Time Strategies

I read The Psychology of Checklists. It talked about SMART goals, specific, manageable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound. When I was at my previous employer, we used this style when designing our short term and long term goals for development. I have fallen out of this practice, outside of counting down my classes and knowing which ones need to be taken each semester to ensure I graduate next May. However, with this class, I think it will work to try again.

Looking at this semester's classes, it is much like working an 8-4 job again instead of taking online courses because of the due dates of the assignments for my other courses. I have decided to plug in assignments into my Google calendar since it connects to my laptop and phone to help me keep on track and maybe get ahead in the other courses. Below is the mindset I need to get into now.

Image Info - War Poster by J. Howard Miller
Source : Wikipedia

Reading Options

I will be reading the PDE version of the Ramayana because I like the option of listening to it also. I read a sample of the Kindle version of the book and did not care for its’ style too much either. This will be my first experience with a public domain edition book so I am excited to experience it. I also like the thought of different authors and writing styles.

I have not taken an epic literature class before and it has been many years since high school so I do not remember what required readings we had that might have fit into the “epic” definition. I greatly desire to go to China and have always been fascinated with their beliefs, traditions, and culture. Since this course does explore epic literature that is tied to the beliefs in India I thought it would be interesting and fun to explore. Although I have not researched India much, in general, I do hold some beliefs that are more towards Eastern religion that is also practiced in India.

My mom taught me about karma, to be kind to all creatures, and why she believed in reincarnation. When I was a teen I had a book in which there was a symbol which I would draw on everything, but I couldn’t explain why. It looked like a backwards cursive ‘E’ that was really fancy and I liked it. I cannot even remember what the book was about, but I do know that it would not have been educational at the age of 16. So, years later I researched the symbol, and found what it was and what it meant. At the time I went looking for the meaning of this “fancy, backwards E” I was in a weird place in my life, not happy with my mundane job, not in college, and older than 25. When I found the symbol and its’ meaning, it felt right, so I decided to add it to my other skin décor, a.k.a. tattoos. You can read some information about the “AUM” or more easily pronounced and pictured as “OHM” HERE.

Also, I always carry my broken jade Quan Yin keychain with me. The reason I carry a keychain that is broken is because some years ago, I was in a one vehicle accident in the early morning hours and the damage was fierce. I totaled my jeep due to an ignorant decision, but was able to exit out of my sunroof with minor injuries. I believe that this symbol of the Goddess of Mercy protected me, so I always keep her close. Here are a couple sites to explain some info about Quan Yin.

Image via Twitter
Durga as Slayer of the Buffalo Demon Mahishasura 14th–15th century
Medium: Gilt copper alloy, inlaid with semiprecious stones
@metmuseum

As far as from the Images site, I believe the one I am including may be cheating a bit as it was in the sidebar. So I will include two. The right is an image of Durga as the Slayer of Buffalo Demon, but it was linked via Twitter from @metmuseum. The reason I liked this is because some depictions of Quan Yin have her with a thousand arms, so this made me think of her. 

Image via Wikimedia
Painting of Draupadi and Sudheshna by Raja Ravi Varma 

However, to pull an image directly from the image site, I chose the one to the left since it made me think of a woman giving another woman advice after an amygdala hijack, “well, dear…you probably could have been a little bit sweeter during that situation. Now you may have to watch out for any repercussions from Kichaka.”

Storybook Favorites

The first storybook blog that caught my eye is 1000 Ways to Die: Demon Edition. I have only watched a couple of the episodes of the 1000 Ways to Die TV series, but that is mostly because I don't have cable. The introduction for the storybook does a good job of explaining the purpose of this edition and who will be "dying" in each episode that is recapped. The visuals of this storybook are not spectacular, but I feel that they are appropriate for the style itself. The colors that were used were spot on, black, red, and shades of gray. I think the wordplay was done well also, just like TV series did.

The second storybook that I liked was Kurma and Karma A Tale of Two Turtles. I immediately liked it because it was about sea turtles and karma. This storybook is very visually appealing with its constant aquatic background and the images used on additional pages. The introduction reads easily and piqued my curiosity so that I wanted to continue reading the storybook. However, I cannot say that the introduction page immediately explained the purpose of the storybook or how it ties into the epics of India. The second page of the storybook has an author's note which does provide an explanation of this, though.

The third storybook I liked was Rate My Rishi. The introduction is self-explanatory but looks and reads in an exciting tone. The author of this storybook went into so much detail that they even created unique user names of important people in the stories of the main "rishi" so that they could construct reviews based on interactions in the stories. This was so creative and must have taken a lot of time. I loved the idea because I use Rate My Professor to decide who to take if I actually have a choice in professors and then if I have time to leave a rating. I liked the layout of this site the best since it reads from left to right with the tabs being at the top of the page, versus top to bottom on the left-hand side like the other storybooks I viewed.

Image from https://sites.google.com/site/ratemyrishi/ 

Week 1 Story - Too Much Sleep or Too Much of Anything

Nature requires five,

Custom gives seven!

Laziness takes nine,

And wickedness eleven. 

(Hours of Sleep)

(traditional nursery rhyme)

Image from Flickr user Army Medicine

Terri was having trouble finding ways to sleep. She decided to try counting imaginary white fluffy sheep. Why couldn’t she find dreamland?  Lying in bed, it was nowhere in sight and not close at hand.

Eight hours of rest according to the experts, but she couldn’t even get one. She had just returned to school, so was she overwhelmed because the class had begun? The assignments hadn’t been given yet, so that wouldn’t be a reason to fret.

She tossed and turned, flipped and flopped, but eventually was aggravated and stopped. Meandering through the bedroom she went, hoping this wasn’t going to be a reoccurring event.

Thinking about tomorrow, she realized that’s what it was. They had been estranged for a while, Terri was just excited. No reason to worry, Terri had made her amends. Tomorrow would be great, that she was sure!

Experts were wrong, her body needed less rest, only three and a half hours to be exact. Instead, she started to bake cookies but began crying when she could not find the vanilla extract.

Now frustrated and embarrassed with tears on her face, Terri had a temper tantrum and threw the baking crap all over the place! She took a glass from the cupboard, reached in her fridge, and poured a glass of chardonnay; then sat on the couch to relax her stress and worries away.

She picked up the remote, turned on the T.V., and watched some Netflix so that her mind would become numb and sleep would ensue. Several shows later, a second bottle of wine had been consumed, she looked at the time on her watch but to her dismay, she had been awake much longer than she had assumed.

Now five in the morning, she could sleep two hours or stay awake all day and go to bed early that night. She had done it before, it was nothing new, but something was nagging at the back of her mind and it made her chest feel tight, she really felt like there was an important item to-do.

She decided to skip the two hours, she didn’t need it! Up off the couch she arose and started getting ready. Wow, she was lightheaded, kind of unsteady.

Chin up she told herself, you are strong. What is the big deal anyway, there is nothing wrong?

That nagging feeling still in her mind, made her head hurt. She laid on her bed in just her t-shirt. She thought to herself, this headache needs to go away, I must have drunk too much wine. It’s only six in the morning, I will close my eyes for just a second, but then I will be fine.

A second turned into an hour, an hour turned into several, she didn’t hear the phone calls. The doorbell rang at five p.m. and she finally awoke from her drunken stupor. Excited again, she ran to the door but was not understanding why it was a State Trooper. 

He explained very grimly that her daughter’s cab was hit by a drunk driver on the way from the airport to Terri’s house. Terri’s daughter did not live. He apologized for her loss, told her the hospital information of where her daughter was taken and left Terri alone with no other words to give.

This would forever be in Terri’s mind, that nagging feeling she had. Was the tightness in her chest a premonition of the wickedness that would occur? Was this karma for the drinking or the amends that she thought she had made? Was it always in the big plan of whoever runs this universe, or is everything just a big chance meeting of events? She would never know, but she would have to decide how to make it through each day for the rest of her life. 

Author's Note:
This is based off of a nursery rhyme describing number of hours of sleep and what they believe happens if you sleep that number of hours. I believe that a lot of people need more sleep than what they actually get. So, I wrote a story of a person who usually sleeps less than a number mentioned in the rhyme and tried to go totally without, but in the end sleeps the wicked number of hours, 11. I tried to keep this as a semi-rhyming story also, but certain places are not so easy to discern. Yes, it is supposed to turn dark, just as some old children's rhymes do. 

Bibliography:
Inspired by the nursery rhyme, "Hours of Sleep" in The Nursery Rhyme Book edited by Andrew Lang.

Image Information:
Obtained from Flick stream https://www.flickr.com/photos/armymedicine/14108637993

A Favorite Place in Texas

My favorite place to visit is Port Aransas, Texas. My family and I have taken 3 trips over the last 15 years...meaning we are about due for our next one. 😀 Hopefully we can make it down there this year. In 2003, we chose the tourist type route and stayed in Corpus Christi, but once we went to Mustang Island with its sparse number of tourists and excellent eateries, then caravaned our way down Padre Island National Seashore and its awesome sand dunes in our mini-van, we knew where we would stay for future trips.

 Mustang Island

Port Aransas /Mustang Island Beach
(Attribution: dwh1974@hotmail.com)
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/8984803

Padre Island National Seashore - sand dunes
(Original work of the US Federal Government - public domain)
https://www.nps.gov/media/photo/view.htm?id=00533E20-155D-451F-67F8031422521E20

I love going there because I like looking out into the Gulf of Mexico and seeing water, nothing else, but I like it even better when I the dolphins are catching waves in front of the big barge ships. Sea turtles get so close to you when you go to you at times you can almost touch them! Plus, my children have inherited the same interests in water and sea animals, so the best part is sharing this time with them.

(Image Information: Personal photo of sea turtle in natural habitat;
St. Jo Island, Port Aransas, TX June 2014)