Week 11 Reading Diary B

pg. 49-91
The Mahabharata by William Buck

Important Things
-Duryodhana asks Dhritarashtra who he believes will rule the kingdom after he resigns. The town says Yudhishthira would look after them.
-Purochana builds a fire trap near where the Panadavas are staying.
-Yudhisthrita builds a tunnel around the fire.
-Vyasa takes Pandavas to the swayamvara.
-Draupada begs Shiva to give him a son to defeat Drona, who captured him.
-Draupadi marries 5 of Pandava brothers.
-The architect god leaves the forest and asks Arjuna's protection from Agni.

Week 11 Reading Diary A

pg 1-49
The Mahabharata by William Buck

-Duryodhana causes "all creatures to be slain and wastes the Earth"
-Arjuna is the "prince of all bowmen".
-Nakula is dark and guards Arjuna's chariot wheel with Sahadeve who is considered fair.
-Yudhishthira is manly and kind hearted.
-Vyasa was the poet and Ganesha was the scribe.
-Ocean was made of milk instead of salt.
-Ocean would churn and leave nectar is immortality.
-Gods emerge from the ocean.
-Shantanu falls in love with Ganga.
-Bhishman was 3 wives: Amba, Ambika, and Ambalika.

Week 10 Reading Diary B

Important Plots
-Pandavas are very powerful and make a lot of peace offerings.
-Duryodhana plans to take Krishna captive, however Krishna disrupts these plans.
-Battle happens and Bhishma is killed.
-Drona is influenced by the enemy, which is strange.
-Drona is told by the enemy that his son is dead and he gives up.
-Bhima drinks the blood of Duryodhana's brother, even though he had killed him.
-Duryodhana cries out to Krishna for his dishonorable behavior. Krishna doesn't care and tells him he had it coming.

Week 10 Reading Diary A

pg. 85-131

Important Facts
-Duryodhana is tempted by the gods
-He is captured by a gandharva and his plan to humiliate Pandavas is ruined.
-Nakula wants to drink from a lake, but the lake comes alive and asks him a series of questions that he must answer before he can drink from the lake.
-He doesn't listen and drinks from the lake. The lake then kills him.
-Others drink from the lake without answering questions. They are killed as well.
-The talking lake is actually the God of death and the questions were a test.
-Susharman, a pal of Duryodhana, is excited when he hears of Draupadi's death.
-He suggests they steal his cattle.
-Uttara and Abhimanyu get married.

Week 9 Reading Diary B

Reading: Narayan's Mahabharata pg. 84-131

Important Facts
-Dhritarashtra is shown to be an open vibrant character at the beginning, but then turns back-stabbing as the story progresses.
-This is similar to Kaikeyi in the Ramayana.
-A game is taking place between the two families.
-Dhritarashtra divides the kingdom between the families.
-Yudhistira makes a bold promise.
-The game that is being played is like gambling and is causing conflict between families.
-Draupadi has to advocate for her freedom in front of the large crowd.

Week 9 Reading Diary A

Narayan's Mahabharata pg 1-39.

Important Notes:
-Devavratha was raised in the river and did not have a dad.
-Raised by his mother.
-Devavratha needs to marry and father's of daughters want to make sure that their daughter will be on the throne.
-Takes vow of celibacy because of a stolen cow and killing mating deers.
-There seem to be a lot of characters in this book and I need to find the main characters.
-Vsaya is the parent to Vidura.
-King is blind.
-Pandu and Madri die.
-Arjuna and Karna are brothers, however, they are unaware of this.

-There seem to be a lot of different things going on within the first 39 pages. I feel like I've highlighted the main points, however, I need to do further internet research to gain a better understanding of this complicated story.

Reading Diary Week 8

I believe that the reading diaries are helpful to outline the reading. I really like reading outlines a lot more than I like reading tedious information with a lot of stuff that is rather irrelevant. I like to quick read because it allows me to catch the main idea of everything. I am able to remember locations within a story, so if I need to go retrieve something specific, I can. As I am quick reading, I will quickly note down important things that happen in a Word document. I like to include things like major characters or new characters that are just being introduced. I also like to include major plot ideas. I think by focusing on the major events within a story allows me to think more in-depth about the overall message of the story, instead of worrying about every little detail that is not relevant to the story. I also like the reading diaries because they are useful for when I am going back to write a story for the storytelling on Wednesday. If I were given a quiz instead of a reading diary, the reading would turn into busy work. I think that the reading diaries are better than quizzes because they are more useful. I have used my reading diaries to remember specific stories, especially when I am reading other people’s stories or thinking about my own stories for the storybook project. I think it would be cool if I started including a picture in my reading diaries from now on. I think this would allow me to visually connect with a story when I go back and look over my reading diary when writing the storytelling stories. Also, I just think pictures bring the stories to life and look a lot better on a blog!

(Wishbone, one of my favorite TV shows as a kid, and his books. Credit TVTropes.org)

Famous Last Words Week 7

This week begins the best week in college football history. I am really glad that I looked ahead and we have a review week this week, because my mind will be 100% on OU TX on Saturday. OU TX is the best weekend of the year and all of my friends that go to OSU are always jealous that we get to go to Dallas and represent the entire state of Oklahoma. Even though the Sooners lost Saturday to TCU, I am still confident that this OU team is well equipped to win big games this season. Since a lot of top 10 teams lost, it opens up the play off bracket to just about anyone now, so the Sooners technically still have a chance! I’m really excited that we are beginning to work on our Storybooks now in this class. It was cool to look over all the Storybooks from previous classes, so I was really looking forward to writing my own Storybook and trying out my creative hand, since I am not that creative to begin with. So far, this class has been really fun. Every other class I take is usually boring, but I have learned a lot and had a lot of fun in this class! 

I am really excited for the weather to become more fall-like. It was sad draining my pool this weekend because I tried to get every last warm day out of it. Hunting season starts in the Fall and my favorite holiday is in the Fall… who does not love Thanksgiving? Endless food and football with the expected nap. It is probably the only day of the year where naps are required. The weather is slowly starting to become cooler, but for every day where it is a perfect 68 outside, the next day is either 94 or storming! 

(The picture tells it all Credit: Footballbraniacs.com)

YouTube Tech Tip

This is one of my favorite songs, Walking in Memphis by Marc Cohn. Check it out!

Week 7 Storytelling: Rama Wrecks the Puskpaka

Rama Wrecks the Pushpaka

Exhausted after fighting Ravana for days, Rama knew that he had to get back to Ayodhya before his exile was over so that he could save his brother Bharata’s life. As Rama and Sita began to search for a mode of transportation, Vibhishana swooped down in a pushpaka, which is kind of like a flying chariot.

“Here, Rama,” Vibhishana said, “take this and hurry back home!”

Excited because he had never been in a pushpaka before, Rama and Sita hopped in and Rama started playing with the gadgets and cool stuff within the pushpaka. While Sita was focused on getting home before the exile ended, Rama was having fun playing around in the pushpaka. There were no “flying chariot” police at the time, so Rama began to speed and do flips in the pushpaka. Sita was terrified, but Rama was on the edge of his seat.

“Slow down!” Sita yelled.

“Don’t be a back seat pushpaka driver!” said Rama as he pushed the pedal to the floor. “This is so much fun!”

Rama was speeding around curves, winding through dense wooded areas, and flipping over mountain ranges. Although Rama was having a good time with the pushpaka, he forgot the only rule to flying a pushpaka… fly on the right side of the sky. As Rama pushed the pushpaka to its limits, he ended up spinning out of control and went into the left side of the sky, where another pushpaka driver was. The two pushpakas crashed and fell out of the sky.

“Now look what you did, Rama!”, yelled Sita. “We are now stuck in the middle of nowhere!”

Both pushpaka drivers were not hurt, however, their pushpaka’s were pretty badly damaged. Rama knew he had to quickly repair the pushpaka and get back to Ayodhya as soon as possible. So he went out searching for help.

As he, Sita, and the other pushpaka driver ventured for help, Rama suddenly recognized where they were. They were near the same location where Jatayu was buried! Rama searched and found Jatayu’s grave, where he plead to Jatayu’s spirit to give him strength and knowledge to repair the pushpaka. Jatayu used to a professional pushpaka driver, so he knew a lot about pushpakas.

“Oh, Rama. How are you so wise, yet you still wrecked a pushpaka?” came a voice in the mountains. It was Jatayu’s spirit.

“You need to change out the alternator and flush the intake lines to get the pushpaka working again,” the spirit said. “And slow down!!”

Rama took the advice of Jatayu and repaired the pushpaka. He got both pushpaka’s up and working again, however, this time Sita would not let Rama drive, so Rama sat in the back and watched the in-flight entertainment all the way back to Ayodhya.

Authors note: I decided to tell the story of the journey back to Ayodhya on the pushpaka in a little more humorous fashion. 

Bibliography: Buck, William. The Ramayana: King Rama's Way (1976)

(Rama and Sita with Jatayu's Spirit Credit: http://www.harekrsna.de)

Week 7 Reading Diary B

Pg. 374-442
The Ramayana by William Buck

Important Things
-Rama and Sita take a flying chariot home.
-On the way home, they stop to see where they hurried Jatayu. In order to announce that they are on their way home, Rama sends Hanuman ahead to tell his brother so he doesn't kill himself.
-When Rama arrives in town, the town is very excited. They give him presents.
-After a long period of time, Sita becomes pregnant.
-Because she has been with Ravana, she is considered not innocent. Rama sends Sita into exile.
-Valmiki hears of this and agrees to take care of Sita in her time of need.
-Sita eventually gives birth to two sons, Kush and Lava. They grow up hearing tales of Rama.
-Rama has a big festival in the forrest, where he eventually realizes that Kush and Lava are his kids.