Indian Epics

I loved this picture, and wish I had seen it sooner! It's got so many awesome character ideas that I never would have even thought of. Definitely saving it for future creative writing endeavors. For my video, I watched Brene Brown's video about Empathy.   I really liked what she had to say, because although I knew that empathy and sympathy are vastly different and have different effects, I did not know that sympathy actually causes a disconnection. I had always thought of it as just having less of a connection than empathy. She said there are four elements:  1. Perspective taking - seeing something from their perspective 2. Staying out of judgement - making sure you don't pass any judgement onto the person 3. Recognizing emotion in other people - you're not the only one who feels things 4. Communicating - letting them know that you know they're going through something, and you're there to listen. It stuck out to me that the point of every conver...

This class has been surprising in so many wonderful ways, but I think the best of all for me as I reflect on the stories I've written in this and past weeks is that I discovered I can write creatively. I took writing classes throughout high school, but only a Business Writing class in college. I definitely more readily enjoy more analytical writing, but I think that's only because I haven't had very many creative writing outlets. With Laura's encouragement, I was somehow able to relate Wonder Woman, a modern superhero (and quite frankly a most deserving icon) to ancient Indian folklore. And it was fun! And I was kinda good at it! No one was more surprised than I was. I had major writer's block at the beginning of the semester, but reading so many creative, interpretive stories by our classmates showed me that you can really do whatever you want with creative writing and it turns into something fun to read once you start having fun writing it. Choosing to write abo...

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 read: A New Study Explains the Right Way (and the Wrong Way) to Praise Your Kid I chose this article because I have young siblings, and am so very proud of them for pretty much just existing. I want to make sure that when I praise them, it's constructive and doesn't lead to any unhealthy mindsets, but actually contributes to their health and growth as the wonderful little humans they are. This is a picture I took of the two BEST and CUTEST humans on this Earth. Otherwise known as my little siblings :)  While the article did not go into as much detail as I would have hoped as far as practical ways to praise children constructively, I have to assume that it's because each child and each situation is unique. The gist of it was that praise should be reflective of reality, not exaggerated or withheld for motivation. Children can sense when praise is being intentionally overdone or withheld, and both have a negative effect on their academic performance, as well as thei...

I decided to do the Tech Tip about a Featured Post because I haven't done that much to really personalize my blog at all, and I thought it might be helpful for people finishing up the semester and trying to find new Introductions to comment on if I had my Intro featured. I'm still not super comfortable with navigating Blogger and setting up a customized layout, but the one I have has been working pretty well and has a clean and navigable feel, so I'm not too unhappy about it. Otherwise, I really like navigating with Blogger - the creation process is pretty straightforward.

I started this trail by trying to see if I could get from the general topic of Hindu Mythology to one of the specific stories I wrote about, or maybe even Wonder Woman. I couldn't quite get there in four clicks, but I still got to read some pretty interesting things. First, Hindu Mythology : The article recognizes that a predominant characteristic of Hindu (or Indian) Mythology is how all of the stories have so many different manifestations and are influenced by so many different things. The dominant school of thought at that point in history, who translated the story, whether it was written or passed on orally - all of these are factors in the sometimes wildly different stories about the same characters. These were some pretty sketches of unnamed stories on the Hindu Mythology page.  Next, I got to Proto-Indo-European Mythology : This page gave a very interesting history of the origins of mythology that Western-raised people might be more familiar with. It does a good...

Visvametra refusing to give up his asceticism, despite a beautiful goddess being sent to try and convince him to enjoy life. The gods feared that his determination would eventually give him power over them. The first of the stories for this reading was "Sabala, The Sacred Cow." Not to start out too critically, but the story begins with a very generous and successful king being unhappy because his life and kingdom were too peaceful, and he didn't have anyone to fight with. Of all the silly things. And then when he tries to put together an army, everyone flocks to his side and he actually has to go and try to find someone to pick a fight with. I really liked one piece of wisdom from this story, said by the stage with whom the cow lives: "There is no credit in virtue which is not assaulted by temptation." While it is said in the context of the king trying to come up with reasons for the sage to give up his holy cow, it still holds a lot of wisdom. Another ...

Update: This story has been added and edited to my portfolio site here . Diana landed over the wall, her bracelets up and ready to protect her from the bullets of the many guards she thought would be patrolling the grounds. But as she looked around, there was no one to be found - where was everyone? She warily started towards the mansion, an uneasy feeling in her stomach as she got closer and closer. This was too easy.... All of a sudden, right as she got within about ten feet of being able to peer into one of the mansion windows, alarms started blaring! She looked around to see where they were coming from and to find a point of entry so she could find Steve before the guards got to her. The less fighting necessary, the better. Jumping behind some bushes under a large window, she was just about to walk around to the back of the house to find a door, when she saw a man running as fast as he could down the hill away from the house. One second later, she realized it was Steve. Sprinting...

This will be the last of my reading notes on Nine Ideal Indian Women, so I'll be going over the last stories about Damayanti and Uttara, but mostly just talking about the book as a whole and wrapping up my thoughts about it. Damayanti was the miracle daughter of a maharajah who had not had children for most of his life. A phrase that I really loved in the beginning of the story that described his happiness all blighted by this one sorrow of being childless:      "A crumpled leaf lay in his bed of roses, and whichever way he turned he felt it, for no child had come to bless his manhood and his whole being yearned for the joy of hearing the name of father fall from baby lips" (page 175). I loved that quote because it was the most poetic and graceful way of showing the sorrow of being childless I had seen out of all of the multiple instances in the stories I've read throughout the semester.  This story was also more poetic than most of the others throughout. It remin...

The story of Sita is the longest in this book at 43 pages, so this post will be solely about her story. As of the first page, I already have a few thoughts. First, this is the first story in this particular book that is broken up into sections, and from what I can tell, they're all indicative of the author's breakdown of the phases in Sita's life. Second, I had no idea what Sita's origin was. All of the stories I've read about her so far only tell her story relative to Rama, so I'm glad I found this book so that I could read about her in her own story. In this version of her origin, her maharajah father found her in a golden pitcher while plowing a field, which I thought was quite fascinating. All of this and I'm only through the first paragraph... It also makes me happy that in this story, Sita was the first child, essentially adopted, and then three sisters were born who were the biological children of the king and queen, but there was no bad blood. The ...