Week 7: Backup and Review

Growth Mindset Meme from Sunday Announcements

I think this cat understands my life. Going into this year, I knew it would be a tough couple semesters, but I didn't realize how difficult it would be. It's been a haul, but it's also been worth it. It's important to remember how much this semester has meant to me, and also to stop and give myself a pat on the back sometimes for the hard work I've been doing. Not that I remember to do that very often, but when I do it's a good reminder that I can take time for myself every now and then.

Also, as for an event coming up- this Saturday, October 17th from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m., Soonerthon, Engineers' Club, and Triangle are holding an Extra Life event! Extra Life is a gaming marathon charity event where people gather donations, and then play video games for a long period of time to raise money for the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. It's a testament to the social impact gamers have, and a way to give back to the community. If anyone's interesting in being a part of it, it's located in Sarkeys Energy Center rooms 360/370, and the team link to start fundraising is located here! If you just want to come out and play video games, it's $5 at the door and we'll have FREE Hideaway Pizza. It's a great cause, I'm super excited, and it's open to all students at OU! 

Week 7: Famous Last Words

Sleeping Students image from Wikimedia Commons

Well, it's officially midterm season, and all of my classes are in high gear. I got up early this morning to get in all the extra credit for this class this week, and seeing as I'm on the last two assignments, that's gone pretty well for me! I still have to do my Project story, but that's on the agenda for this afternoon. Surprisingly, I kept up in this class last week, even with two midterms and a fair number of homework assignments looming over my head. I don't have any tests this week, but I do have at least three projects due, and so it's looking to be another busy one. 

This semester I've really begun to understand the concept of taking on too much. Between being E-Club President, TA-ing for a course, taking two graduate level electives and two major classes besides that, I'm doing everything I can to keep my head above water. Little things seem to keep popping up, and some other things slip through the cracks. A secret between you and me, dear blog readers; I'm a little excited for my fifth year, when I'm not planning to be involved in as much so I can focus on my schoolwork and maybe have a little time to myself. 

But I'm also trying hard to remember to enjoy this year, because it's my last year of undergrad, and even though it's busy and really tough and wearing me thin, it's a blast, and once I'm out of college, I won't have an experience exactly like this again. College is a weird time-warped place that has a very specific atmosphere that doesn't exist outside of campuses, and I'm so glad my time here has been as crazy and busy as it has. Mostly, anyway! Sometimes it would be nice to have a little extra sleep.

I realized I started rambling, so I'll wrap it up here. Here's to another successful week!

Edit: I finished the blog post and forgot about a couple things I wanted to write about.

1. I really, really enjoyed writing my story this week. Usually mine clock in near or at 1000 words, and are serious and emotional and just not always too fun to write when I'm already pretty stressed out. This week I chose to write a really lighthearted story, and had a blast! It was closer to 700 words, and was much more lighthearted and fun. 

2. This week I started reading a take on Harry Potter called Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. It's really long, but it exists in podcast form, so when I've been driving or doing mindless tasks, I've taken to listening to it, and it's fantastic! Anyone who's interested in science and wants to know what Harry Potter would be like if he grew up with a scientist for a dad instead of a jerk, read more here. I recommend it!

Week 7: Tech Tip

New about me link, screenshot from personal blog

This week my tech tip was the Blogger Profile tip. Previously I had had just an HTML/JavaScript widget that had a picture of myself and a quote from Harry Potter, but letting Blogger put my profile together makes the whole thing much cleaner!

As for my online identity, I strive to keep a personal, but professional image. It sounds silly, but in engineering, we start looking for jobs and internships as early as sophomore year, and it's important to not have anything connected to you online that may put off a potential employer. When Facebook introduced the 'On This Day' feature, I actually started using it to delete the embarrassing stuff I posted way back when I was in middle school... I've also made sure that all of my settings are on private, not only for employers, but because I don't particularly want complete strangers having access to all of my information. Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, if it's connected to me, I make sure my security settings are high.

I know, I'm a bucket of fun. Better safe than sorry though!

Week 7: Curation Spaces

This week I finally have the time and the motivation to do one of my favorite extra credit blog posts, the curation spaces.

Image of Bride having hands painted with henna, from weddingpartyapp.com

First up we have a really gorgeous henna design I found on Pinterest- I love henna, and even got a small henna tattoo on my wrist at the Tulsa fair this weekend! I've always been in love with the temporary-permanent nature of henna. The commitment of tattoos scares me, so henna is the perfect compromise!

The Om symbol breakdown, from Sivana Spirit blog

Here's a good guide to breaking down the Om symbol, and seeing what everything means! I see this quite a lot when trying to curate things for this class, and now I have a handy graphic that tells me what each part of the symbol means. The rest of the blog seems pretty cool too, though I haven't had much of a chance to look deeper into it.

Elephant Calf 'Nunai' at the Animal Welfare Rehabilitation Center in Assam, India, from India Incredible Tumblr

There isn't much special significance behind this picture, except that it's a wonderfully cute baby elephant at a rescue center in India, and I thought it might bring a smile to someone's face! It definitely did to mine!

Week 7: Growth Mindset

Growth Mindset Meme from Growth Mindset Memes Blog

This week I decided to do the meme challenge as a reintroduction to the Growth Mindset challenges. For a long time, my approach to change was to do it all at once. Change the exercise routine, change food, change how I study, and surely if I did all that today, tomorrow I would be the new fancy version of Claire, the one that not only had her life together, but also got eight hours of sleep at night and had time to do her hair in the morning.

This does not work. It's a struggle for me to get more than six hours of sleep per night, and I throw my hair in a bun more days than I'd like to admit, I don't always get to run or work out, and sometimes it's just easier to grab a handful of whatever snack is in my cabinet than to make a healthy dinner for myself. Whenever I try to change my life in one go, I end up burnt out and irritated, and I stop doing anything I meant to do to try and change things. 

Finally, and recently, I've learned that the only way anything will happen is if I do it in small, small steps. I'm not going to change how my entire life operates in one day, and if I try to do that, it won't go well for anyone. Instead, I've started implementing small things, and trying not to make myself feel guilty if I don't do the change one day. The important part is to get up the next and keep going. 

I really identify with this cat. Little steps, baby kitten. Little steps.

Week 7: Reading Feedback

Image of a book on a laptop, from Pixabay

This week I read from an online source, since I usually avoid reading on my computer screen like the plague. As expected, I did have a harder time focusing, and since I tend to do my reading late at night (entirely my fault) my eyes were more tired after reading on my computer than normal. Part of me wanted to go back and read a graphic novel at the library again, but having two midterms last week, I just didn't have the time. I live on the opposite side of campus, and trudging over to the library and back takes a good chunk of time. I hope to get back over there at least once or twice this semester though, because I've forgotten how much I used to love studying at the library when I was closer by. 

I read the Five Tall Sons of Pandu this week, and I really enjoyed that selection. It was much less focused on the supernatural of the Pandava brothers, and looked a lot closer at relationships and how human emotions played with and off each other. I don't think I read it as closely as I wanted to, mostly because of midterms, but the reading took me a couple hours anyway. Combined with the time it took me to go back and read after the fact, I think the reading length was perfect. I'm interested to read more from Wilson, because his writing had such a great flow to it. 

Overall, it was a good reading week for me! Reading Narayan's version of the Mahabharata took me a lot longer, because it felt like it was so stuffed with characters that I just couldn't keep track of them all. Wilson's fixed that problem without leaving much out, and I was glad I chose to read it.

Storytelling Week 7: It's Only Fair

What Arjun probably looked like, or, Grumpy Cat, from Wikimedia

Twelve years.

Twelve years the brothers had waited in exile, and a thirteenth was before them, though they had the luxury of reentering civilized society, even though it had to be under false identities. The brothers were busy creating their new identities, sitting around a campfire in the woods on the last day of their exile, but Arjun was lost in thought. Sure, it would be fine to last one more year, they had already done twelve, but couldn't they just go to war now? Or at least go talk to family again? At least do something besides this wretched sitting around and waiting. And finding new identities, of course. Arjun thought the whole idea was rather unfortunate, but he went along with it, until...

"And Arjun, you'll have to dress as a woman. There's really no other way around it." Yudhisthira brought Arjun out of his deep thought, causing him to stammer.

"Wh- wait, no, hold on, I didn't hear what everyone else was going to be! I need a recap!" Arjun, being the great warrior that he was, would dress in something a little more relevant to his profession for a year than using his slight, wiry frame to pose as the fairer sex.

"If you had been listening, you wouldn't need one." Yudhisthira tutted and looked as to go on with the conversation, as if the matter were settled.

"No- but- okay, so I wasn't listening, fine, could you still tell me who's being what?" Arjun pleaded with his older brother, knowing Yudhisthira would have to give in eventually.

After a long pause, Yudhisthira agreed.

"Alright, but you have to listen this time, because I really don't feel like going over it again."

"I'm listening, I'm listening!" Arjun folded his hands in his lap and peered at his brother attentively.

"Alright. For obvious reasons, those being that I'm the oldest and smartest, I'm going to act as a Brahmin." Yudhisthira seemed particularly pleased with himself about this decision.

"Ah, yes, it seems only fair that you'd get first pick since you're the one that got us into this anyway," Arjun shot back at his brother.

"Hey! One moment of weakness!" Yudhisthira paused, regained his composure, and continued.

"Bhima will be a cook. He's the best of all of us, and the kitchen is a natural place for him to hear any secrets or whisperings of Duryodhana or if people have discovered us."

Arjun shrugged. Bhima looked particularly excited about his new profession as a cook, which was fair enough, as the rest of the brothers together couldn't put together a dinner if their life depended on it, which it rarely did.

"Nakula and Sahadeva will keep the horses and cattle, respectively. They're twins, and near indistinguishable from each other, so this is only fitting. We're running out of jobs and the twins need to mirror each other or they get fussy." Yudhisthira smiled forgivingly at the twins, who, to their character, were not paying any more attention then Arjun had been originally.

"So that leaves you, and as we're completely out of other jobs for you to do, you'll need to teach music and dancing and you'll be go much more unnoticed in that role if your gender is at least a little ambiguous."

"No but there are plenty of other jobs! I could train young princes, perhaps, or be Bhima's sous chef, even be a jester! There are at least twelve things I could do instead," Arjun argued. He was a little exasperated,  seeing as he was the middle brother and yet seemed to get job least suited to him.

"Heck, I could help Nakula with the cattle!" Arjun begged his brother. He didn't know the first thing about music, and had two left feet when it came to dancing.

"That would be impossible," Yudhisthira said sagely.

"Why, that's entirely possible!" Arjun was at the end of his rope. He barely even sang in the shower, much less in front of people, and he wasn't about to give lessons to anyone!

"No. Couldn't do it. Nakula has the horses, you see, so helping him with the cattle would be completely futile. Besides, I'm older, and you have to do what I say. So practice your scales and your twirls, because you'll be convincing someone you're excellent at these tomorrow morn. Remember, we must all make sacrifices."

Arjun complied, but only because Yudhisthira had played the ultimate trump card. As he went to sleep that night, he muttered, and eventually had dreams of the days to come... He could be heard even into the wee hours of the night, grumbling, "...sacrifices...I'll tell you about sacrifices...." until Yudhisthira threw a branch in his direction and told him to shut it.

*****

Alright, a shorter, lighthearted story about that time the princes chose their professions and Arjun wasn't thrilled about having to be a music teacher. In reality though, everyone gets something generally suited towards what they do, and I thought it would be amusing if Arjun pitched a fit about what he had to spend a year doing. If I'm feeling inspired, I might write a follow up when the story comes up again. Maybe I'll find a way to work it into my storybook... Though that would be the tiniest bit subversive. We'll see! Honestly, this was the first time a story I've written hasn't been paired with a specific song, and that's because the song I was writing to pertains in no way whatsoever to the subject matter at hand. It's a Christmas song, and that's all that matters. I think this was also the first story I tried to be a little more comedic than usual, and I hope that worked out all right! I hope you enjoyed, and that your week goes smoothly from here on out!


"The Five Tall Sons Of Pandu" by Richard Wilson, from The Indian Story Book (1914). Web Source: The Internet Archive

Week 7: Reading Diary B

Bhishma laying on a bed of arrows. 

Today I finished up reading the Five Tall Sons of Pandu by Wilson, which was a pretty quick and easy read. However, first we need to talk about how it wasn't until I saw this image did I get that Bhishma was laying on a bed of horizontal arrows, not vertical ones. This confused me for a long time. But now I get it. Horizontal arrows. Not... Not like a bed of spikes. Got it. That would have been pretty painful. Honestly wasn't sure how he was still alive after that long besides the fact that he was essentially immortal. Fortunately, we're clear now.

What mostly struck me about this week was how bitter Duryodhana was towards the sons of Pandu. Multiple times he had quotes about how he had hated them all this time, and would continue to hate them... It ended up being a really interesting perspective on how hatred can turn someone into a shell of a person. 

I also really, really enjoyed how it was much more political this time instead of battlefield-strategic. In Narayan's edition, a lot of time was spent on how this commander did this formation, and how that worked, etc, and he even mentioned that he cut a lot of that out. This time, Wilson focused far more on the decision making process. I really liked to see how Krishna left it open to the brothers to decide if they should send a message of peace or go straight to war, with the opinion that a better answer will come from the crowd of wise princes, instead of just one. Krishna's smart enough to know that he doesn't know everything, and that he should let the princes figure this one out for themselves. 

I've got a couple things in mind to write about this week, and I'm excited to get to it tomorrow!

Week 7: Reading Diary A

Drona Trains the Princes, from the reading guide for this week

     I chose to read Wilson's Mahabharata this week, since the idea of the characters being stripped down to their bare human tendencies instead of their godly ones was really interesting to me.

It ended up reading quite a bit easier than Narayan's did. There was a lot less time spent, thus far, on explaining who was related to who and who went behind who's back, and while those are things that did eventually add to the story, I enjoyed this one far more. I think it's the difference between reading something like the Bible, which is fairly lineage focused, and reading something for plot and character development. I was much more in tune with the five princes this time around. Instead of feeling like the princes weren't entirely in the right, it made much more sense that the public rallied around them because they accepted their position and made the best of it.

The story overall was really focused on the characters and their motivations, which, as a former theatre person, is exactly what I like to think about. When I rewrite stories, more often than not it's about the characters and what's happening inside their minds as opposed to what's happening around them. This was much more moment focused, little happenings that turned the tide of things one way or another. 

One thing I noticed is the Draupadi-five husbands thing was really downplayed. I'm not sure it existed at all. Instead, Draupadi took her place beside Yudhisthir and that was that. Draupadi, in this, is the embodiment of fire. When someone comes to take her during the gambling game, she yells at them with the utmost dignity, and gets them to leave without doing anything. I love it.