Review: Tech-Meditation

Tech-Meditation

I'm not sure why but I laughed out loud when I saw this picture. In this day in age we are so involved in technology that sometimes we don't know anything else. Sometimes we need to take a minute and relax.

Famous Last Words: Its only Feb. 5th??

I enjoyed finishing Ramayana and writing the stories. I was still not very impressed by my writing but I started my portfolio and went back and edited a story I had previously written and I think it is much better now! I definitely read some great stories this week and got some ideas. Some people were creating really great imagery with descriptive words. I am going to try to integrate that in my writing. I liked that some people wrote things that characters were thinking in their heads and italicizing it. When I went back to edit a story, I added some of that into it. I also think I found a strategy for doing the reading assignments that I like better. Instead of just taking notes like I would for other classes, start writing down ideas for stories along with small summary of certain things I liked.
I could swear it has much later than week 3. Like we seriously have only been in school for three weeks? Are you sure? It feels like it should be March already.
I had my big presentation in my capstone class on Friday. I was very nervous and stuttered some, but so did everyone else in my group. Overall, I think it went pretty well! The teacher said we did a great job, especially being the first group to present and not knowing what to expect. So hopefully I'll get a good great on it! I have a paper due in my African Repercussions class tomorrow, and I haven't started yet. I'm so bad at procrastinating! I need to start working early. (I think I've said that every week now). Good thing is that it is only supposed to be 2 pages long so it should not take very much time to finish it.

Writing a Paper

Learning Challenge: Stress Management

Stress Management Tips for Students
I have a lot of stress in my life right now. My job is not very stressful which I am thankful for but school is extremely stressful. I need to learn how to manage my time a little better. I will start homework or work but then not stick to it and get distracted so instead of taking only a couple hours, it takes me all day. I started going to the gym at least 2 a week if not 3-4 times, a month or so ago, which has helped me quite a bit even though it does take time. I also really need to stop procrastinating. I need to take it one day at a time. I get so stressed because I look at all the things I have to do for the week but if I just broke it up day by day, it's not that bad.

Gym

Growth Mindset: Too Easy

(image from cheezburger)

I liked this meme because if you only do what is easy, you will never grow. The growth mindset is all about taking on challenges and growing. If something is easy to you, that means you aren't challenging yourself. 

Wikipedia Trail: From Jatayu to Sanskrit

Jatayu
I looked up Jatayu because he was in the Ramayana that I read and I also retweeted a tweet for a tech tip that was of a massive statue of Jatayu. In Ramayana, he was so selfless and wanted to help Rama find Sita.
Chadayamangalam

I went to this page because it was where Jatayu supposedly fell when Ravana cut his wings off. I had no idea where that was and wanted to see what it looked like. I believe that it is the location where that statue I had retweeted is located. 

Malayalam

One of the official languages of Chadayamangalam is Malayalam and I had never heard of that before so I was curious what it was and where it came from. The other official language was English. It is predominately in India and in the state of Kerala. 

Sanskrit

I knew this was some type of language but I was never sure what exactly it was. I have seen it pop up in other things that I have searched for on Wikipedia. It is a philosophical language in Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism.

Jatayu Fighting Ravana

Tech Tip: Canvas Notifications

Last semester was the first time I used Canvas and was not aware that you could change all the notifications settings. I was getting 500 (it seemed) notifications about one thing but nothing about other things. At the beginning of the semester I went in and found out that it had been sending notifications to my old email that I don't use anymore. I now have it set up to send me less notifications on most things but now it sends me emails and notifies me on my phone for more important deadlines. I wish you could turn different notifications off for different classes. Like for this class I get notifications for every time something has been graded. Well yes I know, I just took the "quiz"/declaration and I know I got all the points. It has been a little annoying. I don't want to turn off notifications for when things have been graded though because I have other classes that have grades on Canvas. Maybe in the future they will have options that you can change for different classes.

Week 3 story: Saving Sara

A continuation of "Stolen Sara."

Rory had been in the military. He was very strong and tactical. He had become the biggest guy out of his buddies; he was huge! He could take down anyone in his path he wanted. He fought for his country and he'd fight for his lady, no matter the cost.

Larry had not been in the military like his brother. However, he had always been jealous of how big Rory was so every day when Rory worked out, Larry copied him move for move. Larry was strong too but he never could quite keep up with his brother. No matter how jealous he was of Rory, he would do anything for him.

As Rory and Larry traveled west from Chicago to L.A., they came across a man named Seth at a bus stop. They all got to talking and Seth asked, "Why are you guys traveling all the way from Chicago to L.A.?" Rory explained to Seth what all had happened to Sara and that they were trying to find Rex. Seth was deeply saddened because something very similar had happened to his wife as well. Rory and Larry felt bad for Seth so they decided to help him out.

They traveled with him to a small town in Iowa to find Victor, the pimp that took Seth's wife. Seth had heard that was where she was but he did not have the manpower to fight him. He had been too afraid to stand up to him until now. Long story short, they found Victor and while Seth was fighting him, Rory shot Victor in the chest and killed him.

At first, the guys were scared what would happen because Victor had many men that worked for him and they were afraid of an all-out-war. Instead the men and women that were captured or worked for Victor thanked Rory for killing him because he was a horrible man. Seth found his wife and they were happily reunited. He told all the men and women what Rory and Larry were trying to do and they all felt so terrible for Rory that they agreed to help. Especially since Rory basically freed them and saved their lives.

Seth's best friend Heath knew someone that owned a very small private plane so he was able to go to L.A. by himself to try to first find out if Sara was in fact in L.A.. Heath made it to L.A. and found Rex's compound where he figured Sara was kept captive. He quietly broke into Rex's compound, and even Rex's own house, and searched for her. He finally found Sara in a small, rusted shed-like building surrounded by many guards. Heath knew he could not bring her back by himself because there were too many men. So he came back to Rory and his army and told them of his findings. The group all got on buses and drove several days to L.A.

Rory, Larry, Seth, Heath, and the many men and women got to the compound and waited until it was dark to attack. Unfortunately, Rex caught word that they were in town and had prepared for the war that was about to ensue. At 1 a.m. the group snuck up to the compound and started to attack the guards. It quickly broke into an all-out-war. Larry found Rex and tried to run at him but Rex shot Larry in the shoulder. When Larry tried to crawl away, Rex, being the ruthless man he is, shot him once more in the chest and killed him. The war continued for many hours but Rory kept getting more help from the local people because Rex had struck fear into everyone for so long that they were sick of it. They'd do anything to get rid of him.

Everyone was getting tired and a lot of people were badly injured. Rory had had enough. He jumped into one of Rex's armored cars and drove it straight through the middle of the compound till he found Rex. At the last second before Rex could jump out of the way, Rory rolled down his window and shot Rex right in between the eyes. His body fell like a ton of bricks. For a moment, people kept fighting but once everyone realized what had happened, it all stopped. Rex's people sighed in relief. They were happy he was gone. They only fought for him because they feared more about what he would do to them than dying in combat.

Rory found Sara and embraced her. She looked like she had not eaten in days and she had been in the same dirty clothes she was in when she was taken. Sara looked deeply in his eyes and said, "Let's get out of here."

They returned to Chicago to find out that Rory's dad had passed away from a heart attack while they were gone. Since he had passed, the house now belonged to Rory. Rory had lost his brother and his father in the same week, but he finally got to come home with his wife. A few years later they had twin boys that looked exactly like Rory.

They stayed in that house till the day they died.

Rory's Home

Bibliography

Public Domain Ramayana, link to the reading online.

Author's Note

Many of the characters are from the first story of the series "Stolen Sara." Some new characters, Seth and Heath, are Sugriva and Hanuman, the monkey king in exile and his monkey friend. Sugriva's brother (Victor) took his wife from him after a miscommunication. Rama defeated Victor when they went to fight him (like how Rory shot Victor). Hanuman had great powers and did go to Lanka (L.A. in my story) quickly by bounding there and found Sita and reported back. They fought with Ravana (Rex) and his army but Lakshmana (Larry) did not die. He nearly did but was healed with magic. I decided to let Larry die because in real life, there is no magic to cure people. Rama defeated Ravana with a blazing arrow. The end of my story is quite different from the original. I thought the original was very frustrating. When they finally found Sita, Rama did not know if Sita was pure after all that time and she nearly killed herself until he believed her. They went back to Ayodhya so Rama could claim his kingdom (like how they got the house) but people looked on Sita in a condescending manner because they thought she was impure and it was crazy that Rama took her back. Eventually, Rama exiled Sita and she lived in the forest and had the twin boys. One day Rama came across the boys when they were teenagers and noticed they looked a lot like him. He invited Sita back home to prove herself pure, and when she did she was taken into the earth with the nagas and it was said she could be with Rama in heaven. Rama lived for another thousand years until they met again in heaven. I thought that ending was ridiculous because they fought for like ten years to get her back and then Rama wasn't so sure about her anymore. I continued with the modern theme because I thought it was more relatable. 

Reading Notes: Public Domain Edition Ramayana, Part D

All notes are in characters names and ideas for my story. 

• Hard for all the people to get to (City)
• Tried to trick Sara that they had killed Rory?
• Really really big fight
• Rex and his people had weird/new weapons, being tricky
• A lot of Rory's people were hurt, fight stopped for a little bit
• A doctor, Greg, came to heal them? 
• Fighting continued
• Rex had a really big dude that was crazy strong and only wanted blood, hurt Heath and took Seth
• Rory shot the big dude in the head
• Rory sent sign of defeat (white flag)
• Larry kills Rex's son, Ian
• Rex almost killed Larry, every one thought he was dead but he awoke and had only a small wound
• The battle didn't stop for a long while and different sorts of people from around (City) helped him to defeat Rex.
• Rory got in a car and sped through the town right towards Rex and at the last second before Rex could jump away, Rory pulled out a revolver out of the car window and shot him once in the head.
• He died right there.
• Everyone rejoiced because of how horrible Rex was. They all welcomed and applauded Rory
• Rex's "wife" sobbed for his passing
• (Rama sent Hanuman to tell Sita to bathe and get new clothes before coming to see her?? (Kind of RUDE) like hello, I've been waiting for you to save me and you want me to shower first before I get to see you?
• (WHAT. Rama doesn't want Sita now because she's been held in another person's house?????)
• (He thinks she is impure now? So she plans on killing herself because she cannot live without him)
• Someone from Rex's group could tell Rory that she fought against him the whole time and never once did anything unhonorably, she stayed true to him the whole time
• So he took her back (still think its RUDE)
• They returned to Chicago to his home, he found out his father and died but his other brother, Bill waited to see if they would ever return, he gave Rory the deed to the house (after 14 months maybe? 14 years would seem really excessive in modern day)
• People looked at Sara in a bad way because they thought she had been unclean (find another way to say this in modern language without being gross) so Rory sent her away and she ended up staying with a man that found Sara when she was just born in a basket outside (parents abandoned her, this guy was basically her dad but not really) and had 2 sons (Rory's)
• 16 years (might change that) Rory ran into his sons but did not know who they were but they looked a lot like him so asked who their parents were and they say Sara but idk dad
• (Sita ends up coming back but got taken abode the nagas because of her purity, weird, so she's in heaven?)
• Might end my story with her dying or her basically saying screw you to Rory
• (Rama died 1000 years later)
• Might have him living till he was old and forever thought of Sara?

Ravana Losing his Heads

Bibliography

Public Domain Edition Ramayana

Reading Notes: Public Domain Ramayana, Part C

• Continuing last week's story
• Maybe have some background info that Rory is ex-military, very strong and tactical
• Sugriva had Hanuman (monkey) disguise himself to ask what the brothers were doing wandering fully armed
• Sugriva had the same things happen to him, exile, wife taken, and been troubled by a brother
• Maybe Rory will meet someone (Seth?) along the way trying to look for Sara, that also had his wife taken by a different pimp (Victor?)
• He feels bad for Seth? so he helps him out
• Seth was fist fighting with the pimp Victor when Rory shoots Victor and kills him
• People sad that Victor died
• Seth (and his friend Heath) promised he'd help Rory find Sara
• Since they killed Victor, all of his men and captured women were happy, so they all agreed to help find Sara, they looked and asked around every where but couldn't find her
• Jason's crippled brother, Sam knows what city she has been taken too
• Helped Sam somehow, told him about Jason's death
• Heath goes to (City) to Rex's house, quietly breaks in, can't find Sara
• Even went into his room
• Other ladies there
• Found her with gaurds, she threatened Rex that Rory was coming for her, but he threatened to kill her if he didn't show up
• (Stupid that Sita wouldn't go with Hanuman because she didn't want to touch another guy except Rama)
• Heath was happy that he found her but decided it wasn't enough so he destroyed some property
• Heath was captured and taken to Rex
• Didn't kill him but hurt him (burned him, broke an arm/leg?)
• or thought they did
• Set some of the city/Rex's compound on fire? and hurt people
• Went back and told Rory, all went to (City)
• Rex's younger brother, Vince, thought they should just give Sara back and not fight Rory and all the men and women that were enraged after being captive by another pimp (they wanted to end it all)
• Vince joined Rory's team

Hanuman and the rakshasi

Bibliography

Public Domain Edition Ramayana