Tech Tips: Blogger Template

I was so excited when I saw this in the tech tips! I've been wanting to change the layout of the blog since I started it. I didn't make very many drastic changes, but I think it looks a bit cleaner and more interesting.

I changes the background image to the picture with books to reflect the literature focus of the class, and maintained a strong orange-ish pallet throughout (turmeric-tinged is the name of the blog after all). I moved the "About me" gadget to the footer where it doesn't distract from the organizational gadgets, and I widened the main column to take up some of the empty space on the sides. Finally I changed the main post font to "Merrywether" for a bit more polished look, and made the "titles" of everything into "Rock Salt" which has a bit more of a hnadwritten feel that I think really emphasizes the storytelling aspect.

All in all, these were very simple edits that took me maybe 7-8 minutes to do, but I think the blog looks waaaaaaaay better. Let me know what you think!

Week 1: Curation

I'm very excited to try the curation techniques we've talked about. I've never been a great user of bookmarks, and it always comes back to bite me when I'm looking for sites and resources I need. The only site I've ever really used to manage useful sites and articles is a website called Zotero.

Zotero homepage; link here

Zotero is a site that you can use to organize and share all sorts of articles and citations. This makes researching things online infinitely easier. The site also comes with a plugin that you can install into your web browser that allows you to automatically add pages to your collection. It allows you to add all kinds of tags and notes to make sifting through sources faster. 

I'm also really looking forward to exploring the other resources. I'd always thought Pinterest and Twitter were just more social networks that didn't have a ton of real-world applications, but it would be really cool to also use them to catalog and share things. Known also seems like it could be very useful. I'm less familiar with it, but I can already imagine how I would use it. 

All in all, I do hope that through these resources I do become better at organizing the resources and materials I find online. I think that's a really valuable skill that will make my life that much easier if I continue on in academia.

Growth Mindset

This Youtube video by user Matthew Mettoyer (link here) breaks down the core differences between what is called the "growth mindset" and the "fixed mindset." This philosophy put forth by Dr. Carol Dweck really resonates with me. The attitudes and practices that help define the growth mindset are things I've been trying to incorporate more into my day-to-day life, and I think my major successes can all be attributed more to perseverance and tenaciousness rather than natural skill or talent.

I feel like I see the growth mindset in action on a daily basis. In a language acquisition context, we talk about how pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and seeking out challenges to test yourself are necessary for success. I've seen students come in every day during a semester to practice their pronunciation or check out books to read in other languages, and in the short time from the beginning of a semester to the end, the amount of progress is really impressive.

I hope as this class continues on, I'll be able to participate in more and more of the Growth mindset challenges. I really want to make my last semester a memorable one, and I hope to get as much out of it as I can. It's really easy to let stress bog you down and make everything seem impossible, but to me, the growth mindset is almost cathartic in a way: if you can't succeed at first, you WILL be able to stretch and push yourself to meet the challenge eventually. That's a really comforting message for a lot of people.

To end this post, I've got one more video. This one is a clip from Sesame Street featuring Janelle Monae singing "The Power of Yet" (link here). I was torn between the two videos, so I decided to just include both!

Storybook Favorites

In this post, I'm going to talk about some of my favorite examples from past storybooks that have been thrown together by OU students. There were a lot of pretty interesting ones, but each of these three had something special about them that made me want to include them in this post. I've included links in all of the captions

"Karma for Kids"

"Karma for Kids" is one example of a pretty common theme through some of the storybooks:kid-friendly re-tellings of Indian tales. I personally am a big fan of this idea: I've got two much younger brothers and putting some of the scenarios from Indian mythology into smaller packages for kids seems like an awesome idea to make Indian literature and culture more accessible. The writing is very fitting for this type of storybook, and the design seems to be pretty clean and easy to read.

"The Mothers of the Epics"

Again, this is a really clever idea in terms of how the stories are presented. The Hindu goddess of childbirth Shashthi tells three stories that focus on mothers and their lives. I really like the minimal design of this one: there are only two colors used, not a lot of unnecessary graphics or pictures. This kind of design really allows the stories to stand out, enhancing the experience ( and they are some really fantastic stories).

"Law and Order: Shape-shifter Unit"

Taking the well-wrought Law and Order formula, and applying it to the characters of Indian mythology and epics may seem a bit unintuitive at first, but I feel like this storybook really makes it work. Certain characters are presented as the members of a law enforcement team, and each have their own backgrounds and specialties. This storybook just looks and feels so modern in comparison to the other: the steel-tone colors and precise layout is great, and it's really great way to  help think about where these larger than life characters might fit in our contemporary world.

Overview:Why Indian Epics?

Why am I interested in Indian Epics? Since coming to OU, I feel like I've developed a very strong literature background: I've taken a number of French and Spanish literature classes as part of my major and my minor, and I've also been in a few of the more literary-oriented Honors classes. I feel like, at least in terms of European and African literature, I've been exposed to a lot of different movements, authors, and styles. It's pretty safe to say that I feel very comfortable in a literature course, and it's a side of academia that I really enjoy. So that's clearly one reason I'm excited to take this course. I'm already somewhat familiar with the stories we're going to be reading, and as I said in my introductory post, I know a decent amount about the cultures and groups of India, but I'm hoping this class will really help me build on that.

A Ramila actor dressed as Ravana, source: wikipedia

It's very hard for me to articulate why exactly I'm so interested in India. I know on one hand, it's pure intellectual  linguistic curiosity: languages of India are very unique and understudied, so they do have a sort of mystique about them, and as a post-colonial area, language politics are intense and often symbolic of the tides of power among different groups. But it's more than just me thinking it would be easy to crank out a dissertation about Indian languages. Indian cultures can be at once vibrant and somber, frenetic and yet subdued. Over the last couple of years, I've had to do a lot of "un-learning" of things I thought I knew, and while I'm still gaining new insights into India every day, I really hope that I can help other people see how India is a hugely dynamic and nuanced place, and its peoples and cultures are just as varied as those found anywhere else.

Introduction

Hey everyone! My name is Jacob, and I'm a senior at OU. I'm majoring in French and Linguistics with a minor in Spanish. I'm originally from Muncie, Indiana. This is my last semester here at OU and I'm really looking forward to making it a great one. I'm currently president of two campus organizations (French Club and Swahili Club), so if you are interested in either club please let me know! I also work on campus at the Language Learning Center in Kaufman Hall.

Me at a birthday gathering from last year, photo credit: my coworker

If you're reading this, you're probably in the Indian Epics class. I'm really excited to be taking this course for a number of reasons. This will be my first class that has really focused on Indian culture or literature, and I think it will be a very different world from my other classes that have all focused on European or African cultures. This is not my first exposure to India though. As a linguist, my interests lie primarily in sociolinguistics, that is to say the intersection between sociology and linguistics, and I'm really interested by language politics within India. I've read a lot about modern Indian society and the different groups within the country, (and I've tried to teach myself Hindi with limited success) but I feel that this class will help me get a glimpse at the more intangible aspects of Indian culture.

I'm also really excited to be taking this course because of the story-telling aspect. I don't have the opportunity to be really creative in my other courses, and I'm looking forward to stretching my brain to be more imaginative. I'm really looking forward to learning a lot, and I hope that we all have a good time!

Week 1 Storytelling: The Four Owls

There were once four owls who went out across the world to see see the other animals and how they lived. Each owl flew in a different direction, and came back to tell the others what spectacles they witnessed.

The four owls, source: wikimedia commons

The owl that journeyed North declared,"I came to a clear stream where the fish below mocked the birds above. 'The birds look ridiculous with those awkward wings,' the fish snickered. I found it absurd that such lowly creatures would mock our noble brethren." The other owls hooted in agreement.

The owl who flew South began his report,"I saw a small fly at the door of a beehive, and the bees called him a beggar and turned him away. The fly said to a friend, 'Those bees stole all of the food in the summer, and now we have nothing to eat.' How sad that these bugs can't share like civilized people." The other owls cried that it was a sorry state of affairs.

The owl who went East told his story."I saw a cave where a wolf and a leopard lived together. The leopard left one morning, and a the wolf told his friend,'I hate that scoundrel, but I need her because she is strong.' I pity that weak creature." The other owls decided the wolf was rather pathetic.

The last owl who went West described what she saw." I witnessed a bear leave a lion's den. A fox told me the bear went to be with the lion's mate, but left with a bruised head. How wicked and corrupt some creatures can be." Again, the other owls agreed.

While the owls told each other about the rest of the scandalous things they saw, a small mouse listened in on their conversation from under the rocks where they were perched. He couldn't wait to go back and tell the other animals what he had heard.

Author's Note: This is a retelling of a fable taken from Indian Fables, by P.V. Ramaswami Raju (1887). In the original story, the owls are much less judgemental, and the moral of the story is that "where the sun shines, there is scandal." The story more reminded me of a group of friends who get together to gossip about the goings-on of the other people in the community. I added the twist with the mouse at the end to show how gossip can spread unintentionally.

One of my Favorite Places

For my junior year at OU, I was lucky enough to study in Bordeaux, France. Its been a little over a year since I left Bordeaux, but I can still remember wandering its streets and alleys.

Cathedral of Saint Andrew in Bordeaux, taken by author August 2013

One of the very first landmarks I came across was actually one of the oldest parts of Bordeaux: The Cathedral of Saint Andrew. I'm not a very religious person, but I couldn't help but find myself fascinated with the cathedral's presence and majesty. It's still funny for me to think about how this cathedral predates almost everything in the US.

Mirroir d'Eau in Bordeaux, taken by author August 2013

A much more recent landmark was the Mirroir d'Eau, or the Mirror of Water. This is one of the largest reflecting ponds in Europe, and was originally put in as an art installation next to the river in the early 2000's. Now, it's a staple of the city, and is one of the most frequented tourist locations.

Place de la Bourse in Bordeaux, taken by author August 2013

The final place I'll talk about wasn't exactly the most interesting site, but it's one that became really important to me as I lived in Bordeaux. The Place de la Bourse was originally where all of the financial offices for the port of Bordeaux used to be; now, it's just an open plaza surrounded by apartments. However, its pretty close to the center of the city and it's known to be a pretty great meeting place. My friends and I would often meet up at the fountain, or just hang out in the plaza to enjoy the (frequently wonderful) weather. It's impossible for me to really sum up how I feel about Bordeaux in just one blog post, but I hope it did give you a small glimpse of this amazing place that I got to call home for a year.

Comment Wall

Hey everyone! This is my comment wall, so feel free to leave any thoughts/questions/feedback below!

Physical representation of a comment wall: source; flickr

Testing New Blog

Just a test post...nothing to see here