As the Story Will Tell Itself: To Become the Mouth Which Holds the Universe

To preface, I feel like the title of this blog might be a little misleading. I think I have been fairly productive this entire week, but I have been bad at doing things that should be pretty high priority. By this I mean, say, studying for my Operating Systems and my Theory of Computation exams I have this upcoming week. Now I have been trying to get ahead in the assignments in this class so that I can focus on those things, which I am proud of what I managed so far, but the problem still is actually sitting down to study... And here I am writing for my blog. The main reason I wanted to do this kind of blog this week, besides getting some extra credit, was for something I discovered on my day off yesterday (Saturday). First of all, that was the first Saturday I have had off in months thanks to the OU vs. Texas game. I decided to spend it leisurely, instead of studying, by visiting my old roommate and her cat that lived with us. We went to a little store called Craig's Curiosity E...

I have seen reference to the Ocean of Milk many times. Why milk? Is it in reference to the Milky Way? Or is it something to do with cattle in that because the cow is sacred and valuable, so too is the milk in every aspect? There is something terrifying about the thought of a god closing his eyes and going to sleep, which then results in the end of the universe. But I guess, like said in the videos, it is only terrifying because the I culture I grew up in has always taught this sense of limited time and finality. The uncertainty of what happens while Narayan is asleep, the requirement of an observer to allow something to be observed and, therefore, exist: that sounds a lot like Schrodinger's cat. Did the ancient Hindus have uncertainty principles figured out before the West? But this makes me wonder if there is any significance to what Narayan dreams of when he sleeps. Or does he just reside in a dreamless state of sleep? Do the other Gods and Goddesses experience the lack of ...

Looking at my current progress, I seem to be a small bit ahead, which is great! I have been managing to finish almost every assignment so far at least a couple of days before they are due, so I would say I have a good routine. Out of everything, I think I enjoy the readings the most. They are entertaining as well as informative about mythology and culture. Reading what we have so far also gives me something more productive to do than scroll through social media while riding the Lloyd Noble shuttle to and from campus. I have been making some use of the weekly extra credit but not as much as I should. I tell myself at the beginning of every week that I should do them, and then I don't. For the second half of the semester, I want to take greater advantage of the weekly extra credit and try to work further ahead than I have been managing before. While I enjoy being able to take things at a kind of leisurely pace, it would also be nice to try to finish a couple of weeks early. In...

The comments and feedback I have been receiving from other students in the class have been overall positive. Sometimes I get vibes from some people's comments like they are not sure what to say and are trying to wing it. That is totally fine, though, for I tend to be and feel that way sometimes as well. Especially when there are more than a couple of comments on a post, some comments feel repetitive. This can be helpful, however, like when working on the class project. If several people are mentioning the same thing, then there is an obvious problem with a higher priority to address. I think I have only once gotten conflicting advice when it came to suggestions for the writing in my storybook, where one person said to try to increase paragraph size and another said they were already a good size. I feel like I am getting better at commenting and giving feedback, but I still do not feel like my comments are of the best quality. I admit there are times when I am not sure what to say...

I have been enjoying the reading and writing assignments so far. My classes usually involve a lot of technical stuff that lacks a lot of creativity, so it is nice to have the chance to break that monotony with a chance to read a be creative. My favorite reading so far, which was not exactly reading, was for Sita Sings the Blues . I thought that the variety of animations were amazing, beautiful, and fun to watch. It was also nice to have something that kind of gave a different opinion and point of view as to what happened in the Ramayana . When it comes to my reading notes, I feel like they are somewhat sloppy and all over the place. As well as commenting on what I come across in my readings, I am also jotting down ideas for different possible stories for the week. Posting those ideas in a place where everyone can see may be a bad idea, but I guess it does not really matter to me. My notes are meant for me. As for my project, I am having fun writing my storybook. Initially, I was not lo...