Epics of India Blog

This week I chose to do the story lab assignment. This consisted of two TED talk videos on writing stories. The first video was "A New Theory of Human Intelligence" by Scott Barry Kaufman ( source ). The speaker starts off my proposing a new theory of intelligence. He shows a teacher evaluation of a certain kid in two different stages of his life and asks if given the first evaluation, would we be able to predict the second. The child went from a very hyperactive kid diagnose with FOUR disorders at 8 years old, to a mild mannered middle schooler. Then he talks about a classification of children called "twice exceptional children." These kids have many weakness not associated with "normal" but have just as many strengths, AND many of the listed "weaknesses" can be strengths given the right context. He suggests that these students are often overlooked in the school system because it is structure for what is deemed as normal learning, and proposes...

Reading Epified: Mahabharata videos Part B Kunti was blessed with the ability to call on any god. She was then blessed with a son with the sun god, with earrings of gold, but had to give him away since she was not married. Pandu and wife Kunti source Pandu, the brother of the ruling King, was married to Kunti and Madri, and took them into the forest to live for a while. Pandu decided to go hunting one day and killed a disguised couple. Because of this, he was cursed to die in the embrace of one of his wives. Kunti tells Pandu of her blessing, and she calls on gods to give her sons, Yudhishthira, Bhima, and Arjuna. She then summons a god for Madri, and Madri gives birth to twins. Pandu helped raise the 5 sons, but eventually grew tired and embraced Madri, which resulted in his death as well as Mardi's death. Kunti took their 5 sons to live in the forest out of sadness connected to the city. When word of Kunti's first pregnancy reached the kingdom, Pandu's brothe...

Epified: Mahabharata Part A This version of the Mahabharata provides a lot of insight on parts I didn't understand before. In Episode 1- Shantanu the Unfortunate, the narrator proposes that the Mahabharata is a showcase of how karma functions. In my experience from reading the chapters, I can agree with that proposal. The Mahabharata showed account after account of how certain actions have certain outcomes. He explains how the River Goddess married King Shantanu agreed to give birth to the 8 cursed vedas and then kill them to free them from mortal life. But since Shantanu asked about the last child, she did not kill the 8th veda. This Veda named Devavrata became prince and heir of the throne of Shantanu. King Shantanu meets River Goddess Ganga source King Shantanu falls in love with a different woman, but cannot marry her because of Devavrata. The king's son sees his father's sadness and give up his birthright, vowing not to marry, claim the throne, or have child...

Just before this reading, the battle is beginning between the Kauravas and the Pandavas. Bhima, as general of the Kauruvas but as a major father like figure to both sides, knows the power that the Kauruvas face. As Duryodhana sees his forces loosing he wants to replace Bhishma with his more faithful right hand man, Karna. At long last we see Amba revenge come to pass, from Part A, who is made a man now, and slays Bhishma. (will come back later, only fatally injured but still gets to decide the day he dies). Here the writing turns to rhymes and is a little difficult to understand. The new general Drona vows to take Yudhishthira prisoner and leaves tons of dead bodies in his determination. In another part of the battle, Arjuna's son is trying to defend himself alone while Karna and Jayadratha prevent Arjuna and his brothers from coming to help. Alone, Arjuna's son was slain, which fueled Arjuna's will to fight even more. He found the man who killed his son and with th...

I am happy with how my portfolio is coming along, but unhappy with my progress on my blog. I don't have a very good routine, which I need to fix quickly. I enjoy the project feedback posts the most so far. It's fun to see other classmates ways to tell stories as well as their story ideas. As for the rest of the semester, I want to avoid putting off any more assignments. My goal is to make a new schedule, and change the way I've been delegating time. Light Bulb source

Feedback in: I don't really find a lot of the feedback on my stories so far to be very helpful. Many have commented saying my layout looks very nice, which was nice to hear since I paid a lot of attention to that aspect of my portfolio. Multiple people have commented wondering how my Mice and Tabby Cat story would turn out if I had kept the lesson at the end the same as the original, which didn't seem to be a very creative or helpful suggestion since I include in my author's note that I didn't find that part of the original story to be fair. Feedback out: I would say I always put a lot of effort to try to give feedback and suggestions that could be helpful to enhance the story that is already there, and not to change the whole plot. I have always had the philosophy to give what I want to receive. I value good feedback so I try to give good feedback to the best of my ability. Blog Comments: I feel like I am getting to know a few people in the class and that the intro...

I enjoy my blog's layout and design. After seeing a fair amount of other blogs, I can say that I have seen some that I find hard to navigate. In my opinion, I think mine is fairly easy to navigate. Also, I have received a fair amount of comments complimenting my profile website, so I am going to keep doing what I've been doing and keep the layout consistent. As far as my stories go, I think I am sorely lacking. I have a good amount of reading done but I have been unable to find the energy to write the past two stories. I had a lot of other conflicts with lab practicals and lab reports. The ones I do have written I think are a good start and have fit well in my portfolio. Overall, The reading assignments haven't done much to spark my interest in a good story to write. I'm not very happy that I haven't been able to complete all of the writing assignments. Maybe I will try writing a few microfictions to spark my creativity. Looking forward, I want to keep my schedu...