Indian Epics Blog

This week for the story lab, I went to the Writers Write website to browse around at different themes for stories. This was an interesting website from the get go because the first two posts that caught my eye were about Harnessing Time Flow and a version of writer's block called Starter's block. I browsed through different stories, and one thing that I think really stood out about this website is that it covers more niche things within writing. We have the opportunity to see these larger scale things that will improve our writing, but the small scale things might be better. Instead of trying to make more dynamic dialogue or more interesting characters, one thing that we might be omitting is the flow of our story in the background. It can be important to use different kinds of pacing or different settings to really expand the story organically instead of unnaturally honing in on one character in particular. Since I basically browsed through articles, I only immediately rememb

This week, I continued reading about the Jatakas Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt. As per usual, while they all were interesting, three stood out in particular. The first is How the Monkey Saved His Troop. This one was interesting for me because it seemed odd that there was such a fixation on mangoes. I really thought that there would be a war over the food for the mangoes, but it was moreso a protection battle for the king versus the monkeys. It is interesting to me that after watching a larger monkey give himself up that the king decides to protect him, but most of these stories all have some honor theme to them. The second story is The Brave Little Bowman. This seems like a very common theme where someone with skill is passed over due to a semi-non-essential trait. The larger one probably should have practiced and learned from the better Bowman as well. Overall, it is odd that such a large man just runs back to the city, but when you think about it, the smaller one is better of because

This week, I continued reading more Jatakas tales. Three stories that stood out were The Woodpecker, Turtle, and Deer; The Woodpecker and the Lion, and The Red-Bud Tree. These stories can be found at More Jatakas Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt. The Woodpecker, Turtle, and Deer really stood out because it showed the selflessness of the deer. I feel like I have read many stories where once the deer was free, the turtle would be left to perish in the sack in the tree. But through teamwork, they are all able to survive. I think it's a nice tale about making sure that you always thank those that help you. In contrast, we see the lion disregard the woodpecker in The Woodpecker and the Lion. It is weird that we are suddenly getting so many stories with woodpeckers, but regardless, the lion decides that even though the woodpecker had hedged his bets well with the lion, since the lion did not eat the woodpecker, he has paid his due. This seems somewhat unfair as the lion is telling the woodp

The NASDAQ had already fallen 1200 basis points, the biggest crash in 10 years. Tech stocks fell further and further, with nothing but a sea of red on the historically upbeat ticker feed above the trading floor. Shouts from one trader to another rained out, but they were more out of desperation than information. The entire market was crashing, and no one could do anything about it. While many traders were winners and losers of this false-flag correction, two in particular stand out. A trader at Goldman and a trader at JP Morgan. Both accosted by a trader at Morgan Stanley, but only one escaping with his dignity- and more importantly, his money. One day, Salomon was sitting at his desk, and he noticed that NASDAQ and Dow futures were trading lower than normal. He ringed up one of his friends, Bill, at Goldman, and he mentioned how he was surprised that the market seemed to be going lower. Bill was also surprised. But the two were different in their reaction. Salomon was excited to s

I continued reading the Jatakas Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt, this time reading nine new tales that I had not previously read. There were three in particular that really stood out. The first one was The Wise and Foolish Merchant. This one is interesting because for some reason, I pictured it occurring in the midwest or in a country style way. The story sets it up to think that the wise merchant has tricked the foolish merchant, and that the wise merchant will be punished in the end. However, this story really connotes the word "wise" well, because it talks about how he is able to defend himself. It was reminiscent of Barnyard, oddly, when they were camped out in the middle of the night to protect themselves. The second story was The Banyan Deer. This is a great example of sacrifice, and it reminds me of the Chronicles of Narnia. The king of the deer sacrifices himself in an attempt to save the mother, in a way similar to how Aslan sacrifices himself. The main question that c

This week, I read part of the Jatakas Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt as part of the weekly readings. While I had begun to read these at the start of the semester, coming back after the Ramayana and Mahabharata made them somewhat more refreshing as everything was easier to follow. There were nine stories in total, but three really stood out for one reason or another. The first story is The Merchant of Seri. I liked this one because it seems to have an overall happy ending. While karma is seem to have originated in India, the Jatakas Tales often do not reflect that, such as stories where a character is killed for no reason. However, in this one, not only is the antagonist merchant punished for his actions, but the girl and grandmother with the bowl are rewarded. It does seem odd though, that they have a bowl made of gold and neither of them knew it. It raises so many questions about how it got there. The overarching theme is nice though, that even though they don't know it's value,

This Thursday, I was proctoring a pre-calculus test when our Complex Analysis professor announced that we would have a midterm in a week. Two days after my Thermodynamics midterm. Two days before my Fluid Dynamics Midterms. All within five days of my Numerical Analysis midterm. While this all seems super stressful, atleast once Fluid Dynamics is over, I can look forward to smooth sailing for a few weeks. This week, in contrast to the next few, is looking to be very peaceful as a whole. I got to play soccer with some friends this weekend. I had not played in a few months, but it was great to get back out on the field and run around a little. Even better, I finally decided on a Halloween costume as well- Russell from Up. The only hard thing has been finding badges. Finally, WE GOT A DOG. This part has been most exciting. She came by at some point this afternoon, a friend had brought her up. She basically explored the house for the first bit of the day, and now, she's getting more u

This week, I had the opportunity to learn how to Turn Negative Thinkers into Positive Ones , in an article by Jane E. Brody. The article delves into how we can turn our general reaction to adversity from one of negativity, to a more optimistic outlook. I once heard a story of someone that donated $5 to a homeless person at a stop sign, then, as they pulled through, they were T-Boned by a truck. However, things happened just well enough to where the person was not harmed in the incident. The classic optimist view says that because the person donated money, things were looking up for them, and that they had escaped any harm. The pessimist would say "just my luck that I get injured right after doing something good." One thing that the article clarified for me was that acceptance is a big thing. Often in social media, news, and other social encounters, we get upset or feel negative about the outcome. But what people forget is that social media is for highlights, not every day l

This week, I continued to learn more about the growth mindset by reading the article, " How to Spark Creativity When You're In a Rut " by Priscilla Claman. This article lays out some interesting questions to ask in order to determine whether or not one is in a creativity rut. One thing that I learned within this article was that when people are trying to impress superiors, it decreases creativity. This should be expected as people are often thought of kissing up to their bosses to make them like the employee more. One thing that I knew going in was that if we have to monotonous of a routine, our creativity decreases simply due to not getting outside of the box too often. Finally, one thing I would like to learn further on is why creativity is the most important item. Obviously creative solutions are important to innovate, but why is collaboration or something similar not higher? Either way, it was a great read, and I am excited to learn more moving forward! C

Mobius sat back in his chair, smoke filling the room. As a few people glanced sideways, the sweat started to roll down each players' temples. The small beads formed and fell, only because Mobius had the temperature in the back room turned up. Mobius held a full house on the flop, and placed his final bet. Sure of his victory, he lavishly slapped all of the chips down and went all in. Opposite of him was Yang. All others had folded out. Yang seemed shy the entire game, but had called Mobius every single time. Mobius was sure that he would fold this time, but to his surprise, Yang called. Mobius confidently laid all of his cards down and reached for the pot. But Yang had four aces. Yang had won all of Mobius' money for the entire night. It didn't matter if he had lost forty hands prior, they were small ones, mainly meant to make Mobius think he was a better player than he actually was. Yang took his earnings back home with him to his uncle. His uncle was a ruthless financia

This week, I continued reading the Mahabharata by C.A. Kincaid.  Earlier, I had praised this part of the story for being far better in clarity when compared to the other, but perhaps it was because I was comparing the relatively easy to understand beginning with the relatively difficult to understand ending. This is an interesting part of the story, because generally when I write, I do not have identity changes such as the Pandavas did, and I also do not interchange characters so frequently. I have a single character and some supporting characters. The issue is that technically, this is centered around an entire family, but the family acts between five different characters, which can make it hard when two characters from two different families interact, and we might not remember who is from what family. The story does become far better when telling the happenings of the battle. In the Public Domain Edition, I had a hard time understanding the entire focus of the battle, because it ha

This week, I read an alternative version of the Mahabharata by C.A. Kincaid . This served as a more informative version of the story, for me personally. To start, it really clarifies the lineage that the characters face. It sets up well the reasons that the two families dislike each other, but I thought that the best set up difference was when they compared how the five sons were all related to a different divine being. In addition, we get a better insight into how Krishna gets her name, and why she is thought of as so beautiful. One thing that causes issue (that did not before because I did not pick up on it) is that she marries five people at once. This is somewhat of an issue because in the Ramayana, Sita is banished to a test of fire and then to the forest over questions of her purity. But if all five are married (and it's not simultaneously, they clearly state it is one after the other), then why could people not believe that Sita marries Ravana, then Rama, and move on with

This week, I had relatively boring classes and lectures. We did a little bit of new stuff, but overall, with no tests or major assignments, it was pretty easy for the week to pass quickly. In addition, since it is a bye week, there has not been a lot of things to happen today to entertain me either. This entire week as a whole MIGHT have been something that passed me by quickly without a second thought. That is, until my roommate suggested we get a dog. For a bit of background knowledge, we had considered getting a dog for a while before moving into a house, but we ultimately decided not to because we were not sure if we had time. But now, we have an additional roommate and we are considering it for a real possibility. I would guess that overall, it has a strong likelihood of happening. One of us would have to own the dog outright for when we inevitably move out of the house, and we would also need to figure out what to do with it during summer and winter while we are not at school.

This week, I changed things up, and I decided to learn more about teaching skills. I read the article entitled, " What Kids Wished Their Teacher Knew " by Donna De La Cruz. This article is of interesting to me because I TA for two separate classes. Some of these are interesting for learning, such as "I wish my teacher knew that I wanted to learn more about history," while others are heartbreaking such as "I wish my teacher knew my family and I live in a shelter." The interesting topic between all of these are that teachers sometimes can make presumptions on students. The article confirms for me that children are excellent at hiding things. Whether it be poverty or a genuine interest in a field, they can mask that up to where there teacher would never know. One thing that I learned is that teachers often make presumptions about students based on their own upbringing and how they went through school themselves. This resonates with me pretty heavily, beca

This week, I continue my learnings on the growth mindset. I read the article entitled, " Behavioral research illuminates the very human heart of when, why, and how we fail ," by Cassie Werber. One thing that this article confirmed was that we often blame ourselves when we fall short of our goals. For instance, when someone doesn't go to the gym on February 1st, they try to blame themselves for their failure. But perhaps instead, we should just view it as an inconsistency that is surrounded on one side by 30 days of success, and has the potential to be surrounded by 30 more. I was able to learn that another approach to this is by applying Game Theory. Game Theory is a sort of economic theory that tells us how a multi-player interaction can be optimized. They give the example of a smoker as both players in a two player game and how he was able to overcome his vice. One thing I would like to know more about is how many people simply give up on an entire goal when they ha

This week, I look back at my progress as a whole, and I will determine if there is anything else that I want to change moving forwards. As per overall progress, I am very happy with where I am. Formally, I am exactly on track in the course, but point wise, I have completed a decent chunk more due to doing extra credit. I used to be far more ahead, but as school trudged on, I slipped back to being on time. If possible, I would like to allocate a little more time to complete assignments, but if not, remaining on time is more than enough. I am pleased with the Extra Credit assignments that I have chosen, though, I believe I will change out Wikipedia Trails with Tech Tips, or drop Wikipedia Trails all together. It just seems to take a little too long, and the learning is not in depth enough to make the assignment attractive to me. Looking forward, I really just hope to allocate a little more time for the Project assignment, and I do not see the need to change anything else. I have re

This week, I continue looking back on my progress in the class so far. The topic is on Feedback and Commenting, where I will analyze the comments I have received, the comments I have given, the blog comments in particular, and a plan moving forwards. First, on the comments that I have received. In general, I enjoy seeing the reactions to my stories just for the sake of reactions. The comments that are most helpful are the honest ones, as they focus on some random detail of the story and run with it. This generally helps the story writing process, and I enjoy getting ideas from these small and innocuous details. As per my comment wall, I liked seeing the anticipation for the story on Indra, but more importantly, I enjoyed seeing the overall opinion of the story to see which one people were looking forwards to the most. As per the comments I give out, I have tried to read the stories, type a comment, re-read the story, then refine the comment. In general, I get hung up on a detail or

This week, we look back at some of the things that we have done in the class, seeing as it is the halfway point. First, I will review my blog and website. Then, I will review my stories and blog posts. Starting on the blog, I actually really like it. It is not nearly as flashy as other people's, but I like something that is easy to navigate, and I enjoy reading the content as opposed to viewing different pictures. The labels are easy to find to navigate, and it also is broken down by month. As per the website, the same principles apply, I enjoy basic websites that get the point across. Looking back on my stories, I made a change around Week 5 where I decided to write a story about a dog being tricked by squirrels. This was followed up by a story about Baker Mayfield, which was then succeeded by a relatively original story about the Vajra. I made this conscious decision after I was not enjoying trying to somewhat accurately retell the stories that I had read, and I wanted to hav

This week, I had Friday off of school due to the OU-Texas weekend. I took advantage of this by working a full day at the consultancy firm that I work at part time, where I was able to crack a little further in a problem we were having with an algorithm. Once the work day was over, I got in my car and drove home. Generally, during drives, I tend to listen to podcasts as opposed to music. This is because sometimes, listening to music can be distracting and I might zone out. I always enjoy coming home, because it is a chance to eat some great tasting homemade food. This week it was cornbread and chili, a food that I do not have access to at Norman. In addition, I get to go back the my favorite restaurant of all time, Szechuans. I used to work there as a teenager, so it has always had a special spot in my heart. Coming home also means bringing home different clothes and items from Norman that I no longer have a use for, so the car is always full. I always try to get some things done wh

This week, I continue learning more about sleep and its benefits by reading the article entitled "Science of Slumber: How Sleep Affects Your Memory" by National Public Radio. Right from the start, one thing I really like about this article is that it backs up what it claims with some level of empirical knowledge. The professor notes that as we get older, our memory decays and the level of our sleep does as well. This is seen in the brainwaves that they can monitor as we sleep. In general, I note how I would like to see empirical evidence to back up the ideas in the article, and this is a step in the right direction. But the empirics don't stop there. They mention comparing two groups in a suited, one inn which they compare a group during the day, and 12 hours later, and the other group, they compare after a night of sleep. Comparing the results, it seems that the group that sleeps well will perform better. The article also mentions how people can need different leve

This week, I delved further into the growth mindset. I chose to learn more about work habits and various things we do that make us successful. I read the article entitled, " Scientists Find Secret to Thriving" from the University of Portsmouth . The research itself is interesting as the team sets out to find what exactly it means to thrive. If I was asked to define what thriving means, I would likely say having a relative level of success in comparison to the rest of my peers. But this inevitably begs the question of what success means and how we compare the success of our peers to that of our own. The article gives clarification to this and it answers some key question. Essentially, we have a "shopping list" of sorts, where we divide fields of success, for instance, spiritual success vs. financial success. While there is not a large amount of research into this field, the team suggests that they will increase the research into this list. Research suggests that

This week, I had the issue of getting pictures to display on Google Sites. I was using Safari as my browser, and when I uploaded the pictures into my site, I could see them; however, when I published the site, the pictures would no longer display. In addition, when I tried to update the banner with a picture, I would try to either upload or search for a picture, but it would get caught in a cycle of resizing for viewing. Solution: Switching browsers to Google Chrome immediately fixed the problem, and when I uploaded my pictures through this browser, they were able to display. This was confirmed by an outside source. I re-did this for this year, and my pictures display on my story for The Vajra .

There was a competition occurring in Dallas, Texas on a crisp and cool October day. The stadium was lined with fans, half of which likely wouldn't be able to make competent sentences. The competition was simple: win a game of football by scoring more points than the other team. The two teams lined up on each side of the field, one of them the team from Oklahoma, the other, a team from Texas that was only allowed to play because they begged really hard and eventually the conference got tired of them crying. While many players were ready for the competition, one in particular thought he was the best fit for the entire contest. One player in particular had been rearing for a chance to win this game for the team from Oklahoma. The problem was that he was not formally allowed into the game, so he would need some kind of disguise in order to blend in well. He did what he had learned was called "walking on" and disguised himself in order to be able to compete. Many of the othe

This week, I finish up reading the Mahabharata. The story heats up more as we move from the exile portion of the story to the battle side, and the families begin to settle things on the battle field. Though this is reminiscent of other stories there are stark differences as well. The family ends the story with a battle when they return home. Which doesn't sound at all too foreign when we think about an amazing warrior that has been aided by the gods and comes home to a large battle for their own homeland, this is reminiscent of the Odyssey by Homer. Arjuna returns home and wages war against the opposing family along with his family, and this brings up the question: how is this even a contest? In the previous story, we learn how Arjuna has gained many different magical weapons, and how the Gods favor him, so why do they and the magical weapons that they had bestowed upon him abandon him in the hour of need? This stands in contrast to the Odyssey where Odysseus fights against the w

This week, we continue reading the Mahabharata, I read the Public Domain Edition stories 41-60. The interesting parts of this story cover the exile in the forest, and how the cope with being away from society for the extended periods of time. One interesting thing is how imagery and descriptions are used. For example, when they describe Arjuna decreasing the amount of food he intakes until he no longer needs any, and he can live on the air alone, they immediately then launch into his bathing habits and how that makes him look very shiny, so bright as lightning. Then, he picks a fight with a great deity that can survive arrows and immediately put its opponent in a death lock, but the deity is happy that after nearly being killed by Arjuna that Arjuna decides to worship instead, so the god leaves him alone. Finally, he gives Arjuna a deus ex machina in the Gandiva bow. None of this makes any sense whatsoever. Then, not only do more gods come down from the heavens to meet Arjuna, but