Possible Class Improvements

I do really like a few of the class improvement options that were given to us.

First, I really liked the idea of expanding the storybook planning option. I was a big fan of planning stories because it gave me a lot of time to think of really cool ways to write my story. With a week a part between the planning and the story, I was able to take that time to think of different ideas for every aspect of the story. Also, it was good to even take a week away sometimes without even doing research, then come back to my storybook idea. The second time around, I was able to read through my plan and immediately spot out things I want to change when I'm writing.

I also really liked the idea of tutorial videos for writing. This would have been really cool and helpful for somebody like me, who did very little writing before this class. The video presentations don't even have to be amazing because a lot of people are visual learners and would prefer it anyway. Videos about complex grammar topics, like the ones suggested, would be awesome.

Famous Last Words: Hasan Minhaj and this current administration

Last Night, I watched Hasan Minhaj's 20ish minute routine at the White House Correspondents Dinner. If you don't know, this is where a bunch of very rich people and people from news agencies meet up at the White House and they make jokes about each other. Disappointingly, Trump and his people didn't want to make an appearance. But that was to be completely expected, honestly.

First off, I must say, wow! I was laughing throughout his routine. I will admit that you probably have to have more liberal views to laugh at his jokes. Hasan was able to make fun of this administration better than anyone I've seen. The jokes he was throwing out were on point and nearly, but not quite crossing the line. However, that wasn't the best about his performance. What I liked most was, while his jokes about this current administration were hilarious, he spoke a lot of scary truth.

Hasan was able to identify just how scary this administration and others have made politics as a whole. While even most conservative people must admit that the time that this administration has been in the white house has been complete amateur hour, there are still those the support the president fully. Now, I don't want to attack Trump for making promises throughout his campaign that he won't be able to follow through with (all candidates do that), but I will attack him for still acting like he is running a campaign. Where was president Trump during the White House correspondents dinner? Holding a rally in Pennsylvania. What is that about?  A president shouldn't hold rallies while they are in office. A president shouldn't be celebrating his victory over five months after the fact. These are signs of a very strange leader. It doesn't make much sense to me how anybody can support him, but hey, that's politics.

                                          Hasan Minhaj performing stand-up. Link

LEARNING BY H.E.A.R.T.: My favorite attention meme

I decided to choose the Learning by H.E.A.R.. option about finding a favorite attention meme and making a blog post about it. I found the meme with the "Rent is too damn high guy!" and had to choose it. The video featuring this guy was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. What's great about this meme is not only does it feature one of my heroes, but I can actually relate to the message. There have been numerous times when I have been doing an online assignment for a class and opened another tab for something completely unrelated, I have NEVER done that for this class, of course. 

This is sort of an intervention for me because I've just realized how much of a problem this is, haha. I will open several tabs and turn what could be an assignment that takes a few minutes into one that takes thirty minutes to an hour. This is definitely something that I need to change, and I will remember this meme every time I think about opening another meme while working on school stuff.

                                              By far my favorite meme relating too attention. Link

Growth Mindset: Best Buy

For this week, I decided to write about my growth mindset beyond school. This was interesting to me, because everything I had previously read about Growth Mindset was related to school. I was very intrigued to think about where a Growth Mindset could help me outside of school.

I thought about a place where I spend a ton of time outside of school, and Best Buy is what immediately hit me. I have worked at Best Buy for almost two years now and work about 20 hours a week. 

I have many opportunities to implement a Growth Mindset that will benefit my work skills. What makes me want to try this at work mostly is because it will not only benefit me, but also everybody around me. My coworkers will be affected because they will see that I am trying to improve myself everyday. They may even want to try a Growth Mindset challenge in their life. If I am more helpful with customers, I will be able to increase their appreciation  as well. SO, starting sometime soon, I will try to increase my communication skills with my co-workers and customers in order to implements a Growth Mindset that will benefit us all.

                                             The type of mindset we need. Link

Famous Last Words:Finals are coming...Dun, Dun, Dun

It's that week again...you know what I'm talking about, dead week. As I know how much studying and preparation I need to do, will I do everything that I expect from me? Absolutely not. I am a senior at the University of Oklahoma, yet I feel I still haven't learned to do everything that I need to do to be completely successful. I think what I find the hardest is to balance my time appropriately. School, girlfriend, friends, work...it's hard to figure out how to manage all of these. But it has to be done. My GPA depends on it.

So, I am challenging myself this year. I HAVE to do everything possible to do well on finals this year. I am expecting to graduate in December, and it would be nice to finish off my last few semesters well. While there;s not much I can do for my GPA, at this point, it means more than that anyway. I have never gotten all A's on my finals before, so why not now? Even if it may be hard for me to accomplish, it's not by any means impossible. I feel that I can succeed if I start NOW. In past years, I haven't prepared for finals until the weekend before finals. This has been for a variety of reasons (work, sickness, death in the family, etc.), but this year, barring anything crazy happening this week, I will plan on getting a lot of studying done. 

I won't have time this Monday, because I have four classes and work, but starting Tuesday I will get a lot done. That is the only day this week that I won't have any class or work. I am going to therefore wish myself the best of luck! And the best of luck to anybody reading this!

                                         Yep, pretty much me. Link

Week 14 Reading Notes: Nine Ideal Indian Women: Sita, Promila, and Shakuntala, Part B

I thin it's cool that I get to read about other Indian women who are considered by this author to be the "ideal" women that women should follow.

The story of Promila isn't as interesting to me as Sita (I could be biased) but I will keep reading to see if I gain any greater interest.

I am a big fan of the dialogue that is used in these stories. It is perhaps my favorite component.

Maybe in the future if I am to write, I could use the type of straight-forward, yet still mesmerizing dialogue that is used in these stories.

I didn't expect Rama to be in this story, but I am glad because I really have enjoyed his character throughout the semester.

Domayanti's story seemed to be very similar to that of Promila and Sita. I am not complaining.

The summation of these stories could be concluded to equal something pretty similar to any of the individual female characters I have read about.

My favorite thing about this story is the way that it is laid out. It makes it very easy to read because the sections are so defined. 

                                  Picture I found on google when searching for Ideal Indian women. Link

Bibliography: Sita's Story. Link

Week 14 Story: The Fallen Kingdom

Once upon a time, there was a great kingdom in the heart of India. This kingdom was called Reyansh. People from far and wide would come to Reyansh in search of a better life. Reyansh was the most powerful kingdom that any people on Earth had laid their eyes on. Under the leadership of King Yahnu, citizens of Reyansh saw their kingdom flourish. That is, until it just didn't anymore.

As more and more people came to Reyansh, the kingdom's elite became more and more greedy. Citizens of Reyansh were already the most heavily taxed people throughout all of the land. At first, the people were okay with this because they were promised great protection by King Yahnu and his army. As more and more immigrants entered into the kingdom, King Yahnu issued more and more taxes. The elite of the kingdom thrived off of these taxes.

The normal everyday citizens became more irritated with the ruling elite, as they were paying more and more in taxes while the streets became more crowded and deteriorated tremendously. Few citizens here and there would bring up the unrighteous happenings, but there was never enough continuity for a serious revolt. But then came Yanshto.

Yanshto, a disowned son of a ruling elite in another kingdom, was a low class citizen himself. Yanshto knew what it took to bring people together for a common cause. He had seen his father do it plenty of times. He knew exactly what to say. Large crowds of low class citizens would gather from all around the city to hear the words of Yanshto. He would point towards the streets to show the degradation. He would then point to the golden castle on the hill, far in the distance. Yanshto made sure that the citizens knew where their money was going. It was almost time for a revolution.

King Yahnu heard rumblings about Yanshto, thanks to spies throughout the city. The king knew something must be done to end any chance of a revolt happening.

One night, while Yanshto was asleep, one of the king's guardsman broke into his shack and stabbed Yanshto. As he laid dying, his screams were heard. Neighbors of Yanshto quickly ran to the shack. The guardsman tried to escape, but he was tackled by followers of Yanshto. The guardsman was wearing an elite cloak, so they knew who he was and who sent him. He was hanged ruthlessly.

King Yahnu hoped to wake up to good news, but he received word that his guardsman hadn't returned. Meanwhile, the citizens were planning a full on revolution.

Hundreds of thousands of people from every direction marched the streets in route to the castle where King Yahnu lived. There was nowhere the king could hide. The people wanted revenge for Yanshto's wrongful killing.

The people made their way to the castle and began destroying everything in sight. So many fantastic monuments in shambles, windows bashed, paintings torn to pieces, and guardsmen brutally murdered. The people made their way to the once proud King Yahnu and showed no mercy. Over the years after the king's death, the kingdom would see many leaders and many revolutions. Reyansh would crumble.

Author's note: I have always loved the stories about great kingdoms. By far, the most interesting thing to me is thinking about what happened to the kingdom for it to not be in power today. Most of the time, there's never a direct reason, so I decided to make a story that had a sot of direct reason.


Cool picture of a castle I found online, that I would like to represent the fallen kingdom Link


Bibliography: Neogi. Sacred Tales of India. Link