Indian Epics

I chose to learn about Deskercise! This seemed super relevant for this last stretch of school, because I spend pretty much every second at various desks, studying and working. My back and neck are definitely the worse for it, so I thought learning about this would help. And it has! I read the Workout at Work article, which did a great job of outlining some simple exercises you can do without majorly disrupting anyone or your workday. I tried some of them, and it was great! I'll definitely keep these in mind as I enter full time work. These were two of my favorite stretches, and although they're apparently meant for people with arthritis , they'll be sure to help anyone reset and relax before getting back to being productive! 

I chose this topic for two reasons: 1. It's crunch time at the end of the semester so it seemed like a good point to try new things for time management. 2. Pomodoro is just a fun word. I decided to try an app called Focus for the Mac (not sure if it's available for other computer types), and I really like it! You can set different lengths of time for alternating work and break sessions, and I especially like it because it has the option to extend either one, sort of like a snooze button. So if you're really in the zone with work and don't want to stop the momentum, you just hit the snooze and it pushed back the reminder to take a break. This has been really helpful, especially when things for lots of different classes are due in one day. It's a good way to remind yourself to make sure you pay attention to everything and don't get completely lost in one assignment, neglecting the others.  I do want to buy a little tomato timer, though. I think that would ...

I was studying with a friend in my apartment while doing the Jataka Part C readings, and decided to read the stories aloud to her as I went. I have two younger siblings to whom I've read aloud in the past, and it's not something new to me, but this was the first time I had done it with stories that I would later have to write about. Reading aloud caused me to pay more attention to the details of the story, rather than just the overall theme and characters. It especially focused my attention on the dialogue and the important role it plays in story telling. Saying something in a certain tone or with certain inflection can totally change its meaning in the story, or at least have some influence over its perceived impact in the story. Reading aloud also forced me to slow down and enjoy the story more, as I had to go much more slowly than if I were just reading silently to myself. I really enjoyed reading the stories out loud, and will probably continue to do it in the future.