Famous Last Words: Tests Round 1

This week and last week were midterm weeks for me, so that was fun. I must say though, having only one midterm in one week and the other in the next week is better than having everything crammed. While studying for them was not the most fun thing, it all went pretty well and I got good grades (yay!).

Reading for this class was nice because of the video option. I thought that Sita Sings the Blues was pretty fun with those three narrator characters who just showed how crazy The Ramayana can get with all those different versions. The other things that was pretty helpful about the video option was that when I was running out of time before class, I could just turn that video speed up to 1.5x speed. This can definitely get out of control like when the regular speed is already pretty fast. But when the tempo lulls, cranking it up can get you the same content in less time. If you haven't tried this out with long, slow videos that you just to get done with, you might see how helpful it is.

As for outside of school (but still inside of campus), College Bowl registration as opened! I am pretty excited about it, but am also dreading when I have to make all these schedules. If any of you OU people stumble upon this, you should make a team! It's super fun and you don't have to be good at trivia I promise.

During the past few weeks when I have worked on stuff for this class I have noticed/figured out that a new plan of mine has been working out. I try to get one of the assignments done on each day of the week and couple that with an extra credit assignment. The extra credit assignments aren't that time consuming and it's good to get ahead of things. As long as I keep doing that, it shouldn't be to hard to manage.

Some Last Words

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Week 5 Story: Vali's Fall

Vali’s power was boundless. Even a brief interaction with the gods gave him incredible power. Churning the ocean to save the gods using nectar was no small feat and because of this the gods gave him his gift. No one dared challenge him now and this lead to his formidable control on man and even the gods.

But one day Vali was challenged. Not by a human or a god, but by a demon named Mayavi. This demon was just like all the others, strong but impulsive. His quick temper shined when he came out of his cave to take all that Vali had gained. Due to Vali’s power there was no threat that he would back down from or that would be too small for him. Especially a demon.

So Vali met the test of Mayavi, but Mayavi soon realized that what he had done was too quick. Vali wasn’t alone and was surrounded by all of his vassals, including Sugriva. Focusing too hard on Vali causes most to forget about his brother. Even though there was no way that Sugriva could match the power of Vali, he was still a force to be reckoned with.

With this, Mayavi retreated to his abode, deep in a cave. A part of him didn’t expect Vali to follow him, but that was wishful thinking. But before Vali left, he entrusted his kingdom with Sugriva. Informing him to keep the cave and to keep the kingdom.

Vali ventured throughout the labyrinth that was this cave until he found Mayavi. Although he was in the demon’s realm, the strength of the gods was enough to overpower Mayavi. Vali was clean but a single scratch from Mayavi’s claws.

“Oh foolish Vali.” Mayavi whispered with his dying breath. “You may defeat me here in this cave. But you have lost everything. Sugriva has probably already entombed you in this cave.”

“You speak nonsense demon. A dying plea. Sugriva needs me and he could never seperate himself from his brother.”

“You underestimate the pull of your old position. That much power is even strong enough to break the bonds of family. Soon you will see.”

With that Mayavi passed and Vali headed out of the cave, back to his kingdom. When Vali saw the boulders blocking the entrance he knew. All of his hatred manifested as the words of Mayavi rang true. Sugriva had become drunk with the power of the kingdom and was determined to keep Vali out. Vali couldn’t let this stand and became determined to destroy his brother, plagued by the thoughts of betrayal.

The Monkey King, Vali

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Authors Note:
I made this story to go a little bit more in-depth with the story of Vali and Sugriva. Their relationship appeared to be similar to Rama and Lakshmana’s where one was stronger than the other. However, because their relationship evaporated so quickly after Vali returned, it made be want to go a little further. So I decided to highlight what may have happened in that cave before Vali made his way back. Showing how Mayavi infected Vali’s mind was the way that I attempted to explain how Vali lost faith in his brother so quickly.

Bibliography

The Story of Vali and Sugriva in The Ramayana by R. K. Narayan

Reading Notes: Sita Sings the Blues Part 2

Omg Dave. What a way to break up with someone. Email. Alright so this now starts a story that I haven’t seen yet as Sita gets pregnant. Interesting that Rama is now turning his back on SIta because he needs respect. I thought that the fire proved to Rama that she was pure. Kind of cold that they are going to abandon a pregnant woman in the woods. Oh, Rama thinks that there is a little Ravana waiting in Sita’s belly, yikes. Oh Lakshmana is sad as well. Yay Sita had her kids and they grew up very fast. The sing along graphics are hilarious regarding how the story has been told thus far. But really where is Dave right now? Rama seems to have no idea what is happening. I also have no idea what is happening with mother earth. Well I guess she was pure? I’m not sure if there was meant to be a parallel with the modern day story and Sita’s story. Maybe this actually happened but was coincidentally related which sparked the idea for the film. Anyways the three narrators were my favorite part. The humour they had was intriguing.

The Titan Gaia (Mother Earth)

Pixabay

Bibliography:

Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley

Tech Tip:Kindle Overview

I used Kindle way back in the early days before it turned it a tablet like the Kindle Fire. The easy access and screen without sun glare were the biggest selling points that I can remember. Audible was then pushed heavily a little bit after the Kindle was introduced as Amazon had bought the company. So I have actually used both methods to read books. But most recently I found a new method of Kindle when I was trying to setup how I was going to read the Ramayana. There happens to be a Kindle app for Windows 10 computers which you can download off of the Kindle website. This allows you to download the books straight onto the computer so that you don't need internet like you would when using the browser based app. I usually use my phone though but would love to get my hands on the actual device again at some point.

Gen 2 Amazon Kindle (I had this)

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Reading Notes: Sita Sings the Blues Part 1

The animation at the beginning with the couple and the cat was kind of distracting because of the constant movement. Use of humour is really good when they are trying to decide what year the story is from. I wonder who the three people are that seem to be narrators. Their commentary with each other is fun as they mess stuff up. Why is Rama the only blue person?

Interesting that they skipped straight to Kaikeyi and Rama becoming king. This animation continues to be funny, I'm actually lol. Maybe I could incorporate some humour by using modern dialogue and being blunt.

Not exactly sure what the record player's role is. Maybe it displays Sita's point of view and feelings through songs.

Ravana's only bad deed was stealing away Sita. It seems like they think he also followed the right gods. Cool that Rama's bridge still exists. It's also interesting to see how far Ayodhya is from Lanka.

Shurpanakha doesn't seem to have her nose cut off. Oh singing Sita I'm so sorry but you're gonna be taken away from Rama. Ravana just picked her up and didn't use earth. There also wasn't an appearance by Jatayu. That's a lot of jewelry. I also didn't know that Hanuman was the incarnation of Shiva.

Ravana is just like the shocked Pikachu meme. Well Hanuman just lit the whole place on fire. That is an interesting idea, why didn't Sita just get on Hanuman's back. All three narrators made good points.

Dave's reaction to Nina is similar to Rama's to Sita when he rescued her. But why is Dave so cold? Rama had his reason.

Shocked Pikachu meme representing Ravana

(Image created with imgflip)

Bibliography:

Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley

Comment Wall

Vishnu

Here is my Storybook website: Vishnu's Deja Vu


Image: Wikimedia Commons

Wikipedia Trail: From Vishnu to Vedas

Vishnu: I started here because the Ramayana is focused on Rama and his destruction of Ravana. However Rama is basically just Vishnu which is stated throughout the epic. It was interesting to see that Vishnu is the deity that is mainly associated with avatars as he has the most avatars. The Ramayana did also say that Rama's brothers were also avatars of different gods.

Avatar: These people are physical incarnations of the gods where it is reinforced that avatars are commonly associated with Vishnu. However, Shiva and Brahma also have avatars such as Lakshmana for Shiva. It was odd for me to see Buddha on the list of Vishnu's avatars so that is where we go next.

Gautama Buddha: I went to go find Buddha's connection with Vishnu as his avatar and it seems that there are different opinions on the history of Buddha. Some Hindus do believe that Buddha is the ninth avatar of Vishnu, while he is also a prophet for a small sect of Muslims. It is interesting to see such overlap between religions.

Vedas: It said on the Buddha page that the Hindus believe that Buddha is an avatar of Vishnu but that Buddha's teaching went against the Vedas. So the Vedas are the religious texts of Hinduism, similar to the Bible and Quran. It looks like the Vedas are split into different categories which was different.

Statue of Rama

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