Reading Notes: Krishna and Shishupala

“For he is destined to die only at the hands of the one born to slay him” this makes it seem like Krishna’s role (or one of his purposes) was to kill Shishupala. This would fit into the Jaya-Vijaya interpretation of these incarnations. Shishupala was a three eyed and four armed baby born to Krishna’s aunt. I think that it’s very interesting how excited Krishna is to see Shishupala and this familial connection will cause problems. Krishna will know that he must kill Shishupala but is forcing him to grow and grants the boon because of this.

Just like the others, Shishupala will get very mad at Vishnu, and stealing Rukmini is a good place to start. Krishna takes Rukmini away from Shishupala at his wedding day. Rukmi and Shishupala go after Krishna and their armies battle. Krishna, however, can’t attack Shishupala there because of the boon. Krishna and Rukmini get away and Shishupala goes back to Jarasandha’s capital. He then offends the Yadavas but Krishna still can’t do anything about it.

Jarasandha dies and they blame it on the Pandavas. When Yudhistira chooses to bless Krishna, Shishupala flips out. It’s important that Krishna pardons Shishupala 100 times so that after 100, he can kill Shishupala. He also knows that it is his destiny to kill Shishupala.

Second half of the story is all about Shalva.

Krishna kills Shishupala

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Bibliography:

Krishna and Shishupala by Kamala Chandrakant, Ram Waeerkar, and Anant Pai. 

Week 12 Lab: Ted-Ed Videos

How languages evolve: I actually really like this video and think that it actually meets its title very well. The concept of languages slowly changing over time is very similar to how biological evolution would occur which is what makes this so cool. Evolution doesn’t only occur with living things, but can affect anything. So long as it’s given enough time to change. The language tree is also very similar to how some species are related to each other with a phylogenetic tree. Just as we try to link and differentiate between species, we try to do the same with languages.

Are Elvish, Klingon, Dothraki, and Na’vi real languages?: I had no idea that these languages were actual “real” languages. They are actual functioning languages because of their grammatical construction, instead of the words they contain. The video has a deeper look into what makes a language, a language. Different characteristics were listed but the fictional conlangs hit those points. Tolkien sounds like he covered all his bases so that Elvish could hypothetically be used.


How to use a semicolon: This is a good video for me because my semicolon usage is subpar. I knew that a semicolon could probably be used in a situation but I was never sure so we stuck with less compact punctuation. I always forget the differences between semicolons and colons, but now I like to think of semicolons as just commas on steroids. They do very similar things but are just much better at doing it. Instead of using a comma and conjunction, the ‘roided out semicolon can do it by itself. The embedded video is from "Semicolon" by The Lonely Island. It might be explicit at times, but it really shows the frustrations of semicolon usage.

Reading Notes: Kubera: The Lord of Wealth

Vishrava and Kubera are some sort of brahmin because Trinabindu was a sage and had an ashram. It’s confusing when some stories mention the time that it takes to accomplish some tasks. It took Kubera a thousand years to complete his penances so it affects the flow of the story in my view. Kubera, of course, could withstand the thousand years because, well, Brahma was his great grandfather. I’m not sure if an ordinary person in these times are every depicted as living that long.

The lineage of Ravana is long and confusing as it leads back to Brahma through Sumali. This story does show why Sumali wanted Ravana to dethrone Kubera and take Lanka. It’s because he always wanted Lanka back after Vishnu took it from him. Unfortunately for him, Vishnu is gonna take it from his grandson again. I didn’t know this, but Ravana actually defeats an attacking Kubera and then takes the Pushpak Vimana. However, this story doesn’t talk about Shiva protecting Kubera so they may just be different versions. Then Kubera is still alive at the end when Rama defeats Ravana and gets the Pushpak vimana back.

Kubera, the god of wealth

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Bibliography:

Kubera: The Lord of Wealth by Nimmy Chacko, Sundara Moorthy and Reena Ittyerah Pai

Reading Notes: Tales of Shiva

I like how you get introduced right in the middle of the Mahabharata’s story with the Pandavas in exile. This is the penance that Arjuna performed for Shiva, but it is interesting that it had such an effect on the forest. The reward from the penances came not from Arjuna’s direct doing, but from the sages begging Shiva to stop the penances. It’s good that Shiva is testing Arjuna because Brahma seems to just hand out celestial power like it’s candy.

Finally we get to see the main characters, who are either demigods or avatars, be manhandled by someone like they do to everyone else. Not that it isn’t fun to see the good guy win, but the bad guys never stood a chance. It’s just nice to see that Arjuna and others can be put down, granted it did take Shiva to do it.

Shiva’s exile of Parvati is similar to Rama’s of Sita. They both push away their wives even though their wives loved them like crazy. What a name that the fisherman picked for Parvati… So nice that they are back together. My only question is, does Parvati know about marrying Shiva from before? Because she is gonna be mad when she finds out.

Shiva’s power as one of the Trimurti can be seen as he saves Markandeya. Yama kneels and begs forgiveness from Shiva while they are both gods. This shows how much higher Shiva is than the other gods, except maybe Brahma and Vishnu.

Shiva and Arjuna fight

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Bibliography:

Tales of Shiva by Subba Rao, C.M. Vitankar, and Anant Pai

Tech Tip: Weather Widget

Hey everybody! I created a weather widget on my blog with DarkSky. The tech tip shows you how to use Accuweather, but they are actually changing up their weather widget so the site is down. However, the steps are pretty much the exact same with DarkSky, so follow the tech tip, use your noggin', and you'll have a weather widget in no time.

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Famous Last Words: MCAT = Over (...for now)

Boy this was a long week/weekend. Luckily, the beginning of the week wasn't too bad as I was able to get the reading in here done pretty early. This opened up my studying for my molecular biology test that was supposed to be on Friday but was moved up to Thursday. All because I had that little MCAT on Friday all the way in Tulsa. So basically I tried to finish up all my work in other classes so that I could study for that biology test, so that I could take the big one. On Thursday, unfortunately, I was taking a rest day before the test so I basically did nothing. Included in this nothing was my story post because I thought about doing it really quick but also was in a relaxation head space. Therefore, I kinda didn't do it. But, we are doing a little bit of extra credit right now to try and balance that off. I even had a pretty good story idea. Maybe I'll use that for one of the free weeks.

Now I wouldn't say that last Friday was one of my favorite Fridays ever. Getting up a 6 am to take a career defining test that isn't very easy does not match my definition of fun. Sitting down in a chair answering question after question is also no fun, especially when it's for seven hours. For a good amount of people who are in this class, they can probably relate. It seems like it worked out for them for the most part. I walked out halfway defeated, halfway optimistic and it took me the rest of the weekend to want to start doing things again. But we are back now and doing okay. Now I am looking forward to a nice, easy week and then Game of Thrones on Sunday. 

My feeling now. Slightly sarcastic thumbs up!

Pixabay

Week 11 Review

I decided to use this cute corgi (pretty sure it's a corgi) graphic because it makes me feel good, but also slightly sad. The cute doggy is very happy and it being so nice to me because it will eat all my homework. I don't want to do homework so that's nice. However, I know that the doggy can't eat my homework so that's sad.

Online Course Assignments

For my video I watched Why We Worship Trees from Epified's YouTube channel. It's pretty interesting that trees are worshiped like they are considering each tree has been given a different purpose. It makes me wonder how this tradition was started, and how they knew that trees were important for the sustainability of life. It would be very interesting to see if these practices are still used today.