Famous Last Words: The Last One

The Last One

So folks, here we are. The last day of classes for this horrible semester, at least for me. However, I am going to admit that this was my FAVORITE class for this semester. I literally cannot wait until finals are over. This semester has really tested my patience. This week has really tested my patience as well. From finding out  I have so many things due this week (because professors hate us and like to just push everything into one week) to finding out Netflix was going to take Friends off in 2019 (but they're not, thank god. But they could also use that $100 million for better things, I agree).

One big mistake I made in this class was not putting in enough effort for this class from the beginning because from the amount of work that I have done for this class since around October, I have had so much fun. I honestly loved some of the readings and the extra credits that we got to do. My favorite thing ever was the movie Sita Sings the Blues. If I could go back and start early on in the semester like I should've, I feel like I could've done much better in this class.

And Laura, I hope you read this. But thank you SO much for everything! I appreciate you so much for all of the encouragement, help, and feedback you have provided throughout the semester. I have learned so much about my culture from this class. And not just about my culture, but about myself as well. I didn't think I had a single writing bone in my body, but my imagination and creativity was definitely put to use. I really hope you keep teaching this class, as well as the Myth and Folklore class!

The Friends peephole. Source: The Reading Fangirl.

I named my post "The Last One" and the last two episodes of friends are also titled "The Last One." I thought this would be perfect to use as an image because this is the closing scene from the series finale. 

Week 15 Review

Week 15 Review

This was the first video I saw while going through the announcements and I thought it was so cool! I like how in every building window, there's a face and they're all singing. I thought not only the singing, but the whole video was amazing! At the end there is a long, and I mean LONG, list of everyone that was involved in this video and I didn't realize that there was so many people in this video. 

Source: December 2nd Class Announcement

I love this graphic! I used to read a lot in grade school and this graphic literally explains why. I would use reading as my escape from the world, and I would get lost in the world of books. I realize I did find myself in the books I read too. I would always find a character that I thought was at least a little similar to me. 

Wikipedia Trails: From Nala to Canada

Wikipedia Trails: From Nala to Canada

I started the Wikipedia trail off with Nala. I read about him when I was reading the Nine Ideal Indian Women by Sunity Devee. He was the husband of Damayanti. I wanted to read more on him because I was curious to see if there was more about him than what was said about him in the story about his wife.

From there I went to the article about Dharma. I was curious to see what the Wikipedia definition of it would be because every time my mom has said the word, she says it in the context that makes me believe that dharma means "religion" in our language. After reading the article, I found out it is a key concept of Indian religions. So basically, it is kind of the same as my mom would say.

From there I went to the article about Sikhism. I know it is religion that most Punjabi people from India follow. I wanted to see how old the religion is because I know some religions have been around for a really long time.

Last, I ended up at Canada. Canada has a huge Sikh population because Sikhs started migrating to Canada in the 19th century and have been there since then.

Flag map of Canada. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Growth Mindset: Read an Article

6 Bad Mental Habits That Sabotage Your Success

by Amy Morin

• What is at least one thing that the article CONFIRMED for you that you knew already? 
• What this article confirmed for me was that I do doubt myself a lot, so I should stop doing that because that is going to hold me back from so many things. I second-guess myself a lot so that also holds me back.

• What is at least one NEW thing that you learned that you did not know before?
• I didn't really learn anything new from this article. All of the things that are mentioned in this article, I have done at various points of my life but I definitely think I have gotten better at not letting all of them affect me like they used to.

• What is the one thing you are now CURIOUS to explore (i.e. something you want to try in your life, something you want to research and learn more about, etc.) and what are you going to do in order to act on that curiosity?
• Something I want to do now is a go a whole day without doubting myself, second-guessing myself, and putting myself down. I want to see how many things I can accomplish in a day without doing all three of those things.

Source: By Diandra Medina.

Tech Tip: Embedding YouTube

Tech Tip: Embedding YouTube

I've actually done this before in a regular post but I didn't realize it was a tech tip as well. So here I am doing it again. 

Here is a video from one of my favorite YouTube channels, Hiho Kids. These kids are adorable so if you want a good laugh, go watch these kids try various foods and snacks from around the world. 

Extra Reading: Nine Ideal Indian Women

Nine Ideal Indian Women: Sita, Promila, and Shakuntala

by Sunity Devee

I read someone's story a few days ago about Promila and I really liked it so I wanted to read the actual story. 

Promila was a princess who was married to Indrajit, the son of Ravana. She, like most other wives in the epics, was very loyal to her husband. She never put him down or said no to anything. Even when he had to go to war with Rama and Lakshmana. He said he would come back by nightfall but he didn't and she started getting worried. She got on her horse and went out into the enemy camp to find him. Upon finding him, she got so happy but also so scared for him. She tried to stay strong but she eventually caved and cried. Indrajit goes off to pray to Agni, the fire god, but instead sees Lakshmana. He prays to him thinking he is Agni and asking to give him strength to defeat Rama and Lakshmana. Lakshmana in anger hit Indrajit and then a fight ensued. Indrajit was hit fatally by one of Lakshmana's arrows and is dying. When Promila found out, she was ready to leave the world too because she couldn't live without her husband. She took permission from her in-laws, distributed her jewelry, and said her last goodbyes. She went to the funeral pyre her husband was on and sat herself on it, and let herself be consumed in the flames. 

Promila on her black horse going into the enemy camp. Source: Nine Ideal Indian Women

Week 15 Story Lab

Writers Write:
6 Superhero Writing Tips from Stan Lee

Source: Flickr.

With the recent passing of Stan Lee, I thought this would be a good read. Stan Lee has created this amazing universe that people all around the world love and adore so obviously he did something right with his comics.

His 6 tips are:

1. Write what you love to read.
2. Create empathy in the audience.
3. Acknowledge your power in people's lives.
4. Create a great antagonist in your story.
5. Coming up with a title is tough.
6. And, finally, from the mouth of the iconic Spiderman, remember, “With great power comes great responsibility."

I think these are such great tips because I have definitely tried to incorporate most of these tips into my own writing. I didn't even realize I do some of these things until I started reading the article. I've never really used #4 because I don't really have an antagonist in my story, but maybe if I ever write another story for anything then I might try to have a villain in it. 

Reading Notes: Nine Ideal Indian Women, Part A

Nine Ideal Indian Women

by Sunity Devee

Savitri talking to Yama about her husband. Source: Wikipedia Commons.

For Part A of this reading, I got to read about Savitri and Damayanti. 

I especially loved the story about Savitri because I finally got to understand the Hindi term "Sati Savitri" because of this story. Indian women are called sati savitris if they're considered to be a good wife. That never really made sense to me until I read this story and figured out the origin of it.

Savitri is the daughter of King Ashwapati of Abanti. Being the daughter of a king, she got the best education, good friends, and basically a happy life. She would go with her parents when they visited topobans/ashrams which are hermitages. One day when she went to stream when she saw a man coming out from the forest and it was like love at first sight. He was the son of an exiled King and had a destiny of dying soon so her father didn't want her to get married to him but Savitri still was like "no, I love him and will only marry him." So her father eventually agreed and let her marry him. And then when the day came for her husband to die, she fought with the god of death, Yama, to save him. 

Growth Mindset: Cat Memes for Days

Source: Growth Mindset Cats.

I like this one because I've always believed in the "learn from your mistakes" concept. I have done that various times in my life. Plus, I love how cute and innocent the cat looks in this meme.

Source: Growth Mindset Cats.

I love this one because this really speaks me. When I found something difficult, I used to give up easily. I was especially like that during freshman year. I think over the course of the last 3 and half years, I've learned to not give up so easily and keep trying.

Wikipedia Trails: From Adam's Bridge to Black magic

Wikipedia Trails: From Adam's Bridge to Black Magic

NASA image showing Adam's Bridge connecting India (on top) to Sri Lanka (bottom). Source: Wikimedia Commons. 

I started this trail off with Adam's Bridge. It is mentioned in the Ramayana that this was a bridge built  by Rama, Lakshmana, and Hanuman to reach Lanka to save Sita. I was curious to see if there actually is something still there. From the pictures you can tell that there is still land that connects India and Sri Lanka, but it is not a whole landform. It has broken down but still forms a sort of connected looking path. One of the theories for this is that it occurred when Sri Lanka broke away from the Indian mainland, which to me makes the most sense. 

From there I went to the article about King Arthur. I had read books about this when I was in grade school so I was curious to know more about the legend of King Arthur. After reading the article, I learned the difference between the children's book and the real legend. 

The next article I went to was the one about The Sword in the Stone. It is a 1963 Disney movie. I was curious about it because I wanted see how Disney changed it up from the legend to make it more child-friendly.

The last article I went to was the one about Black magic. I was curious about this because I wanted to see the origins of black magic. It has always been associated with witches and devil worship, so I was curious to see how and when that started. 

Extra Reading: More Babbitt Jataka Tales

Jataka Tales

by Ellen C. Babbitt

For this extra reading, I read the Part B of the Jataka Tales. Just like last time, I had a good time reading these as well.

I really liked reading "The Ox Never Envied the Pig." Basically, the story is about these two oxen brothers who do all of the hard work on the farm and are only given straw and grass to eat while this lazy pig doesn't do anything and gets good food to eat. One of the oxen, Little Red, is grouching about having to do hard work but not getting good food in return. The older brother, Big Red, says to Little Red that he shouldn't be envious of the pig. The pig is being fattened up with the "food of death." They're going to eat the pig for the wedding feast, so be happy that you get to live a long life.

I really liked that one because I've always lived by the moral of the story. "Work hard and you'll be rewarded in some way." I'm not going to say that I don't envy people because I do, but I know my hard work will pay off one day.

Pig. Source: Max Pixel.

Week 14 Story: Sita: The Independent Woman

Sita: The Independent Woman

Sita got home from her long day of work and just slouched on her couch. She had been working hard for the last few months just to get her bills paid on time. Ever since her husband Ram had dumped her, she had had to move out of their apartment and find her own place. 

She still hadn’t forgotten about that day. Ram had dumped her in front of everyone at the hospital she had been working at then. He had asked her to move out of their apartment, as well as his life. She had cried for days on end after she had moved out.

Sita ended up moving in with a friend for almost three weeks until her friend’s roommate came back. She was lucky that she knew somebody who was moving out of that apartment building and she got his apartment. She continued working, taking double shifts so she could make more money. She considered herself lucky that her parents had raised her to be independent because she knew she would be able to make it on her own. 

When it had been a few weeks after their breakup, she found out she was pregnant. She was scared about what was going to happen. When she told her parents, they said they would support her completely. She hadn’t even told Rama yet but she knows it’s not going to go well. “Oh well,” she thought. “I’ll raise this baby on my own. I don’t need Ram.”

One day she went to one of her prenatal checkups and found out she was having twins. Ever since that day, she realized she was going to have to tell Ram now. She had gone to his apartment, their old apartment, and had a talk with him. At first, he was mad that she hadn’t told him when she had first found out. But nonetheless, he was ready to offer her any kind of support she needed. In that moment, Sita realized that she didn’t need him anymore. Over the past few months she had kept herself busy that she didn’t really think about Ram as much. 

Sita looked at Ram and said “Listen, I only came to tell you so you wouldn’t be blindsided one day if you found out from someone else. I didn’t come here to ask for your help.”

“But what about child support? You can’t handle two babies all by yourself with your salary,” said Ram.

“You don’t know what I can do now, Ram. I may have seemed dependent on you when we were together, but I have changed since then. I can and I will go through this all by myself. I already have enough support that I need from my family and friends,” said Sita. “Oh, and I want the divorce finalized now.”

And on that note, she left his apartment and his life. But this time, she left with her dignity intact and her head held high. 

Ram sees a pregnant Sita. Source: Youtube.

Bibliography: Sita Sings the Blues. Nina Paley.

Author's Note: After watching Sita Sings the Blues, I realized how much I hated how clingy and dependent Sita was portrayed in the movie. I decided to write a modern day version of how Rama had exiled Sita even after she had gone through his Agnipariksha, the fire test, to prove that she was still pure. In this modern version, I wanted to give her a new personality and be independent, so I wrote about her having a job and being able to pay her bills all by herself. In the Ramayana, Rama doesn't know about Sita being pregnant until much later when he finds two boys singing about him. I wanted to change that up and show he does find out and offers Sita help, but she is independent and doesn't need his help. 

Reading Notes: Sita Sings the Blues, Part B

Sita Sings the Blues

by Nina Paley. 

Sita cries a river after Rama exiles her. Source: Wikimedia Commons. 

I finished the rest of the movie for the Part B reading for this week. In my last reading post for this, I mentioned how I think Sita is shown as this desperate and clingy wife. I was thinking about writing a story for this week about Sita being the opposite of that. This second part of the movie gave me some good examples of how I could write her as this independent, strong woman I want to portray her as. 

• One part is where she goes into the forest after she is exiled by Rama. She stays alone and is pregnant while at it. I could do a modern day twist of her being this working woman who's determined to go through this pregnancy by herself. 
• Another part is when she's forced to do a test again to prove her purity to Rama. I can write about her doing the opposite of complying and being like "Yeah, no thanks. I don't need to prove myself." and then just walking off. 

However, there were some downright funny scenes that I just might end up writing about.

• The scene where Rama and Sita's sons are older, and they're singing praises about Rama. But in reality, they're lowkey dissing him at the same time. They sang something like "Rama set his wife ablaze, got her home, kicked her out," and then "duty first, Sita last." 
• Another part that was funny to me was after Rama asks Sita to go through a test again, she is like "If I'm truly impure, then may Mother Earth take me back into her womb." So Mother Earth comes, Sita starts to run to her, everyone else runs after Sita, and then when Sita tries to jump into "the womb", she pauses and the music does like scratch stop. I just thought that was pretty funny.

Reading Notes: Sita Sings the Blues, Part A

Sita Sings the Blues

by Nina Paley. 

Sita sits by a tree after she is captured by Ravana. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

For this week's reading, I decided to watch the movie Sita Sings the Blues. I wish I had watched this earlier in the semester when we had free choice of Ramayana readings. But I'm also glad I got to watch it now because this was such a fun stress reliever. At first I thought it was just going to a long video of informational stuff, but it was actually really fun and some parts were downright hilarious. 

I think my favorite thing about the whole movie are the shadow puppets! They're the narrators and they're so funny! It's like, they're narrating but also they're just casually discussing it as if they're just sitting at home and just talking. 

From the readings I had done earlier in semester, I learned that Sita was a very devoted wife. Her devotion for her husband Rama can be seen from her actions. I feel like the movie made her seem like a very clingy, desperate wife. Especially the part where Rama saves her and he starts doubting her pureness. He thought since she had been in another man's house, she was impure. Eventually Rama forgives her after she goes the fire trial. Rama is like "will you forgive me Sita?" and she goes "of course Rama, I live only for you." That part kind of irked me. 

I think for a story I would make Sita this super independent woman who shows attitude and strength, instead of just crying all day and waiting for Rama to come save her from Ravana. 

Week 13 Review

I love Greek Mythology so I enjoyed watching this comparison video of both Indian and Greek Mythology. I like the comparisons that were made in this video. I knew a few things about both the Indian god/goddess and about the Greek god/goddess, so the comparisons made sense to me. I feel like if I had taken both this Epics of India and the Myth and Folklore class at the same time, then I would've been able to get a more clearer understanding of the comparison.

Whatever... I'm late anyway. Source: Class annoucements. 

I really liked this graphic because this is so me. I have moments where I'm early to things, but most of the time I'm late. I usually walk into my morning class at least 5-10 minutes later. One time I ended up being 20 minutes late that I had to sit on the ground because I couldn't find a seat. It's a good thing that the classroom had carpet and not tile.

Famous Last Words: Surviving these next few weeks

So here it is. The Sunday of Thanksgiving break, the end of this much, much needed break. My goal for this break was to finish up this class but that didn't happen sadly. However, I'm going to try to set that as my goal for this next week. I definitely want to finish before dead week. That just means I'm going to need to invest a whole lot of time into this class now.

However, this was my best week of class because I'm actually going to end up doing all of the assignments, meaning all of the regular and the extra credit. I'm lowkey proud of myself. I'm going to set the goal to do the same thing this next week too. Hopefully, I won't have to do all of the extra credits to reach my desired grade. I don't think I will have to but we'll see. The only thing I didn't really like was my story I wrote this week. It wasn't my best because I really couldn't come up with anything. I kind of just threw some thoughts around and it into a story.

This week I got to do some fun readings. For the regular readings, I finished up the Epified: Mahabharata videos I had started. For the extra credit readings, I read some Jataka Tales and they were fun to read. I have found other videos from the same channel that I will use as extra credit readings. I started watching the Sita Sings the Blues movie for this week's reading and I'm already enjoying it so much. I'm so excited to finish it! It's honestly the best thing I've watched in this class. I don't know how I'll write a story for it because it is already so awesome itself, but I think I'll be able to come up with something.

I'm honestly so stressed about all of my classes, but I'm glad I have this class as a bit of break from all of the hard classes. I actually look forward to doing the readings for this class, especially for this week.

Meme I made. Woody's face describes me perfectly. Source: ImgFlip.

Learning Challenge: Read an Article about Empathy

Learning By H.E.A.R.T.

I decided to read an article about empathy for a learning challenge. I picked the article "3 Little Tricks to Deal With People Who Offend You" by Leo Babauta. This was a really fun article to read. I decided to read this article because I feel like I do take some things to heart, especially things that I really shouldn't and I get offended. It's not really the everyday things that the author wrote about in the article. It's the mean words that people say that I take to heart. I read this article in hopes that I might find a way to not do that.

• One thing that was confirmed for me in this article was what they wrote in the second point. The comparison they used was really good. They described you and other drivers on the road to you in a raft and twigs floating down the river. They twigs aren't really trying to get in your way. They're just there, just like how other drivers aren't purposely trying to bother you on the road. I realized that I'm not so easily offended by that. I kind of just mind my own business and don't get bothered unless people are being obnoxious and annoying.

• One thing that the author mentioned they do is give people a mental hug when they think someone is using rudeness as a coping mechanism. I think that's something new I'll try. I myself am usually so stressed all the time that I feel like I've unconsciously been rude before. Since finals are coming up, I know how stressed out the population of OU is going to be so I'm going to mentally hug someone when I see them being rude.

Mental hug. Source: Flickr.

• One thing that I'm curious to explore is the Get Big theory. Get Big means to get the bigger perspective about a situation. I think I do that anyway, but not as often as I should. I do tend to act like a brat sometimes. I need to learn to see the bigger perspective of a small problem.

Extra Reading: Babbitt Jataka Tales

Jataka Tales 

by Ellen C. Babbitt. 1912.

For extra credit reading, I read through Part A of the Babbitt Jataka Tales. 

The one I really liked was the How the Turtle Saved His Own Life. In this one, there are little princes that had a lake in the courtyard that their dad, the king, had made for them. The king had asked some men to put fishes in it. The princes were looking at the fishes when they saw the Turtle. They had never seen one before so they were scared and though it as a demon. They ran to their father and told them there was a demon in their lake. The king ordered his men to catch the demon and bring it to him. When the turtle was brought in, the king ordered his men to kill. The men started giving out ideas on how to kill the turtle. Then one old man who was afraid of the water said to throw it into the lake where it flows by the rocks in to the river. When the turtle heard the old man, he said to the King something like "what did I do that you would even think about doing such a dreadful thing to me? The other plans were bad, but to throw me into the lake?" So when the king heard the turtle, he ordered his men to throw the turtle into the lake immediately. The turtle laughed to himself once he was in the water because he knew the king and his men didn't know how safe he actually was in the water.

Turtle swimming. Source: Wikimedia.

I really liked this one because it had good old-fashioned psychology and trickery. The Turtle was the smartest one out of all of them.

Tech Tip: Meme Generator

Tech Tip: Meme Generator

I used the ImgFlip meme generator to make a meme for another blog post and now I feel like I'm going to keep making memes because I love memes. 

The meme I created for the Growth Mindset blog post. Source: ImgFlip.

Growth Mindset: Trying New Things

Growth Mindset: Trying New Things

The Growth Mindset challenge I did was the "Learn from Other Students" one. For the challenge, I was to find quotes from former students that would show me something new, like a different way of thinking. So I went to the Padlet and started looking. Initially, I thought I wouldn't find much and have to do another challenge because I had already heard the same old inspiring quotes that most everyone will have in their Instagram bios or retweet on Twitter. But I was actually shocked when I started finding some that were so unique and different, things that I wouldn't even think about. Here are a few of the my favorite ones I found.

NEVER BE COMPLACENT

I like this one because it really speaks to me. I was never the complacent child that I would just accept things the way they were. I always asked questions and always wondered why I had to do this and that. Even today, I still question many things about society and culture and why girls are expected to be a certain way and etc. I think this will be a good reminder to me to never stop questioning, to never just be. I think the fact that I question many things helps me grow as a person.

R.U.N. Rejoice Under Negativity. 
I don't have a problem with taking negative feedback from people, but I do sometimes tend to just ignore it. I realize that doing that doesn't make it just disappear or go away. That feedback, that opinion of theirs will still be there, and it's up to me to take it in good stride and change it.

WHAT I AIM AT
Over the last few years, I have definitely strayed off track a few times. I have forgotten what my goals are and what I need to achieve because of stress. I have given up many times and felt like a failure. But I've also picked myself up so many times so this really spoke to me. This will be a great reminder to remember that I have so many goals I'm aiming to achieve and I need to not give up so easily when times get rough.

Meme I made using the ImgFlip meme generator. Source: ImgFlip.