Reading Notes: Mahabharata Section C

The Cattle Raid
Rajah of Trigartis heard that the mighty Kitchaka was dead he began to form a plot to invade Virata with hopes to capture the king. Rajah got some friends together and they thought this was a good idea. Rajah of Virata was captured by his enemy. The Pandavas went and fought to free Rajah of Virta and Rajah of Trigartis. They Panadavas forced Rajah of Trigartis to submit to them before they would allow hime to return home. Arjuna started to fight the Kauravas with the weapons he goto from a tree. Indra's son flew his horn causing all the Kauravas to pass out and made it possible for Arjuna to kill them all.

The Cattle Raid

http://ouocblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/pde-mahabharata-prince-uttara-and.html

Reading Notes: Mahabharata Part B

The House Of Fire
Prince Vidura guesses the plan that Prince Duryodhana has to kill King Pandu and King Dhritarashtra. Prince Vidura, despite being the son of a slave girl, was very wise. Prince Vidura warns Prince Yudhishthira of the threat that Prince Duryodhana has posed. The Pandavas and queen Kunti get to the place and notice how weird it is for everything to be covered in oil and made of wood. In response to this Prince Vidura calls his family together and tells them about the danger that is looming and about what Prince Duryodhana is planning. They thought up a plan to dig a giant tunnel from the palace to the forest outside. Prince Vidura gets Varanavata, who was a great miner, to come to the place to build this tunnel. Varanavata digs this tunnel at night and during the day they cover it with wood to keep the guards from noticing. When Varanavata finished the tunnel the Pandavas made their escape through it. Once they reached the forrest, Prince Bhima told his family he was going back to the palace to get revenge on the mean guard. So Prince Bhima went back and set the guard tower on fire. This obviously caught the oil slathered, wood palace on fire which just so happened to be holding a group of people that had passed out from drinking wine. These people happened to be of the same number as the Pandavas's and so when the remains were found in the chard palace the people of the city began to mourn. However, when King Dhritarashtra heard the new he began to rejoice because he thought that his plan had worked.

Kunti and the Pandavas Escape

http://ouocblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/pde-mahabharata-house-of-fire.html

The Indian Heros by C.A. Kincaid

Reading Notes: Mahabharata Part A

Vyasa and Ganesha
Vyasa was the author of the Mahabharata because no human was worthy of handling this important material. There was a king named Uparichara, from Chedi, who was so set on being perfect that the Gods thought he was trying to take their power. So they sent Indra down to bribe this King with a flying chrystal chariot. This was a privilege for him alone and no other man. One day King Uparichara was just cruising through the sky when he accidentally drop some semen into the water and it was swallowed by a female fish. So ten months later a fisherman caught this fish and when he cut it open there was a boy and girl inside. The fisherman took them to the king who decided to keep the boy as his own and allow the fisherman and his wife to raise the girl. The girls name was Satyavati. Unfortunately she smelt like fish until one day while helping her father ferry people she met a man who made her promise to stay a virgin in order to rid her of her fishy scent. This worked and she became beautiful smelling. This story was so interesting to me due to it absurd nature. The concept of the whole story is something so new to me and I just sounds insane. This reading has been very insightful to a culture that I was unaware of until now.

Vyasa and Ganesha

http://ouocblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/pde-mahabharata-vyasa-and-ganesha.html

Feedback Focus

I found that in theory all these methods are helpful but in practice I would rank them:
1) Copy and delete
2) Use a timer
3) Reading out loud

My favorite method was by far the copy and delete method. I found that taking notes while I read  led me to focus more as I went. I like deleting as i went because it made me feel like I was actually making progress as I read. As you mentioned, I also like the fact that this method left me with some rough notes when I was through.

The method of using a timer helped me focus but instead of focusing on reading and comprehending I found myself racing to see how much I could read in to allotted time. I think that with more practice this could become a much more useful method for me in the future.

The reading out loud method really just did not seem practical to me because I do a vast majority of my homework in the library and if I started reading out loud that would anger many people and get me a lot of dirty looks. I do however see the benefit this technique provides but it just is not practical for me.

This is just a funny meme I found online. Also who doesn't just love Buzz Lightyear.

Portfolio: Nicolas Cage's Sacrifice

Nicolas Cage's Sacrifice

There once was a group of people called the United States Government and they had all this gold but did not want anyone to know about it. They even built an entire fort to hide this gold in the most secure place they could imagine. This fort had seven electric fences with barbed wire on top of them and alligators in between them. There were also armed guards there at all hours of the day and night. They decided to call this place Fort Treasure. The government did all they could to hide the location and even the existence of Fort Treasure. Despite their efforts a man named Riley found out a clue about Fort Treasure while looking through different government conspiracy sites and thought of people he might know that this would interest. He thought of his friend Nicolas Cage who had a passion for seeking out hidden treasure. When Riley told Nicolas the clue about Fort Treasure they both got extremely excited. Nicolas thought about finding this place and all the joy the gold could bring him. So one day he set out, along with Riley, to find Fort Treasure.

As they followed the clue they ended up in Alaska digging through the snow for a hidden map. After hours of digging in the frigid arctic they eventually found the map. The map, however, was blank because the writing was only visible in a hot humid climate. So Nic and Riley set a course for Panama, the hottest and most humid place they could think of. Once there they were able to see the map which told them where Fort Treasure was located. But first they had to find a way to get past the fences and alligators. 

This really stumped Nicolas at first but then he started to get creative to find a solution. He thought about this for a while and decided that he would use some of the money from the last treasure he found to buy a fast car and he would just jump the fence in his car. So Riley and Nicolas got this car and made their way to where the map said that Fort Treasure was. Once they got there they jumped the car past all the fences and ended up one hundred yards away from the building where all the gold was stored. Unfortunately, Nicolas had neglected to take into account the security guards that would be there. The security guards all converged on the car shortly after it landed. They immediately started shooting at the car and both Nicolas and Riley thought they were going to die. Nicolas decided to make a bold move and jumped out of the car and ran towards the building. While he was running, all the security guards focused on him and he got shot but Riley was able to get the gold and get away to safely in the car. After the guards shot Nicolas they ran to him and tried to offer medical attention to save his life but he did not want it. He said, "It's no use. I have done what I came to do and I will die soon anyways." 

Nicolas Cage

Author's Note: This story was inspired by "The Monkey King's Sacrifice" for the comic book "Monkey Stories." This story was about a monkey king who saved his people from a human king who attacked them so he could get the mangos that were in their forest. The monkeys had been trying their best to hide the mangos from the humans but eventually the humans found out. The human king took a trip to find and collect these mangos. Once they were to the forest where the mangos grew the king's army began shooting at the monkeys. As the monkeys fled the area the king monkey made a sacrifice to save his group of monkeys and ended up getting betrayed by a hateful monkey who caused the monkey king to fall to his death.

I got my inspiration in part for this story from the movie National Treasure. In this movie Nicolas Cage's character is following his family's pursuit of a long lost hidden treasure. He goes through many challenges during his hunt for the treasure and the story of "The Monkey King's Sacrifice" reminded me of this movie. Also, I am aware that this is Nicolas Cage from "Con Air" not "National Treasure" as you would assume I would choose. But let's be honest here, Nic looks better with long hair. My goal in writing this story was to be a little bit funny. I feel like my writing may be confusing at some points however. Obviously I changed the name of the main character because I thought that it sounded like a fun and exciting idea to write about Nicolas Cage instead of the King Monkey. If you are unaware of the concept of the movie "National Treasure" I have provided a link to the Wikipedia page for it here.

Citation: This book, Jataka Tales: Monkey Stories by ACK Comic Books, is is available in the Bizzell Memorial Library and I have provided a link to my reading notes from it here. 

Reading Notes: Monkey Stories

The Monkey King's Sacrifice

These monkeys are in the forest and they start to sense danger. One monkey suspects the humans will find the mango fruit soon and want to find the monkeys forest that hold this fruit. So the monkeys go to great lengths to hide the fruits and keep them from falling in the river. Despite their efforts one mango happens to fall in the river and floats downstream where it ends up in a fisherman's net. He is intrigued by this new fruit and thinks he should take it to the king. So him and his best bud head towards the kings palace to show him this new fruit. Once they find the king they tell him what happened and the king takes the fruit to his nature guy. The nature guy says thats obviously a mango and the king tries it. The king loved this mango and asked where he could get more of these. The nature guy tells him they are upstream a little ways so the king decides to take a military force and they make there way up there. Once there they get in a battle with the monkey so they can take their mangos. As the humans are shooting arrows at the monkeys the king monkey finds a way out and swings across trees on a vine but can't quite make it. The king monkey decides to hold the vine while all the other monkeys climb across. When the last monkey comes across he decides to take out his prior frustrations on the king monkey and knocks him to the ground as he jumps to safety. The king monkey falls and the human king sees this and comes over to praise him for his bravery and leadership. The king offers to take the monkey king back with him so he can be cared for to which the monkey king said he was just doing his duty and to leave him to die.

Picture of the front cover of the comic book

From Bizzel Library. Author: Meena Talim

Reading Notes: Ramayana Part D

Kumbhakarna
Kumbhakarna was one of Ravana's greatest warriors and also his brother. Kumbhakarna was such a mighty warrior that he slept for six months at a time at which point he would wake up and destroy everything and eat a bunch of stuff. After binge eating he would then return to sleep for another six months. The six month rule was made by Brahma because Kumbhakarna destroyed and ate so much when he was awake. One day the rakshasas were in a sticky situation so they thought they had better wake up Kumbhakarna because he is the mightiest of all the demons. They had a heck of a time trying to wake him up and even went to the lengths of blowing horns, having elephants walk on him, and even brought women to him. This eventually woke up Kumbhakarna and made him why they woke him from his sleep so early. The rakshasas told him that the people of Sugriva had surrounded the city and that they needed his help. The rakshasas then brought him deer, pigs, and even humans for him to eat and wine to drink. After eating Kumbhakarna was still hungry so he went to the city gates and fought the Sugrivains. During the battle he ate a thousand monkeys and won the battle eventually capturing Hanuman. Kumbhakarna then engaged in a fight with Rama which of course he lost because Rama is the best ever. Rama shot Kumbhakarna with flaming arrows and decapitated. This caused Kumbhakarna to fall into the ocean, dead.

Kumbhakarna being awoken

Reading Notes: Ramayana Part C

Rama and Hanuman
Hanuman transforms into a beggar and approaches two strangers who run out to be Rama and Lakshmana. When Rama discovers that it is Hanuman that he is speaking to he gets excited because that is who he is in search of. Hanuman then realizes that he now has a friendly power on his side that could help find Sugriva's wife and win back the kingdom. Hanuman transforms back into a monkey and takes them both to meet Sugriva.

King Sugriva
King Vali is killed in his battle with Rama. The gods praise Rama's strength and courage. Sugriva is appointed King and the kingdom is restored.

The Rainy Season
King Sugriva promises the help Rama find Sita after the rainy season passes. During the rainy season however Rama must sit outside the city wall due to his exile so he is forced to live in the wilderness. The exile is wearing on Rama along with the absence of his loved one, Sita. While in the wilderness Rama's loneliness grows in the absence of Sita and he professes his love for her. Rama proclaims that soon she with be with him and they will both be happy to be together again.

Rama and Hanuman

Feedback Thoughts

These articles all provided great insight to giving feedback. The article that stuck out to me most was "The Difference Between Praise that Supports Narcissism vs. Healthy Self-Esteem". This article gave good examples on how you should and should not praise a child. It was interesting how little differences ended up effecting how the child responds. I will definitely take this into account when it comes time to raise kids of my own. I personally take negative feedback well. I have always been able to make it in a manner of someone just trying to help me get better and have been able to not take it as a personal attack.

Random Sloth