Epics of India

This past week was the start of school, and it was very light in most of my classes. Syllabus week is a blessing because it isn't hard, but a curse because it can lead me into a false sense of security. Here's what I learned during the first week of class: I am going to get to go to four plays for free, thanks to taking Understanding Theatre My Computer Vision professor wants to take attendance using face recognition software that he wrote - this is going to be an interesting and fun experiment Control Theory, my first and only 5000 level class, is going to be pretty difficult, but will be very rewarding I am going to be busy this semester despite taking 12 hours Outside of class, I spent time mentoring Team Rocket, a high school robotics team in Oklahoma City. The kids are excited because we have a practice robot that can turn to specific angles and use computer vision to align with goals. We are in the third week of build now, so I am looking forward to helping them ma...

I haven't used Google's Timer in the past, mainly because I didn't know it existed! In the past, I've used a pomodoro timer to make sure I can balance work with breaks and not overload my brain. I have not used that solution in a while, but I am thinking about getting back into it now that I can use google to set a timer easily. All I have to do is type "set a timer for X minutes" and google takes care of the rest. It also has a stopwatch, so I can see how fast I get things done. Screenshot I took of Google's timer

Topic Idea 1: Jataka VeggieTales When I was growing up, the church I went to often showed VeggieTales to children (including myself) in Sunday school classes in order to teach the bible in simple terms. I believe a similar style of storytelling could be a fun way to tell many of the Jataka stories. I really liked the Jataka tales from the second week and I think VeggieTales would be a good format for re-telling the stories because it too sought to distill the themes and virtues of its subject matter into entertaining stories. I think the best way to write this type of story would be in a script based format. I would rely on the sources below - the first two mainly so I can stay true to the spirit of the Jatakas and VeggieTales, the third for additional research, and the fourth for story ideas. Source on Jatakas Source on VeggieTales Project Idea: Jatakas List of Jatakas from Class Topic Idea 2: Love Letters of the Ramayana One topic I am interested in exploring...

Rewiring your Self-Critical Brain The first article I read was about stamping out the negativity inside your own brain. This feedback is internal feedback - where you give yourself feedback in an effort to improve or encourage yourself. The author was having trouble with meeting their health goals, and developed a system of self congratulation that helped him push through his setbacks. As a perfectionist, I struggle with setbacks caused by my own brain's self-criticism. Using the method of reality based self congratulation could definitely help me acknowledge my achievements so I don't get frustrated and shut down due to not being as perfect as I'd like. I am going to practice this in the coming week and see if it helps me feel better! Being perfect can lead to being unproductive - it would be better to have fun and feel good than to have all the grass blades be the exact same height! Source: Wikipedia Why it's so Hard to Hear Negative Feedback In this artic...

The Oppressed Ten years ago, a dictator rose to power in a small, poverty stricken nation after a long civil war. The nation was torn, shops closed, infrastructure crumbled, and only the wealthy and strong had access to the already small rations of food and water the country could produce. To the citizens, it seemed like the rest of the world had forgotten about them, and low on food, many wondered if they would be able to survive much longer in their current situation. However, the nation was under many sanctions and the dictator did not allow anyone to emigrate - the oligarchs could not live their lavish lifestyle without the working class. It was common in those days to look for a way out - no foreign aid or the alliance of nations seemed to help, and sometimes even scoffed at the plight of the oppressed people in this nation. However, no way was forthcoming until one day in June, during a big drought, a man named Cane drove through the capital city advertising his service to sm...

The Cunning Crane and The Crab from The Giant Crab, and Other Tales from Old India by W. H. D. Rouse. Notes The Crane is very clever in this story. He identifies a population weaker than himself in the fish, who struggle to survive in their tiny pond. The Crane also identifies a solution to their problem - a nice cool lake nearby. If this were a story with people, the Crane might take this as a business opportunity and make some money by offering the only safe passage to the lake. However, the Crane is driven by hunger and greed. At first, the Crane is smart enough to overcome his greed - he successfully shows the one eyed fish the lake and brings him back. This is critical for the Crane's plan - a product demo if you will - to encourage the fish to get a ride in his mouth. Ultimately, this is how the Crane succeeds in eating all the fish. The fish are helpless, and it is relatively unclear if they would survive in their current situation. Would patience have helped them? Wh...

I am going to choose the Public Domain version of the Ramayana. The main reasons I am choosing this anthology are because it is free, it has pictures, and it is broken down into pages and reading sections. It looks like the older language style will not be challenging for me, so I think this route is worth pursuing. I started reading the first pages of the Ramayana, and I liked the picture of the capital city of Ayodya (posted below) - pictures definitely make stories better. The city of Ayodhya, from the first page of the PDE of the Ramayana ( Link ) I took a look at the comic books and videos. For the comic books, the first one that caught my eye was Hanuman to the Rescue . I think this would be a really good comic book because of the plot and because of Hanuman's character growing large to defeat enemies. Sounds like the Hulk to me - maybe Marvel should include Hanuman in its cinematic universe. The second comic book I found on the comic book website I had to look at be...