Week 13 Reading Diary A: Twenty-Two Goblins Continued

This week I have continued reading Twenty-Two Goblins by Ryder

Twenty-Two Goblins

Goblins: Father and Son, Daughter and Mother: What an amazing little story. I loved the ending to this one. It starts out as all the rest of the tales. The king takes the body infested with the Goblin and carries it to the monk. On his way to the monk the Goblin tells the King a story at the end he has a riddle. In this story a Queen and her daughter are traveling in the woods. Without a husband the Queen and daughter fend for themselves and hide from robbers. A father and son are in the woods hunting when they come upon footprints. A small set and a large set. The men agree when they find the women the Son shall have the person with the small footprints and the Father shall have the women with the large set. When they find the women they ultimately marry them, but as a twist the daughter actually has bigger feet then the queen. So sticking to the agreement the Father marries the daughter and the Son marries the Mother! Pretty Funny. So the Question is What are the relation of these two couples offsprings? The King caring the goblin was stumped. The goblin let the king in on a secret. The monk was going to kill the king to get magical powers! Page Turner indeed!

Conclusion: Okay. So the monk is killed by the King because the Goblin told the King the sham Monks plans to become King of the Fairies. For this the God Shiva rewards the King by promising him the world and giving him a magic sword where while he has it everything comes true!

Week 12 Reading Diary A: Twenty-Two Goblins

This week I read the first part of Twenty-Two Goblins Author: Unknown, translated by Ryder. I had a great time reading this and I would recommended every also read it for your reading diary if you have time... or just for fun! Project Gutenberg has done a great job laying out the text in a way that made it easily accessible to myself and others. I am very appreciative of that. I thought this was an interesting interpretation of an Indian Epic (very different from what we have been reading).

Listed Below are some of my favorite sections from the reading this week. 

The King and The Goblin

Reading A: 

Goblins: Brave, Wise, Clever: These stories are starting out very uniquely. I think the whole idea is interesting and I am excited to see what the conclusion of these stories are! I choose Goblins: Brave, Wise, Clever because I could really draw a connection to the tale of the Deathly Hallows! Being a big Harry Potter fan I really loved to see this connection. So this story is about the King who is trying to bring a goblin, that has taken over a dead body to a monk. The king has promised to do this. While the king is carrying the body the goblin tells a story and at the end of the story the King is forced to answer the riddle, of sorts. If the king answers correctly the Goblin will return to the tree the king found him at and the king will have to start his journey over again. If the king answers knowingly incorrectly then his head will explode. I think these are excellent stories!

Goblins: The Three Delicate Wives: Wow! What a quirky story. So this story begins at a distant land where there is a king with three wives. Already contrary to the so called “normative” culture of America, but that is a little ethnocentric of me... anyways the story continues with the king visiting each of his wives. When he saw his first wife a lotus flower landed in her and she was severely bruised by this instance. The second wife was lying in bed with the King and when the moonlight shone on her skin she was severely burned! Crazy, I know Right! It gets better. The Third wife is walking down a corridor an hears the pestles and the sound alone gave her bruises. OMG IKR?! So that is the story, of the three delicate wives and when the Goblin asked the King who was the most delicate the King answered The one who was bruised by the sound of pestles for she was the only one that was hurt by something that was not physical.  

Week 11: Famous Last Words

This week has been another rollercoaster. It seems like every week I expect the week to be better than the last, but it just keeps getting worse... What gives! Hopefully it all ends soon. I can only hope.
This week I have done two different readings. I thought the readings went really well, and I like both of them. I best remember the stories about Buddha’s life. It was very interesting to hear about the mythology of how Buddha came to gain ultimate knowledge and how he refused to go to Nirvana because he wanted to tell the people of his wisdom and to follow him.

I think my best writing for this week was my storytelling post. I really enjoyed retelling the story of Buddha’s life even though it may not have been the best ending for Buddha. I thought this was really excellent to read the life of Buddha and be able to retell this in my own words! I have also encountered some really cool projects from other people this week.

My other classes this week are going pretty good. I am down to 9 hours now of course work, but it feels like a huge course load. I am excited though because this course, my online course is almost over. There have been no apparent connections between my coursework this week and my other other classes. It is funny because almost every semester I usually feel a connection with my other classes. Good news this week though, I have officially enrolled in my last semester here at the University of Oklahoma. I will be graduating in May and moving onto a PhD program!

Looks like everything is going to turn out just fine!

University of Oklahoma (Image Source) 

Week 11: Review

Screen Shot of Course Announcement from November 3

For this review I decided to review the course announcement about experiment of Maati Baani music. I have herd this music before in the beginning of this course and I really fell in love with their music style. I thought this music was also great. I loved the mix of traditional India music with an electric twist. It was absolutely fabulous.

I recommend everyone take a look at this awesome band and their music.

Week 11 Storytelling: Buddha and Archaeology

Once upon a time thee lived a graduate student that had just received their PhD in Anthropology. This PhD’s name was Buddha and he was so happy because he had just attained perfect knowledge. He was so happy that he wanted to tell the world so he did a live feed on Twitter for one whole week. The second week after his got his PhD Buddha wanted to travel the world with his new knowledge. The third week Buddha, PhD again did a live feed on Social Media, but this time on Facebook so he could reach even more people.

“Wow,” exclaimed an onlooker, “You are so brave for getting all this knowledge. You should go an be an archaeologist.

“No,” Buddha said, “First, I must teach everyone in the world about the knowledge of archaeology. I cannot go on to work full time as an archaeologist, because people will not know about this knowledge if I do not show them.”

Buddha set out on his adventure to educate the world about his knowledge, but he encountered some problems along the way.

First, he went to a small town in western Oklahoma. It was here that he discovered problem number one.

“People of this fine small town. Listen to my story as I tell you the truth about archaeology. Let me educate you on the wisdom I have to offer,” Buddha exclaimed.

Buddha’s words fell on death ears. The people of the small town were too busy doing their daily chores to listen to the words Buddha had to offer.

Archaeology Mammoth (Image Source)

“What am I going to do,” thought Buddha, “how am I going to get people to listen?”

Buddha moved to a larger city. He thought, “Maybe if people aren’t busy farming they will have time to listen.” Again Buddha, PhD attempted to have people listen.

“People of Dallas, I am here to tell you about my ultimate knowledge. Archaeology is awesome and has a lot to teach us about life,” but again the knowledge of Buddha fell on deaf ears as the people of Dallas could not afford to spend time to listening to crazy people on the side of the road.

Buddha went back to his alma mater, not educating anyone. He was sad in his heart, but he discovered that in his heart he was truly passionate about doing archaeology.

Authors Note:
I based this story off of the Life of Buddha. In the original story, buddha attains ultimate knowledge and finds himself unable to convince people of his teachings. He refuses to enter nirvana, in my story nirvana is being an archaeologist, until he persuades people of his teachings. In the end of the story he finally does convince two people of his teachings, but in my story I thought that modern people may have been less willing to hear the story of Buddha. So mine has a sadder ending.

Week 11: Reading Diary B

Source: Buddha

This week I decided to read The Life of Buddha: Part Two Sacred Text (Source Here)

• Buddha has ultimate wisdom, but refuses to enter nirvana before teaching his wisdom to others. 
• He turns girls into hags from seducing him, but is kind when they admit their faults
• Trapusha and Bhallika are the first to have faith in Buddha
• Buddha is hesitant to share his knowledge because he doesn’t think people will understand
• Buddha attempts to make Rudraka hear his words, but instead he preaches to disciples. 
• The disciples do not acknowledge Buddha, but when he tells them “truth” they become faithful in him

Week 11: Reading Diary A

This week I decided to read Shiva

Sati secretly praised Shiva and was deeply in love with him, but Shiva did not offer homage to her father. Shia and Sati ended up marrying each other. Daksha never did like Shiva. Daksha called upon the gods and goddesses to discuss Shiva. When Sati found out she was very upset and told her father she hated him so much she would rather be dead than be his daughter. He became so upset that he killed his own daughter. Understandably, Shiva was upset and got a demon to kill Daksha. The gods and goddesses were very frightened by Shiva’s power and wanted to stop him. They were told to make peace with him. 

Shiva Statue (Source)

Famous Last Words Week 10

I have not done a Famous Last Words post for quite some time now, but when I took Mythology and Folklore I did them all the time. This week was pretty stressful for me. I am finishing up some work outside of coursework. Last week I presented at the Plains Anthropological Conference and I was give Honorable Mention in the 1st annual poster competition. This was a big deal to me as I received some recognition for my time spent on the poster and the research I have been doing. 

My reading this week was the movie by Brooks on the Mahabharata. I was particularly interested in doing this reading or movie, because while I really did enjoy the PDE: Mahabharata I wanted to get a better grasp and understanding of the story. The movie made a huge difference in my understanding of the Mahabharata! I was disappointed in my reading strategy however. For the last couple of weeks I have been cutting it very close to the course work deadline. I have only missed the deadline for work twice, this was last week. I was pretty mad at myself, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The great thing about this class is that when it is over, you can finish early, get your A for the work you put in, and move on to worrying about other classes. 

My best writing for class this week was my writing for my storybook project. I am developing the story of the Ramayana from Karma’s point of view. I added a whole bunch of bells and whistles and I think I am going to end up being very happy with the work I produce. Overall, classes this semester are going well. My half semester course is over and outside of class there are a few things I am stressing about, but I just keep reminding myself that it will all be okay. 

I am applying to a couple graduate schools right now for PhD programs in Anthropology. I have met quite a few great professors from various conferences, and I am now ready to be on my way to graduate school. Six-Isa more years of school and then I might be in the classroom teaching your children... or maybe everything will be online by then and I won’t have to leave my house! Food for thought. 

Reconstructed Cahokia Mounds in SE, USA (Image Source) 

Review: Week 10

(Image Source)

I chose to review the course announcement from Nov. 1st, 2015: Found here. The event, called Day of the Dead Street Festival was an awesome event held at the Lloyd Noble Center. I attended with my family and we had a lot of fun. I was glad to see it here on the course announcements. It is always nice to see cultural events on the course announcements. 

I wish I had taken a picture of my little brothers face painting. He sported a Dia de Los Metros mask. I attempted to explain to him the significance behind the festival, but he was a little more interested in the activities and candy... go figure.