Indian Epics Blog

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 ...