Reading Notes: Mahabhrata Part A

 Mahabharata Online: Public Domain Edition; http://ouocblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/mahabharata-online-public-domain-edition.html

-Vyasa is the name of the author of the Mahabharata who arranged the Vedas. He did not trust any to write it down as no one was worthy of the task. 

-Brahma appears to tell Vysa that the god Ganesha would be his scribe. 

-"Vyasa is not only the composer of the Mahabharata; he is also a character in the epic."

-A king named Uparichara of Chedi so devoted to asceticism was feared by the gods themselves of the possibility of robbing them of their powers. 

-Indra was sent to bribe the king with offer of a crystal car capable of carrying him through the sky only for him to use not any other mortals. 

-It was quiet disturbing and just kind of weird to read that Uparichara was flying across the sky when his semen fell into the river and impregnating a female fish. 

-This made me realize I must be more extreme with creativity of the details of the stories I will be telling. 

-Anyways. the two children of the king and the fish, a boy and a girl, were caught by a fisherman.

-The king accepted the boy and left the girl to be with the fisherman's wife. 

-The girl grew up and while she was ferrying across the rishi Parashara river, the rishi persuaded the girl to yield to his embraces and stay a virgin and lose her fishy smell.

-She agreed and a child was born on the island and was named Dwaipayana for being born on an island, and called Vyasa because he wrote the Vedas. 

(Image Information: Satyavatai on Wikipedia; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyavati)

S

Wikipedia Trail: Catacombs of Paris

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catacombs_of_Paris

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mines_of_Paris

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/As_Above,_So_Below_(film)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catacombs

I have chosen to do the Wikipedia trail on the Catacombs of Paris. I recently watched a horror film called, "As Above, So Below." The movie was about an archaeologist deciding to explore the catacombs under the city of Paris with a few other people and getting stuck in a horror filled adventure. I could not believe that such place existed in real life and had to look up the details immediately. 

(Image Information: The Paris Catacombs; https://www.catacombes.paris.fr/en)

Tech Tips: Canvas Profile

After four long years, I have finally decided to update and change my canvas profile picture. The original picture consisted of myself and a friend at high school prom senior year. I figured after four long years of being a high school hero, it is time to hang up those pictures. My new profile picture consists of my lovely cat sitting on a recliner like a human being. While I do not live with the cat anymore, I miss him every day. 

Growth Mindset: The need for competitiveness

Apparent research shows that kids who are praised for being smart fixate on performance, shying away from taking risks and meeting potential failure while kids who are praised for their efforts try harder and persist with tasks longer. I do not believe this to be the case as performance and execution is what matters the most in the end. Anyone can say, "I've tried" but not everyone can say, "I did it." The weaker mentality our society keeps plunging into is not only ruining it, but is creating a toxic environment. It is rewarding to work hard and give your 100% effort to be the first placer or win the event. We have gotten in the "Everyone Matters" ideology and it is easy to how toxic it is. I am not saying that individuals do not matter, they all do. However, if we start treating those who excel the same way as those who are falling behind, there is absolutely no point of going above and beyond to achieve your goals. I want to encourage people to compete in friendly manners again and actually aim for the top rather than being satisfied with where you are now. 

The Stanford professor who pioneered praising kids for effort says we've totally missed the point - https://qz.com/587811/stanford-professor-who-pioneered-praising-effort-sees-false-praise-everywhere/?utm_source=atlfb

(Image information: photo made in memegenerator; https://qz.com/587811/stanford-professor-who-pioneered-praising-effort-sees-false-praise-everywhere/?utm_source=atlfb)

Microfiction: The Two Liars

On a cold winter night in January, Blake dislocated his knee dancing like an idiot outside of a bar while drunk. He ended up on crutches for three weeks and told all his coworkers at work that he did it by bending down to grab something from the freezer because he didn't want them to think he was a drunk maniac. As he was the vice-president of the company, he was relieved to see that people were shocked at how easily his knee was dislocated. However, the guilt and feeling of being a fraud started settling in as people continued to physically assist him and show immense amount of sympathy. (110 words)

One time, I gagged myself into throwing up during middle school PE class so I wouldn't have to run anymore during conditioning. (Tweet) 

Author's Notes:
I wrote these two short stories about lying out of situations because I have been in multiple situations like that myself. I remember waking up one morning pretty hungover from the night before celebrating a friend's birthday that I had to tell my boss that I was sick with food poisoning so I could go home early that day. The shorter story told in a tweet is actually a true story from my childhood. 

(Image Information: Idiots pass out drunk in the most ridiculous positions after the mother of all benders; https://www.thesun.co.uk/sun-men/9324540/idiots-drunk-pass-out-benders/)

Healthy Feedback

 If every single person did their own things without any feedback whatsoever, the world might look a bit different than now, probably for the worst. The way we critique and praise others for their ideas and work is extremely important to the structure of our society. Sure, you may think feedback is merely judgement from others than only look to tear you down. This is sometimes the case as in our modern society so heavily influenced by social networking, people on the internet often leave behind unconstructive and mean comments. Healthy feedback is important as we do not want the person to feel let down, but rather encouraged to do better. Feedback is also not always about looking at the negative side of all things. Positive feedback exists as when a person has done a good job, he/she should be praised so. We must train ourselves to be able to take feedback as it is a great way to improve ourselves. However, as the person giving the feedback, you must be mindful of the person's work/idea and make sure to not sound condescending. Open-mindedness is a huge step towards this. 

Why It's So Hard to Hear Negative Feedback
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/26/smarter-living/why-its-so-hard-to-hear-negative-feedback.html

A fixed mindset could be holding you back - here's how to change it 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-26/fixed-vs-growth-mindset-at-work-and-in-life/9897782

(Image Information: personal photo of the peaceful St. Helen Lake; photo taken August 2020)

Week 2 Story - Get out of my way, Frog

I originally started writing this story off of The Crocodile and the Monkey's Heart because of the I enjoy stories that give witty lessons and shows how one character outsmarts another. Trickery and twists are what makes stories fun for me. Though I myself, am a horrible storyteller, I tried my best here to give my own version of the story I read. 

Get out of my way, Frog 

Once upon a time, before the age of humans, there existed a small but capable tick in the great forest of Mozarat. He wondered around the woods every day, feasting on whatever poor animal’s blood he could find. 

Down one of the flowing creeks in the forest, there was a monstrous frog who was known to love eating ticks. Any regular tick would know not to ever dare set their feet near the water. However, according to the legends, on the other side of the creek existed thousands and thousands of animals with gallons of blood stored in each of them!

The small tick who has been dying of curiosity decided to come up with a plan to get rid of the frog once and for all! With a plan in mind, he went to a snake he befriended to ask him for help. 

A couple days later, it was time for the tick to turn his plans into actions. With a little bit of nervousness as the tick was not completely aware of everything the frog was capable of doing, he approached the frog who was sitting on a tall rock with care. 

“Hey there partner, if you’re not too busy I would like to ask you for your help!” shouted the tick to the frog.

“You’re a tick, are you not aware of the fact that I am a frog who particularly enjoys eating frogs?” answered the frog.

“Oh of course I know who you are! That’s why I am here. You see, there is a neighboring tick family that just will not leave my family alone. So I was thinking, how about I lead you to where they are, you get a nice free dinner, and my family and I won’t ever have to worry about them again! Now, how’s that sound?” suggested the tick.

“Hmm, alright, I was actually getting a bit hungry anyways, lead the way, let’s go,” the frog replied and jumped over to the tick’s direction. 

As soon as the frog jumped off from the tall rock and landed on the ground where the tick was, the snake who is a friend of the tick slithered out from behind a tree and swallowed the frog whole! 

“(muffled) Help!! What is this?? Why would you do this to me??” shouted the frog from inside the snake’s stomach.

The tick turned and faced the snake’s stomach, “Hey man, we all have to find ways to live you know? You swallowed enough of my kind, and now it’s your turn. Why would you think I would ever lead you to eat my people? Sorry but not sorry, it’s time we got to be on the other side of the creek.” 

-End

(Image Information: The story of a snake with a frog in his throat; source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1361790/The-story-snake-frog-throat.html)

The Crocodile and the Monkey's Heart

Author: Marie L. Shedlock

From Eastern Stories and Legends

https://sites.google.com/view/jatakas/monkey

Reading Notes: Week 2 Anthology

 The Crocodile and the Monkey's Heart

Author: Marie L. Shedlock

Link: http://thejatakas.blogspot.com/2017/08/0100-monkey-and-crocodile.html

Growing up in South Korea, I read many ancient legends and folktales as a kid and great deal of them always included each of their own lessons. Many also included a story character that was smarter and trickier than the other. Reading stories of how, whether it be the antagonist or the protagonist, the character outwits another in order to get out of a sticky situation as always been more interesting to me. 

The monkey, on the verge of death, quickly thought of a lie to get out of the situation. The crocodile, as dunce as he is, fell for it easily and thus, the monkey lived to see another day and will not make the same mistake of trusting a crocodile again. 

(Image information: photo taken from https://www.pinterest.com/pin/614459942884612804/)

Week 2 Reading Overeview

Between Narayana's Ramayana or the Public Domain Edition, I decided to go with the Ramayana Online: Public Domain Edition. I do not believe in spending more money than I already have to for school and anything free is music to college student's ears! Also, I actually prefer the older style writing when it comes to reading old folktales, so that was ultimately the decision maker for me. 

Comic books:

Heroes of Hampi: The Mythology of Kishkindha 

This caught my attention as the cover of the comic was of a four-armed king and queen riding a bull and a lion into battle with weapons in each hands, respectively, 

Kubera: The Lord of Wealth

Who doesn't want to read about a potential idiot Lord with too much money?

Videos: 

Harry Potter Meets Hindu

As a fan of the Harry Potter Series, this immediately caught my attention. How are you going to mix the two?

Indian and Greek

Greek mythology has always been one of my favorite topics to study and learn. 

(Image Information: Hayagriva restoring Vedas to Brahma which were taken to Rasatala; source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hayagriva_restoring_Vedas_to_Brahma_which_were_taken_to_Rasatala.jpg) I chose this image as it just looks unbelievably weird.