The Writings of an Illiterate Man Vol. 2

Two quails had 7 baby quails 6 of the babies ate worms and bugs and grass seeds, but the seventh ate only grass seeds. Because the baby only ate grass seeds, its wings did not grow as strong as the others, and thus it could not fly. One day a forest fire came and the mother and father quail as well as the 6 other quail children flew away. The Seventh stayed in the nest as it couldn't fly. As the fire approach the small one spoke saying it was weak and there was nothing there for the fire. The fire left, and the bird lived happily. Quail Chick Against the Fire Source References Inayat. Twenty Jataka Tales

There was a group of monkeys that lived near a river with a great tree that bore fruit. The monkeys never let any fruit fall into the river as they were afraid that if fruit fell in, it would float down to a human city and the humans would come searching for the fruit, thus forcing the monkeys away. One fruit was hidden by an ant nest and fell into the river and floated to the city. A king found it and tasted it and then ordered the tree the fruit came from be found. The king ordered the monkeys killed. The monkey king leapt to another tree and tied a reed around his foot, then jumped back so that his people could cross to the other tree. The reed was only long enough to allow him to grab the tree. All of the monkeys fled, but one monkey jumped on the monkey king's back and broke it. Then, they left him behind. The human king brought him down and spoke to him, moved by what he saw. The monkey king spoke some wisdom to him, then died. The human king built a temple in the m...

I started with Durga on the recommendation of a classmate. She is a warrior goddess, and one of the most important forms of Devi. I was then led to Dashain . Dashain is a fifteen day Hindu festival. It represents Durga's triumph over a demon. Part of the ceremony traditionally took place at the Hanuman Dhoka  palace. The palace gets its name from a stone statue of Hanuman at its gates. Finally, I was led to what is called a Torana . It is basically just an ornate archway that is freestanding. Torana In Front of Sanchi Stupa Source

This week has been busy, but in a very good way. I’ll start by talking about my capstone and that is likely the majority of what I will talk about in this Famous Last Words. So we finally got our system up and running. Our air compressor finally got wired up, we finally finished leak testing, and we finally go to actually test our system. And it works! Amazingly Well! I felt so much relief after our first successful test. We had a few bumps getting to that test, but they weren’t anything we couldn’t handle. So firstly we had to replace a line that burst way below it’s rated pressure. We ended up finding some steel tubing since that would be able to withstand the heat. We got that hooked up and leak tests were smooth from that point forward. Actual testing went super smoothly. We got air through the system with no problems, and out data acquisition is working well. I can’t put into words how excited and relieved I am that everything is working. The coolest part is we got out sch...

I am definitely going to start using this timer. I have been trying to implement the whole "Work for 30 minutes, take a break for 5 minutes" kind of strategies. I have been using random timing websites, but this seems so much easier.

“We’re approaching the Queen’s chamber.” Schafer said calmly to Hill. The pair fought their way through the nest of Lisks. “What exactly are we lookin’ for again in the chamber?” Hill asked as he pulled a small Liskling off of his helmet. “We need a vile of whatever fluid is in their hatching pool.” Schafer replied, annoyed that Hill already forgot what they were supposed to be doing. “And what exactly is that supposed to do for us?” Hill replied snarkily. “I mean, I’m just tryin’ figure out why we’re playing errand boys and riskin’ our lives for a damn egghead. “That foundation scientist said that… hold on... I gotta reload.” Shafer said as he slammed a fresh magazine in to his pulse rifle. “That scientist said it could hold the key to reversing the infestation and turning people back to humans.” “Help me! Please! I can hear you! Please help me!” a voice echoed through the tunnels. “We better go check that out.” Schafer said. The pair fought their way towards the sound...

There was a king with two wives. One was pretty and one had good character. Each had a son with a king that inherited the traits of their mother. The pretty mother and her son were very jealous and selfish. Eventually she caught the king with the other son on his knee. She pushed him off and told him to pray to the gods. The ugly boy then wen to his mother who told him to pray to krishna. He went into the forest for many years and prayed to krishna. Eventually krisha appeared and told him that he would be king of his fathers nation. The boy went back home. Upon hearing of his arrival, the king spared no expense welcoming him back. The pretty prince was jealous and asked to help conquer a tribe of revolting people. He went with cavalry, but since he was so arrogant he went ahead of the main group and was slaughtered. Then the other boy went in with the general and got revenge. He then came home and the king gave over his crown. He ruled prosperously for many years before giving up his c...

Lesser gods and demons wanted to get to ambrosia that is at the bottom of the ocean. Drinking it would make them immortal. They used a mountain to churn the ocean to bring it to the top. As they churned it, they released other entities that became things like the moon and other gods. They got to a lake of poison that Shiva had to drink to prevent it from killing everything. Eventually they got the ambrosia. The demons tried to steal it, but Vishnu stopped it and gave it to the lesser gods only. Could do a heist, or some sort of prison break. Potentially even some sort of raid on a prison. Churning of the Ocean Source References Kincaid. Tales from the Indian Epics

Week 2 of my time in my new D&D campaign and things were glorious. We made a lot of progress this week in the campaign. We found another of the objects we needed to complete the main quest and cleaned up some side quests as well. We had a ridiculously long fight against some enemies. Since last week we one turned a boss our DM decided to up the difficulty a little. The fight wasn’t hard it was just long. Only one of our party members dropped below half health, but I think the fight lasted a total of an hour and a half. We had to fight about 12 enemies. Half of them had about 26 health, but the other half had over 50. It took SO long to kill all of them, and that was with me even starting the fight out with a crit on two of the enemies and instantly killing them. The fight was still fun though, it just took forever. We also had a pretty hilarious encounter. So in our campaign there is a thing called the deck of many things. It shows up in random places, and you can draw cards ...

I started with Agni . Agni is a deity I have been interested since before even taking this class. I even considered doing my project over him. From there I was led to Holi , or the "Festival of Colors". This is a springtime festival that essentially celebrates the triumph of good over evil and many other things. It also involves the lighting of a ceremonial bonfire. That bonfire is called the Holika Dahan . The bonfire is significant as it is on this pyre that the demoness Holika was burned. Holika Bonfire in front of Jagdish Temple in Udaipur Source Holika was a demoness referenced in Hindu Mythology. She was asked by her brother to kill her nephew after the nephew chose to worship Vishnu over his father, a demon king. She attempted to kill her nephew by sitting on a pyre with him in his lap. She had on a cloak that made her invulnerable to the fire. But, while the fire burned, the cloak flew from her and onto her nephew. Her burning on this pyre is signified ...

The Canvas calendar is something I was somewhat aware of, but never really thought about. It might be a little late in the semester to start using it, but it may help some with time management.

King Nathaniel of the Normans sat in the throne room next to his queen, Allesandra of house Carlisle. To his left was his Chief Financial Minister, Calios of house Marquis. To his right was his most esteemed general, Zacharias of house Terris. As they were discussing the annual Feast of Kings, they heard the clatter of plate male as a rather tall and lanky knight ran up to them. Sir Jeffrey of the towers arrived, huffing after his long trek. “My lord!” The knight exclaimed. “The Iron Legion has attacked one of our towns in the forest!” The Town That Was Attacked “Thank you for delivering this most troubling news, good sir knight.” The King said, distraught. “Go and find a place to rest.” “My God! What horrible news!” The Queen exclaimed. “Whatever shall we do?” The King looked to his General for his opinion. “I believe we should respond in kind.” The General said. “We cannot let an act stand without response. If we don’t show them we are willing to stand against them, t...

Rama has killed a large number of Ravana's people in the forest. Ravana Convenes a war council of sorts. One of his advisers tells him not to retaliate because Rama is too strong. His other adviser convinces him to retaliate by taking Sita. Ravana Taking Sita Source (Sound Warning!!! I do not recommend clicking this link!!!) References Sita Sings the Blues

There was a prosperous and peaceful nation. One day some brahmins come into town and a few of  the nobles play a prank on them. The brahmins curse the kingdom. The king a people do everything they can to avoid the calamity. Even outlawing drinking as the prophecy foretold that they would kill each other when they were drunk. Krishna new of the prophecy and did not want to go against destiny. He had heralds proclaim that the people should all make a pilgrimage to the coast and bathe in sacred waters. The people agreed and went. When they got there, instead of fasting and worshiping, they partied. Then they all killed each other. Location of the Vrishni Kingdom Source References Nivedita. Krishna. Part B

I started with Arjuna , one of the Pandava Brothers. He was one of the more heavily featured of the brothers so I felt it would be a good place to start. I then found out that there is a class of asteroid named after him. The Arjuna class of asteroids are near earth asteroids with low inclination, eccentricity, and a nearly 1 year period of revolution about the sun. From there I took a look at other near-earth objects . There is some really cool stuff near us. Then I went to read up about the Tunguska event . I have heard about it, but never really read much about it. Essentially there was an explosion in 1908 in Siberia. We don't really know what caused it, but one of the leading theories is that it was caused by an asteroid. Trees Knocked Over by the Blast Source

The dashboard is definitely useful. I will be looking to use it more often even though I will be graduating in a month. Changing names of courses has been the most helpful thing I have found. It makes it a lot easier to know which one is the actual course and which is the discussion section.

So this last week was a little bit stressful. My capstone is having some logistics problems. We need 240 volt power at our testing facility. Unfortunately, OU facilities is charging an absurd rate for to get it hooked up. Luckily, we were able to find some work arounds to get us up and testing, but it is still stressful. The problem was exacerbated by the fact that we had to change locations after designing around an initial location. Things happen though. You have to be capable of adapting, and we are more than able; maybe just not very willing. My robotics lab project went pretty well this week. One of my partners came in clutch and basically just programmed it in his free time. It was pretty simple this week, but still. That is time I can spend on other things. A few of my friend set up a practice course since the Professor hadn’t set one up. We made a pretty sweet course that was essentially a closed loop track. We had some fun doing some time trial races on that. My bot lost, bu...

Sigmund walked into town; the villagers stopped what they were doing to stare. Sigmund was used to it. He was a behemoth of a man. A white bear’s pelt covered his chainmail but still allowed easy access to the two swords on his back. That sort of a man attracts a lot of attention: both wanted and unwanted.   He walked up to the town’s center and eyed the notice board. He made his way to it and plucked off a piece of paper from it. WANTED: MONSTER HUNTER . Sigmund pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and unfurled it. He held them side by side to compare them. They were the same: he knew he had arrived in the right town. Sigmund made his way to the inn, figuring the innkeeper would know a thing or two about what he was about to hunt. “I’ve heard you’ve got yourself a bit of a problem.” Sigmund said, unfurling the bounty notice and placing it in front of the innkeeper. “Aye,” the innkeeper replied gruffly, “And what’s it to you?” “I’m looking to solve this problem for y...

I did the reading for the week, but I forgot to do the declarations for them. So I am counting them as extra credit readings this week. Krishna and his brother notice cows and their friends disappearing in a cave. They go to investigate. He noticed it was the mouth of a demon. The mouth never closed because it was waiting for krishna to step in so it could eat krishna. Krishna stepping into the mouth and it tried to clsoe down on him. Krishna stopped it then began to grow in size. Eventually the demon died and all of the cattle and krishna's friend walked out. Krishna and Aghasura Source References Nivedita. Krishna. The Dilemma of Brahma.

I started with Vajra . Vajra is Indra's weapon and it translates to "Thunderbolt". I think lightning is pretty cool, and the Vajra is one of the topics I will be writing about for my project. I was then led to the Mirage 2000 aircraft. As an aerospace engineer, I can get pretty excited about aircraft sometimes. Vajra is the Indian Airforce's nickname for their variant of the Mirage 2000. From their I learned that the Mirage was originally based off of designs for a variable-sweep aircraft. Variable sweep aircraft are really cool so I decided to read up more about them. Finally, I was led to the F-111 Aardvark . The F-111 was the first variable-sweep aircraft to make it to production. This aircraft pioneered what would become a very popular military aircraft mechanic for the next couple of decades or so. F-111 Sweep Sequence Source

Source I picked this one because I thought it was funny. The cat is so determined to get a bite of that burger.  Source I picked this one because I thought it was cute, but also had an important message. It is important to constantly practice what you learn. The easiest was to motivate yourself to practice is to have fun doing it. Source I chose this image because I like working in teams. I have always been a team orientated person and prefer to work with others. I know a lot of people hate group projects, but as long as my teammates aren't awful, I really enjoy them.

A man was granted a boon by the sun god. He asked for the jewel that the god wore around his neck. The god gave him the jewel. Krishna advised him that only one person was worthy to wear that jewel. The man gave the jewel to his brother instead of the person Krishna advised him to give it to. The brother was then killed by a lion who took the jewel into its den. The king of bears saw the lion with the jewel and killed the lion to get it. The bear king then gave it to his son. Krishna went looking for the first man's brother. Krishna fought the bear king a recovered the jewel. Krishna returned the jewel to the first man. The first man offered Krishna his daughter's hand in marriage. The Townfolk were jealous so they killed the first man and stole the jewel. The murderer then gave the jewel to his brother for safe keeping. Krishna killed the murderer but did not find the jewel. Krishna found out who had the jewel, and allowed him to keep it. The jewel then brought prosperity to t...

I decided to have my profile visible on my blog. The decision is mostly just so people can make sure that they are on the right blog if they are navigating to it for the class. As far as my online identity goes, I haven't really given it much thought. Although I am not on any social media other than linked in so I don't really have too much of one.

Midterm grades came back this week and I was very happy with my grades for them. I got a like 94 or 96 on my intro to theater exam. It was nice to be able to not put more than a half hour of studying into an exam and still do so well on it. Having an easy class like this made it much easier for me to focus on my other classes, which probably helped me do so well on the other midterms. I got an 85 on my Robotics Lab exam. That was just above the average. I am actually pretty happy about this one because I did not feel I prepared very well for the exam once I was taking it. I got a 90 on my Space Systems and Mission Design exam. I was very happy with this one as it is the one I put the most time into studying for. The exam felt pretty straightforward, so I was expecting to do alright on it. I was not expecting to do so well on it, however. I am pretty mad at myself, though. I made a really stupid mistake that cost me 5 points. I didn’t keep track of a negative sign and that made ...

Mark raced down the hill side clutching Jessie’s hand as the pair made their way to the docks. They had a boat waiting for them to take them to their new lives. Their families were very much against the two even speaking to each other. The Wilson and Taylor families had been feuding for the last 30 years. All of this because of a stupid cat. Mark thought to himself as shots rang out behind him; impacting the trees as he and Jessie weaved in-between them. Just after the civil war a cat was accidently trampled by a horse.   Nobody even remembers who’s cat it was! Or who even killed it! Mark screamed in his mind, adrenaline pumping. “I can’t believe your brothers are stupid enough to shoot at me with you right next to me!” Mark said, panting. “Joseph and Jeremiah never were the brightest.” Jessie replied, nearly giggling if not for how out of breath she was. “There’s and old barn up ahead. We can maybe lose them there.” Mark suggested. “Okay. I need to catch my breat...

Krishna takes Rukmani and escapes with her on the day she is supposed to marry another man. The Man she was supposed to marry and his friends give chase. Eventually Rukmi, Rukmani's brother, catches up with krishna. Krishna challenges him to a single combat duel. Rukmani asks Krishna to spare his brother. Krishna knocks Rukmi unconscious and ties him up. The two then rode off together. Krishna Riding Away With Rukmani Source References Kincaid. Krishna. Chapter 7

This week was pretty busy. I had 3 midterms to study for. I think all of them went well, but only one of them has been graded so far. The one that has been graded is for my understanding theater 1000 level course. That test was so easy. It was multiple choice/True-False. I haven’t had an actual multiple-choice exam since freshman year. It was really nice to not have to sink hours into studying for an exam. My robotics lab exam wasn’t so easy. That is partially because I didn’t study that much for it, but also because I felt like some of the questions were really dumb. Pretty much all of the short answer questions were over specific details and were more often than not trick questions. For instance, two of the questions were: what kind of light does an IR sensor use and what kind of light does a distance sensor use. Well considering in the context of this class they are the same thing, they both use IR light. So, I felt that was a bit unfair. I still think I did pretty well on it,...

Harvey sat down at the table. As he did so a middle-aged man in a suit came over and handed him a newspaper. “Ah, thank you, Winston.” Harvey said. “Of course, sir. And what will you have for breakfast this morning?” Winston asked. “Just eggs and toast this morning please, I am feeling something light today. Oh, and an orange juice as well as my coffee.” Harvey answered. “Right away, sir.” Winston said as he turned and walked toward the kitchen.  Harvey thumbed through the news section. Nothing out of the ordinary. A few thefts. Parliament in gridlock. Just another normal day. As he sipped his coffee, he heard a crash behind him, down the hall.  “What the bloody hell was that? Was that a window?” Harvey exclaimed, startled.  “Winston! Go investigate the cause of that noise.” He commanded, but was only met with silence. “Fine, I’ll just see to it myself!” Harvey got up and made his way towards the source of the noise. As he rounded the co...

Karna and Arjuna fight. They draw. Karna vows that either he or Arjuna will die the next time they meet. Karna runs into a different warrior and they also draw. Karna Source References Wilson. The Five Tall Sons of Pandu

While Pandavas are in exile, the eldest son of the king who exiled them comes to mock them. He eventually needs their help to escape some monsters. The wife of one of the brothers is in danger of being abducted. They rescue her. They visit wise men who tell them stories of heroes. The Pandavas spend their last year of exile in disguise in the court of a king. They take up inconspicuous jobs. The kings cattle gets stolen. The prince asks for a chariot to go into battle to take back the cattle. Arjuna offers. The prince thinks he is only a dance teacher, but agrees to let arjuna go. Arjuna takes the prince to the place the Pandavas have stashed their weapons. Ash, Misty, and Brock Using Fake Names Source References Wilson. The Five Tall Sons of Pandu

So I started with Hanuman since he is one of my favorite characters from out readings. One of the reasons I liked him so much was because he reminds me of Sun Wukong, the main character from the chinese novel Journey to the West . Wukong is also a playable character in Smite (where I was first introduced to him). Wikipedia lists Sun Wukong in the see also section. I thought it would be cool to read a bit about the character since I haven't read the novel about him and all of my knowledge of him is from a couple of video games. Sun Wukong Fighting a Wind Demon Source From there I went to learn more about his weapon, the Jingu Bang . The weapon itself is pretty interesting as it is able to grow or shrink to any size. I learned that the original use of the weapon was Yu the Great . I clicked on the link because anyone named "The Great" must have a pretty interesting story. It turns out he introduced flood control techniques to the chinese. Also, we aren't...

In the TEDx Talk : How to Get Better at the Things You Care About, the speaker highlights that it is important to identify when you are performing the skill, and when you are getting better at it. Identifying the times when you should focus on practicing the skill can make it easier for you to learn and to improve. One thing that this article confirmed for me is that focused practice is better than just practice. Focusing on something in particular makes it easier to improve at that aspect than if you just practice something and gloss over the areas lacking the most. For instance, if you are bad at playing riffs on a guitar, practicing songs that are mostly strumming isn't going to help you as much as if you just practice those riffs or practice your scales. One new thing that this article highlighted for me is that use of a skill can be divided into 2 categories: learning and performing. This was something that was kind of already in my head, but I could never really put into ...

The above image shows Susanoo (Shinto Storm God) slaying the giant 8-headed and 8-tailed dragon, Yamata no Orochi. Source

I think I am pretty happy with my progress so far. I have a few points to make up, but that is easily doable with extra credit. i don't really stick to a routine, but that is mostly due to my other classes demanding a good amount of time. I think I like the story writing assignments the most. I would like to start doing more extra credit into the future. Knowing me though I probably wont do that many. Motivation Coutesy of u/aryan23rawat on reddit

I think that a lot of the feedback I am getting is pretty helpful. Of course, there is also a lot that isn't so helpful. I think the comments that pick out a specific detail and tell me how they as the reader felt were the most helpful. I think my feedback to others has been a solid alright. I like to focus on specific aspects of others' stories and detail how they made me feel while reading them. That kind of feedback helps me the most so it is likely to help someone else at least a little bit. I definitely like to look at the styles of writing when reading other people's stories. That is one thing I want to do more of is experiment with styles. I think that blog comments do an alright job of helping people get to know you. Of course, it is still in a bit of a superficial way since few people actually converse outside of the comments. And even in the comments there isn't a whole lot of interaction. I think taking some more time to pick out specific details ...

Looking Back I really like the structure of reading and writing in this class. I never knew how much I enjoyed writing stories. I think my favorite reading so far has been the Ramayana. While completely outlandish, it still felt somehow relatable. At least for the most part. I also enjoyed the Ravana graphic novel. The other two weren't very good, but the Ravana one was a solid OK. In all honesty, I didn't really like the Mahabharata. I just didn't feel any connection with any of the stories.  Reading notes kind of help with the writings. I mostly only use them as a short summary. They don't help at all with the actual writing since I already have a good feeling of how I want the story to play out when I start. But they do help me organize thoughts a little bit when I am planning. I am pretty happy with how my storybook is going so far. Unfortunately I haven't been able to put a lot of time into the first drafts of both the intro and the first story, meaning th...

It was nearing midnight, and though the moon shone full, it was still dark. Justin walked forward, tentatively, following an old path in the woods. He had heard the legends. The hushed whispers of the folk of the town he grew up in. That there was something that could give him anything he had ever wanted. Something unnatural. He heard the rumors: that you had to bring gifts – an offering of sorts. He had spent the last week meticulously gathering what he needed: a yarrow flower, a cat’s paw, human blood – your own blood.   You’ll find your dreams at a crossroads. It was a phrase well recorded with the town. Every victim of an unsolved murder within the last hundred years in his town had the phrase carved into one of their arms. Granted, there weren’t many of them, but there were enough to make people wonder. The phrase repeated in his mind over and over. He grew nervous. The Crossroads Justin stopped. In front of him, the path split. A crossroads, he thought . He was...