IE Chris (FA20)

Extra Credit Reading Notes: Mahiravana Mahiravana: A Magician Outwitted This story was unlike others that I had read, since the protagonist is Mahiravana, the son of the demon king Ravana. It paints the evil guys as the main characters of the story, and the good guys as the opposition. A clever way to spice up storytelling. Mahiravana and Ravana are spied on by Vibhishana, Ravana's brother who is now loyal to Rama. Then, Mahiravanam disguised as Vibhishana, kidnaps Rama and Lakshmana. Here, we see Mahiravana's power: he kidnapped gods and was able to temporarily get away with it. However, we soon see his foolishness too, as he is manipulated by Rama and Lakshmana. Mahiravana is preparing to sacrifice Rama and Lakshmana, but they say that they don't know how to bow and ask him to teach them. When he bows, they attack. Pretty foolish move for somebody who literally kidnapped gods. But then again, the concept of deceit and trickery is here again, which I love how it's exec...

Famous Last Words: Getting Started Other classes: things are getting a little hectic. I'm not sure if it is just in the spirit of getting the semester started or what but I felt like I was going to bed late most nights. I understand that schooling is important, and I'm so close to being done but this past week just flew by and as I'm sitting here preparing for the next one, I hope that I can have a little bit more control over the events that happen and the rate at which they happen. For example, I got a bunch of stuff sprung on me Monday night (wait, I remember... it was that absolutely torrential downpour that hit Norman!) My car doesn't handle rain well at all, so I was stuck on the road trying to get home for a long time. I think that it took me double my usual time, so it took me close to an hour to get home on Monday. Then I had a couple meetings over Zoom, including a meeting for my job so that was unexpected but necessary. Then I got home and wasn't able to ...

Microfiction: Eager and Anxious Eager: As Chris begins another school year, he feels a sense of excitement. This is his last school year, after all. The exciting prospects of performing a senior recital and applying to graduate school are certainly new endeavors that he is excited to tackle! Plus, the workload of the courses he is taking should be fairly light, as he's just finishing up a few of the final degree requirements that got pushed back for varying reasons! The last year is shaping up to be the most manageable! Chris is surely excited to see all that he will accomplish in the upcoming year as well as find out where all he can attend for grad school! Anxious: crap, there's so much to do! Author's Note: I decided to do two microfictions, a drabble and a six-word story, to illustrate how I feel coming back to school this year! :) I decided to make Anxious shorter because that part of me gets overwhelmed easily so it makes sense for it to be blunt.  (Image: on fire, ho...

Growth Mindset: Make Good Art The comment that Neil Gaiman made where he said that he didn't know anything starting out was brilliant. There are a lot of things that artists don't learn in university training, and sometimes the limitations that university training imposes can be taxing, if you don't know how to workaround it. But Gaiman has created his own path for himself, and now that he's doing a masterclass series, we can learn some of his thinking which he has learned through diving and and through his own experience.  Also, the "never be afraid to make mistakes" is a lesson I've been trying to learn for quite a long time.  (image: Neil Gaiman, Make Good Art -  credit )

Wikipedia Trail: Week 2 Starting Link:  Yama Next Link:  Chitragupta Next Link:  Deva Next Link:  Asura I started researching Yama after researching Dharma. As I mentioned earlier, Dharma and Karma fascinating me a lot. Having a god to monitor this and be the dispenser of law is pretty cool to me.  Yama is accompanied by Chitragupta. Chitragupta monitors Dharma and is responsible for deciding where people go after their death. This decision is based on the individual's actions. Yama is a Deva, which is a classification of deity. Having deities classified into these "good" and "bad" classifications makes for interesting stories, and inherently presents us with a conflict.  Naturally, if I went down the rabbit hole of Deva, I had to go down the rabbit hole of Asura. This separation of identity deserves attention both sides. These were fascinating reads!      (Yama, Lord of Death and Justice - credit:  Wiki )

Tech Tips, Week 2: Canvas Profile This week, I was able to use the Canvas portal to add my pronouns. That was a good step for me to do!

Back-up, Check-up, Review Part One: I backed up Blogger Part Two: I checked the Progress Chart and I'm on track for where I want to be Part Three:      Video:  What is Myth: Crash Course Mythology #1          As I've mentioned, I have always enjoyed myths. Hearing them categorically defined was really interesting. Particularly, that myths must have Significance and Staying Power. These are really good criteria to evaluate myths. I like their projected inclusion of heroes too, as mythology is not just deities. I'd be interested to keep watching this series.           Graphic: (image: Lego retelling of Aeneas - source:  Twitter ) This was a great thread to view through! I took Latin some years back, and part of the coursework was to start translating the Aeneid from its original Latin, so this was a great refresher!

Feedback Thoughts rewire your self-critical brain seven ways to crush self-doubt As someone who is CONSTANTLY creating (performing, composing, writing research papers), it seems that so often, our mindset is the biggest inhibitor. It can be so easy to get hung up on a small factor and let it deter your progress completely. The concept of REBS, or reality-based self-congratulation, definitely helps me to face the reality that is reality. For instance, in my practice schedule, I aim for 4 hours a day, 6 days a week. However, with reality, that doesn't always happen. For instance, the other day I had to have a few meetings regarding a graduation check and scheduling for a degree-required event. Those meetings both had to take place between 8-5, so that infringed on some of my practice time as well. However they were important and necessary to get done so I did them. That's the reality of life sometimes.  From the other article, I definitely could use the advice of not comparing my...

Topic Brainstorm: Option #1: The Avatars of Vishnu Dashavatara Avataras: Four Lectures for the Theosophical Society The concept of the Avatars of Vishnu has always been really fascinating to me. As I mentioned previously, I've been immersed with Greco-Roman mythology for a long time and even though the concept of Avatars is not present, there are similar concepts. All of Zeus's appearances that he uses to entice mortal women? The gods disguising themselves as mortals to engage with mortals? It's fascinating stuff. I think that this would be equally interesting.  Option #2: Music Nataraja, Lord of the Dance Hanuman Chalisa As a musician, obviously the musical aspect of Indian culture would be of interest to me. I'd studied a little bit of it in prior courses but it would be interesting to get more in-depth and get more knowledge on the cultural aspect of it. Option #3: Dharma Yama Chitragupta The concepts of Karma and Dharma sound really appealing, especially having a go...

Beffajez and the Mountain of Gold Once upon a time, there was a huge mountain giant named Beffajez. Well, half-mountain giant. Beffajez was also half dragon. But he was not descended from the cool, take-to-the-skies and swoop in to save heroes kind of dragon. He was descended from the greedy dragons who said and hoarded their treasure without circulating it back into the economy.  Background aside, Beffajez was known all throughout the local village as a terrible monster whose demonic gaze could make a man pass out on sight. Furthermore, he was known for raiding the town, stealing bags of gold, and taking them back to his lair. This left the local village, Cradda, stuggling to get by. Many villagers were lucky if they knew where next week's meals were coming from. However, one day, Beffajez noticed something: he was profoundly alone. To fix this, Beffajez started taking a housewife everytime he ransacked the village for gold. The first woman he took, a simple and sweet woman by the...

  Reading Notes: Jakata Anthology Jakata Anthology -  as told by Buddha The Foolish, Timid Rabbit     This story is definitely interesting, especially as a predecessor to the "the sky is falling" vein of stories. Herd mentality is certainly a dangerous rabbit-hole (pun intended) to fall down. Do we always take things for face value? What is the credibility of the person presenting us with information? The Turtle and the King     A good story centered around a turtle outsmarting people attempting to kill him. Which, why are the people so riled up and ready to kill a poor and defenseless turtle (I mean, they mistook it for a demon but how hard would it really be to tell the difference)? All he was doing was sitting at the edge of the lake and people were ready to pound it to powder or bake it in hot coals. How sad. The Turtle and the Geese     An interesting contrast to the previous story. All the turtle had to do was remain quiet, but instead he ju...

  Week 2 Reading Overview:  Part 2:   For the Ramayana, I'll be reading out of the PDE Ramayana. I think that it is important to get a wide variety of perspectives in a scenario where people are retelling ancient tales. I noticed in some of the storybooks from previous years' classes, there would be discrepancy in details between versions, so the author would have to take some artistic liberties when it comes to merging and reconciling the differences between editions.  Part 3: Comic books: Vaishno Devi: Goddess of the Hills    from the Temples of India Collection     link     This comic book immediately caught my attention because of the amazing art style. Upon further inspection, seeing a comic dedicated to and centered around a bad*ss goddess is really refreshing and good to see! The art style and the posing gave me Wonder Woman vibes, which I definitely enjoyed.  The Golden Mongoose: Tales of Duty from the Mahabharata  ...