Week 2, Storytelling: Love and Marriage...

One day Rama and Siva were sitting around their condo, drinking coffee, talking, and basically enjoying their morning. Rama went outside to get the morning newspaper as usual and as he stood up he saw this BEAUTIFUL woman walking by with her dog. His mouth literally dropped open and he stood there until he could not see her anymore. After shaking his head to regain his bearings, he turned around and went back inside. He told Siva, who had already started reading the paper, about the woman he had saw, but she just muttered a response, not really hearing him, already engrossed in the article. Rama spent the whole day in a daze daydreaming about the beautiful woman.

The next day, Rama went outside again to get the paper and the same beautiful woman was walking her dog again. He had thought all night about what he would say to her if he saw her again. He waved hello and she waved back. He then introduced himself as did she. Her name was Suparnakha. She said she had been walking by his house everyday waiting for him to notice her. Now that he had, she intended to have him. She was getting really close when Siva walked up into the doorway to see what was going on. When she realized what was happening she started shooing the woman away and telling her to leave. Rama turned on her and said he would not allow her to get in the way of his and Suparnakha's love and that he would be asking for a divorce. Siva was obviously not happy about the quick turn of events, but turned and walked back inside, not knowing what to do. Rama and Suparnakha walked off together as Siva watched from the window.

She could not believe he was doing this to her. She would make him PAY! Oh, yes, she would get him where it hurt. His dad was a big wig politician and had plenty of money for her to go after. She went and visited a lawyer who gladly took her case and won. Now Siva had the condo, enough alimony to keep her comfortable and nothing else to do. After the divorce was final, Siva began to become depressed. She bought a kitten to see if that would ease her loneliness. The kitten soon grew to a cat and no longer needed Siva's constant attention, so she bought another kitten. The dependence of that one soon waned and so her collection of cats began.

Now, if you want to see Siva, you can walk by the condo that she used to share with Rama and see children outside looking in and laughing at her. She is there on the couch every day watching soap operas and eating bonbon's surrounded by all of her cats.

Rama Spurs Suparnakha by Warwick Goble. Date unknown. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Author's Note: I based this story on the meeting of Soorpanaka, the demon sister of Ravana, and Rama, the protagonist of the story. In the original, Rama rejects Soorpanaka in her human form (Suparnakha) and decides to go back inside with his wife, Siva. In this story I wondered what would have happened to Siva if Rama had went with Soorpanaka. I kind of saw her as a Peg Bundy from "Married With Children".

Bibliography: "The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic" by R.K. Narayan, 1973.

Week 2, Reading Diary: Ramayana

This reading went a lot smoother than the last. I don't know if I just had to get into the swing of reading again or what, but this section was also more exciting to me.

The Wedding: Two Promises Revived ... Continued
The rest of the story pretty much goes like this...
So, Kaikey has pissed everyone off in the kingdom, ESPECIALLY Lakshmana, Rama's half brother. He basically went around town like a macho man on steroids wanting to fight everyone. Rama told him to chill and that it was fate's decision that he should go into the woods. Lakshmana and Situ, Rama's wife, go into the woods to be with him. On their way out of town, half of the town follows them. Rama decided to take off in the night with Situ and Lakshmana so he could finish his 14 years in peace. Soon after Rama's dad died, Bharatha came home and realized what his mother had done and took off after Rama. After much heeing and hawing they settled on the fact that Bharatha would be King until Rama returned 14 years later.

Ravana, Demon-King of Lanka. Watercolor painting by unknown artist, 1920.

Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Four Encounters in Exhile
In this chapter, as Rama and company are moving through the woods, they come upon Jatayru, a great eagle, who was once divine. He had also, at one point, been on the battlefield with Rama's father and so Jatayru joined the group. As they went to Panchuati to destroy some demons-especially Ravana, who was head MF in charge-some hot chick showed up in Rama's yard. Turns out, she was really Soorpanaka, Ravana's sister. So, she basically tried to con Rama into ditching Situ by saying that just by being with her he would be safe from Ravana. Rama then said he ain't scared, and told her to bugger off. She gets love sick and decides to take Situ out of the picture herself. Needless to say, she ends up noseless, earless, and boobless...not a good day for Soorpanaka for sure! So, she runs to her brother and gripes hoping he will take Situ for himself so she can run off with Rama. Ravana then goes to his unc's, who has already had two run-ins with Rama before this, and he's like, nope, nuh-huh, not beefin' with Rama again dude. Ravana then threatens his life, so he's like, well, I'm danged if I do and danged if I don't, so let's do this...

Week 2, Reading Diary A: Ramayana

Wow, where to start! Ramayana is a really cool story so far. I like how the story progresses pretty quickly in the beginning with the adventures of Rama and Viswanithia while telling stories of others along the way and then moves right into the good Jerry Springer kind of stuff going on in the family! I did find a few quotes that really stuck with me and wrote those down.

"A seed that sprouts at the foot of it's parent tree remains stunted until it is transplanted." 

Viswanithia to King Dasaratha.

"We attain a full understanding only when we are aware of the divine

and other associations of every piece of ground we tread on."

Thataka's Story
This story is about Sukitha who is a demigod and her two sons, Mareecha and Subahu. Basically they went crazy and tore a bunch of stuff up on the earth. Sundra, their dad, dropped dead because a saint wanted him to. Sukitha and Sons wanted revenge! The saint said that since they were destroyers they would be degraded to demons. Their mother stayed and made the land bad, but the boys, I assume, just roamed about in whatever world that demons hang out in.

Mahabali's Story
This is a story about a sneaky little guy named Vishnu. Mahabali had seized the heavens and the earth and Vishnu told him he just wanted what he could cover in three steps. Vishnu appeared small to Mahabali, so he said, sure, why not, it can't be that bad and then BAM, Vishnu became HUGE and took one step on the earth, one step in heaven and the last on Mahabali's head and sent his butt straight to the netherworld. There are some other things that happened in that story towards the end, but that was the really cool part :)

The Wedding: Two Promises Revived
This is the story about how Rama and Situ met in this life. Before this life they had been husband and wife many times before. The beginning reminded me of Romeo and Juliet a little and I was hoping it wasn't going to end up the same and I wasn't disappointed. I was, however, surprised at the twist. So I guess the King had many wives, not sister wives, but anyway, so the one that wasn't Rama's mom decided she wanted her son, Bharatha, to have the kingdom and not Rama. Long story short, she conned the King into almost sending Rama away for 14 years.

Rama's Coronation. Source: Wikimedia Commons. Ravi Varma Press, 1910.

Week 1: Review

I took Mythology and Folklore last semester and did not realize how important it was to read the daily course announcements. I would see one every now and then but I never realized how much information was packed into one post, especially the free books! I love that Amazon has provided a lot of free books this way. I have downloaded a lot on my own of other interests but having the others to add to my 'To Be Read' stack is awesome! Hopefully one day when I'm old I will have plenty to read :) This semester for Indian Epics I decided to sign up to have them emailed to me that way if I don't make it to the site during the week, I can peruse over the email on the bus on the way to my car at school or before work. 

Image Source: Online Course Lady Blog post English Pangrams: A Quick Brown Fox.

Week 1: Curation

This was a very interesting assignment for me because I absolutely LOVE to organize! I am always looking for new tools and ideas to integrate into my school and work organization so I am looking forward to reading everyone's posts. I recently went from a full time office manager to a part time bookseller at Barnes and Noble, so I don't need much organization on the work front anymore, but that just means that I get to focus all of my skills on the semester! I also have two kids, my son is in first grad and my daughter is a sophomore in high school, to keep up with. Luckily my daughter is not into sports or band (she's a writer and artist type) so I don't have much to keep up with them. 

For school work and home life I utilize the bookmarks bar in Google Chrome and the calendar on my iphone to keep everything organized. I think I have a pretty good system down with my bookmarks because I have been using my system for about 10 years. I used to do furniture research for an architect so I would keep companies bookmarked by what their main offering was (i.e., chairs, tables, outdoor furniture, etc.).

Screenshot of my bookmarks. Source: Me.

I also use a physical planner to keep up with my work schedule, family appointments, and readings/homework for the semester. I recently found a new type of planner that really works well for me. The myAgenda planners work well if you have 4 or less classes. I actually use the Home Office edition of the momAgenda since it was larger than the rest. Also, it has places for me to keep important information for the family handy. I also recently found this blog (saralaughed.com) and she has a good post on organizing a planner and making a study guide. She also has other helpful posts as well.

I am VERY familiar with Pinterest and use Twitter often. I had never heard of Known, but have played around with it a little. I don't quite get what it is supposed to do yet, but I'm sure it's cool and look forward to learning more about it :)

Week 1: Growth Mindset

I have to say I was a little skeptical when I began reading this assignment. I had not heard of Growth Mindset nor Carol Dweck before. I do believe though that I have always used the growth mindset as far as my own personal goals but never realized that it had an official name. I love to learn new things even though the older I get the more anxious I am about facing new challenges, but I still accept them head on. I have also not had an easy time absorbing new information like I did when I was younger, which means that I have to study hardy and longer than I used to, which has lead to the realization that I do not know HOW to study. Up until I went back to school in 2014 I had never HAD to study. All of my classes were mostly talent based and the most I had to learn was new shortcuts in a computer program. And before last semester, I had also not written anything other than a technical paper in 20 years. I still have trouble with common mistakes that I should technically know, but when you don't write on a consistent basis, a lot of the common sense rules escapes you. I will also be applying and teaching this idea/method to both of my children for them to apply towards school work and life in general.

Meme created by Laura Gibbs. Photo Source: Growth Mindset Memes Blog.

Week 1: Storybook Favorites

The first storybook I looked at was 1000 Ways to Die: Demon Edition. The title caught my attention because it is a show my daughter likes to watch. I have seen it a few times and thinks it is cute, so I thought I would check it out. I liked the layout, but I am old and weird and for some reason white text on a black background just strains my eyes but at least the font was bold enough to actually read it. The introduction gave a great overview of the stories that were to come. Not knowing anything about the stories I will be reading, it was cool to read about some of them ahead of time. I really liked the picture used in the story "Pierced Off" (below)

Pierced Off. Source: 1000 Ways to Die: Demon Edition.

The second storybook I looked at was The Four Elements. This one caught my eye because of the name. The design is gorgeous and the picture on the home page is beautiful! After reading the introduction I am gobsmacked at their writing and the idea of the storybook. The intro made me want to read the rest of it so much that I have bookmarked it to go back to it. I love the way she used parts of the text and then seemed to analyze it in the post. I also loved the artwork that she used and have started following the artists blog.

Home Page. Source: The Four Elements.

The last storybook I looked at was Soul of a House. The name drew me to it and the picture on the home page made me want to read it. This is another one that I will bookmark so I can fully read later. The writer seems to have a knack at writing dialog. I have never been that great at writing dialog so I am really excited to go back and delve into the meat of the stories.

Home Page. Source: Tales of the Lingering Soul.

Week 1: Overview

This is my first class and any extended exposure about the Indian culture/religion. I love epics such as Lord of the Rings, The Dark Tower, Harry Potter, etc. and am really excited that this class is based on similarly structured stories. I took the Mythology and Folklore online class last semester and LOVED the entire process so I am looking forward to this class!

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons. 12th Century stone sculpture of God Vishnu.

I was raised in a Baptist church and attended a private Christian school from the age of three until the 9th grade. I took a bible class each year and learned a lot about Christianity. However, after the age of about 13 I started moving away from organized religion of any sort for many different reasons. Fast forward 20 years. I began reading about all religions and their gods and goddesses because I was called to Craft on a spiritual level about three years ago. Indian religions never interested me although I am not sure why. I have however practiced yoga and have been trying to learn to meditate but I am still learning how to relax.

Week 1: Favorite Place(s)

I have a lot of favorite places, but my newest favorite place is Virginia. Over the summer I went to an historic archaeology field school at James Madison's Montpelier. This was my first time in Virginia and the mountains were gorgeous!

(Image Information: Personal photo of the view from my unit; July 2015)

We were excavating the East Smokehouse in the South Yard which was where the domestic enslaved community lived and worked and I exposed some really cool stuff.

(Image Information: Personal photo of the mansion at Montpelier; July 2015)

My first find was a small piece of a ceramic plate. During the four weeks I was there I also found many other ceramics, bones, and a multitude of mortar and brick. The coolest thing I found was a large fragment of a black basalt tea pot lid. 

(Image Information: Personal photo of a black basalt teapot lid; July 2015)

We also took a field trip to Williamsburg and Jamestown. Jamestown was by far the coolest place as far as American history is concerned. We received a personal tour by the lead archaeologist and were able to get close to the excavation units.

(Image Information: Personal photo of the original church facade at Jamestown; July 2015)

While I was in Virginia, I also wanted to go to the Smithsonian Institute's Museum of Natural History and American History in D.C. since I was only two hours away. Those two museums were the coolest thing ever. I hope one day to go back to see the Museum of the American Indian and African American History. As an archaeology and anthropology student, the opportunity to see the Hall of Human Origins was the coolest. Below is a picture of 'Lucy', the ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz, and the camera that was used to record the first plane crashing into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. That was probably the saddest moment of my trip. I was working at a newspaper in Shawnee, Oklahoma when 9-11 happened. To this day, that was the most terrifying moment of my life. In all, the trip was awesome!

(Image Information: Personal photo of 'Lucy'; July 2015)

(Image Information: Personal photo of Dorothy's Ruby Slippers from the Wizard of Oz; July 2015) 

(Image Information: Personal photo of the video camera that shot the only footage of the first plane during 9-11; July 2015)

Week 1: Introduction... Can, Open, Worms, Everywhere...

Friends Logo. Web Source: Wikimedia Commons

(used this because I couldn't use the "Can, open, worms, everywhere" meme

from that episode, and yes, it is one of my most favorite shows and yes, I quote from it often)

Well, this is a loaded question for me. I am 37 so I have done a lot of living and it is all pretty crazy, not Maury crazy, but maybe Springer crazy. I usually tend to way over share when asked this question because to me, my life story is the only thing that is remotely interesting about me. Nothing life inspiring, but it's definitely crazy. So, you asked for it...

I was born in Macon, Georgia. Raised by a single mom. No southern belle here, more like Ouiser from Steel Magnolias. Fast forward to 1994, 16 year's old, mother remarried and drug me KICKING AND SCREAMING to Oklahoma. Thrown into a Creek traditional culture family. Learned how to stomp dance and still go to this day. Was pretty smart, valedictorian, but it was in Dustin, OK and I only graduated with 3 other people, so not so impressive after all, LOL. Went to college, met my first husband and we married at 18. Divorced by 19, married again by 21, pregnant at 22. I had my baby girl in July of 2000. She was 9lbs 14.8oz and I wear that number like a badge on my sleeve. Ask your mothers kiddies...and I had no pain medication or epidurals. Yes, I was stupid...girls, trust me, take the drugs! Fast forward to 2004, 26 years old, divorced again, single mother, dead end job at a newspaper. I started going back to school for my degree in CAD (Computer Aided Drafting) part-time at night while I worked full-time during the day for 4 years. I graduated in 2008 with an associates in Drafting at the age of 30. I had also gotten remarried (that's the third one for those keeping count) in 2006, but this one was a keeper! Got pregnant, on purpose this time, and had my baby boy in March of 2009. I also learned in 2009 that who I had spent my whole life thinking was my real dad, was not my real dad. Who I thought was my real dad was never around, but after 31 years of thinking one way, it was a little life changing...had a mini-life crisis, but I'm over it...maybe. Still happily married though...9 years going strong :)

(Image Information: Personal photo of my attempt at a family picture from May 2015)

So, in 2013 I decided that I was tired of working office jobs, which I had to because the economy had taken a turn for the pooper after I got my degree and no one was hiring drafters. I went to UCO one semester for interior design and decided that it was NOT what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. SO, after some soul searching, I realized I wanted to be an archaeologist, and had since about the age of 9 or so, but I had thought it was just for old, rich, white men. I couldn't have been more wrong. I am three semesters in and have a lot more to go, but I have definitely found what I was meant to do.

I have been thinking lately about what to do after undergrad and am looking into getting my masters in the History of Science and Medicine and researching grimoires and alchemical manuscripts and how the scientific revolution from alchemy to chemistry transferred into the new world. I'm also interested in the correlation between English witchcraft, Native American medicine, and African American Voodoo. I am also interested in getting my masters in biological anthropology and focusing on the death and burial of different North American cultures. I am specifically interested in the 'abandoned bones' of the insane asylum and enslaved communities of the past. I have also toyed with the idea of being a bioarchaeologist. Basically, I have no idea :)


Favorite Author: Stephen King, JK Rowlings, Deborah Harkness...
Favorite Book: Anything by Stephen King, but I really like Insomnia and The Dark Tower series and all of the Harry Potter books and the All Souls Trilogy by Harness
Favorite TV Shows: Currently binge watching It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Charmed, Supernatural, Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead (met Norman Reedus in October, 2014), American Horror Story, The Vampire Diaries (Meeting Ian Somerhalder in October, 2015), The Originals, Arrested Development, Family Guy...
Favorite Movies: The Lost Boys, Practical Magic, Steel Magnolias, The Crow, Clerks II, Dumb and Dumber, Labyrinth, LOTR, Harry Potter
Favorite Music: Tool, A Perfect Circle, Slip Knot, Korn, Seether, Breaking Benjamin, Snoop Dogg, Chevelle, The Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Prince, Eminem, Queen, STP, Nirvana (I did grown up in the early 90's) and many more, but I won't bore you with the whole list :)

Week 1: Storytelling

MULTIPLICATION is vexation,

Division is as bad;

The Rule of Three doth puzzle me,

And Practice drives me mad.

-The Nursery Rhyme Book, by Unknown

There once was a witch that lived with her young daughter in an old victorian house at the end of a lane in a small town. The house had good bones despite the fact that it was built over 100 years ago, but the witch couldn’t handle the upkeep by herself anymore so it looked worn down with overgrown shrubs and peeling paint. Her husband had died when their daughter was just a toddler and she had been just making it by doing small favors for the people in town. She would help the men and women with small ailments and sickness but would also help with nosy neighbors and other disagreements between people in town but she would never do anything negative, no matter how much money someone offered to pay her, because of the Witches Rede. The Witches Rede is “The Rule of Three” which means that you do not harm anyone and that whatever you do with witchcraft will come back to you three fold.

The witch’s daughter had finally reached the age where her mother was ready to begin teaching her the craft. Her mother tried to teach her about the plants and herbs that would help her in her spell work such as how to reproduce the plants she would need with seeds and how to separate the plants. But the girl was an impatient child and became easily annoyed by her mother’s slow and precise teachings. Her mother held teaching lessons every day, but the girl never wanted to practice on her own. Most of all though, the girl didn’t want to follow the Witches Rede. She thought it was silly and outdated.

(Cooking Witches: Wikimedia Commons)

The witch’s daughter had finally reached the point where she could do spell work on her own and decided to make her first a spell to stop the girls from teasing her at school. She set out to make a spell that just made them leave her alone, but after some thinking she really wanted to make them pay. After gathering everything she needed, she began working a spell to make them all sick. The next week at school the girls started getting sick one by one. The witch’s daughter was quite proud of herself and had two peaceful weeks of school without the girls there to bother her. But on the day that all the girls came back to school, she starting falling ill herself. The witch tried different spells and healing ointments but her daughter only kept getting worse. She took her to many doctors, but they said they could not find anything wrong with her. After two weeks, the witch’s daughter died.

Author's Note: This story is based on the nursery rhyme "Multiplication is Vexation" which is retold at the beginning of the story. You can find the rhyme in The Nursery Rhyme Book, edited by Andrew Lang (1897). As I was scrolling through the book, I noticed the phrase ‘rule of three’ and immediately thought about the Witches Rede. I then started to figure out a way to work in the rest of the nursery rhyme by playing with the non-mathematical definitions of the words ‘multiplication’ and ‘division’.

Bibliography: The Nursery Rhyme Book by Andrew Lang and L. Leslie Brooke. Dover Publications, 2008.

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"Just a worm" Source: Ideatiox on Deviant Art

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