Week 6 Review

My favorite announcement this week was the post about Bingo! I was in the library at this time and it was a good break from studying. I did not win Thunder tickets or the tablet but I got four pieces of free pizza so I would call it an overall success.

Find out more about this and other events at the Campus Calendar online.

Week 6: Famous Last Words

              

 This Class

                This week's reading has been more difficult than I thought it would be. I have not followed The Mahabharata as well as I did with The Ramayana. I think this disconnect came from how I read each of these stories. For Part A of The Ramayana, I listened to the audio book because Indian epics were not familiar to me. When I listened to the audio book I had a better understand of the main characters introduced in Part A and then was able to read Part B, Part C, and Part D easily. For The Mahabharata, I did not listen to the audio book but read the story from beginning to end. As for plot line, although The Mahabharata had a better ending, I still liked The Ramayana better.

               

  Other Classes

                This week I took one exam in my Intermediate Accounting II class and so I have been busy studying for that most of the week. I think that all of my classes are important but, in my opinion, Intermediate Accounting II is the most important. It is most relevant to what I want to do in the future.  I took that exam this morning and I think it went okay and I am mostly relieved it is over and I can look forward to the weekend.

Calculator
Flickr

   Personal Life

                In my personal life, I am excited for this weekend. I do not have a test coming up next week so I am going to take a break from school this weekend. Since I have no Friday classes, I hope to have some time to hang out with friends tonight. Then tomorrow, a friend of mine is coming in town from Tennessee so I am excited to spend time with her. I think a group her friends are going to go out for dinner on Friday night. Other than that, I mostly plan to sleep.

Week 6 Learning Challenge: Reading

This week in one of my other class I had to write a paper on Biblio- Therapy and the impact if can have on everyone. Reading is a good way to find relaxation and also expand vocabulary. I wrote my paper on children's books with Dr. Seuss as my main focus.One thing I found was that Dr. Seuss's books were applicable in a different way throughout all ages of a persons life.

One Page of Oh, the Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss
Flickr

Week 6 Growth Mindset: Learning Blogger

This week I have challenged myself to learn more about blogger. For example, I have found that if I keep picture the same size as when I import them I often find that the edge of the photo hangs off the text area on my blog. This bothered me because it became hard to read my sidebar with the picture in the way. I have fixed this problem by making my picture no bigger than the large option in order to keep the picture in the text column.

  

Liz Lemon from TV sitcom 30 Rock. Source: Giphy

 I found this gif on another blog and I found it very inspiring because I really like 30 Rock. Liz Lemon is a really funny character. Also, Tina Fey as a person is amazing.

Week 6 Storytelling: The Monster in the Mountains

Duryodhana did not always consider himself evil. In fact, He thought more that he was just misunderstood. When he was little his parents abandoned him in front of a firehouse and he never saw or knew them. He was put in foster care and had never known anyone to be family. Every once and awhile a family would come along and they that he would be a good son for them but a few weeks after his adoption he always found himself back in a foster home and he that’s the way he liked it. He made friends with the other fosters boys and grew up as a normal kid until the age of eleven.

                On his eleventh birthday he was in a strange house because he had been recently adopted. He did not like it much and he knew if he acted up he would be back with his friends. He made a plan to punch a hole in the wall once his "family" got home and convince them he was uncontrollable. Once the mother and father returned from work he ran to the front door and threw his strongest punch but instead of making a small hole in the door he completely removed the whole front half of the house. He stared at his hands as the parents called 911.

The woods Duryodhana lived in.
Wikimedia

                Sacred of himself and police involvement, he ran into the woods behind the house. He had never run as fast as he was and he was shocked at his own strength. Duryodhana ran for three days without stopping. He finally stopped when he was by a stream so he could drink some water. He set up camp and swore to never return to civilization.

                Every year on his birthday for the next seven years, Duryodhana would find himself possessing a new supernatural power. He tried to master his powers with his time in the woods but with a new one every year he found it hard to keep up. When he would try to cut down one tree his powerful swing would knock down seven or when he coughed he caught fire to his clothes.

                On his eighteen birthday, a solo hiker found him in the woods. After a long time of Duryodhana explaining who he was and why he lived in the woods the man decided to stay for dinner. Duryodhana was happy to have company after all these year but also feared for the man's life. During dinner the man introduced himself as Karna and the two instantly became friends. Karna would visit Duryodhana once a week and Duryodhana told Karna all of his secrets over time.

                Karna was not afraid of him and believed in the good he could do. Karna would challenge him to hold his breath long, run faster, and jump higher. Duryodhana looked forward to hear the challenges that Karna would make for him because he had always been to afraid to challenge himself. One day, Karna challenged Duryodhana to run up a mountain and come back in less than 2 minutes. Duryodhana had never completed the task in less than 5 minutes but he was determined. At the beginning and end of every race Duryodhana would tag Karna's hand to tell him to start or stop the clock.

                Duryodhana tagged Karna's hand and took off as fast as he could, kicking up dirt with each step. He got to the top of the mountain in less than 55 seconds and turned around with a smile. He raced down the mountain almost flying and as he reached Karna he was so proud of himself he did not hold back when tagging Karna's hand. As soon has their hands hit together they both her a terrifying crack. Duryodhana had cracked Karna's whole arm right off his body. Horrified, Karna ran back the town and told everyone about the horrible monster in the woods and Duryodhana lived the rest of his life alone.

Author's Note:

This week I used very little real facts from The Mahabharata. I used Karna as Duryodhana's friend because Karna swears his allegiance to Duryodhana in The Mahabharata. I changed Karna to be afraid of Duryodhana at the end because I wanted Karna to join his brother at the end of The Mahabharata but he did not. Another thing that is true to the original story is that Duryodhana has supernatural power. In fact, that was my inspiration. I felt that in The Mahabharata, Duryodhana had a new power in each episode. For example, at the end of the battle he is able to hide underwater which was never revealed to the reader before. The rest of the story was made up by me with no real other inspiration. Since I did not like Duryodhana in the original story, I decided to leave in exile at the end of the story. I made the time line in the modern age where foster homes exist and I made the setting somewhere with a large amount of woods that he would be able to run away in. Lastly, I made Duryodhana think of himself as misunderstood because I feel that there are two side to every story and usually both side think there thought process is right.

All accounts of The Mahabharata are found in The Public Domain found below
Mahabharata Online: Public Domain Edition

Week 6 Reading Diary Continued: The Mahabharata Part D

The most helpful part of the public Domain version of The Mahabharata is that Professor Gibbs puts a reading guide at the top which allows you to remember characters from the past reading and how they will connect with the upcoming readings. This is especially helpful when the names of characters are closely related such at Virata's son and daughter.

• Bhishma dies and Drona takes command of Duryodhana's army
• Arjuna is a good brother and will defend his brothers to the death
• Arjuna's son dies during the battle but seeking his vengeance drive Arjuna forward with more power
• Bhima losses his son
• The name of the battle is the Battle of Kurukshetra which I did not catch before
• The Pandavas trick Drona and that is how their defeat their old instructor. It seems to be a reoccurring theme to have a moral dilemma with the heroes.
• Karna takes control of army
• Karna and Arjuna's battle is the peak of the battle and Karna dies
• Duryodhana is hiding underneath a lake and I feel like these characters get different supernatural powers in almost every episode
• Yudhishthira will now become sovereign king.
• Vyasa brings up the ghosts of the battle
• Since Krishna is dead The Pandavas decided it is time to leave earth and leave the kingdom to Arjuna's grandson, Parikshit

Krishna, Uttara, and baby Parikshit.

All accounts of The Mahabharata are found in The Public Domain found below
Mahabharata Online: Public Domain Edition

Week 6 Reading Diary: The Mahabharata Part C

For the beginning of this week I had to go back over the reading diaries I wrote last week in order to catch up on where I left off and refresh my memory of what happen at the beginning of the story.

• We left off with the Pandavas back in exile
• Exile seems to be a reoccurring theme is Indian epics as well as sages
• Krishna visits the Pandavas
• Arjuna is the son of the God Indra
• The four Pandavas brother go to the Himalayas and are joined by their brother Arjuna who was out looking for weapons
• Bhima is Hunama's brother
• Karna has pledged his allegiance to Duryodhana and swears to kill Arjuna
• Indra is worried about his son, Arjuna, because Karna has armor of gold and invincibility earrings so he goes and steals them from Karna.
• The last years of exile must be spent in hiding
• Arjuna disguises himself as a dance teacher.
• Duryodhana attacks King Virata and his cattle. The Pandavas come to his aid because Kind Virata has been kidding them
• Virata has a son named Uttara and a daughter named Uttarā
• Pandavas exile is over. Yay
• Krishna and Arjuna are very close and he chooses Krishna over an army
• Krishna's divine form is Vishnu
• Karna never knows that the Pandavas are his brothers
• The characters prepare for war. Some old characters return and some new characters are introduced
• Most famous part of this story is the Bhagavad-Gita, or "Lord's Song"
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  Arjuna and the celestial beings.

All accounts of The Mahabharata are found in The Public Domain found below
Mahabharata Online: Public Domain Edition

Tech Tip: Pinterest Tips

I have added more pins to my Pintrest board this week. I am really starting to like the way it looks and also cool to work in something other than blogger. Different websites for different types for sharing.