Week 2, Reading Diary B: Narayan's Ramayana

• Rama is throwing the most amazing wedding every held.
• The procession consists of everything imaginable, from dwarfs, kings and elephants.
• As the planets all aligned in a holly order, Rama and Sita got wed.
• Rama's three brothers also got found wives and got wed on the same day.
• The king begins to realize he is getting old.
• The kings wants to hand over the kingdom to Rama.
• Kaikeyi's hunchback Kooni wants Bharatha, Rama's brother, to be king.
• The king promised Kaikeyi two boons…
• Kaikeyi wants Rama banished and Bharatha to be crowned. 
• Rama ends up being banished.
• Everyone fell into depression 
• Lakshmana, Ramas other brother, wants Rama crowned and will do it by force.
• Rama, Lakshmana and sita all leave.
• The king died right after they left.
• Bharatha went in such of Rama to bring him back as king.
• Bharatha ended up wearing Rama's sandals and ruling for 14 years. 

Week 2, Reading Diary A: Rama and Sita.

• The story dates back to 1500 BC
• Interpreted as a wide verity of things. For example bed time stories, religious context, and scholarly texts
• Dasaratha traveled to Anga where he married off his daughter.
• Dasartha had two wives, Kausalya and Kaikeyi.
• He had four kids: Rama,Bharatha,Lakshmana and Sathrugna.
• The sage completed complete mastery over his body through inner discipline.
• The sage only wanted the company of Rama. He declined armies and any other assistance from the king
• Lakshmana and Rama end up leaving with the sage. They pick their favorite weapons and head out.
• Rama is curious as to why the land is so forsaken.
• Thataka is a dimi god that devours everything living and harasses the less fortunate.
• Rama and Thataka have a massive battle where Rama finally shoots an arrow through her neck and kills her.
• Rama in turn was awarded all the skills imaginable in fighting.
• In later fights Rama becomes spiritual and directs people to go into battle while praying.
• Rama found his wife Ahalya as a stone outside of Mithila.
• Indra was a bit of a creep and would stock Ahalya and admire her.

Week 1, Introduction

Hello all, my name is Dillon Duke from Edmond Ok. I am a senior here at the University of Oklahoma and am majoring in International Security Studies and minoring in Arabic. I am also a 1st class Midshipman here at the Naval ROTC unit at OU and will be commissioning as an officer in May. I actually just got back a few days ago from my Summer Naval training where I was stationed on the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz. It was a fantastic experience to be on 4.5 acres of sovereign and mobile US territory. Earlier in the Summer I studied abroad in Turkey where I travelled the West tip of the country all the way to the far Eastern boarder. After my study abroad experience I can safely say Turkey is one of the most amazing places I have ever visited. The people are super accommodating, the food is divine      and the sights are absolutely breathtaking. Some of my hobbies include scuba diving, mountain biking, beer tasting, traveling and long walks on the beach. Speaking of traveling, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to travel to all seven continents as a student ambassador with an organization called People to People. Out of all the places I had the privilege of traveling to I would have to say Antarctica was the most amazing. It's literally almost too beautiful to possibly describe.  As for my pets, I have quite the farm. Back home I have four dogs, two potbelly pigs, two horses, a rabbit and nine chickens. It sounds like a handful but they're all family and
I enjoy taking care of them. I have one sister who's a freshman at OSU. She is a stellar soccer player and plays on their soccer team and I love her to death. Thats about it.

Me spearfishing in Cozumel (2014)

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Week 1, Storybook Favorites

The first story book I chose was "How to Acquire Divine Wisdom: The Journey of Jack
." I chose this story because I have always had an interest in the supposed divine wisdom found in the Indian culture. Have little knowledge on the subject I figured this was the best place to start. The introduction does indeed grasp my attention and I believe the way the story is put together wold not only keep me entertained but also educate me. I found the overall layout of the pages to be very pleasing in the fact that they are put together in a series of well laid out chapters. The random paintings also help make the pages more ascetically  pleasing.

The second story I read was titled "Paranormal: The Ayodhya Files." The title grabbed my attention because I find the paranormal rather interesting and have researched the subject in the past. On reading into the story I found the title did not disappoint and indeed does tell of the paranormal. After reading the first couple paragraphs I had been drawn into the story completely. I found the descriptive qualities throughout the story to really drive my imagination and my desire to continue reading. While I didn't mind the page layout, it came off as a little cheese. I believe this story and its layout will persuade me to use a more professional design.

The third story I read was titled "Dr. Kamadeva, Love Therapist." I was attracted to this story because I know the Indian culture focuses a lot on love and the human passions so I wanted to learn more. After reading into the story I found that the title did indeed fit the story and I was further drawn into the story. I really enjoyed the lighthearted style of writing the author uses, it makes the pages easier to read and puts the reader at ease.I also found the layout to be very satisfying in the fact that the pictures and colors were not overwhelming. I would definitely use this type of layout on my project. 
 

Indian Epics, Week 1

I absolutely enjoy learning about far off cultures and regions and that's one of the reasons why this class appealed to me so strongly. I am also an international security studies major with a focus on the Middle East and when I stumbled across this course I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to learn about a country and its culture that boarders so closely to the region I am studying. Over the course of my studies I have had little to do with India and I hope to understand a little more about the regions history and religion. As for Sita Sings the Blues, I must say it was rather interesting. I was a little confused by what I was actually watching at the beginning but found the rest to be quite informative.

Week 1 Storytelling "holiday home"

Once upon a time there was a family of ghosts that lived in the busy city of Hollywood California. The family of three would frequently decided to take a weekend trip out to their old cabin in the woods. The family had bought the once ritzy little cabin back in 1924 when Jim, the father, had made his fortune in the stock market boom of the roaring 20's. Billy, the teenage son, had been slightly skeptical by the purchase of the house due to lack of friends he had living in the general area. As for the wife, Kim, she thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to decorate and design the interior. It also allowed her the chance to escape from all the gossip that constantly saturates Hollywood.  It was on a fateful visit to the cabin in 1928 that there happened to be an accident on the secret military test sight only a couple miles into the woods from the family's cabin. The testing of toxic gases mixed with the swamp gas and slowly enveloped the cabin with the sleeping family inside, ultimately asphyxiating them. Ever since that time they have continued to carry out their normal day to day activities and have befriended and created relationships with those things around them. On this most current visi

t the family started off their vacation like all others, a visit to the graveyard. Billy hated the pit stop at the graveyard but his parents insisted that they should insure their graves had been untouched and have at least three lucky spiders on each of their graves. He was never really a fan of spiders; they gave him the creeps even after his death. Billy was feeling a bit more anxious than usual on walking through the door of the cabin. The full realization that on his last visit he had promised to take the young witch that lived by the bog on a date was suddenly sinking in. It was on the last visit that Billy decided to skip out on the formal diner his parents had planed with the Von Erlaucht ghost family that lived in the castle and ended up running into the cutest witch he had ever seen. He had been curious as to what existed in the bog and had speculated some kind of slug monster or frog demon which sounded way more exciting than some pompous diner party. He was ultimately caught off guard when a black haired girl with cutting emerald eyes jumped out from behind a tree and yelled "BOO" just about scaring the life back into him. The two ended up spending the rest of the two day vacation together and ended with Billy promising her the most amazing haunted date on his return. As he pondered endlessly  he plopped down on the couch and continued to weigh his options; explore the temple of doom, pick poisonous  mushrooms, ding dong ditch the crazy hermit…what to do, what to do…

Henry Webber House, Aspen California

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspen,_Colorado

Daniel Case

Bibliography: Tom Gauld map Tom Gauld

Author's Note: This story is based on the "holiday home" map that was illustrated by Tom Gauld. The above link will take you to the map's webpage. The map depicts a home in the middle of a forest  that harbors a verity of ghostly and scary things. This map reminded me of all the ghost adventures I shared with my friends when I was back in high school and that is why I chose the map. I also felt as though with the map I had more creative freedom to make a story. I picked the crazy hermit, poisonous mushrooms,temple of doom, the bog, castle, witch and graveyard all as motifs from the map. I chose the ding dong ditching of the hermit, picking poisonous mushrooms and exploring the temple of doom because I found these things to valid ghostly date ideas.  

Week 1 Favorite Place (Antarctica)

Hello all,

My name is Dillon Duke and my favorite place is Antarctica. I was lucky enough as high school student to have the opportunity to travel around the peninsula of Antarctica and conduct various  research missions. While most individuals believe Antarctica to be a rather hostile place, I found it to offer a more peaceful and welcoming environment. The absence of human life and influence in the region allows one to truly be one with mother nature and appreciate her genuine beauty.

This is a picture I took in Antarctica on 5 JAN 2010. We had just planted a "HOBO" which would continue to track weather  fluctuations in the Hughes Bay region. 

First post

Hope this works!