Tech Tip: Canvas Notifications

I can honestly say that I never knew canvas could make notifications for pretty anything. However, I have made several changes my preferences, so that it will notify me when my professors make a change to the course or send out anything to the entire class. Personally, I preferred to check every box, so that I don't miss any sort of news. Why not? I have already received several notifications about new assignments uploaded, among other things. I'm sure this will come in handy and help me better anticipate events to stay organized. Anyway, I have said it a million times, I love Canvas. It get better and better and I hope to continue to utilize it.

                                            
                                                  Round of applause for the GOAT: Canvas

Famous Last Words: Week 14

Hey everyone! I hope everyone’s week has gone well. I have had quite an eventful one so I’m going to treat this post as my venting mechanism haha. First, this Oklahoma weather has been so bipolar but who is complaining about getting to wear shorts every day?! That’s being said, I’ve done most of my writing for this course and my others on the road since I’ve made a trip up to Des Moines, where I will be attending medical school in the fall. So, writing has been interesting to say the least but I must say that sometimes I prefer putting some work in, then stepping away to re-approach it later with a fresh mind. Also, I’m sure like most of us, I have really been trying to take advantage of the extra credit lately. Posts like these have helped take advantage of some of the other aspects of the course and have been a lot of fun. In addition, I have learned a lot of great stuff from learn smart. I hope to utilize some of the tools that I have read about in the articles that I have posted over and some that I have yet to post about. Moreover, tech tips have really come in handy as well. If you haven’t had the chance to do any of these, I would highly recommend, especially the tech tips about canvas. I think canvas has been such a helpful platform and I couldn’t be happier that the university made the transition to a much more user friendly platform. Anyway, I am now back home and I am going to do my best to tackle the rest of my courses and finish the semester strong. But like I said, I think that I will begin with this course so that I can write some and give myself the opportunity to return. I have found that I do my best work when I do this. 

                                                    

                                           I want this guy to read all of my post titles!

Reading Notes: Francis and Thomas, Jataka Tales, Part C

In the last week of this course I plan on finishing up the Jataka Tales by Francis and Thomas which includes Part C and D. While reading part C I was able to get abetter understating of the writing style used and the stories were easier to read and seemed to flow much better. I enjoyed reading the story, "The Stolen Jewels." In my own story I plan on having somewhat of a similar plot. Only instead of Jewels such as a pearl necklace, I plan on having a cookie be stolen. I plan on calling my story "Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?" And who steals it will actually be the family cat. But, we will have to go through a lot of suspects before we get to that conclusion. For instance, just like in the original story a boy was caught and asked did you steal the necklace and admitted he did but because he did it for the glide master who buts the blame on someone else and this cycle goes on for a while. In my own story I plan on having the same order of events just with different characters Such as the mom asks her son, who blames her sister, then she's blames the dad and so on.


Bibliography: Jataka Tales by H.T. Francis and E. J. Thomas. Link to Reading.

The Cookie Jar.  

Reading Notes: Francis and Thomas, Jataka Tales, Part B

For my extra credit reading I went ahead and read the next part of the Jataka Tales by Francis and Thomas. I enjoyed the stories in this section yet sometimes it was difficult to understand some of the content because of the way the stories were written. However, the story "The Brothers and the Treasure" is one that really stood out to me and I felt gave me a lot of inspiration for my own story. For instance, at the beginning of the original story there is this charm that when the planets are arranged in a certain manner and the charm is repeated 7 precious things rain down which include: gold, silver, pearl, coral, catseye, ruby and diamond. In my story I plan on having this same set up only instead of expensive things I plan on having different types of food rain down. For example, when the planets align and the charm is said the following will fall down from the sky: pizza, hamburgers, french fries, gum-balls, reeses, gummy worms, and queso. I plan on making my story very outrageous and humorous, but still somewhat sticking to the plot of the original story.

Bibliography: Jataka Tales by H.T. Francis and E. J. Thomas. Link to Reading

Fries, Pizza, Hamburgers.. Oh my!

Reading Notes: Francis and Thomas, Jataka Tales, Part A

For this week and next week I plan on reading, Jataka Tales by H. T. Francis and E. J. Thomas. I thought these tales of part A were really cool and interesting. My favorite was the story called "The Oldest Animal," I thought the concept to this story was really neat and it would be cool to use this template to create my own story. I plan on keeping the same theme however I plan on changing the types of animal characters. For instance, instead of a partridge, monkey, and elephant, I'm going to have a tiger, crocodile, and pheasant. And I actually think I will change the plot a little. In my story my animals wont be able to agree on who is the oldest so since they cannot agree they decide to go live in separate areas. The crocodile will inhabit the rivers and swamps, the tiger will be on land in the jungles, and the pheasants will belong to the sky.

Bibliography: Jataka Tales by H.T. Francis and E.J. Thomas. Link to reading.

The Tiger.

Reading Notes: Shedlock. Eastern Stories and Legends, Part D

For my first reading notes this week I decided to go ahead and finish the last section of the Jataka Tales from the Eastern Stories and Legends book by Marie Shedlock. Some of the stories in part D were somewhat hard to grasp because it was written in old english and the theme of the story wasn't always clear. However one story did stand out to me which was "The Poisonous Tree."I thought this story had a dark gothic vibe to it but at the same time had a lesson within the story which I thought was pretty neat. In my own story I plan on keeping the same setting as the original story, such as there will be a village inside the woods and on the path to the next town instead of there being a poisonous tree, there will be a poisonous stream. And instead of the villagers coming to take the travelers goods and belongs like in the original story, my villagers seek youthfulness. What I mean by this is the poisonous stream has been put under a spell where everyone who drinks it will parish except for the villagers, because when they drink the stream they stay young, beautiful, and will live longer and longer. However, my main character the leader will discover the villages evil secret and it will be up to him to warn the travelers of this stream and hopefully find a way to break the spell.


Bibliography: Eastern Stories and Legends by Marie Shedlock. Link to Reading.

Stream in the Woods. 

Tech Tip: Canvas Profile

I just finished editing profile which was really fun LOL. I changed my bio to my more recent information including that I will be in Des Moines School of Medicine class of '22. I left my name the same since everyone usually calls me by my name. Also, I uploaded a picture of my dog Charlie, who is such a good boy!! Professor Gibbs said it didn't matter what picture it was so this picture will let everyone know my priorities haha.

                                          
    I've uploaded an image of the Canvas log because I just think Canvas has been the best platform

Famous Last Words: Week 13

This week has been quite an eventful one. I have found myself with a million things to do. To begin, graduation is coming fast and while I couldn’t be more exited I am trying to stay focused on my courses. Moreover, the rest of my courses, I’m sure like everyone else’s, are reaching a conclusion and its sort of bittersweet. With exception to this course, I am enrolled in all upper division science courses. However, since I have already taken all the course that I needed to be prepared for the Medical College Admission Test and got accepted, I decided to take a few ecological electives. Taking these courses has got me thinking about science in a way that I’ve never done before. For instance, I am currently learning about how society can sustain access to clean water and healthy water in one of my courses. Currently, we are at a cross roads with respect to having access to clean water, which I did not know. However, there are many mechanisms that we can adopt, involving our retrieval strategies, that can help sustain and prolong our supply. These are just things that I’ve never thought about and it’s nice to get to focus on other things once and a while to keep my science abilities exercised. Lastly, I am also in the middle of making my transition into medical school, which I am really excited about. Since I have been offered an academic scholarship, I will be going out of state to Des Moines University. Therefore, that has given me many more things to prepare for. During this semester, I have done my best to schedule time to travel to the area in hopes of finding new living arrangements and familiarizing myself with the city. However, as I mentioned, I am doing my best to juggle my courses and this move!

                                      

                                                        I really enjoyed this meme 

Reading Notes: Shedlock. Eastern stories and Legends, Part C

For this week I did my extra credit reading over Part C of the Eastern stories and Legends by Marie Shedlock. I really enjoyed reading these stories and I feel like many of the stories gave me inspiration for creating my own story. One story that really stood out to me was "Grandmother's Gold Dish." I thought the language used to write this story was sometimes hard to fully understand so when I write my own story I'm going to make the language used more modern. Further, I liked the overall plot and theme of the story and I would want to use that in my own story. However, instead of a golden dish as the valuable object I will make it be a very rare penny worth millions of dollars. Also the setting of my story will be set in modern times with my main character being a young orphan boy who lives with a distant uncle. The uncle will be like the greedy hawker from the original story where as the bodisat from the original story will be represented by the butler who serves the evil uncle.


Bibliography: Eastern Stories and Legends by Marie Shedlock. Link to Reading.

The Rare Penny

Learning Challenge: Positive Thinkers

In the article "Turning Negative Thinkers into Positive Thinkers" by Jane E. Brody the idea that being negative or being around negative people can also cause you to feel negative and can create depression was further confirmed for me. Additionally, one new thing I learned is that the brain is really pliable or plastic. You can adjust the circuitry or pathways of the brain with repetitive practice or training. An example was provided where 6 weeks of training around meditation, compassion and kindness improved the function of the patient's main nerves that control heart rate. So with this positivity training, their heart rate was controlled.

Positivity can lead to a bigger heart :)

Learning Challenge: Week 13

I read the article, "Stress Management tips for Students," by Sam Malik and it was really helpful and insightful. One thing the article confirmed for me was a few ways to avoid stress are to organize and manage your time effectively along with some good exercise. Further, one new thing I learned was one way to avoid procrastinating is identifying the most difficult or dreadful tasks on your schedule and complete them first instead of letting them linger and hang over your consciousness while your work on lesser tasks. I feel like I am fairly organized, but I am going to start listing my daily tasks and giving them priority based on difficulty and importance. But difficulty will weigh a little more in this ranking. Then I will see if this helps me feel better by getting these tasks out of the way first thing each day. Hopefully this will make me feel more relaxed the rest of the day!

Being organized and managing your time will lead to success

Growth Mindset: Alzheimer's

I read the article "The Neurologists Who Fought Alzheimer’s By Studying Nuns’Brain" and I found it fascinating. One thing the article confirmed for me was remaining intellectually active through your whole life may hold off the development of Alzheimer's. Just like exercise for the body, exercise for the brain is healthy for its long term functioning. Since we are all likely to have a close relative that is diagnosed with this dreaded disease, I am going to read more about this unique research and its findings. The article also mentions the Religious Orders Study that I will research further. Their findings identified factors that lead to Alzheimer's like exercise, mood, diabetes, stress and depression.

The brain is one of the most important organs in the body

Growth Mindset: Thriving

I read the article, "Scientist finds Secret to Thriving" and I really enjoyed it. One thing the article confirmed for me was that to thrive can be as simple as just feeling good and happy about your life along with a sense of being good or successful at something. Further, one new thing that I learned was that while thriving can be done through all age groups, we tend to label the concept of thriving differently as we age. When we are young we are learning and growing. In middle ages people have vitality, focus and mental toughness. Then in the twilight years it seems like people are just happy with any of these labels! Research on this topic is still fragmented but I know that I want to live my life always thriving to learn and stay focussed throughout my entire life. It really fuels us to excel and move forward. 

Flowers Thriving. 

Growth Mindset: Week 13

I found this quote from the cat's mottos and I really liked that it was an acronym, so I wanted to find a another acronym quote for my own.

                                
                                                                            Cat Motto


I found this motto on google and I really appreciated how the motto was both an acronym and had multiple meanings. Personally, I feel that this empowers the reader and lets them know that it is their choice how they address fear!
                                                
                                                                            Fear Link

Week 13 Storytelling: The Nut Factory

You can now find the new version of this story at my portfolio, just click on the link


Once upon a time there was a family of squirrels that lived in a large oak tree. Everyday the father squirrel would go to the nut factory a couple of trees down. The nut factory employed all the squirrels that lived on the east side of the forest. The squirrels would work during the summer and fall months to collect as many nuts as possible. At the end of the day the squirrels would load up there nuts into the nut factory. Then when winter came the nut factory would distribute the nuts to all of the squirrel families. This way of working as a community ensured that no squirrel would starve during the time of no nuts.

The father squirrel had a son, who had the most beautiful fur coat that camouflaged him perfectly.

The father squirrel said to himself, “ I will take my son to work with me so that he can learn how to collect nuts in a safe and efficient manner, for I’m no longer young and strong.”

The son joined his father at work and watched and learned. However, the son had a special talent. Because of his beautiful fur coat he was able to collect nuts that would normally be too dangerous to recover because his coat camouflaged him. With this special skill the son excelled at the nut factory.

The father squirrel would say to his son, “When you work hard you will get rewarded.”

The son squirrel replied, “What will be my reward?”

The father smiled and said, “you will understand the value of working hard, as well as all the nuts you could ever eat.”

After a couple of weeks the son became very good at his job, and he soon took over his father’s position at the nut factory. The son squirrel happily did his job season to season. And as time went on he finally realized the value of working hard, and he realized he wasn’t working hard for just himself
but he was working hard for his family and to better the squirrel community.

Squirrel collecting nuts.

Authors Note:

I kept the same theme as the original story. I also stayed close to the story line of the original story with just some minor changes. Instead of having human and animal characters in my story I only had animal characters. Further, instead of having elephants as my characters I used squirrels. Also in the original story the elephant and his son helped the humans collect lumber and in exchange they would feed the elephants. However in my story I had my characters work at a squirrel factor were they collected nuts instead of lumber and the nuts where there food.



Bibliography: The Kings White Elephant from: Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt. Link to Reading.

Reading Notes: Shedlock. Eastern Stories and Legends, Part B

Part B of the Easter Stories and Legends by Marie Shedlock had many interesting stories. For instance, I enjoyed the story "The Faithful Friend," because I thought it was a sweet story that focuses on the impact others can have on one another. It takes the idea of two unlikely individuals who become close friends. I plan on using this same theme however instead of using an elephant and dog as my two unlikely friends I'm going to use a gorilla and a rabbit. In the original story there was no dialogue exchange between the animal characters however in my story I plan on giving my animal characters human characteristics. Such as being able to talk and exchange dialogue between each other.

Bibliography: Eastern Stories and Legends by Marie Shedlock. Link to Reading.

Two Unlikely Friends. 

Reading Notes: Shedlock. Eastern Stories and Legends, Part A.

This week I decided to read Eastern Stories and Legends by Marie Shedlock. I really enjoy reading numerous small stories because I feel like it gives me lots of inspiration to draw from when I create my own story. The story that stood out to me the most was "The Parrot who Fed his Parents." I really loved the moral or theme to this story. The father bird became to old to continue his job so the son takes over and he helps take care of his parents because they can't take care of themselves. As if the son parrot is paying back his debt, for his parents took care of him when he was a baby bird and could not support himself. In my story I'm going to keep this same story line however I plan to use a different type of animal character. I think I'm going to use lions as my animal type of character. Furthermore, I also liked the use of dialogue between the characters which is something that I'm going to use in my own story.

The Lion King. 

Bibliography: Eastern Stories and Legends by Marie Shedlock. Link to Reading.

Reading Notes: Rouse. Giant Crab. Part B

I read part B of The Giant Crab, and Other Tales from Old India by W. H. D. Rouse. I really enjoyed this read and found al lot of the stories interesting and fun to read. One story that really stood out to me was "Silence is Golden." The first thing I really liked about this story was its format. I thought it was cool that the dialogue between the characters for the most part was written in a prose format. I really enjoy dialogue between characters and I try to always incorporate that into my own stories. However, I've never used a poem style of writing for my dialogue which is something I want to try in my next story. Further, I like how the narration was written in a more conventional manner and then their were a few poems thrown in their in the form of dialogue. I also liked the use of animal characters and how the main character was a hybrid between a jackal and a lion. In my own story I plan on having my main character also be a hybrid. Additionally, I liked how the author went into detail about what characteristics of each parent made up the hybrid! I feel like that gave the reader a better picture to imagine.


Bibliography:The Giant Crab, and Other Tales from Old India by W. H. D. Rouse with illustrations by W. Robinson. Link to Reading.

Big Cat Bird Hybrid.  

Reading Notes: Rouse. Giant Crab. Part A

This week I decided to read stories from “The Giant Crab, and Other Tales from OLD India.” One Story I really enjoyed was “The Mouse and the Farmer.” This was a strange story and I did not know how it was going to end. In my story I plan to have somewhat of the same theme. The cat in this story was somewhat of a bad guy, In my own story my cat will be replaced by a Cyclops who terrorizes a village and makes them give him all of their food that they have gathered. After some time has past, the village people began to become thin and they cannot gather as much food as they once could. I’m not exactly sure how I will end this story but I want it to end with a twist where the reader is shocked by the end.

Bibliography: The Giant Crab, and Other Tales from Old India by W. H. D. Rouse with illustrations by W. Robinson. Link to Reading. 

The Giant Cyclops. 

Famous Last Words: Getting Back On Track

This is my last semester here at the University of Oklahoma and it has been pretty hectic. I have not been performing like I would like to in this course. Therefore, this week I created a new assignment strategy that will hopefully get me back on track for this course. For this week I read more of the Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt. I really enjoyed reading these stories because they are easy to read and understand as well as they have a moral or lesson in almost every story. I was unable to write and create my own story this week, but with the help of my new schedule I will helpfully be able to create a cool storytelling. Further, I did a lot of commenting this week and I was able to read a lot of interesting stories. There was one story that was written in a poem form that I thought was really cool. Perhaps I will try to imitate this style of writing in one of my next stories. I have never done a poem format before so it would defiantly be challenging but a lot of fun at the same time. As for my other classes I’m taken this semester they are all going pretty well for the most part. I’m seeing some overlap or similar themes within my Water and Ecological Sustainability class, Evolution class, and my Senior Capstone: Science and Nonsense. Understanding Strange Beliefs and Separate Realities. I have really enjoyed taking these other classes as well as this India Epics course and I couldn’t think of a better way to end my undergraduate career. For next week, I plan on putting my new schedule to the test. I plan to hopefully complete all my assignments for this class on a timely manner. However, next week I have two exams in my other classes so I know I’m going to have to dedicate a lot of time to studying. But hopefully I will be able to find a happy balance between studying for my exams and getting my assignment completed for this class.

This next week is going to be a balancing act. 

Tech Tip: Canvas Calender

This semester has been really hectic for me and I have't been doing a really good job at my time management for this class. However after revising my assignment plan and with the help of the canvas calendar I feel like these last weeks of the semester are going to go very smoothly. I have created anew time management plan for this class and I have set up the canvas calendar and my own personal digital calendar to send me notifications for when I need to start an assignment and when an assignment is due.

Week 11 Review

I watched the video "Gypsies, Roma, Travelers: An Animated History." I really enjoyed this video because I'm somewhat of a history buff and I've always been really interested in the history of other cultures. Also, I thought it was really entertaining how the video showed cool animations that complemented the history facts. Further I liked the graphic, "Feedback is helpful, don't fear it" which you can see below. I though this image was really fun and the cat looked really cure!

Feedback Cat Meme.

Reading Notes: More Jataka Tales, Part B

After Reading Part B of More Jataka Takes by Ellen C. Babbitt the story “The Lion in Bad Company” stood out to me. First I really like the title of this story. It was clever as well as foreshadowing of what was to come in the story. This story had many themes at work from temptation to betrayal. In my own story I want to incorporate these same themes. I plan on changing the animal characters into human characters. For instance the young lion, will be a successful college student going to a well renowned school such as Harvard. The wolf character will be a con artist who ends up being the college student’s roommate. As time goes by the con man will corrupt the college student until he is in so deep there’s no way of getting out.

Bibliography: More Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt. Link to Reading.

Our Actions determine what path we will take.  

Reading Notes: More Jataka Tales, Part A

This week I decided to read more of the Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt. The first part was filled with a lot of good interesting stories. One story that stood out to me was “The Red-Bud Tree.” One thing I really liked about this story was the use of the four seasons to represent possible different points of view or to show how through time things change. I plan to use four stages in my own story to represent this, however instead of using seasons and the redbud tree I will use the four stages of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. There will still be four sons like from the original story and they each will see a different stage of the butterfly’s life. These four stages will include egg, larva, pupa, and adult.

The Majestic Butterfly 

 Bibliography: More Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt. link to reading. 

Learning Challenge: In Jelly Beans

I watched the video The Time you Have (In Jelly Beans), and I know that we do not live forever and our time here has a limit, but it is not something that I often think about. Further, I never considered an abstract physical representation of the days we have to live on Earth. On average we will live a total of 28,835 days. We will sleep a total of 8,477 days. Work for 3,202 days, watch television for 2,766 days. I have never thought about categorizing my days in life as to how I spend it. While it is sad to think that my big jar of jelly beans will one day run out, I need to think about my next jelly bean and make sure I don't waste it. Live it with gusto, with happiness and hopefulness because any one of those could be my last and don't waste a single bean!

The Jar of Jellybeans, make everyone count.