Week 9 Story: Final Life as a Horse (Part 2)

Author's note: This is the second half of my story from week 7. This chunk will hopefully be edited into my storybook by the end of today. This story focuses on the events in Donald A. Mackenzie's Horse Sacrifice with some allusions to his version of King Yudhishthira's Horse.

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Days go by, then weeks, then months. This blasted crowd will NOT stop following you. They've even added new people along the way! There were a few times that a stranger tried to grab you, but some weird dude with magical bendy stick always fought them off. One time you saw a rock turn into a human. You also still have nightmares about the pond you tried to swimming in on one of the REALLY hot days...

You had just waded into the cool, refreshing water when you looked down and suddenly saw a lion! Underwater! You ran as fast as you could out of the pond and heard the beast RIGHT behind you all the way to the bank. The bendy stick man yelled something at the sky and suddenly there was no more signs of the lion. You were overcome with a sense of piece and Oh look! Grass!

That was the other thing you noticed during your adventures, all grass tastes different! The winter was cold and long this time. It especially sucked without a stable this time around. It finally started to get warm again, and the grass was growing back, all that sweet, sweet grass... when the bendy stick man suddenly clipped your lead back on! What the fu-

Right now you're back at the stable where this all started. You are lead out into a giant field filled with a bunch of other animals. There are even more people here than when they all followed you around. All of a sudden the people began making a monstrous amount of noise! They are hitting things, blowing into things, and some are just straight up yelling. A long line emerges from the crowd and and they all take turns pouring water over first a man in a big chair, then you. The coolness washes over your ear and forelock, then it runs down your face. The wind blows and you shiver. A man takes hold of your face. You think bout biting him, but decide it's not worth it. He speaks for a bit, then another man grabs your halter, presses his ear against your jaw, and... milk comes out? Well that's new! 

The next thing you know, the world goes black...

Via Pixabay

Reading Notes: Epified Mahabharata (Part A)

Episode 1

• What would have happened if Shantanu hadn't questioned Ganga?
• Why didn't Ganga kill the 8th son as she had promised?

Episode 2

• Why was Devavrat shooting arrows at his mother?

Episode 3

• Why was it considered a terrible oath?
• How did the gods react?

Episode 5

• What would have happened had Amba's sweetheart had accepted her?
• Why couldn't the king just marry Amba when she returned?

Episode 6

• What was it like being married to Vichitravirya?
• Did he even try to conceive?
• Maybe he was gay???

Episode 8

• POV from the servant girl
• Was Vyas really ugly, or were the queens just rude?
• What was it like at court with a puppet king
• Why was the brother so hellbent on revenge when Gandhari was clearly happy with her husband?

Bhishma and Ganga with  Shantanu, via Wikimedia Commons

Week 8 Progress

1. Looking Back - I haven't been as on top of things as I would have liked for this semester. I did manage to complete all of last week's extra credit though! It looks like I'm only 3 weeks worth of extra credit behind to get an A. That's totally doable! I'm really happy with how my blog looks right now, but I might get bored and change it up. :)

2. Looking Forward - I'm really going to put an effort into a routine going forward. Better late than never! I'm super excited to figure out how to format my storybook page for the choose your own adventure style. It'll be a challenge, but if I make it work it'll look really cool!

via Growth Mindset & Feedback Cats

Week 8 Reading and Writing

My reading notes have been slowly getting shorter and shorter this semester. I realized that having a section of my reading notes dedicated to a synopsis of the story was redundant and a waste of time since I always end up rereading the original anyways. This has made it SO much easier to get my reading note assignments done. I still always manage to end up using the grace period anyways, but I filed the paperwork to drop a class on Monday, so hopefully I can get some time management issues squared away here shortly. I say as I'm typing this post during the grace period... It's a work in progress.
The abbreviated reading notes still work really well for me... when I write my stories. Again, time management. I personally think the two that I HAVE done have come out pretty good though!

My favorite image from my reading notes that I picked comes from my Week 6 Reading Notes. I chose this image because it's a super adorable, sleeping puppy and I'm ready for a nap right now. Yes I know it's not even noon yet. Don't judge me.

Via Flickr

Going forward, I'd like to try and not wait until the grace period to start my assignments. Plus I'd like to get more sleep. Being well rested and not being in a time crunch tends to make these readings and story writings more enjoyable.

Famous Last Words: I'm Slowly Losing My S**t

Well it's official! Junior year is royally kicking my butt. It's now almost 9am and I've slept for a whole 45 minutes in the last 24 hours (two 20 minute naps when I just couldn't keep my eyes open any longer). There's been so much stress in my life over the last few weeks and I feel so bad for neglecting this class! Just in the month of February I quit my job, had a friend committed to a mental institute, and will now be starting the process to drop my PChem Lab. Why is college so hard??? I don't think I've managed to eat a vegetable all week and we won't even talk about the current state of my apartment...

On the bright side, I did manage to have a pretty good Valentine's Day! This year was actually the first time I've had a date for it 😊
We went to a benefit dinner for the school of music because my boyfriend managed to grab a set of free tickets. Let me tell y'all those were some of the BEST mashed potatoes I've ever had!

This last Friday was my boyfriend's birthday too! We went up to Edmond to hang out with some friends and did an escape room. So needless to say, I've spent WAY too much money recently, but it's been super fun!

I got really behind in this class over the last couple of weeks, but I managed to do everything plus all of the extra credit this week! Yay! I know I need to work on my time management skills. You would think that at 21 years old I would have figured this stuff out by now. Apparently not. I guess we'll see how the rest of the semester goes. Right now I just want some sleep.

To help make this Monday not so sucky, I'm including a picture of my pupper. My dad sent it to me when he has trying to go to bed and she was NOT having it 😂Enjoy!

The spaz refusing to settle down for bed and ready to pounce. (Personal Photo)

Week 7 Review

I chose the fortune cookie from Saturday for one simple reason: it got me, so now it can get you too! Enjoy!

Image from Saturday, February 29th

Then for the video this week I wanted to pick one of the Crash Course videos because I absolutely love that series! Here's the one on dragons and serpents from Sunday, March 1:

Wikipedia: From Sita to Butterfly

I started with the Wikipedia page on Sita, Rama's wife. Then I jumped to Defamation via "slander". Third was Tongue, and last was Butterfly.

via Aviano Air Base

Learning Challenge: Sleep is for the Weak

I read the article Why Sleeping May Be More Important Than Studying by Katrina Schwartz. I knew that the law of diminishing returns applied to late night homework sessions. I usually try to be good about going to bed for a quick cat nap rather than trying to force myself to power through a report or test review. It's important to remember that at a certain point, sleep deprivation can slow your processing speeds to a point that it's actually faster to go to sleep and try again in the morning than it is to keep pushing through. Of course this is all being typed in the student union at 4am as I chug a monster, but oh well. I did find it interesting that the article mentioned a link to depression. I know quite a few people (myself included) who have been struggling lately. I really just need to prioritize my sleep schedule and mental health. The thought is that pulling an all nighter tonight will allow me to finally get on top of my back log of homework and have a more relaxed week or two to catch up on some sleep. I'm just trying to make it to spring break at this point to be honest.

What I should be doing right now...
via Flickr

Tech Tip: Reverse Image Search

via Flickr

I have tried to reverse image search so many times over the last few years, but I can never remember how. This was a good refresher. This photo is of a Ravana mask. After filtering by usage rights, I can conclude the original photo picked out by Laura was likely downloaded from Flikr (it's not too often Google only has one result).

Biography: Bicycle 16 Responding

There's quite a bit you can't do at age 16, but oh so much you can. Oddly enough, in the state of Maryland you can become a certified Emergency Medical Technician. Now I can't say that I'd recommend it looking back, but it sure was a lot of fun! So at the ripe old age of sixteen and a half, I was riding in the back of ambulances taking patients to the local hospital. Well... sometimes. You see, the training course to become an EMT is intense. 165 classroom hours over the course of 5 months, plus ride along time. All while I was in high school. Because of this crazy schedule, I was unable to complete my drivers ed course until much later than normal. So what's a girl to do when the fire siren goes off for a vehicle accident right down the street from her house? I had just gotten my license at this point, but it didn't matter. My mom's car was in the garage getting the oil changed and my dad was still at work. I hadn't been driving long enough at that point to warrant my family getting a third vehicle yet. So I did what any sane (ish) person would do, I grabbed my little brother's bike. I rode as fast as I could to the firehouse six blocks down the street, left the bike in the engine bay, grabbed my bunker gear (which weighed about as much as I did), and walked the last four blocks to the scene of the accident fully suited up. In the middle of July. My dad still makes fun of me for it on occasion, but I'm just proud I managed to make it there without passing out!

via Wikimedia Commons

Author's Note: I don't know why this was the first story that popped into my head when I decided to do this assignment, but here we are. It's 3am and I'm running on nothing but Monster and adrenaline at this point. I decided to not question it and just started typing. I think it's an amusing story and I hope someone else enjoys it too!

Extra Credit Reading Notes: Ramayana Part A

2. Dasharatha's Sons, Donald A. Mackenzie

• Synopsis:
• A horse sacrifice is performed in an attempt to get the gods to give the king, Dashartha, a son
• The gods answer and tell him that he will have 4 sons
• Possibilities:
• More details
• What was the ritual like?
• How did the city people feel about the ritual (since they weren't invited)
• Did the king have any daughters?

3. Rama: Avatar of Vishnu, Donald A. Mackenzie

• Synopsis:
• The king's prayer was answered
• 2/3 wives had one son
• The third wife had twin boys
• The gods were under the control of the demon king, Ravana
• They went to Vishnu about defeating Ravana
• He agreed to split himself into 4 and be born as the 4 sons
• Since only Humans and apes could defeat Ravana
• Possibilities:
• How did the other two wives feel about not having twins?
• Was one son favored over the others?
• Were there any older daughters in the palace?
• What was it like having part of a God's soul in a child's body?

6. Bhagiratha and Ganga, John Campbell Oman

• Synopsis:
• Sagara (King) had 2 wives, but no kids
• He prayed to the gods and was blessed with 60,000 sons
• He set a horse free to prep it for sacrifice
• Indra stole the horse
• Sons went to retrieve the stolen horse
• Indra killed them all with a single roar
• Grandson (Anshumat) went to investigate when they did not return
• He found their ashes
• Water is needed to carry souls to heaven
• No water nearby
• Needed rain
• Found the horse and stole it back
• Prayed to the gods for holy rain to fall on his uncles ashes
• Rain god had to run through another god's hair?
• It rains!
• Uncles' souls are carried to heaven
• Possibilities
• Horse!
• Perspective

11. Parashurama, F. J. Gould

• Synopsis:
• Rama has snapped Shiva's bow in half to win Sita's hand in marriage
• A hermit who worships Shiva reveals himself, angry that the bow has been broken
• Ramam proves himself a hero to the hermit by being able to fire Vishnu's bow
• Possibilities:
• What if Rama didn't know he was magic and this was all a bunch of weird stuff happening to him
• 1st person POV

via Wikimedia Commons