Learning Challenges: Health/ Happiness & Cheeseburger

I may or may not be a little too excited about learning how to make a meme. I also, may or may not be very good at it but it sure is fun!

I am coupling the happiness H.E.A.R.T. challenge with the cheezburger meme creator so I have made some silly memes to go along with it. 

I am somewhat of a believer of making oneself owns happiness (if that makes sense). For instance when I am feeling sad or angry my favorite thing to do is go to the gym. Something about being able to plug in some headphones, blast my favorite music, and throw some heavy weights around calms me. I learned a trick a while ago (when I was a little more self conscience) that if I turned up my music and only payed attention to what I was doing, what I wanted to achieve in the next couple of minutes that everyone else in the room disappeared and my anxiety and anger or whatever it was I was feeling at the time went out the window. I try and channel my feelings into physical capabilities, if that makes any sense. For instance, I remember one time being so angry (of course I have no clue what I was angry about anymore) and my gym was closed so I took my frustration out on the track. I ran my fastest mile that day. 

Or sometimes you just want a friend to make casual conversation with. In cases such as that, I don't blast my music but simply leave my head phones out of my ears. There are many, many conversations going on in the gym. Sometimes I somehow end up involved in one myself, with random friendly people or sometimes I just listen. Some might say the later one is ease dropping... I call it "leaving my reality" for a just a second anyway. Sometimes I make up stories for people I see at the gym, (especially if I'm on the treadmill. I need something to occupy my time!) I typically keep the stories pretty happy and upbeat. 

Some people say the gym is a depressing place... I must disagree with that statement. It is a place full of people trying to better themselves with goals and aspirations. What is more inspiring and happy than that? What is even more awesome is when you notice someone who is not giving up, or someone who has the courage to ask the muscular dude what he does to get his triceps like that. 

The gym is not my only happy place. I would consider eating corndogs at the state fair, seeing a food truck park near where I am, and Roxy's Ice-cream in OKC another happy place of mine. I'm all about the balance. 

(cheezburger.com)

(Cheezburger)

Portfolio Index

The Fishing Trip
The day of the big fishing trip has finally arrived but King Santanu is in a rather gloomy mood. Has he lost everything in his kingdom? Does he have a fatal illness? His son, Prince Davavratha, is determined to get to the bottom of it while on their annual trip.

The Beautiful Maiden

A young beautiful maiden has been cast to a forest by her jealous stepmother. One day she sneezes and catches the attention of a goblin that lives near by her cabin in the forest! She hears his approach and becomes frozen with fright. What will be her next move?

The Prom Barter

It is the day of the prom and Kadru and Vinata are getting ready for their prom dates. Vinata has always been jealous of her twin sister who seems like she gets everything Vinata wants, but will her luck change tonight?  

The Football King

It has all come down to one final game to decide who will go to Nationals but in practice the star quarterback, Yudhishthira, hurt his throwing arm! Now Arjuna must travel in search of the Football King for celestial shoulder pads.

The God of Fire 
The god of fire tells his tale of how he, Vayu, the god of wind and Yama, the god of death have found themselves held captive in Lanka by the evil demon, Ravana. 

Reading Notes: The Sacred Tales of India, Part C

The Gift of the Ascetic

• A king with 3 wives had no children and this was depressing to him because that signified that he lived a sinful life in a previous existence. No one even liked being in his presence. 
• Even the man who swept the palace who lost his appetite upon seeing the king. 
• The king heard of this and became depressed until one day a holy ascetic went to see him and told him he will be a father if he eats this drug along with his wives.

              - The catch is one of the sons must be his (the ascetics)

• The two eldest wives took all the medicine for themselves bc they did not like the young wife.

              - The young wife heard of this though and resorted to licking the cup

              - The two eldest wives gave birth to 2 sons each, the young wife gave birth to a conch shell

• The boys grew up and the wives and husband forgot about the deal with the ascetic and the young wife realized her conch shell was splitting at night and revealing young man inside.
• The ascetic eventually went back and the king thought he could outwit him by giving him a son of a maid but the ascetic knew and was furious the king eventually gave him the son of the youngest. 
• The youngest wife prayed to Sancta- Narayan, he said her son will come back to her.
• The conch shell son met a beautiful maiden in a cabin in an area the ascetic forbade him to go and they fell in love but turns out him and the maiden are going to be sacrificed. 

            - They devise this plan and it turns out great.

            - the conch shell sons pretends to not understand the ascetics instruction's so he showed him and the conch shell son cut off his head!

• They lived happily ever after

The Sun's Twin Sons

• Very odd story about a woman who was not married 
• A king sent for her to bring sun to his kingdom for just 1 day.
• She prayed to the sun god and said she would give herself to him if he shone the sun on the king for just one day.

          - he did just that but she hid from him so he married her in spirit.
          - she gave birth to twin sons
          -  I don't really understand why the king is so worried about if she has children or not but he
             keeps checking on her to make sure and overtime she hides them.

• Her kids turn into vessels of blood when the sun is out?
• she pours them on a tree one day to hide them from the king

The Consequences of Generosity

• a Brahman woman and a milkmaid were friends
• Obviously the Brahman had more wealth than the milkmaid and the milkmaid one day asked if she could borrow the Brahman's image of Narayana for a year so she might praise her and find wealth too.

            - The Brahman agreed

• Soon the Brahman lost all her wealth and traveled looking for a place to stay but all the people she had cared for previously turned her away, not recognizing her.
• After a year when she retrieved her image of Narayana and her wealth was returned to her approached those people and was like hey, why didn't you care for me

                - all the people (including her own daughter) were all like I'm so sorry I did not know it was
                      you

(Narayana)

A Brahman's Ban

• Indra, king of the gods threw a party
• The party was getting a little crazy and a Brahman showed up and instead of Indra saluting him threw some flowers at him that had just been received by dancing girls.
• The brahman took this as an insult and cursed Indra, saying he has to be a cat for 12 years.

            - Indra died right then and returned as a cat

• Sachi, Indra's wife was unaware of this transition. She went looking for the Brahman who cursed him so she could find out where he was reborn at.
• Sachi found Indra and they slept for 12 years until Indra turned into a man again.

(Cat from pixabay)

The Pir's Power

• A beggar (who worshiped Narayan) ran into a Brahman (who worshiped Satya Pir)
• The beggar decided to worship Satya Pir and found much wealth and his neighbor who was childless worshiped him too after hearing about the beggars wealth.
• He had a daughter who grew up to be beautiful
• She married a wealthy merchant

              - they set sail and landed in a kingdom and bought a stolen necklace (they did not know it
                 was stolen).
              - the merchant was arrested
              - his wife prayed to Satya Pir and he visited the king that held their husbands captive and
                demanded their husbands be released

• The husbands journeyed home with their restored wealth and never forgot to praise Satya Pir

The Gander- Eater

• A poor Brahman widow had a son who went to school with all the other kids and was ashamed that he only ate vegetables and not fish like the rich kids. 

                 - He went home crying to his mom, embarrassed.

• The boy stole  bird for his mom to cook and the next day he was imprisoned. 
• The poor widow praised the goddess Subachani and it worked bc she granted her a wish
• Her son was released from prison and married the kings daughter earning him half the kingdom
• The widowed Brahman never stopped praising Subachani from then on.

Bibliography: Sacred Tales of India. D.N. Neogi. Illustrated by P. Ghose. 1916.

Reading Notes: Sacred Tales of India, Part B

The Bride of Yama

• A poor Brahman lost his bull (The gods were testing him)
• Him and his sister performed a religious ceremony to the goddess of love, Paravati.

           - Paravati enjoyed the devoted people and gave them their bull back and granted them both a
                   boon.
          - The Brahman became King and his sister (now a princess) married Yama, the god of death
          - Now Yama told her not to go near the southern portion of the grounds around the house
         - Of course her curiosity overcame her and she saw women who have sinned burning...
            including her own mother!

• She begged Yama to let her mother go, he said it could only be bought with a  portion of her brothers reward.

             - Of course he said no.

• Her last resort was disguising herself as a Shepherdess and present herself to Gautama who was also reaping benefits like her brother. 

             - She finally agreed and her mother was released from agony. Happy ending.


The Goddess Who Devoured Elephants

(The Goddess who sat upon a lotus holding two elephants) 

• 2 wives married to a rich merchant

            - Lahana, the younger one and Khullana
            - Lahana was better loved the two wives, needless to say did not get along!
            - Lahana got Khullana banned and she was forced to tend to a flock of goats to earn a living.

• Chilean heard a noise from a nearby town and went to check it out. They were performing a religious ceremony to Mangal- Chandi who brings fortune to whoever.
• Chilean then decided to perform these ceremonies with what little she had.

              - It worked! When she opened her eyes, her husband was standing in front of her wanting to
                    bring her back with him.

• Years passed and Khullana gave birth to a son while her husband was gone trading.. He never returned so her son grew up not knowing his father. 
• Her son wanted to go searching for his father but not without performing a ceremony to Mangal- Chandi. 
• Turns out Khullana's husband saw a lady in a lotus devouring two elephants... the king in that town did not like this and sent him to prison.
• Now when the son went through, he saw the same thing but the king did not believe him and ordered him to die. 
• Now Mangal- Chandi visited the king in his dreams and showed him the woman in the lotus holding the two elephants and bade him he let the son and husband go.
• They arrived home and lived happily ever after

The Slayer of Kangsa

• Kangsa, king of Mathura was a harsh tyrant and Basundhara went to heaven to complain to Shiva.
• The gods assembled together in front of Vishnu to advocate fro Basundhara
• Turns out Vishnu was the one that made king Mathura great bc he had pleased him at one time.

                - his own sons cannot kill him but he never said anything about a nephew
                - So vishnu is going to rise again born to king Kangsa's sister
                - and Paravati be born again as well!

• The king was killing all the babies in fear they were to kill him. Reminds me of the Bible story about Moses and the Pharaoh. 
• Anyway, Vishnu's reincarnated self was able to escape this death with the help of Paravati and Vishnu's reincarnation grew up to slay the king. 

Chand, The Unbeliever

• Mahadeo, greatest god of heaven, visited Earth in human form and met a young girl in a lower caste. Neither cared and she gave birth to a girl but she was already full grown.... they named her Padma.
• Kinda odd. Padma's mother grew jealous of her and clawed one of her eyes out. Mahadeo cried and another woman appeared out of his tears.... he sent this woman and Padma off.

               - they found a place to live and wash clothes... nearby lived a man of equal wealth to Padma
                    but he refused to accept her and not worship her.
                - she was like oh nu uh! and after giving birth to a bunch of snakes had them kill his 6 sons

• The guy with the 6 sons eventually had another son and he got married when he was of age but still refused to praise Padma so she killed him too

                - the wife went searching for Padma to bring her husband back to life because her father-in-law said he would praise Padma if she brought her son back to life.

• The wife eventually found parma and she indeed brought him back to life and the rich guy praised her. 
• and then she brought all his sons back to life!

Bibliography: Sacred Tales of India. D.N. Neogi. Illustrated by P. Ghose. 1916.

Famous Last Words: Coming to an End

As the semester is coming to an end and my mind is already focusing on my finals and final projects due, I reflect on the whirlwind of events. This was my first time being a full time student since 2012, that along with a demanding part- time job and having a boyfriend being a full- time engineering student meant no time for relaxation. The good thing is, I realized it was too much for me if I wanted to make the grades I want/ need. When I quit my job, I felt so elated. Yes, I will be on a job search once the semester is over but this time I will focus on it furthering my career... and not knowing how to order copious amounts of food for events (which is definitely a skill I have learned).
Enough of my job woes, though.

I believe I will I will be able to finish up this class over Thanksgiving break and I am very, very thankful that we have that option to finish early. In my other online course the assignments due that week are not posted until Monday (sometimes even later). This can be very frustrating and can make it difficult to plan ahead. Other online professors at the University would really benefit by looking at how we do things in this course. I really feel we have been set up for success in the Indian Epics course plan.

I started a story this week but never published it. It is just not what I want it to be. I have decided based on our time left in the semester and the points I need to finish I am not going to write another story unless I become very inspired by something in the readings. I have decided to focus on my portfolio and perfecting those stories.

(The University of Colorado Boulder)

I chose a picture of The University of Colorado Boulder because I have been focusing on what graduate schools I would like to attend. This is definitely in my top five picks along with The University of California. I would like to study Hydrology in graduate school. I just bought a GRE study guide and will probably spend my summer studying for the exam. 

I liked writing a To-Do list last week so I will keep up with it.

• Complete my readings for Monday/ Tuesday by Tuesday Morning.
• Maybe do the Tech Tip and Growth Mindset extra credit on Tuesday as well
• Do my Project Comments on Wednesday or Thursday morning. 
• Do comments and extra blog comments on Friday
• Do project ASAP

Learning Challenges: Time

H-ealth
E-mpathy
A-ttention
R-eading
T-ime

This week I chose to focus on time. I mean who wouldn't like more time? Or at least manage it better so it feels like you have more time. I started out by watching this video that was posted on the Learning by HEART blog page. (Using my new skills learned with a  TechTip to insert a video)

I watched the video before I went to bed and slept on it then watched it again this morning. I must admit, I have never thought of the science behind procrastination or think about why we even do it. So watching this video is rather mind blowing! The video suggests a promodoro technique which is setting a timer for about 25 minutes and then giving yourself an award whether it be to get on social media or candy. I have tried using this technique in the past but would not actually use a timer but just try to be aware and at least get up and walk around. This actual technique intrigued me so I did a quick pomodoro technique google search and found there is an actual website (you can find that here). The website is pretty cool and totally worth a look around if you are interested. There is even another video going more in depth of what the promodoro technique is. 

I am definitely going to give this whole reward technique another try. Specifically when I am studying all Saturday and Sunday for a test or writing a paper. The only thing I am worried about is when I get into my zone I do not like to be interrupted. Maybe when I write my Famous Last Words Post on Monday I can give you an update on how it went!

Growth Mindset: Stories About Growth

Being a science major and sometimes one of the very few women in my classes I absolutely hate pointing out gender differences. Like when people say, "Men are just good at math." Like yes, that MUST be the reason why there are only 5 women out of 40 in my calculus III class!  It really does not get anymore close minded than that.  People like that are the reason why there were only 5 women in my calculus class... because we have been told our whole lives, women just are not good at math. But this is not what I am writing about! (I just got side tracked by one of my tangents).

After reading the prompt for this Growth Mindset challenge I started to really think about some of the characters I have read about this semester and what kind of mindsets they had. Women do not play huge roles in most of the Indian Epics but most of them have relatively open minds. Rama told Sita she did not have to follow him but she was willing to try something new and not afraid. Savitri was willing to marry Satyavan even though she knew he would die after a year of marriage. In the story, The Divine Brothers, the youngest wife grabbed at opportunities and brought her family riches.

These women and many more have all practiced a growth mindset the way I see it. Savitri could have easily not married Satyavan when she found out his curse that he had no idea about. She chose to stay with him and grow. In the end she was able to persuade Yama to give him a second chance.
The women in the stories seem to not let bad luck or circumstances get them down but keep fighting on.

(women in the workforce)