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Showing posts from February, 2020

Google Define Tech Tip

  I often remember in English classes that I would study vocabulary words in order to do well on vocabulary quizzes. Maybe one day those words would make their way into my writing, and I would be able to pick the perfect word for any situation. However, that's really all I remember about those vocabulary words - the fact that I knew them at one point. Now, I use Google's define feature whenever I come across words I don't fully remember. For example, didactic - I thought this was a particular style of prose, but according to Google it means more than that: Definition and etymology of didactic, screenshot of Google Definitions I hope this post is helpful, but doesn't come off as didactic!

Week 7 Story: Comedy Mahabharata

Comedy Mahabharata: Act 4, Scene 3 The scene opens up on a battlefield. The Battle of Kurukshetra is only growing in intensity. In the midst of the scrum, ARJUNA comes out to the front and begins speaking. ARJUNA: The Kauravas have killed my son! It had to be that Jayadratha. He is evil, and has always had it coming to him. We should have killed him back a few scenes ago, but... JAYADRATHA appears from the melee JAYADRATHA: I didn't do anything! It was Duhshasana! He killed your son with a mace not I! ARJUNA: That is irrelevant! You led six warriors against him and killed him! I'm going to kill you now. JAYADRATHA: Oh no. ARJUNA and JAYADRATHA begin running around in circles but nobody intervenes. DRONA steps forward DRONA: Yes, we know what you are wondering - why are we Kauravas stopping Arjuna from killing Jayadratha? Jayadratha is on our side after all. But Jayadratha is insignificant to our plans, so we don't really care if anything happens... ARJUN

Week 7 Reading Notes: PDE Mahabharata Part D

PDE Mahabharata Sources provided by: Arnold , Besant , Devee , Dutt , Ganguli , Kincaid , Macfie , Mackenzie , Nivedita , Seeger , and Tagore .  #63 I really liked this story because it was a battle that really wasn't a battle. The Kauravas heard Arjuna's oath, but instead of trying to stop him from killing their friend, they simply try to stall Arjuna from killing him for as long as possible. I found it interesting that the Kauravas did not care if Jayadratha got killed, but rather only wanted Arjuna to not achieve heaven. They aren't upset that Jayadratha got killed either, they are just mad their plan was thwarted. Also, people confront Arjuna in his efforts to go after Jayadratha, but he refuses to fight Drona. It is interesting to me that Arjuna can decide who he wants to fight. I think this story shows that value of self-restraint more, but it also shows what happens when you do not follow that value. Looking at Jayadratha, who was supposed to be a slave to th

Week 7 Reading Notes: PDE Mahabharata Part C

PDE Mahabharata Sources provided by: Arnold , Besant , Devee , Dutt , Ganguli , Kincaid , Macfie , Mackenzie , Nivedita , Seeger , and Tagore . #47 This story is interesting to me because the Pandavas help out their enemies by fighting for them. It seems like the Pandavas also are not high in numbers, meanwhile their enemies have a lot of men and women on their side. Despite the numerical disparity, the Pandava brothers are able to beat the gandharvas and save their enemies from capture. This drives Duryodhana to want to commit suicide by starving himself, but his followers prevent him from doing so by abducting him. This establishes that the Pandavas must fight the royal family because even though the Pandavas helped them, the royal family partners with demons and is still focused on fighting. I think it is weird that the Pandavas helped the people who exiled them. This must be like the cultural element in the Ramayana where Rama would help people and refuse to take the throne

Famous Last Words: "Due tomorrow, Do tomorrow"

Yep, that title sums it up a lot for me this week. This week was a roller coaster of sleeplessness, robotics, and just about getting everything done I needed to get done. Yes, I spent 11 hours across two days doing my homework for control theory right before it was due, but that's just a product of doing a bit too much. Every semester is a stress test - I keep piling on more and more weight until I'm just about to break, and then I take the weight off. This sixth week was that maximum stress point, so I need to manage my time better so I can keep going strong for the rest of the semester. A major source of my tireless struggle is robotics. The high school robotics team I mentor is coming up on their first competition. That's this upcoming weekend, so we will be working really hard and then it will be much more relaxed hopefully. This build season has been long, but I'm hoping we come up good in competition. Additionally, I have been working hard to get insurance f

Tech Tip: Google Maps

I spend a lot of time at the Rawl Engineering Practice Facility working on robots for my competition team. Some people on my team even list it as their "Home" location on google maps because of how often we spend time there. Many people don't know where this building is, and it's often hard to explain to someone unfamiliar to the engineering quad, so I thought I would demonstrate how to put a google map into a blog post by showing where I spend most of my time on campus:

Week 6 Story: A Royal Family

A Royal Family Five princes and their mother, the queen, were looking for a new palace, and the royal real estate agent had found a great deal for them. The king and other princes had already checked it out for them, and so they went ahead and moved into their new home. It was a lovely palace: it had high ceilings, was open-concept, and had shiplap walls throughout. While hanging out with his friend, one of the princes saw a commercial on television that made him think. The commercial had a fearsome tone, and talked about how you can get mesothelioma from being exposed to asbestos, a common building material in old houses and other structures. After watching this, the prince went to his new home and set about investigating the walls and ceilings of the palace. One of the planks of shiplap was a bit loose, and when he peeked under the crack it left between the exposed wall, he saw a lot of small fibers that looked a lot like the asbestos in the commercial he watched earlier that day

Week 6 Reading Notes: PDE Ramayana Part B

PDE Mahabharata Sources provided by: Arnold , Besant , Devee , Dutt , Ganguli , Kincaid , Macfie , Mackenzie , Nivedita , Seeger , and Tagore . #21 This story is a full story in and of itself. I thought it was strange that the prince who made up the plot to burn the Pandavas and Queen Kunti alive hadn't acted sooner. I would think the oil would lose its effect if he waited such a long time, and the presence of the oil would be detected immediately (like if someone sat on the couch or whatever the furniture was at the time). This is a classic villain move where the evil character takes way too long and could have accomplished his goals had he acted sooner. I also thought it was brilliant that they had a miner dig their way out of the house. Essentially, the main characters in this story have also faked their own deaths by accident, so I am really interested to see how that plays out in the rest of part B. The Pandavas escape. I like how the children all look like tiny ad

Week 6 Reading Notes: PDE Mahabharata Part A

PDE Mahabharata Sources provided by: Arnold , Besant , Devee , Dutt , Ganguli , Kincaid , Macfie , Mackenzie , Nivedita , Seeger , and Tagore . #7 In this story, Vyasa sires three sons - one is blind, the other is pale, and the third is with a handmaiden. I think it is really interesting that Vyasa totally takes himself down with respect to his looks. He basically calls himself disgusting and makes that the reason his son is born blind - because the woman who gave birth could not look at Vyasa. At the same time, Vyasa is writing himself out to be good. He calls himself a mighty sage and praises his own asceticism and devotion. This guy cannot pin himself down, and I think it is pretty funny. A Sadhu, which could be similar to what Vyasa looked like. Source: PDE Mahabharata   # 8 Karna's origin story is like that of Moses from the Hebrew Bible, except his mother was not seeking to protect him. Rather she was ashamed that she gave birth to the sun god's child an

Famous Last Words: "I hope it snows every week"

Can any words be more famous? I'd say most of us agree with this statement right about now! This week, the snow day helped me out immensely. I spent eight hours during the snow day doing all of my control theory homework, only to learn on Friday (the original due date) that the homework was getting pushed back because the material hadn't been covered yet. I spent a lot of time on the snow day learning the uncovered material, so I guess it served as a good primer for the lesson on Friday, and it's one less thing to worry about. The snow day really came in clutch for me this week. Picture I took from my bedroom window on Wednesday morning. I didn't go to computer vision this week, mainly because the weather was cold and I walk to class. I plan on being there to get my face scanned for attendance bonus points next week though. My theatre class was affected by the snow day, so I am now ahead in that class thanks to getting my reading done on time. On the grad sch

Meme Generator Tech Tip

I used ImgFlip.com to create a meme that all OU football fans will enjoy: This meme is about the horns down controversy that has plagued OU for the last two football seasons. Since Sam Ehlinger said he remembers everyone who has ever disrespected the University of Texas, hopefully he sees this meme and remembers how funny it is!

Week 5 Story: Sita is Over You

Sita is Over You After leaving Ravana's hometown in Sri Lanka, Sita was so glad to see one of her favorite people, Rama. She ran toward him and jumped into him with a flying hug, but to her surprise, Rama did not return her embrace. "Rama, is everything okay?" Sita asked. With a dull look in his eyes, Rama replied "No, you have been sleeping with another man - how dare you! I come in here and put myself out here, but you are not loyal to me. How can I move forward in this relationship??" Sita was taken aback - this is not normally how Rama had responded to pressure situations in the past - and with Ravana in the picture, Sita had thought Rama had been a good sport. But now he had cracked. His confidence was shattered, and now he thought she was sleeping with another man! Even though Sita knew she and Ravana had not slept together, she let Rama go on with his tirade. After he ran out of anger, Sita calmly said "So that's how you really feel? That I hav

Reading Notes: Sita Sings the Blues Part B

Notes - Part B Opening this section with Nina getting dumped by Dave is really sad. You can tell she was really into him, but that he did not care about her. It is really interesting how much her story mirrors the Ramayana. It's clear how she viewed the Ramayana through the lens of her own experiences and I think that's important for me to remember when writing stories in general - staying true to my experiences is important and can make the story better. This movie is very trippy with it's flashing color animations and songs in the background as it depicts Sita's struggle. I like the parts that are like this - they are very expressive and somewhat funny. Rama doesn't trust Sita at all, which is unfortunate. The narrators think that he's just doing it for his kingdom, but if he trusted her then he wouldn't have banished her. Meanwhile Sita loves Rama despite not being trusted by him. This film is about her, so it makes sense that she's the protagon

Reading Notes: Sita Sings the Blues Part A

Notes I liked the idea of animating the Ramayana. I liked the combination of drawings and pictures in the animation. It's like a crash course video with the modifications. I also like how there are multiple narrators who don't know the story perfectly and are arguing frequently in the start. That's an interesting way of telling the story. I also thought it was a good choice to make Rama and Sita to look like their godly counterparts - they are avatars after all. Sita asking Rama to chase the golden deer is like the crocodile and the monkey's heart jataka tale. It's funny how Sita has a shrine to Rama, and really accurately portrays how much they love each other. The movie stays very true to the Ramayana, and I think it's interesting that the author includes herself in the story similar to how we include ourselves in the stories in this class. Nina's boyfriend is a jerk in this story, but I guess this matches the Ramayana and is part of what makes this st

Famous Last Words: "I can put off my work"

This week's last words will be more famous than the last of course! So this past week was pretty slow, and it seemed like nothing was actually due or urgent, so I relaxed a bit and did a lot of nothing. This was a mistake, as now I need to do a bunch of stuff by Wednesday and Friday of this week that I could have finished a week ago. This is a common pattern in my semesters at OU - first determine how much I can slack off, and then once it starts to heat up, stop slacking and meet the demand of class. So this week I will need to be more proactive and not as lazy. Speaking of avoiding work, I was in robotics the past week adding little pictures to our circuit boards. That way they will look cool when they (don't) work. Here is an example of me adding the Sooner Competitive Robotics Logo to one of our team's printed circuit board designs:   SCR logos on a PCB, one good way to waste some time. Personal Photo. This past week in classes was very straightforward and

Tech Tip: Countdown Widget

Tech Tip: Countdown Widget I chose to add a countdown timer to my blog so I can look at how long I have to decide on what graduate school to go to. I've been accepted into 4 programs so far, and I need to make a decision by April 15th. Since I am applying for a masters degree, it is a pretty difficult decision to make, as funding is not very forthcoming unless you are very committed to doing a PhD. So this timer will remind me that I need to be thinking about this important decision some more in the coming month. It also sits nicely next to my weather widget that I added last week!   Countdown timer on my blog's sidebar

Storybook Plan

Story Sources : The main source for inspiration for Super Ramayana Bros. will be the Ramayana, specifically the public domain edition , as it has been the edition I have read thus far. I will also be relying on the Super Mario Bros. Wikipedia entry , which will serve to inspire me to integrate Mario elements into the Ramayana world. The overarching themes of Mario games can be found on this page, as well as common things I can apply to the Ramayana. For Hanuman, I will be taking a look at the Toad Wikipedia Entry to find useful parallels between the two. Stories I am going to be developing the three stories I presented in my most recent story blog post. To summarize: World 1, The Abduction of Sita This episode will represent the abduction of Sita at the hands of Ravana, and the beginning of Rama and Lakshmana's quest to regain Sita. There will be the introduction of minor monsters (rakshasas), and various magical elements from the Mario world introduced. World 2, Ra

Comment Wall

Hi Everyone! Here is the link to my storybook: Super Ramayana Bros. (If the link doesn't work, here is the full version: https://sites.google.com/view/super-ramayana-brothers/home ) Thanks for commenting about my project on this Comment Wall! Mario on a real life wall - graffiti is a comment. Source: Wikimedia

Week 4 Story: Two Small Transportation Stories (Microfiction Lab)

The Builders The builders work from dawn til dusk, covered in grease, dirt and sweat. Constructing a bridge across the sea, so the prince may not get wet. The Magic Ambulance In times of trouble, the ambulance made its rounds. In the mountains afar its magic wares were found. Along its route it made a stop to guarantee its stock. But the peculiar thing with this old truck was it carried the whole big rock. This Hanuman statue depicts our hero carrying the mountain to save his friends from death. Definitely to scale - Source: PDE Ramayana Author's Note: I wanted to experiment with writing poems as microfictions, and chose to re-tell two stories from part D of the Ramayana. The first, The Builders , is based on the story about the monkeys building a stone land bridge between the mainland and Lanka. I told this as a two sentence story, because I wanted to condense it further while showing the hard, thankless work done by the monkeys in that part of the story.  In m