Week 3 Story: The Twisted Brother

As Lakshmana watched Rama and Sita ride away, he knew that this couldn’t stand. Rama had convinced him earlier to give up his malintentions toward Kaikeyi and Dasaratha, but he only listened out of love and respect for his brother. Lakshmana roared, “14 years! …. 14 whole years! Rama’s place is on the throne, to lead the people of Ayodhya!” Of course family knows best so Lakshmana decided to do what he thought was best and take matters into his own hands.

If Rama did get anything through to Lakshmana, it was that violence was not the solution. So he headed off towards his father’s kopa gruha thinking about what Rama had said, “A word given is like an arrow it goes forward. You cannot recall it midway…”

“Bah! Maybe my father cannot take about his arrow, but how about I snatch it directly from the air!” Lakshmana muttered to himself. When he arrived at the kopa gruha, Lakshmana was adamant on convincing his stepmother, Kaikeyi, to reconsider he banishment and dethroning of Rama. By whatever means necessary, except for the area of violence which he could not let go of yet because of Rama.

Lakshmana burst into the room and said “Kaikeyi! I demand to discuss my brother’s banishment.” At this he noticed Dasaratha lying on the floor in too much sorrow to speak.

“What is there to discuss? Your father gave me his word for a boon many years ago and now I have requested it.” Kaikeyi calmly replied.

“You cannot send him away for 14 years! Just see reason, allow him to stay in Ayodhya. He doesn’t even need the throne.” Lakshmana pleaded.

“I loved Rama too and it pains me to see him forced into the forest, but it must be done.” Kaikeyi said, sadly.

“But he is already deep in the forest! No doubt surround by Rakshasas and asuras every step of the way.”

At hearing this Dasaratha fell into deeper pain, and after a few moments imagining Rama and Sita alone in the forest, he succumbed to his thoughts and died. When Lakshmana saw this, he threw peace and pacifism out the window and decided to instead, snap the arrow in half.

“All of this tragedy is because of YOU!” and with this, Lakshmana spun around, and in doing so, drew his blade. In the blink of an eye, Kaikeyi lay bleeding on the ground. Before her last breath, she whispered, “The gods… will not… look kindly on this.” With this, Yama punished Lakshmana with an unstoppable bloodlust.

Soon after, he forced his way to king of Ayodhya and ruled with an iron fist. This was until Rama had heard of Lakshmana’s wrongdoings and had to return to save his city and try to save his brother. He snuck into the city and found his way to the palace, there he confronted Lakshmana.

“Brother it is Rama. I have come to reason with you, to find your old self.” Lakshmana looked as those he had seen a ghost.

“Rama. I see you have come back for the throne. However I feel as though Yama’s influence and the throne suit me.” spoke Lakshmana, slyly.

“Please see reason Lakshmana. This is not who you are.”

“No Rama it is now, I only now realize how long I waited in your shadow. The throne is mine and if I must defend it from you, I will.”

Then Lakshmana slowly drew his sword and leapt towards Rama. It was one of the most well fought battles that have been told. The two brothers were almost equal in strength and skill with both of their power being far superior to the ordinary human. Rama’s discipline allowed for his victory, but it was not a rewarding victory for him. Mourning the loss of his brother, Rama performed the funeral ceremony, but knew he could not be king. This led him back into the forest and led him to face Ravana in the future. Of course he did not know of the latter purpose.

Lakshmana consoling Rama

Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography:

The Ramayana by R. K. Narayan

Author’s Note: The first thing that is seen here is a plot change were in Narayan’s version of The Ramayana, Lakshmana goes with Rama and Sita into the forest for the fourteen years, however I have chosen Lakshmana to stay. I decided to also have him confront Kaikeyi and Dasaratha, which Rama had originally convinced him not to do. Dasaratha’s death was very similar to Narayan’s depiction but I decided to make this the breaking point for Lakshmana. Murdering Kaikeyi gave him a bloodlust which could only be stopped with Rama’s return from the forest. Using Yama to give Lakshmana this bloodlust seemed like a good choice because of Yama’s role as the god of death. I thought it was interesting how Lakshmana was always following behind Rama and never got the spotlight, so I decided that his rage would also manifest to him fighting his brother. Rama is still very compassionate and loves his brother so he is sad to see him go.

Reading Notes: Ramayana B

Lakshmana cannot be convinced to back down by Rama and goes to kill Kaikeyi/Dasaratha (not really sure who he was going to kill), bloodlust/greed occurs


He may also wait until Rama leaves and then take his revenge. This is because he respects Rama so much but knows that Rama would try to stop him.


Dasaratha's emotional and physical state could play a role in the aftermath of Lakshmana's rage.


Bharatha doesn't seem at all like his mother, very kind and is wondering what happened to the city. Even goes out to find Rama.


The word of the Gods is of the highest authority apparently.


Why does it seem like every single character wants to die/kill themselves when they hear either Rama was leaving or Dasaratha was dead?


Kamavalli seems extremely lustful towards Rama and I'm interested to see what her true intentions are. She is actually in love with Rama but needs to remove Sita. Power of both Rama and Lakshmana is shown in battles against Kara.


Again the compulsion of love drives Ravana mad until he is forced to kidnap Sita. Rama also shows this by not wanting to leave Sita but also wanting to please her.

Ravana taking Sita

Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography:

The Ramayana by R. K Narayan

Reading Notes: Ramayana A

I'd like to think that after Thataka was killed, the landscape started to regrow to its former glory.


Possibly have Mahabali rise from the netherworld and attack Rama. This is due to him being briefly mentioned in a story by Viswamithra.


Lakshmana is an interesting character due to the focus being on Rama - plot twist: have him attack Rama, Viswamithra saves him.


Ganges creation story for the river and for the oceans. (Project idea)


Thinking I might change the plot or introduce new elements. I think the elephants in Mithila are interesting.


Rama has a large amount of wisdom, perhaps because he is Vishnu's avatar.


Some little plot aspects that I would want to change, like mentioned above.


Possible origin story to how Ravana became empowered by the Gods - later.


Use of Mars and Jupiter very interesting because of the connection to Roman mythology.


Have Bharama challenge Rama for the throne, well I wrote this before he was given the throne.

Ganges River

Flickr

Bibliography:

 

The Ramayana by R. K Narayan

Reading Notes: Hanuman Comic

Today I decided to get my first ever book from the library here and got Hanuman: The Epitome of Devotion and Courage from the comic book reserves. I would just like to let everyone know that I have no idea how to use the call numbers and am still not sure if I was following the Dewey Decimal system or Library of Congress. Anyways I looked around like a lost puppy for a while until I decided to just ask for help. Turns out had to ask for help because it was in the reserves, yay.

Anyways... onto my notes.

In the first few pages, it seems like the story escalates extremely quickly. We go from Sugreeva and Hanuman being alone to suddenly challenging Vali to a duel in like 6 panels. Ohhh and we just killed Vali in 2 panels, looks like Ravana and Sita are the main plotline. So I didn't know what a yojana was in terms of measurement but after a little research it appears that Hanuman was able to jump around 745 miles across a sea, so he must have great leg workouts.

Oooh that Hanuman is a clever monkey man, showed Surasa whos who., it seems like monkeys tricking animals or monsters is a theme Yeah I wouldn't marry Ravana either, those extra nine heads just don't look that appealing. Alright, it looks like Hanuman definitely should have gone back to Rama instead Indrajit captured him with one of his supernatural weapons. Not great. I think at some point enough oil is enough, Hanuman's tail is going to catch on fire. Okay, it's kinda weird how Hanuman was sad that the beautiful city was going to be destroyed when Rama came to fight Ravana. So instead .... Hanuman decides to burn down the city himself? Sure.

Hanuman is definitely strong and I am excited to see him fight Indrajit. Both Rama and Hanuman are formidible fighters as they took down all of Ravana's fighters easily. It looks like this might be an adaptation or graphic depiction of the Ramayana as Hanuman assisted Rama in rescuing Sita from Ravana. Even though I haven't read the Ramayana yet, it will be interesting to pair the characters from this story with those in the actual text. I liked the comic book because it let me see these characters and made it much easier to actually understand what was going on because I could recognize the same people from the images.

Book cover showing Hanuman with his tail on fire

Indian Epics: Amar Chitra Katha

Illustration by Ram Waeerkar

Wikipedia Trails: From Hanuman to Triple Deity

Hanuman: I saw something on the Twitter feed that mentioned Hanuman and then remembered reading a little bit about him when doing the project topics post. In the Weapons of the Gods topic, Hanuman wielded a gada mace and I used that mace as the image in the post. The fact that he was a monkey warrior but also the son of a god and spirit lead me to look more into him.

Shiva: I had heard the name Shiva in many different contexts but never knew where the name originally came from. Interestingly, Shiva is also, somehow, a parent to Hanuman so it seems like he has multiple parents. For some reason I always thought that Shiva was a positive figure but, "The Destroyer" or "Supreme Destroyer of Evil" don't sound very positive.

Trimurti: When reading about the rakshasas, I went to Indrajit's page as he is a prominent rakshasa in the Ramayana and saw that he had the three weapons of the Trimurti. When I saw that Shiva was a member of the Trimurti along with Brahma and Vishnu, I wanted to read a little more about it and why those weapons were so powerful.

Depiction of Trimurti

Wikimedia Commons

Triple Deity: Because the Trimurti is a group of three deities it made me think about other groups of three like the three brothers Zeus, Poseidon and Hades in Greek mythology and the Holy Trinity in Christianity. I wondered if this might be a common theme in regarding deities and saw the page in the "See Also" section of the Trimurti page. So I read through this page and saw that triads are definitely a common theme.

Typing Game Tech Tip

Back in my middle school days, I played a few MMOs (massively multiplayer online game) where communication was important to be able to work with your group. However, I had my fingers locked on the WASD keys because those were the movement keys. So I got better at knowing where the keys were but never learned the proper way to type with all my fingers on the keyboard. There seems to be a like a max speed you can hit when you are pecking at the keys.

So I took a keyboarding class in high school my freshman year because I knew that I would need to actually learn how to type. All the papers and assignments started to be typed and my pecking wasn't going to cut it. Now that I'm in college and this class, I'm really happy that I learned how to type or my assignments would take ages.

The Ninja Cat and Zombie Dinosaurs was a cool game where I got to kill all sorts of zombie dinosaurs and it would improve typing. But for some reason, it glitched and lagged a lot for me so I ended up dying really early because I couldn't hit three letters that I had hit a minute ago. I also tried Type for Your Life which I liked. Basically you were constantly being chased by the bottom of the screen and needed to jump to platforms to get away. Completing the word at your platform let you jump and the speed of the screen increased after every jump.  I remember playing Nitro Type Race where you compete against other people in finishing a paragraph.

Typing a blur

Flickr

Famous Last Words: A Hectic First Week

Boy I thought syllabus week was supposed to be a relaxing, simple week. Go to class for the first time, see your buddies, and maybe start a lecture or too. Not for me this time! On just the second day of the week I think I dropped two classes and then picked up two different ones. That one day was enough stress and planning for the next few weeks. No more please! This all stems from me hopefully getting to go to Arezzo in the summer and take some microbiology classes there. But being enrolled in one of those classes for this semester definitely threw a wrench into things so finding a way to move things around was a pain. Let's cross our fingers for it to all work out and with Italy on the horizon!

But this class has gone splendidly. I got my first week of assignments done early and now am working on a little extra credit :) which means I also got the second week done too. The readings weren't too bad because I understood all the stories and they were interesting and a little bit funny. My writing from the stories may not have been great but I am looking forward to seeing how I could make it easier to write and write better. My other classes haven't really started up yet with the exception of those Chapter 1 lectures, "what is (insert subject matter here)/how do we study it?" This next week will start off pretty nice because of MLK day, so maybe I can get ahead a little bit more in our class.

Me, as arrows traveling from place to place, fixing my schedule

Pixabay

Feedback Thoughts

Back when I played competitive tennis in high school, there was constant feedback with most of it being negative. Because form needs to be fixed or tweaked so your technique is correct this produces constant feedback. With this, I became better at receiving negative feedback because I knew that I had to receive it in order to improve. It was also unnecessary to constantly praise proper technique because other areas could be fixed instead. "Why It's So Hard to Hear Negative Feedback" by Tim Herrera discusses how important it is to accept negative feedback and also give it. The article gives the advice that you need to realize that negative feedback serves a self-improvement purpose. This was in action as my tennis skills would improve due to the negative feedback that I received.

The article "Why rejection hurts so much - and what to do about it" by Guy Winch addresses rejection and how we could be genetically linked to rejection's painful emotional reaction. I am not the best in handling rejection and it has kept me from attempting things because if I know that chances aren't good, I don't want to face the failure. However, the article suggests that we stop criticizing ourselves and realize that we have other positive qualities. I like that you can remember that others haven't rejected you and that you have other good qualities so that we can combat our genetic fear of rejection.

Neil deGrasse Tyson on Feedback

Feedback Padlet

My Topic Brainstorm for Week 2

Creation Stories (Geographical Creation Stories): I think that I have mentioned liking these kinds of stories in my Week 2 Reading Overview in reference to the "Tales of Balarama" and how the geography of India was changed. I like these kinds of stories because they can provide an outlandish reason for how a prominent landmark was made or why the world looks the way it does. In that post, I talked about Paul Bunyan and how there were many stories that show how his actions affected the landscape of America.

Supernatural Characters of the Ramayana: In my Storybook Favorites post I talked about how I was influenced by books like the Percy Jackson series and how they gave me a fascination with the gods and their interactions with humans. But there are other important players to these stories and these are the mythological creatures that are neither god or human. After reading about the rakshasas and asuras, their role as superior warriors and demigods makes them the perfect balance between gods and humanity. Both creatures are particularly interesting because they differ on whether they are good or evil.

Weapons of the Gods: In reading about the rakshasas, and specifically Indrajiit, it was interesting to see how the rakshasas could obtain incredibly powerful weapons from the gods that they could use. Indrajiit had three immensely powerful weapons in what is called the Trimurti and a slew of other supernatural weapons that aided him in battle. Another thing that is different from the weapons and their wielders of other mythology is that it seems like there are a lot of characters who have utilized these weapons that there is a significantly larger amount of weapons.

Epics Battles: Back in high school history class, we were assigned different chapters of to present to the class so that we became the teacher. Two of the three chapters that I had to present were centered on the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. Because of this I spent a lot of time researching the battles and even found these battle gifs that depicted the battle formations and their movements in gif format. That, coupled with my interest in mythology, makes this topic sound interesting. This topic could also tie into the Weapons of the Gods topic. After reading a little bit about the warfare in the Vedic period, the use of war elephants and flying chariots are really cool. It might be cool to bring these epic battles into a different time period or war.

Statue of Bhima's Gada

Wikimedia Commons

Week 2 Story: A Lion's Not Perfect Day

After a long day of leading the entire jungle, the Lion decided it was time for him to rest. A whole day of hunting and keeping everyone in check can even make the King of the Jungle tired. So there he slept just wishing to have some peace and quiet as a scuffle between the hippos and crocodiles during the day had worn him out.


The Lion woke the next morning and yawned, which sounded like a roar to everyone else. He had dreamed of a trouble-free, relaxing day and couldn't have been happier. “Oh please what can I do to deserve this,” the Lion thought to himself.


So, he went for his early morning walk and couldn’t help but notice the trees swaying in the wind. A strong wind could mean many things for the days to come and the Lion knew that he would need to stay focused, but he still wanted to enjoy his walk.


The Lion headed down to the pond to have a quick drink before returning back home. While he was drinking, a rustle from nearby bushes piqued his interest. Then he saw it. A yummy Gazelle. “This might not be the nicest thing to do, but a King of the Jungle’s gotta eat, right?” the Lion whispered, as he stalked over to the Gazelle.


Woosh! The Lion stopped dead as the Gazelle bolted off. First in shock, the Lion’s emotions turned to rage as he saw an Elephant running away, leaving dust in his path. Then a Fox passed. Then a Deer.


“Can I not just have one day without interruptions? All I want now is to be able to sit down and enjoy a peaceful lunch…” the Lion cried.


Sighing, he knew that he had to go and figure out why all these animals are running and running. So the Lion asked one of the Deer, “Why are you running through my pond and scaring off that lovely Gazelle?”


The Deer responded, “Well the world is falling apart! Don’t you know?”


“Well who told you that the world is falling apart? That’s ridiculous!” The Lion said, annoyed. But there was also a little part of the Lion that wished it was true, or else there would be no good reason for him to miss out on his Gazelle.


“Well I was told by the Fox, who I think was told by Elephant, and oh yeah, he was told by the Rabbit. Looks like you should talk to him!”


The Lion went to talk to the Rabbit about this 'the world is falling apart!' nonsense. When he met with the Rabbit, he asked, “Okay Rabbit I need to know exactly how you know that the world is falling apart.”


“Well, you see, I was having a lovely dream and then suddenly woke up! For some reason, I wondered what would happen to me and everyone else if the world just fell apart. Then I heard a large thud and knew the world had to be falling apart.”


“You don’t think there could be any other reason that you heard that crashing?” said the Lion as he eyed a suspicious coconut blown down from a nearby tree. He knew then that this idiotic Rabbit ruined his lunch and perfect day because a coconut fell from a tree.


“Nope! It’s gotta be the world falling apart!”


“Well Rabbit, that coconut over there could definitely make a sound loud enough to make you think the world was crumbling beneath us. Now you’ve made all these other animals run away and also ruined my day!” The Lion then sighed as there were animals over the place who he had to tell that the world was not falling apart. All he could hope for was that maybe the next day he could have a delicious lunch and a relaxing day.

Author’s Note: I wrote this story based on The Foolish, Timid Rabbit but chose to alter the perspective and point of view. The Lion’s role in the story was interesting to me so I wanted to highlight what his day was like before all the animals started running away. I added the details of his day and kept the plot after the running animals the same so that the Lion’s point of view could be seen when he talked to the Rabbit.



Image: Jungle with Lion by Henri Rousseau. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography: “The Foolish, Timid Rabbit” from Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt. Source

Reading Notes: Week 2 Anthology

I liked a few of the stories like the Crane and Crab, Lotuses, Crocodile and Monkey because they all involved something clever that the protagonist did to fool the villain and not get eaten or killed.

But I was also drawn to the The Foolish, Timid Rabbit because this little Rabbit was able to get everyone to think that the world was falling apart. This gives the story comedic effect because we know that a fallen coconut is really the cause for the end of the world.

The mindless followers seem like some people today who will just believe anything and are easily swayed.

I liked the Lion because he appears a stable and wise character amid all the chaos. His status makes the lesser animals fear him and I like to think that he was annoyed with the Rabbit because his kingdom was being disrupted and he knew there was no way the world was breaking.

Lion waiting in Namibia

Wikimedia Commons

Bibliography: 

The Foolish, Timid Rabbit by Ellen C. Babbitt

The Monkey who Gathered Lotuses by Robert Chalmers

The Cunning Crane and the Crabby W. H. D. Rouse

The Monkey and the Rock in the River by Robert Chalmers 

The Monkey and the Crocodile by Marie L. Shedlock

Week 2 Reading Overview

Drum roll please..... I have decided to take my talents to the Narayan's Ramayana. It was a tough decision but the main reason was the large amount of accessibility that the version has of the PDE version. Being able to sit down a read a physical copy or an electronic version on my phone was too good to pass up. The price point of the PDE version was very appealing, however having all the information in one place in a modern style was able to balance out the price point. 

For the videos I picked and after looking through and watching a few videos, I found that my topics were creation stories and stories involving gods and their interactions with others. The "Hindu Creation Stories" touched on the creation stories which I think are fascinating to see how people used to think the world was created, and how these stories differ between cultures. Because I read and enjoyed books like the Percy Jackson series I enjoy stories involving gods and their interactions with the world. That's why I picked "Virtuous Demons" because it talked about some of the demonic creatures in Indian stories. I also read comic books so the the video "Avengers, Gods, and Superheroes" was very interesting. It talked about how superheroes are sometimes compared to the Gods but then discussed how maybe they shouldn't be. 

I picked the comics "Surya" and "The Tales of Balarama" because they seemed interesting after a brief skim even though I am not exactly sure what is going on. For "Surya" I didn't really understand what was going on even from the summary until a read it a few times. I chose it once I knew what happened because the fact that Sanjina, Sanjina's shadow Chhaya, Surya and their children lived together after the ordeal. Seeing that Chhaya also had children with Surya is was just really confusing. "The Tales of Balarama" is another story that can be tied to the creation story in that the characters used a plough and changed the geography of India just as say, Paul Bunyan built many natural landmarks.

Surya: The Sun

Wikimedia Commons

Some Time Strategies

Sometimes people will ask me how I manage my time in college and I would never have answer for them and I guess that I still don't have one today. It's not that I don't do anything, because if that was the case, I wouldn't be here. There isn't a strategy that I use but I can thank technology for helping me keep track of all my assignments and work that I have to do. My procrastination has gone down over the years and at this point I know that I have to work on my classes early or things will not go well. This idea of bad things happening because of my procrastination helps me focus and work harder.

I like a few of the tips from the "How to Beat Procrastination" article by Caroline Webb where the main focus is placed on altering your thoughts on the task in order to stay productive. The "visualize how great it will be to get it done" advice makes a lot of sense to me and I feel like I have actually used that advice before without knowing. Dwelling on something can give you a lot of anxiety and I have noticed that once I complete a dreaded task, I can take a sigh of relief. "Identifying the first step" is another tip that I think works really well. Breaking things down allows you to take a step by step approach so that you don't feel overwhelmed and if you needed to, you could pace yourself. My take on it is that completing small tasks will also give little mental boosts and help spur on productivity for later tasks. 

"Eat The Frogs First Thing in The Morning" by Thomas Oppong is an interesting article that I chose to read due to curiosity simply because of its title. But if you actually read the article that odd phrase actually makes sense. Getting what you don't want to do out of the way every morning can easily set yourself on the path to getting more things done as you will already be successful. I also wouldn't want to have the thought of that task hanging over me the whole day. In the frog scenario, if I really had to eat a frog everyday I would get it done in the morning so that I could enjoy the rest of my day and not dread having to eat a frog. Another thing that I liked was the discussion of doing things that you don't need to do or want to do. That sounds like the worst way to spend your time and kills any time for productivity toward relevant projects. At some point you need to limit yourself to make sure that everyone gets the most out of your time. 

A red-eyed tree frog

Wikimedia Commons

The Pomodoro Technique of a period of rest and a period of work is one that I have used at times when I know that I have to work hard in a shorter amount of time. This gives a strict structure that can help me focus when something is urgent. I have seen it mentioned in many places regarding productivity and time management.

Illustration of Pomodoro Technique

Flickr

Technology Can Be Hard

I have never done any type of blogging in my life before this, except maybe the discussion posts on Canvas and that sort of thing. So getting to know the layout on Blogger and then getting a feel or what it will look like after its composed is my first task. I've become better at understanding where everything will be when it is all said and done. I used Weebly in a high school class and in making my own website which helped me get familiar with adding different elements to create a page from scratch. Creating new graphics and the branching stories seem interesting and will be fun to mess around with and learn. Using this much technology that is meant for media and blogging is very different from my use of tech in other classes.

I've become a big fan of Google and their options so most of their applications are not new to me. However, it seems like Google always has new things that make life much easier that I don't about. The course wiki is something that I have played around with a little bit and is starting to make more sense and is setup well and is clear. But it looks like it might be another blind leap into the content sites and other various tech tools that we haven't started using yet.

A confused chimp

Public Domain Pictures

Me on ... Class Assignments

I have had a few experiences with assignment setups like this one. Of these experiences, the majority have been in online classes, like English and government. Because of the online nature of the class there were discussion posts due almost daily from our assigned readings. Classes like these have given me a background in the habitual work for daily assignments. However, because of the subjects of those classes the types of assignments were different as making a story for a government class is not as effective.

The Storytelling assignments are easily the ones that intrigued me the most. I haven't done a lot of creative writing and I can say it definitely isn't my strong suit. In light of this, I am looking forward to improving my skills and the semester goes on. These assignments are good because learning and understanding the characters is essential to creating a story using their attributes or information from the stories.

Wikipedia Trails and Tech Tips are the extra credit options that sound the most interesting to me. There is an app that I have on my phone called "The Wiki Game" which is a type of puzzle game. In it you are given a random Wikipedia page that you start at and then you must find a way to another random page by following links within each page. You might start with "Barack Obama" and have to find a way to get to the page for "Apricot" following links on subsequent pages. I went from "Illinois" to "Illinois Wine" to "Peach" and finally "Apricot." Wikipedia Trails seems like the exact same concept but structured into a game form rather than for learning. This game could also be used as a kind of Tech Tip to do the Wikipedia Trails but within a gaming format.

Wikipedia Logo

Wikimedia Commons 

Switching to the Growth Mindset

I'm pretty sure that my first exposure to the growth vs fixed mindset discussion was from last semester actually. In my biochemistry class, the professor talked about how he believed in the growth mindset when it comes to his class and learning in general. I found that the growth mindset was one that you needed to have when it came to that class because of how difficult it was. If at the first sign of difficulty you determined you weren't smart enough, then you were going nowhere, fast.

Because of this I had to commit myself to the growth mindset because I liked the material, wanted to learn and I wanted to do well in the class. If I had a fixed mindset then there was no way that I would have stuck with it during the difficult times. I would have given up and suffered for it.

I hadn't even read anything beyond this and never knew of the work by Carol Dweck. Seeing the scientific basis that supports the growth mindset was convincing for the argument that it should be striven for. There are some things that I agree with in her argument and some things that might be impractical to apply in real life or on the large scale.

Changing the way we give praise is something that I think would be very useful in giving students a growth mindset. Everyone likes praise so this would be something that students would want to receive and could be thought of as a type of conditioning. If the students are praised for their process then they will attempt to use their process and develop new techniques that can help them achieve their goal. Instead of giving up because failure means they are not smart enough, students would learn from their mistakes and find a way to reach their goal.

Changing our thoughts

Max Pixel

The idea of "challenging the comfort zone" and changing what is comfortable for student is one that I agree should happen but don't think there is a practical way to implement this restructuring. Of course it would benefit the learning process of students if they are taught to believe it is better for them to struggle instead of a have an easy time. However, I think that most children and young adults tend to prefer what is easier for them as if it were instinct. This could make it difficult for the growth mindset to be taught as the students would simply revert to their fixed mindset for the easier route. I could also be extremely wrong about this and there could be evidence that the growth mindset is maintained.

Introduction to Yet Another Struggling Pre-Med

Hi, it's Jack Wood. I'll be writing just a few blog posts in the next few months on here. So maybe before you read all of those posts you want to get to know me a little better. Or not. That's cool. But I'll tell you anyways.

I came to OU from Illinois and more specifically southern Illinois and even more specifically, Carbondale, Illinois. Before you ask, I am not from Chicago because when I mean southern, I mean southern. It's basically Kentucky where I live so not that much different from Oklahoma, but doesn't look like farms or the prairie.

Garden of the Gods in Shawnee National Forest

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Like I said in my title, I am yet another pre-med student and am majoring in Microbiology after bouncing around between chemistry related majors. I'm pretty sure that I am going to stick with it because I enjoy it and switching now would be like voluntarily walking underneath the Bizzell clock tower. Only being a junior means I don't get to graduate at the end of the semester, but I do get to take the MCAT in March. Yay. 

Another big thing coming up for me this semester is the College Bowl tournament, also in March. I'm the vice chair of programming so I'm basically in charge of the entire tournament and all the lead up events. If you don't know what College Bowl is, it's a pop culture trivia tournament with a team of your friends. The questions have a great mix so by no means do you have to be a trivia master. So if you're bored, go ahead and sign up ;). 

I'm also a big sports guy and love to play tennis but playing outside here in 20 mph wind can kind of be a pain. Going to OU means that I have the opportunity to watch some incredible athletes and sports at one of the highest levels. I enjoy going to see different sports here and of course the football team. One of the coolest experiences that I have had was going the semifinal at the Rose Bowl and watching a crushing, yet fantastic, game. In high school I went to OU's final four game and witnessed another crushing defeat but in a completely different way. So after these games I am certain that my presence is a bad luck charm and the Sooners are doomed if I am there.

2018 Rose Bowl Game

Personal photo; Jan. 2018

My Storybook Favorites

Barney's Blog

Barney's The Bro Code book

Flickr

This Storybook is definitely one of the more interesting ones but works best if the reader knows their TV shows. Specifically How I Met Your Mother and its character, Barney, who is legendary (and in fact that word basically rules his entire life) and knowing him makes this Storybook even better. The use of his common phrases and mannerisms makes for a funny and clever way to talk about some of the characters of Indian epics even without knowing who Barney is. Because I have watched the show multiple times, this Storybook hit the mark.


1000 Ways to Die: Demon Edition

Another TV show themed Storybook comes your way! This one is based on 1000 Ways to Die but, unlike Barney's Blog, I have not seen this one. However, I liked the humor of the Storybook and the way that the stories were presented like with the "Way to die #..." Then the stories would show how different demons were killed and depict many of their characteristics. Seeing the author's insight at the end of each story helped to see the connections to the preexisting stories. This let me understand how these gods and demons were initially depicted and what departures that the author made from the preexisting stories.

Weather Gods

This last one was cool to me because it reminded me of the the Magic Tree House series because the author would travel to the past and talk to prominent figures of that time just as they did in those books. Another thing that I liked about these stories were the gods that they were focused on. Gods of nature and creation are some of the most interesting to me and I have done some reading and assignments on these types of gods. The personalities that were created for the gods were fascinating and journeys were different from each other. Each journey was also compared to the other journeys and while some left a good impression on the author, others did not. In the end, the author appreciated this journey and the experience to meet these legends.

Twister on Tuesday cover art

Salvatore Murdocca, Flickr

My (Very Hot) Favorite Place: Tucson

I was actually born in Tucson but moved away when I was only a few months old to Illinois where I have lived all my life. Because of this, I didn't actually remember or know anything about Tucson or Arizona until a few years ago when my parents revisited and fell back in love with the area. They brought me along and by spending time in the Saguaro National Forest and Sabino Canyon, I got hooked too. We all loved it so much that we got a condo in the Catalina Foothills for vacations.

View of Santa Catalina Mountains; 

personal photo from October 2014

I've even become a fan of the Wildcats along with the rest of the family and got to go to a few games. But don't worry, the Sooners are still #1.

McKale Center at the University of Arizona:

Wikimedia Commons

This is a Test Post

This is my good ole test post!