Reading Notes: Sampati, Part C

Most of the soldiers that Sugriva sent out to look for Sita are finally returning. Sadly the soldiers that are returning are the ones that were send to the north, east and west. Then it is revealed that the people that were sent to the south do in fact have information about Sita. The monkeys and bears that were searching for Sita were talking about Jatayu and the bird person Sampati just happens to hear the name and listens in. Turns out that Sampati is Jatayu's brother and he wants to hear of the news about his brother. It is sad that his brother died trying to save Sita from Ravana but Sampati saw exactly where the evil king Ravana took her. He points them in the directing and goes on his way. 

(Sampati - The bird on the left)

This story stuck out to me because all these people are searching everywhere for Sita but have no clue where to look. It would be easy to turn this story into my own and turn the target into a super rare pokemon. Or make it like a murder mystery and they're searching everywhere for the killer with little leads. Then the people looking for the target just happen to run into someone who knows their exact location.

Bibliography : Online free Ramayana, Story titled "Sampati"

Feedback Thoughts

Getting Feedback Articles:
5 Tips For Taking Feedback Like a Champ
Overcoming the Fear of Feedback
Receiving feedback from someone else can sometimes do more harm than good. For people receiving feedback they sometimes focus on the negatives instead of all the positives. As a result from reading these two articles I've learned that I need to have a growth mindset when it comes to receiving feedback. If I am able to achieve this then getting feedback will excite me, instead of dreading what is going to be said negative I'll be excited about it. Getting negative feedback allows the person receiving it to know what they need to improve on. I am going to try my best the next few months to try and be excited for feedback so I know what to improve on for the next time. By having this growth mindset I will see exactly what needs to be improved in my study habits as I progress towards my degree.

(Types of feedback)

Giving Feedback Articles:
Be a Mirror: Give Readers Feedback That Fosters a Growth Mindset
7 Key Characteristics Of Better Learning Feedback
Giving feedback can be just as dangerous as receiving feedback. There can be times where you want to be harsh but just do not want to come off as being mean so you decide to go easy on them. By going easy on them the person receiving the feedback now thinks that everything they have accomplished is perfect when in fact it could be weak. As a person giving feedback you need to be positive when giving feedback and promote a growth mindset. Instead of saying, "Your project is amazing!" One could instead say, "I can tell you put a lot of hard work into this." By praising someone for hard work it makes them want to work hard again to receive the same praise. But by saying something is just good then you don't really let them know anything just that you like it. As a person giving feedback it is your job to help shape the person receiving it into a person with a growth mindset.

Week 2 Story Planning: What Are Viradha's Intentions?

Notes for the story titled "Viradha": 
Rama, Lakshmana, and Sita are on their journey when they run into a man-eating rakshasa named Viradha. Viradha takes Sita so Rama and his brother spring into action. Turns out this demon has a curse on it making it immune to weapons. Nothing stops Rama though, him and his brother break both his arms and beat him up good. They throw him in a pit to die and he reveals that Rama has freed him from his curse.

Analysis:
This story kind of stuck out to me mainly because of the excitement that was present. Over my 21 years of life I have played a number of video games and Viradha being immune to weapons sounds like a cool boss fight. Sometimes in video games you have to innovate and work with you whatever is with you in order to survive. That is kind of how this battle seemed to me. Rama couldn't harm this being with his weapons so he had to go old school and just beat him up with the weapons he was born with(his fists).

(Rama holding Viradha down while Lakshmana digs a pit)

Without a doubt Rama completely obliterates his opponent leaving him bloodied all over with two broken arms. He even commands Lakshmana to dig a hole to leave Viradha in so he can't harm anyone any longer. This is when things get odd, turns out Rama was destined to run into this enemy and free him from his curse. My story is going to be what Viradha had to do to get his curse. I haven't done much research and there probably already is a story as to how he got this curse, but I am going to make up my own version.


Bibliography- Title:The Ramayana
                        Author: Valmiki

Reading Notes: (Online free) Ramayana, Part B

Upon Bharata's return he is chilled with the news that his brother has been exiled and his father has died. When his mother tries to comfort him he wants nothing to do with her. He left with a father and older brother and returned with neither. Bharata plans to set off into the jungle to find his older brother Rama and bring him home. But before he can do that Bharata must perform the funeral for his father who had passed. Bharata quickly finds his beloved brother Rama in the Chitrakuta forest. Bharata wants nothing to do with his moms evil doing and tries to persuade Rama into coming back. Rama refuses and keeps his fathers promise. "Is a woman to consider herself a widow when her husband is out of sight? Know, all of ye, that I will be faithful to the mandate of my sire. I will keep my promise which I cannot recall. Let Bharata reign, for I will dwell in the jungle." Bharata returns to the city but he brings a treasured item with him. He told his brother to put on a golden pair of sandals to represent him in the throne room. Whenever Bharata gets any gifts he presents them to his brothers sandals first because he is ruling in place of Rama until he returns.

Rama, Lakshmana, and Sita are on their journey when they run into a man-eating rakshasa named Viradha. Viradha takes Sita so Rama and his brother spring into action. Turns out this demon has a curse on it making it immune to weapons. Nothing stops Rama though, him and his brother break both his arms and beat him up good. They throw him in a pit to die and he reveals that Rama has freed him from his curse.

(Ravana taking Sita)

The sister of Ravana, Shurpanakha, runs into Rama. She chooses him as her husband and shape shifts into a beautiful women, more beautiful than Sita. Rama obviously chooses Sita though. To evade the evil woman Lakshmana cuts of her nose and ears. Shurpanakha rushes to her brother, Khara, who will fight whoever harmed his sister. He gathers 14 others and charges in. They quickly die so he assembles 14 thousand others this time. When the 14,000 raksashas are readying their attack Rama orders Lakshmana to take Sita to a secret cave for safety. Rama is armed with a celestial bow and has no issue raining down fire arrows on his enemy. Rama wins and his wife and brother return to praise him.

Shurpankha retreats to her brother Ravana and commands him to take revenge. He wants him to take Sita away from Rama. Ravana plans for Maricha to pose as a deer that looks like treasure to try and lead Sita away. Rama ends up chasing Maricha and killing it. In his dying words he mimics Rama and calls out for helps. Sita commands Lakshmana to leave her side to aid Rama and this is when Ravana attacks. He ends up taking her and the Jatayu sees it and intervenes. He tries to save Sita but isn't strong enough for Ravana. Sita leaves some of her jewelry as a token for Rama to know which way Ravana is taking her.


I am not sure if I did this correctly.... I know you said not to summarize but that's exactly what I did. As the weeks pass and I know what is expected of the story I'm sure I'll figure out what to include in these notes. As for now I am going to stick to this.

Bibliography - Ramayana Online: Public Domain Edition - not sure about the author here

Reading Notes: (Online free) Ramayana, Part A

King Dasharatha was of the Solar Race and lives in a big palace with strong walls and a thousand warriors. These warriors are fierce and protect the palace like they're mountain lions protecting their den. Dasharatha had no sons and he wanted one so bad that he performs a animal sacrifice and is promised 4 sons. The King's sons are finally born and one son, Rama, stands out. It is believed that he has all the marks of Vishnu and is what the people need to defend against the Demon King Ravana. Rama, now a young man,  and his brother Lakshmana head out with Vishvamitra to help fight demons. Rama faces his first battle with the Rakshasa woman, Thataka. Rama is able to shoot arrows at her until she has no arms. With her back against the wall the becomes invisible to escape. Rama uses only the power of sound and impales who with one final arrow to kill her. As a reward celestial weapons appeared before him. Rama and Sita meet for the first time and fall in love just by making eye contact. King Janaka holds a little competition like the sword in the stone. But with his its whoever bend Shiva's godly bow can have Sita in marriage. Rama is able to bend the bow in half and break it resulting in a thunderous noise.
A tall bull-like man, Parashurama, hears the thunderous roar and comes to see what has made the noise. To his surprise, the godly bow is broken in half and gives Rama another test to see if he is truly mighty like the people claim he is. The test is to string his bow and Rama nails it.

Rama and Sita get married. King Dasharatha realizes that he is getting old and wants to put his sons to good use. He decides to summon his council and talk about who should replace him and take other as king. Dasharatha wants Rama because of the gifts that have been bestowed upon him by the God's. But Queen Keikeyl finds out about this and remembers she has to promises that Dasharatha must keep. So she makes Dasharatha banish Rama so her son can become king. Keikeyl follows through with her plans and pretty much forces Dasharatha to keep his vow. Dasharatha would rather die than to lose his beloved son Rama. Rama understands the vow his father took and obeys the request without hesitation to honor his father. It is a bit heartbreaking because it feels like the king knows his time is almost up and one of his queens is taking his favorite son away from him for her own greed. By the time Rama spends his 14 year banishment in the jungle his father could be dead. On the bright side his wife Sita accompanies him on his banishment. Lakshmana joins Sita and Rama on their banishment. On the first couple days of their banishment Sita prays to Ganga for safe return and vows to worship the river queen if she returns safely. The last two sections for part A focus on Dasharatha. He was out hunting one day and killed a person. In his dying words he asks him to notify his parents. His parents are heartbroken and decide to kill themselves. Shorty after Dasharatha himself dies after grieving the loss of his own son Rama and the guilt of being responsible for the family that is all dead.

(Sita, Rama, Lakshama banished together)

I am not sure if I did this correctly.... I know you said not to summarize but that's exactly what I did. As the weeks pass and I know what is expected of the story I'm sure I'll figure out what to include in these notes. As for now I am going to stick to this.

Bibliography - Ramayana Online: Public Domain Edition - not sure about the author here

Time Strategies

Being a full time student and a part time worker makes it so I'm busy just about every day of the week. Learning some time strategies and reading a few articles about procrastination has opened my eyes to some flaws in time management that I definitely have. The article that most caught my attention was the article titled "How to Beat Procrastination". This article gave a few strategies as to how to beat procrastination that I will be putting in use this semester. One of the best strategies I saw was to not look at the entire task and feel like it's too much effort. Instead you must take each task and have smaller more tangible goals. The example this article used was "I need to learn French". Which is a pretty broad goal and achieving it would require someone or computer software to teach you. So instead of your goal be to learn French your goal should be to email someone with advice on how to learn French.

(Time Management
Source: Web)

The way this strategy will be put into effect this semester for me will be to look at all my projects and just start with a small daily goal. This strategy will help me manage my time better by having smaller goals that are more easy to achieve.

Growth Mindset: Code Does Not Write Itself

I have never heard of Carol Dweck or anything like her ideas prior to this assignment. While viewing the video I definitely felt like everything she was saying made since and I felt like that's how a few of my classes in High School were taught. Ever since middle school I had been placed in advance math classes because for some reason I had a brain for math. So by the time High School came around I was learning calculus my Junior year. All the AP classes I took were definitely harder than all the other classes, but the thing is the teachers actually cared for their students success. At the end of the year when I took the AP tests half the time I wouldn't get college credit but it did ready me for harder classes. I might not have gained all the college credit I could have, but I do feel like I learned how to effectively learn hard material. While watching Dweck's video I just kept flashing back to my High School class and felt like I was properly challenged like she wants all kids to be challenged.

(Brain during challenges

Source: Web)

When college came around I knew I was good at math so I chose a major that involves a lot of math. That major being Computer Science. While most people look at this major and just kind of give me a look of "oh my god, you must hate your life". The major isn't actually all that bad. If there's anything that this major has taught me it is to take a problem and look at it in almost every way possible. This major definitely requires critical thinking skills which is how I feel I learn best. Where most people hate challenging problems I accept them.

Reading Options: Free is for me

For the Ramayana I am going to read the free option first. Not only is it free but it also comes with an audio feature. So if my eyes get tired I can sit back and relax while being enchanted with a story.  The main reason I'm going to read this one though is the fact that its free and says it has old-fashioned language. I'd like the read the older version of the book because usually the first time I read things I'm slightly confused anyways. This way I can blame the odd language on my inability to comprehend this Indian story. Then whenever I reread the story in a more modern style I hope it will stick with me better. Might sound silly but trust me there is a strategy to it. I wouldn't want to read the one with old-fashioned language second because the style of the author might just be confusing to me a anyways.

(Diwali (Festival of Lights))

A year ago I took Religious Studies and was very intrigued by the Hindu religion. There are hundreds of Gods and there are many stories to go along with all the Gods. Also the colorfulness of the Hindu religion interests me. There are a bunch of images of all these Gods filled with vibrant colors. For my final in that class I did a report about Diwali (The festival of lights), and fell in love with this type of culture.

Storybook Favorites

The first story I read was titled "Weapons of the Gods". The title definitely grabbed my attention and had me interested as to what weapons are reserved for the Gods. This story was in a ancient shrine with three weapons talking about how they were created and who wielded them. The three weapons were the trident named Trishu, a Mace named Gada, and a bow named Gandiva. It did seem pretty cool to feel like the weapons were personally talking to me and convincing me why they are better than the other two weapons. The weapons gave a brief history of how they were created followed by who wielded them and lastly they shared a cool little story of their masters using them to kill people.

Image Info: Arjuna wielding Gandiva

Image Source

The next story that grabbed my attention was "The Legend of Kalki". I guess growing up playing The Legend of Zelda is what really grabbed my attention to this title. Anything with the word legend in it has to be cool! This story starts with being introduced to the hero and learn that this is his 10th reincarnation. It is our hero Kalki's job to locate the weapons of the Gods and to destroy the evil that is lurking the world. The weapons the hero goes out and seeks are the Trishu, Gandiva, and Brahmadeva. This story is set up in a similar way the the previous one. It would tall you a little about the weapon and then you would approach it. The story makes you feel like the hero because it asks you a question and you have to answer it correctly to receive each weapon. To know the answer to the question just read the information about it carefully and Kalki will soon be destroying the Asuras (Demons). You never get to read about the hero saving the world but you got to go around the world to help the hero assemble the God weapons.

The last story I read was "Nighttime Nagas". The title grabbed my attention because I remembered reading something about Nagas in the previous story I read and I wasn't quite sure what they were prior to reading this story. But after reading the story I've learned that they are underwater snake people. This story is about two adult Nagas with hundreds of children. These two adult Nagas have visitors over the course of the week so Sumukha tells stories to the children so his wife Gunakesi can get some much needed rest. The first story is how their people were conceived. The second was about why the Eagle King, Garuda, kills so many of the Naga people even though they are related. The third story is about a man named Janamejaya trying to kill all Nagas in the world, and a man named Astika saved them. The last story is a little history as to why Janamejaya did what he did. All these stories are pretty interesting and after reading them I feel like I know the history of the "Naga" people,

Introduction To The One Person Still Playing Pokemon Go

My name is Kalen Smith and yes, I do still play Pokemon Go. I worked too hard to get this 3k CP Dragonite to just quit like everyone else. I feel like I mainly like it because I enjoy riding my longboard while I play.

(Pokemon Go Team Mystic)

Enough about Pokemon Go, I'll tell you a little more about myself.

 I am a Computer Science major and I plan on graduating in the Fall of 2018(fingers crossed). I was born and raised in a town some of you might have heard of called Norman. Getting to go to OU has kind of been a dream for me ever since I was a kid. I grew up playing and watching sports so I got the privilege to see all of the great athletes that have attended this university. My favorite was Adrian Peterson and I was actually at the game where he broke his collarbone. That year he still almost won the Heisman even though he was out the last 4 or 5 games. My second favorite was Blake Griffin, and if I was still a Blake Griffin fan today he'd probably be my favorite OU athlete overall. Too bad he's on the Clippers and just acts like a punk.

I come from a fairly large family. I have 3 siblings, 2 sisters and a brother. I was the third child so growing up I was always picked on. The youngest sibling is a girl and my parents wouldn't let us tease her so since I was the next youngest I was the prime target for my their antics. My favorite thing about my childhood is that we had a trampoline in the backyard. We could spend hours out there making up silly games and just hopping around.

My hobbies are playing Pokemon Go, coding, playing basketball, longboarding, and collecting pennies. For some reason when I was a kid I always wondered how many pennies could fit inside a specific trashcan at my house and I have been collecting every penny I get in that exact trashcan. It's over halfway full and at this point I can't even accurately remember what age I decided to start collecting.

There's a short introduction of me! If you have any questions or would like to just say hey, leave a comment!

Week 1 Story: The Boy Who Cried Ball

There was once an amazing superstar college football player who had so much talent that whenever his quarterback didn't throw it his way he would complain about how open he was and would say "Just throw me the BALL and I'll go get it". So like any good quarterback he looks his way on the following play and tosses it up to his best player. When the ball is on its way down the quarterback quickly realizes that it was a bad read and he probably shouldn't have thrown it into double coverage. To his surprise his superstar receiver didn't even make an attempt to go up for the ball and just let the other team intercept it.
At this point the quarterback is frustrated but it's just one play so he shakes it off and gets ready for the next offensive possession.

(Randy Moss, one of the best receivers ever)

The defense held up well and the offense heads back onto the field. The next possession the superstar receiver has 3 people covering him on pretty much every route he runs but still complains to his quarterback claiming he is "WIDE OPEN" and to "JUST THROW ME THE BALL AND I'LL GO GET IT". So just like the last possession the quarterback trusts his superstar receiver and just tosses another ball up to him. The end result is the same, the receiver didn't make an attempt at the ball and just let the defender catch the ball uncontested. At this point the coach is yelling at the quarterback for throwing interceptions and not the receiver for pressuring him into making those throws.

The defense holds up yet again, there are 47 seconds left on the clock and the team is down by 5 points. The quarterback has had enough of his superstar receiver complaining but not producing when he does get thrown to. So the quarterback sends him deep as a decoy and he just throws to other players. The offense is looking well and they made it to all the way to their opponent's 4 yard line and have enough time for one game winning play. The superstar receiver begs his quarterback to throw it his way and promises he will go up and get it. Sadly the quarterback remembers the past two times he said that so he doesn't even look his way. Somehow on this particular play the superstar receiver is left wide open and since the quarterback never looked his way he had to force a bad pass to another player. It was too bad that the player he ended up throwing the ball to just happened to be on the other team. The one time the entire game the superstar receiver is left wide open is the one time that the quarterback should have been looking his way. But since the receiver was pretty much letting the other team intercept it the quarterback didn't trust him.

Authors Notes: My story is derived from the story of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf". I grew up playing sports and there always seems to be that person who thinks that the ball should always be in their hands. Usually when someone wants the ball they just yell ball and it's an unwritten rule that if someone yells for the ball it means they really want the ball and must be wide open. When you lazily pass them the ball thinking they'll be open, but quickly realize there's no reason they should even have the ball it makes you question their motives. So instead of the boy who cried wolf this is the boy who cried ball.

Bibliography: This story is based the the fable "The Boy Who Cried Wolf"
                 I could not find a author for this story.

Durango... My Favorite Place and Favorite Family Vacation

About four years ago my family and I were trying to plan a family vacation. Nobody could really agree on anything so instead of having a destination in mind we packed up the car and just started heading west. This trip became known as the "Manifest Destiny" trip because we didn't really know what we were doing or where we were going, all we knew is that we were going West. We ended up driving to Durango Colorado on the first day and liked it so much we stayed there for our whole week long trip. We got to go white water rafting, ride horses, explore caves, go hiking, drive around the Rocky Mountains, and walk around ancient structures at Mesa Verde. 

                           (Mesa Verde)                    (Picture of my siblings and I

                                                                                      I'm on the far left)

The list goes on and on but I'll save you the time and just say there is a lot of fun things to do here that are in a 50 mile radius of the city. If you are a outdoor person and aren't afraid to get dirty then I recommend visiting this city. Especially when the summers barely even get into the 90s.

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