably skip most of the audio and video options, honestly. All the audiobooks I've ever tried to listen to have moved way too slow. That may just be because I'm used to moving through stories a bit more quickly. So I know that ahead of time.  I think one story I'm really looking forward to is Sita, Promila, and Shakuntala . It sounds like it focuses on the women of the story, which is something I'm intrigued by. And the picture is of a cool lady on a horse with a sword, so I like that too. In week 9, I'm a bit torn. Savitri, Damayanti, Sati, and Uttara sounds fascinating, but so does the more in-depth telling of Krishna's life . I do so love stories about women, but backstories are fun too. Either way, it'll be fun to be reading new st...

I'm looking forward to the open layout of this class. This, paired with the fact that my Neustadt class doesn't actually meet every week, means I already have set time to work ahead. I'll be working ahead as much as possible so that the end of the semester is easier. It's like Jory Mackay says, sometimes you just have to focus on starting. Granted, he says it in a much more complicated way that is meant to motivate, but essentially, I just need to start. That's what I'm going to try to keep in mind for this class. And though it may not be quite as relevant for the organization of this class, I think the three rules that Joynicole Martinez outlines for recapturing your time will be helpful to me for the semester at large. I have to prioritize. I have to focus. I'm considering starting a notebook for my first fifteen minutes so that I have proof for myself that I've been focusing on goals. I'm not good at goals, but goals are good for me, so I think th...

Most of these technology sources that we'll be utilizing seem pretty familiar. Most of them are things that I've used just by virtue of growing up on and alongside the internet. I suppose it will just be a matter of making sure all the different things come together smoothly to produce cohesive content. Though I have used these things, I haven't really used them for a class before; my other online class was more firmly rooted in Canvas, and included a lot less creation and creativity. This will be a unique experience, and I look forward to it. Holding paw by wanderingchiara

It looks like there will be a lot to do this semester! I don't mean that in a bad way. It seems like more variety than quantity, if that makes sense. I think the only thing that feels a little bit tedious is all the blog posts. I feel like I'm running out of things to say, or saying the same thing over and over again, but I assume that will change once we get into the actual reading material. So I'm ready to go! Let's get into the nitty-gritty! Running Cats by Andrew Skudder

I am the queen of the comfort zone. I like things I'm good at. I'd rather not look stupid or fall down. I don't know where it came from. I just remember crying back in grade school when I didn't get an A. It's gotten better in college. I'm not so obsessed with perfection. But I think I could really benefit from a growth mindset. To be fair, most of my "I do this because I'm good at it" activities are crafts, so those are comforting things. I do enjoy reading books about things I don't know about. Maybe that's where I'll start enacting a growth mindset. I checked out The Little Book of Hygge at the library, and I enjoyed that new experience and that new knowledge, so maybe that will be my first goal, checking out books to learn new things. I can't wait to see what other ideas we're presented with throughout the semester. Delight in Meandering   By Laura Gibbs Failure Teaches You to Deal with Disappointment By Laura ...

Hi, my name is Rachel, and I'm an English major. (pause for "Hi, Rachel.") It has been two weeks since someone rolled their eyes and/or cringed at my major. It's been 4 hours since someone asked if I was gonna be a teacher. That question probably doesn't bother people who plan to be teachers. I commend those people. I'm not that brave. I'd rather sit alone and edit things. That's my idea of a good time. Especially if I have a lot of extra time to read. Speaking of books, I love them. I'd love to ramble for hours about books. They're great. I especially recommend Three Dark Crowns, my most recent read; the trilogy that begins with A Court of Thorns and Roses, one of my all time favorites; and the Infernal Devices trilogy, which ripped my heart out and still hasn't given a sizable chunk of it back. My taste in television is a bit less exciting. I've watched Friends at least three times this summer. The series, not an episode. So, yeah, I...

I'm so looking forward to creating a storybook. I wasn't quite sure what that might entail, but looking at the examples from past years has me so excited. The first one that caught my eye was Gossip Girl Ayodhya . It was a throwback, though maybe not as far back as it would be for some people, since I bingewatched it for the first time on Netflix during my sophomore year of college. I don't have any experience with Indian Epics, so none of the references make sense, but I figure once we start reading, things will start to click into place. The posts, even though the characters were new to me, were so classically Gossip Girl, that it felt very familiar, and the site was very easy to navigate, so I liked that. There were also photos for each story, which enriched the experience. Barney's Epic India Playbook was very amusing. It once again took something that I was unfamiliar with and put it within parameters that I knew. It was quirky, and even had title pages i...

I love the rain. Now, you might be thinking, 'rain isn't a place.' You would be correct. But my favorite place is only my favorite place when it's raining. We used to live in a house on a thin corner lot. Our house was long and thin. Our backyard was long and thin. We had plenty of space to play, but we had to run from side to side in the backyard. The best thing about the backyard, though, was the huge covered porch. It was half as long as the house itself. It was a lovely place to get out of the sun, sure, but when it started raining, it became an oasis. The world gets smaller when it rains, and our back porch was the best example. The rain-darkened back fence occupied most of the horizon, and the drips of water were a cozy curtain. I would sit on the concrete in the middle of the porch with my knees pulled up to my chest for a chin rest, and I would savor the rain. It's magic, how things are brighter even though the sun is tucked behind the clouds. In those mom...

Here goes nothing! Here's to a fan - freaking - tastic semester!