Growth Mindset: Week 7



Cheezburger Meme
Image Source: Blogspot

My favorite type of positive reinforcement, I have come to find, is cute, funny, and motivational little memes.
I found this one in one of the Growth Mindset Meme blogs, and it really spoke to me and how I have handled past failures. This applies to work, school, and just personal life. Instead of wallowing in misery, I have learned to just use failure, and use it to, as Fat Amy says, "fuel my hatefire". I learn that I don't like to feel the way I do after something has gone wrong. So it makes me try harder, so I try to avoid feeling like that again. Postivie thinking is key! So, like this cute little meme I found says, it really hurts to fail but it doesn't mean YOU are a failure. You just have to keep trying again and again. 

Tech Tip: Week 7

I was looking at ways I could customize my blog page since I have seen so many really nifty pages from my classmates. I stumbed upon this little website that has small  tutorials for how to customize your Blogger page or any blog page.

Here's the link:

http://www.cottonandcurls.com/2013/05/how-to-customize-your-blogspot-blog-some-html-basics/

Famous Last: Words Week 7

Inspirational Meme!
Image Source: WeKnowMemes



I had an okay day. Got a Coke Zero at the gas station. Raise the roof.

Okay if nobody gets that movie reference you are shunned for three hundred and sixty five days.

Dishonor on you! Dishonor on your cow! Dishonor on your whole family!

Seriously though, I've had an okay week. Phew, it's already the end of week seven and we already well into October! I feel like I'm caught up a little bit. My stress levels have receded a little. Just like my hairline. No really. It can happen. But, I feel a little more at ease because usually I'm always a little behind and now things are falling into place. Even as I type this at 4 a.m. ha. I'm going to keep this ball of productivy moving and hopefully I will end this semester gracefully and not like the mess I was at the begining of the semester. I'm understanding Calc a little more and I feel like my writing and my brainstorming is getting a tad bit better. I'm feeling a little more confident about my storytelling posts above all. I feel like when under pressure I worked the best. I came up with this week's story literally on the fly. I still feel like my best story was my story from week six.

I'm excited that after this week we can revisit the Ramayana and kind of play around with both of the epics we have read. A little more freedom to expand and explore concepts are our liking is going to be great!

In other news, that OU/Texas game....

Huge dissapointment. That was the worst part of this weekend. I really wish I could have gone down to Dallas just to be part of the hype that was going on. But alas, my place of employment required my services. Remember everyone, just keep swimming. We are amost at the finish line! 

Week 7 Review

Found this cute cartoon in the announcements! Had to share! Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Here is the link to the original blog post for this cartoon!




Cartoon by Grant Snider



Week 7 Storytelling: The Bride from Gandhara

Vyasa speaking to Gandhari
Image Source: Wikipedia

Her wedding was tomorrow night. What would her husband be like? Would he be kind? Strong? A thousand questions ran through her head. She spent a sleepless night tossing and turning. Gandhari remembered the day Bhishma went and spoke to her father. He brought her back to this palace to marry a stranger. But he was a king none the less and that should be its own reward. This marriage would unite two kingdoms. Gandhara would gain another ally and she would sustain her duty to her kingdom and her father. Her maidservant entered her room as soon as the sun rose to begin preparing the anxious and pensive bride. Once Gandhari arose from bed, King Dhritarashtra became the primary topic of conversation.

"Do you know much about your future husband Lady Gandhari?" she asked.

Gandhari sat in deep thought for a minute and slowly replied, "No I do not. One does not usually know much about their future spouse when it comes to arranged marriages like these".
The maid adverted her eyes and remained silent for an unusual amount of time. This struck Gandhari as odd and she demanded to know why she was so quiet.

"I have roamed the halls of this palace. I have asked the servants. Gandhari, King Dhritarashtra is blind. He only knows darkness."

Visibly stunned, Gandhari softly uttered "That cannot be possible. A king cannot possibly be blind! Who could give the throne to a blind man?".

Gandhari sat in deep thought and she could not even feel time passing by. She slowly stood and said, "Come now, I must get dressed. I will stand by my husband. I will be with him and my loyalty will never falter. We will share the same condition. I have decided to place a veil over my eyes and see nothing but darkness as he does. We are to be one. I will never remove this veil from my eyes as long as I may live". And with that, she strode over to her belongings and picked up a black veil. She looked over to her maidservant and stared,

 "You will be the last image my eyes see".

Gandhari fastened the veil tightly over her eyes and proceeded to prepare for the wedding that lay ahead. Was she scared? Yes, of course she was. But, she was prepared to face anything that was placed in her path. She was prepared to face her destiny beside he husband, for whom she had decided to give up her sight. As she felt the final touches being added to her robes and jewels being placed in her hair and upon her neck, she reached out for her servant's hand.

"Lead me to my future husband..."

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Author's Note:
In both the reading and in Peter Brook's film Muhabharata, I noticed that there was not much background to Gandhari and her marriage to King Dhritarashtra. Mainly the wedding and the day leading to the wedding itself. I figured it would be interesting to try to mold a story from Gandhari's point of view. I wondered what she could possibly be thinking before her wedding. How did she feel knowing that she was destined to spend her days with a husband who could not see?


Bibliography:

• Narayan, R. K. The Mahabarata. London: Mandarin, 1991. 7. Print.
• The Mahabharata. Dir. Peter Brook. Parabola Video Library, 1989. Film. Youtube.

Reading Diary B: Peter Brook's Mahabharata

Peter Brook's Mahabharata film can be seen here.
Step by step reading guide for film can be seen here.

Yudhistira is questioning meditating Krishna
Image Source: Wikimedia

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• Krishna awakes to find the five Pandavas and Draupadi around him.
• He tells them that the world needs a king, and that happens to be Yudhishthira. 
• Yudhishthira is very unsure about being the correct choice for king
• Duryodhana is being a hater
• He doesn't want his father to treat the Pandavas as his sons, for one of them might jump in line in front of him for the throne.
• King Dhritarashtra gives them a piece of the kingdom. Duryodhana is not happy about this. I'm sure his father will hear about this...
• Meanwhile, Yudhishthira is pleased, Bhima is pissed. 
• Duryodhana throws a fit, declares war against the Pandavas. 
• Bhishma agrees with what the King decided to do, but will end up siding with Dhritarashtra and his sons in the end. 
• Duryodhana travels to the Pandava's kingdom; the crystal palace
• The reflective mirages around the palace cause him to stumble about, the Pandava's mock him
• Duryodhana is fueled by anger from the mockery and embarrassment he suffered
•  Gandhari's brother, Shakuni, offers to play Yudhishthira in dice. He assures he will beat him and take everything from the Pandava's. 
• Yudhishthira is apparently bad at gambling, but loves to do it anyway
• The Pandavas show up to the palace
• Yudhishthira does not do well at all. He bets everything he has
• Draupadi is the last thing to be gambled and lost.
• She is dragged to the main hall by her hair.
• Humiliated by the the court, she is about to be stripped of her garments 
• As she is about to be stripped, she begs Krishna to help her, and her sari becomes never ending as it is torn off of her. 
• Duryodhana keeps teasing her, asks her to choose a new husband, while baring his thigh. 
• Draupadi "I will wash my hair in your (Duhshasana) blood, and Duryodhana will die from a blow to the thigh" 
• King Dhritarashtra grants her two favors and she asks for her husbands freedom. 
• Duryodhana urges his father to ask them to come back for a second game. 
• The stakes:
• 12 years of exile in the forest 
• And one year after that of exile in a city but they must not be seen, or else be subjected to yet another 12 years of exile in the forest
• Shakuni wins again. The Pandavas go into exile.
• Kunti stays behind 
• Amba looks for Bhima during their exile.
• She asks Bhima to kill Bhishma. She blames him for the world rejecting her.
• "Hate keeps me young. I only live to kill Bhishma. I swore it, but all the men to whom I turn, even you Bhima, tell me he can't be killed. None the less, I will kill him" 
• Arjuna leaves to find divine weapons, 
• "Ever since childhood I have been marked for war..." 
• Duhshasana has a bad dream about the vengeance that the Pandavas will seek. 
• Duryodhana cannot strike now because of their exile. 
• Hidimbi and Hidimba, rakashas, stumble across the Pandava camp. Hidimba asks his sister to bring him their corpses
• Hidimbi falls in love with Bhima and transforms into a beautiful human woman.
• Bhima kills her brother, Hidimba after he attacks
• May I add this part was VERY entertaining. 
• Bhima and Hidimbi marry.
• They have a son, who leaves with Hidimbi to another world but promises to come back should Bhima ever need him. 
• Bhima is found by Duryodhana in the forest. 
• He finds the rest of the Pandavas
• Vyasa interferes in their attack. 
• Vyasa suggests they go listen to stories during exile
• Vyasa sends Duryodhana back home.
• Boy asks Vyasa why he cannot stop the war, if he interfered here in this instance
• "There are some acts a word can check; others nothing can block
• Arjuna receives the Pashupata weapon from a hunter he met on his journey. 
• This hunter is actually Shiva and he appears in his true form to Arjuna. Arjuna worships him. 
• Duryodhana sees this all happening using powers, he is afraid, because Arjuna has this weapon from Shiva.
• Urvashi meets Arjuna in the mountain and tries to seduce him; he refuses
• She is offended and curses him
• Women will see him as a eunuch
• Karna is cursed by Parashurama, who had given him Pashupata.
• He is cursed because he denied being a warrior (kshatriya)
• He is found out when a worm burrows into Karna's thigh and he does not cry out.

Reading Diary A: Peter Brook's Mahabharata

I have opted to view Peter Brook's Mahabharata film, available to view via YouTube. It can be seen here.
The review or step by step guide is available here.

Vyasa
Image Source: Wikipedia

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• Super diverse array of actors for this movie
• Really gives me a visual idea and better understanding of the Mahabharata so far.
• Young boy is seen wandering around a deserted building. Possibly in his early teens
• He stumbles upon what a man, later identified as Vyasa
• Vyasa asks he boy if he knows how to write, but the boy says he cannot. 
• Vyasa says he wants to have a written account of the story of his race. 
• Ganesha, with what appears to be the head of a white elephant, shows up and agrees to be Vyasa's scribe for this epic tale. 
• Vyasa starts off with the story of his mother
• His mother reeked of fish, for she was born from one.
• A stranger came and offered to make love to her in exchange for replacing the fishy stick for a lovely fragrance.
• Initially she refuses, for fear of being seen by the lake. The stranger brings a heavy mist to surround them and she gives in. 
• Vyasa was born of this union. 
• Bhishma is a prince who cannot become king.
• His father fell in love with Satyavati
• She refused to marry Bhishma's father, King Santanu, because she feared that her sons would never become king.
• Bhishma swore that her sons would precede him in line to the throne and that he would never know the love of a woman. 
• Satyavati had a son who was extremely weak.
• Bhishma went and won this son three brides
• Amba, Ambika, Ambalika
• Amba loves another and wants to be set free, and Bhishma agrees
• The man she loves rejects her because she is someone else's prize
• She askes Bhishma to take her back and he refuses
• Amba curses Bhishma 
• Satyavati's son dies before conceiving children with his two wives
• She asks Vyasa to father children with her two daughter in laws
• One is disgusted by his wild appearance and was destined to have a son, but he would be blind
• Dhritarashtra
• The other goes pallid at the sight of him and is destined to have a son pale as milk
• Pandu
• Pandu becomes King, because his brother was blind, and could not at the time
• Pandu is out hunting and accidentally shoots a deer who was really a sage in disguise mating. He is cursed to die as soon as he tries to become intimate with one of his wives
•  Pandu is resigned to having no children
• One of his wives, Kunti, reveals that she can summon a god and bear a child by him. She has three sons, by Dharma, Vayu, and Indra
• Yudhishthira
• Bhima
• Arjuna
• The second wife, Madri, asks for her mantra so she may have children by the Ashwins, the twin gods with golden eyes
• Nakula and Sahadeva
• Dhritarashtra, the blind brother of Pandu marries Gandhari and she covers her eyes to be blind like her husband
• Gandhari is pregnant for two years and has not given birth. 
• She asks to be hit in the belly with an iron rod and a ball of flesh comes out
• This ball of flesh is divided into one hundred pieces and she is promised one hundred sons. 
• Duryodhana, the first born, is received with ill omens. Seen as one come to destroy
• Gandhari and the King were urged to sacrifice him but they refused. 
• Pandu gives in and dies trying to become intimate with Madri. She requests to die with him.
• Asks Kunti to care for her twin sons as her own. 
• Karna arrives during the Pandu's training and boasts to Arjuna that he will always be better than him. 
• Challenges Arjuna to battle
• Made king by Duryodhana so he may battle Arjuna; asks for friendship in return from Karna.
• Karna's rejection from Arjuna prompts him to promise a future battle between them. He promises to kill Arjuna.
• Arjuna won a bride in a tournament, Draupadi
• Kunti mistakenly tells the brothers to share her
• Draupadi marries all five brothers.
• SURPRISE SURPRISE. Ganesha takes of his elephant mask. He's a normal man. My life is a lie.