Reading notes A: Ramayana part C Favorites

Sita and Ravana:

Hanuman sees a starving, weak, a grief stricken yet still beautiful individual sitting in a gorgeous palace

He believes this prisoner to be Sita

Hanuman then sees Ravana walk up to the Ashoka wood (where hanuman was hiding) followed by a train of women

Ravana then walked towards Sita, but she trembled with fear at his approach

Ravana attempted to swoon her with his power, wealth, and comfort

Sita refused all of these and told him of his death at Rama's hands

Ravana gave Sita two months to yield or else she would be tortured and killed

Sita then crawled to the Ashoka wood

Hanuman Captured:

Hanuman was not satisfied with just meeting Sita, he desired to rescue her

He dashed about the Ashoka groves, and left broken limbs in his path

The rakshasis sent messages to Ravana for help, and Ravan sent Jambumali to attack Hanuman

Jambumali was able to injure Hanuman with an arrow, but Hanuman responded by crushing Jambumali with a bolt

More of Ravanas servants went to attack the monkey, but were met with the same fate 

Indrajit was then sent after Hanuman

Hanuman was able to dodge millions of projectiles sent by Indrajit which impressed many gods 

Indrajit meditated and realized Hanuman could not be killed by weapons, so he thought of a way to bind the monkey

Hanuman fell to the earth and was dragged to Ravana

Hanuman captured by Ravana

Ravana's Court:

There was a debate about whether Ravana should let Sita return to Rama, or if he should keep her with him.

Ravanas advisers may have been afraid of him, or may have actually desired to keep Sita there

Either way they were ready to go to war with Rama

They lived for war and feasted on human flesh

Bibliography: Ramayana, The Epic of Rama, Prince of India, condensed into English verse by Romesh Dutt, Myths of the Hindus and Buddhists by Sister Nivedita,

Topic Research: Music

The Uttara Kanda:

I believe that the Uttara Kanda will provide me more than enough material to draft at least three stories. This chapter of the ramayana deals with the history of Ravana, which is a character that I would like to learn more about. I have read that he lobbed off one of his heads in order to craft a veena, and sing to Shiva. The Uttara Kanda gives a full account of the history of the wars of Ravana and his conquest of Lanka. 

Potential story topic 1:

A rewrite of Ravana's birth and upbringing. Ravana went 10,000 years without food. Changing the motives for this would be an interesting topic to elaborate on. Answering such questions as why one would put themselves through that kind of agony. Maybe his motive would be to gain such musical prowess that he could enchant anyone he comes across. 

Potential story topic 2:

Ravana struck fear into gods. He caused dieties to take different forms to avoid him. Indra changed into a peacock, and Yama took the form of a crow, while Kuvera was a lizard, and Varuna was a swan.  Changing ravana's character to being more of a heroic character, and incorporating his musical abiliteis in that would also be a good story to write in my opinion. 

Potential story topic 3:

Ravana was taken prisoner by Arjuna. Writing an epic escape story about ravana utilizing his musical ability to convince his captor to let him go. Utilizing his powerful musical skills, and continuing to reign terror over the lands would be a cool story to delve into. What melody did Ravana play to convince Arjuna to let him go? Maybe incorporating some music into the story would be fun as well. 

A young Ravana defeated by Arjuna

Week 3 Story: The Enchanting Silver Stallion

Two great warriors were escorting a beautiful princess back to her home. Before heading out on their venture to the princess' home, the warriors were warned to not heed any distractions that may come their way. The warriors listened to this advice, and sought to follow it. So, the three set off to get the princess back to her home. Little did they know, a dark wizard was watching them, and planned to trap the warriors, and prevent the princess from returning home. On the way they passed through many different landscapes; a dark and treacherous forest, a rocky mountain range, and finally long flowing plains relatively near where the princess resided. The dark forest presented its own problems for the warriors as there were many monsters that they had to slay in order to make it through. First, they came across a giant six-armed bear. This bear came at them quickly, but was also struck down equally as quickly because it was rather loud in its approach. The first warrior shot the bear in the heart with an arrow, and the bear went down for the count. After making it past the six-armed bear, the warriors came face to face with a pack of wolves. These wolves came from many different angles, and made for a challenge for the warriors. However, in the end they were no match for the warriors as they were able to separate and conquer the wolves with their swords. Making it through the forest was a great challenge for the three, but somehow, they managed to survive that part of their journey. Next, they had to cross through some rocky and mountainous terrain. This was the only challenge they faced during this part of their journey. The three had to work together in order to make all the necessary jumps and steps in this area. The dark wizard was still observing the three on their journey, waiting to make his move at the most opportune time. Once the warriors and princess made it past the mountains, the wizard knew that the three would let their guard down as they only had to make it through a very flat and flowing plain. This was his opportunity. The wizard enchanted a nearby horse, and made him glow a beautiful silver. As the travelers passed into the plains, the princess saw this horse and demanded one of the warriors bring it to her so she could take it home. The wizard's plan was working perfectly. After all of their travels, the warriors had forgotten the advice they had received what felt like so long ago to them. So, the first warrior agreed and started following the horse. This is when the horse started sprinting back towards the wizard. As they approached the wizard's hiding spot, the wizard revealed himself, and launched a spell at the warrior. The warrior was incinerated instantly, and the remaining two members of the party began to flee. Now the wizard had to figure out how to lure the other two toward him so he could finally kidnap the princess.

The Enchanting Silveer Stallion

Author's Notes: This is an adaptation to the Golden deer story. Ravana enchants a deer and makes it look golden, and Sita wants to get a closer look at the deer. So, Rama sets off to go and get the deer for Sita. The protectors of Sita are unaware of the fact that this is an evil plan set forth by Ravana. I made the deer a horse, and expanded a little bit on the settings in which my characters traveled through. As well as provided a bit of reasoning for why the evil character wanted to do this.

Bibliography: Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie

Reading Notes: Ramayana Part B Favorites

Ravana and Sita:

Ravana disguised himself as a forest sage to talk with the beautiful Sita

Sita believed that Ravana was indeed a Brahmin

Ravana reveals who he actually is and claims he has the power to destroy even Yama

Sita was placed in his chariot and taken away.

Battle with Khara:

Rama decides he needs to battle the demons alone, and sends Lakshmana and Sita to hide in a cave.

Rama's attackers were afraid of him as he appeared to belike Yama.

Khara urged them to attack anyway

Thousands of weapons reigned in on Rama, but he was able to slay Khara's brother Dushana

Khara vowed to avenge the death of his brother, but was then slain by an arrow

The Golden Deer:

Ravana attempts to lure in Sita with a beautiful golden deer, and it works. 

Sita is enchanted by the deer

Rama attempts to bring the deer to Sita

Golden Deer

Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie

Feedback Strategies

Feed-Forward:

The first article on feedback that I read this week was the one about providing feedforward rather than providing feedback. I liked the idea of feedforward because it focuses on how to fix any potential issues rather than just commenting on what they are. Identifying issues is great, but coming up with ways to fix the issue is far more helpful than just addressing what the problems are. The article made a point that providing feedback often entices the person giving the feedback to attempt to sound overly smart about what they are responding to. Whereas providing feed forward simply focuses on suggestion to fix, and leads to a more pleasant interaction between all those involved in the process. 

Feedforward vs Feedback

Criticizing Praise:

Praise is not always the best option when it comes to giving feedback on a project. If the goal is to improve the project overall, providing nothing but praise does not accomplish the goal at hand. The article describes praise as a verbal reward, and also as a way of "doing to" people rather than "working with" them. It also goes on to say that praise has many undesirable effects. Praise can lead to a lack of interest of the recipient of praise, and usually leads to lower quality work. I would agree with that, one must learn to deliver praise in the right time and place as to not cause the quality of the project at hand to suffer. 

Reading Notes: Ramayana Part A favorites

King Dasharatha:

Valmiki tells the story. There were two mighty kingdoms: Koshala (ruled by Dasharatha) and Mithila (Ruled By Janaka). Dasharhata is the father of Rama, and Janaka is the father of Sita. The capital of Koshala is Ayodhya: Described as having: "wide streets with large dwellings, richly decorated temples, towering like mountains, and grand and noble palaces. In the palace gardens there were numerous birds and flowers, shady groves of fruit trees, and lakes gemmed with bee-loved lotuses" The city was full of prosperous and happy people. King Dasharatha (was of the solar race) lived in a "stately palace", and was served by eight sage counsellors as well as two family priests. He did not have any sons with any of his three queens.

King Dasharatha

Dasharatha's Sons:

Dasharatha desired to fix his sorrows of not having an heir. He resolved to perform the Ashwamedha(Horse Sacrifice) This was done to persuade the gods to give him a son. A horse was released during the final month of the bengali calendar(Choitro) which falls from mid march to mid april. The horse was accompanied by a priest (Brahmin) for a whole year. Once the horse and priest returned the ceremony was attended by many monarchs.(Rama)  After the ceremony an oblation was offered to the gods, who came to the place of sacrifice with the music-loving Gandharvas, the celestial saints, the Siddhas, and seven Deva-rishis. The gods wound up promising Dasharatha four sons. 

Rama: Avatar of Vishnu:

Vishnu the Preserver divided himself into four parts to become the four sons of Maharajah Dasharatha. The wives that had eaten the sacrificial food became the mothers of the sons. The caused great rejoice in the kingdom of Koshala. Rama was the most beautiful of the children, and had all the markings of Vishnu. He revealed all of his knowledge to king Dasharatha, and was beloved by the king. 

Vishvamitra:

There was a great rishi named Vishvamitra. He dwelt in the hermitage called Siddhashrama and came thence to ask a boon from Dasharatha. Two rakshasas, Maricha and Subahu, supported by Ravana, continually disturbed his sacrifices and polluted his sacred fire. Only Rama could overcome these devils. Dasharatha welcomed Vishvamitra gladly and promised him any gift that he desired, However, once he learned what Rama would have to do, it seemed as though the light of his life went out. Vishvamitra assured the king of Ramas victory, and so he allowed his son to go.

Thataka:

The two princes were lead into a dark and fearsome jungle. In the jungle lived the terrible rakshasa woman named Thataka, mother of Maricha. She was misshapen and horrible, and continually ravaged all that country.The two came accros her and were reluctant to strike her down as she was a woman. Eventually rama was convinced to kill her using only sound, and shot an arrow striking the mishapen woman down. The two celebrated their triumph briefly until a band of rakshasas, led by Maricha, son of the hag Thataka, and Subahu, rushed towards the altar to defile the offering with bones and blood.

Bhagiratha and Ganga:

Vishvamitra told Rama this story. In ancient times lived Sagara, a virtuous king of Ayodhya. He had two wives but no children. He and his consorts desired children, so the three of them went to the Himalayas to practice austerities. After one hundred years, a brahmin informed the three that one of thewives would have a son, and the other would be mother to 60,000 manly high-spirited sons. The king was then determined to offer a horse sacrifice. The horse was set to wanderfor a year, but it was stolen by Indra. The 60,000 sons searchedfor the horse. 

Ahalya:

he god Indra fell in love with Ahalya and disguised himself as Gautama. Ahalya was fooled by the disguise, but in other versions, she realized she was sleeping with someone who was not her husband. Gautama found out what happened, he cursed both Indra and Ahalya.


Bibliography: Ramayana Online: Public Domain Edition

Topic Brainstorm

PROJECT IDEA 1: MUSIC

After scrolling through the potential topic list one choice that jumped out to me was making my project about the musical traditions of India. I think it would be fascinating to delve into the many nuances of Indian music as they relate to the epics and the characters within those epics. I like this topic because I enjoy listening and analyzing new music (well at least new to me), and also because I feel like this would not limit me to just one story or character to learn deeply about. Song and dance are evidently very important to Indian culture, and I would certainly like to do a project about this.I actually have a very limited knowledge of music in India. Though I do know the way they organize and think about musical structures is somewhat different than that of Western music. I would probably tell a story about how through the power of music a character was able to overcome any obstacle they faced. Here is a link to Ravana on wikipedia; Ravana seems to me to be similar to Orpheus in some ways( In that he is an accomplished musician mainly.)

PROJECT IDEA 2: WEAPONS OF THE GODS

Another topic that I found to be very interesting was the weapons of the Gods. I have always been fascinated by weaponry, and weapons of the God must be something really epic. I mean these characters are Gods, so their weapons must be on some other-worldly level. One weapon I found to be cool was the Gada. Gada was a giant mace used by the monkey God Hanuman. That sounds really cool to me, and I would be interested In learning more about other weapons of the Gods. As for a potential story, I would write about an epic battle won by some God utilizing the strengths of their great weaponry. 

Gada

PROJECT IDEA 3: EPIC BATTLES

Epic battles in India falls relatively close to weapons of the Gods in my mind, but in a far more broad sense. There is definitely more to battles of epic proportions than just weapons.The events leading up too, the destruction caused during, and the aftermath of an epic battle are equally important to the story as a whole.It would be interesting to do a project about the roles the different social orders play during the events of pre, and post battles. Completely re-working the way a battle played out could be a fun story to write on this topic. 

PROJECT IDEA 4: CREATION STORIES

The origins of life, and the Earth are often heavily thought about by many people. Learning the way some people think about this in India would also be a good project to embark upon. I wonder how this culture views cosmology, and what their stories of the beginning of life and the Earth are like. Comparing these stories to their more Western equivalents would lead to an interesting project. Writing a story about creation would have endless possibilities. 

Tech Tip: "Squirt.io"

I recently discovered a very simple bookmark called Squirt.io. Squirt is a speed reader, and allows you to fully read through lengthy passages of text in a fraction of the time it takes to read them normally. It works in chrome, and I would also imagine it works in any other browser as well. It is a very simple tool to utilize. Go here for instructions on how to utilize this time-saving tool. Squirt.io has drastically cut down the time I spend reading while still providing the comprehension necessary to be useful.

Feedback Thoughts

Feedback is very important to any creative process. It allows creators to know what their desired audience likes and dislikes about their current project. It also can provide valuable insight from other creators about specific parts your own work.I often ask others for input on music projects I am working on, and can definitely see the value in asking for the same kind of input with writing projects.

The article 5 tips for taking feedback like a champ was one that stood out to me. It stood out to me because I feel that many people, myself included, often take these criticisms on the chin when they are made to help develop your writing. I especially liked that it basically told you to get comfortable being uncomfortable. Uncomfortable situations in creating new content usually coincides with growth and learning. Any time I ask for feedback and get a lot of comments back about growth area it feels good. That is because I know that I have not "arrived" yet, and still have things to improve on. It makes the game of creation that much more satisfying.

The silence the critical voices in your head article also resonated with me. When writing music I have often scrapped ideas entirely because I doubted hat they were enjoyable to listen to. Overtime Ive gotten much better about this, but as the old saying goes "you are your own worst critic". That can be both good and bad. On one hand you are always analyzing all facets of your work and thinking of how to improve them. On the other hand you often toss away potentially great ideas because of self doubt. Casting away those overly critical thoughts will be of great benefit to any creator.

Feedback is very important to creation

Week 2 Story: The Weasel and the Ram

There once was a weasel named Wesley that lived at the bottom of a humongous mountain. Wesley had lived his life to this point rather happily, going about his days eating and playing to his little heart’s desire. Wesley would look up to the mountain occasionally and wonder what was up there, but never really had enough interest to try making the ascent himself. However, one day, this all change because Wesley saw a powerful ram bounding his way up the rocky terrain effortlessly. “Woah!”, Wesley said, as the ram continued his way up, “I wonder what he will see when he reaches the top.” The sight of this ram climbing the humongous mountain gave Wesley the desire to go and see what was at the top of the mountain. Every single day for almost a month after Wesley saw the impressive climbing skills, he attempted to mimic the ram. Wesley had a problem though. His problem was that he did not have the stamina to make it all the way up the mountain. “How did that ram do it it!?”, Wesley exclaimed, as he sat exhausted on a rock near the base of the mountain. No matter how much he rested, Wesley just could not seem to make it any further up the mountain. Following this realization, Wesley sought to find the ram and ask him for help reaching his goal.

Conveniently enough, the very next day Wesley saw the ram come hopping along towards his home. Wesley called out to the ram, “Hey, you with the horns!”, “Come here I want to talk with you!” he continued. The ram happily walked over to Wesley and introduced himself. “Hi there, my name is Ralph, who are you?”, said the ram. “Well my name is Wesley. How do you get up that mountain so easily Ralph?” Wesley replied. Ralph gave Wesley a little smirk and answered with, “Why don’t you join me on my way up today Wesley?”. Wesley was immediately excited as this was all he could think about for the past month. So, Wesley agreed to accompany his new friend up the mountain. Ralph told Wesley before they got on their way, “Hang on tight Wesley, I have to make some pretty big jumps to make it up.” Wesley grabbed on to Ralph as tightly as he could and the two made their way up the mountain. Ralph would take all his usual jumps, and showed Wesley everything he knew about this part of the mountain. Eventually the two made it to the peak, and they looked out over the horizon. “Wow, its beautiful Ralph, thank you so much for helping me get up here!”, Wesley exclaimed as he took in this new astonishing view. Ralph and Wesley then made the journey back down the mountain after enjoying the fruits of their labor. The two would make that journey together once a week for the remainder of their lives. 

View from Wesley's Home

Author's Notes: This story was inspired by the two turtles Jatakas. More specifically the Turtle and the geese. This Jataka involves a turtle and two geese who became friends due to the geese looking for food. One day the geese offer to take the turtle to their far away home, but only if the turtle can say not a word to any one on the way. The turtle agrees, and the geese pick up a stick for the turtle to latch his mouth on. On the adventure the turtle winds up talking to someone and falling to his death. In my story I changed the characters and setting as well as the over all goal of the characters. MY story also ended on a happier note than the death of a turtle. 

Bibliography: "The Turtle and The Geese" from Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbit

Reading Notes: Jatakas

TURTLE and the GEESE

• Setting

                 The short story shortly but descriptively tells the reader about where the story takes place.Which is near a pond at the foot of a hill.  There is no mention of a time or date, so that is left up to the reader. 

• Plot/Characters

                The story tells about a turtle and two geese who befriend each other. The geese fly away for the evening, but the turtle would also like to join. The geese come back with a solution, but the turtle must give up something for a short time in order for the plan to work. The turtle is unable to make this happen and pays a major price. The Characters are not overly developed by word, but instead by action.

Turtle

Reading Options

The first reading option that I chose was "Garuda: Vishnu's Divine Mount". I chose this because I was interested in the comic books specifically. I wanted to see how they differed from the comic books that I have read in the past. Turns out they are rather different at least at a glance. I have not yet fully read one so I will leave that assessment for another time. Garuda seems like it would be an interesting choice to start delving into Indian comic books.

The second reading I have chosen is  "The Tales of Durga". I chose to look at this one because I thought the cover picture was really cool. It looked like it was potentially about some awesome warrior defeating his enemies on the back of a Lion.

The Third option I chose to look further at was "Ancestors of Rama". This one looks like it could have a lot of meaning behind it. Reading the brief summaries of it that I did I feel like I woould enjoy reading this story as well.

Durga

Time Strategies

Time Management

It's really important, and is something that I have struggled with greatly throughout my college career especially. I always tried to remember everything I needed to do. That is not inherently what the problem was; the main problem was that I tried to do this without writing anything down. This led to either completely forgetting to do somethings, or not leaving myself enough time to complete said tasks. Eventually I wound up getting a planner and actually utilizing it, and ever since then I have become far more in control of how I spend my time. 

The first article I read was titled "The Important Habit of just Starting". This was an interesting article to me. I did not necessarily learn anything new from this article per say, but it was a new way of looking at time management. The article mentions a formula for motivation that I thought was a different way of looking at the struggles of starting a task. This article reaffirmed the importance of starting tasks on time, and with a plan.

The Second Article that I read was titled "Increase your creative output with 14 time management tips just for creatives". I'm not going to lie, I clicked on this one because it called out to me. I would consider myself a creative, and wanted to see another person's perspective on increasing efficiency in content creation. I did learn from this article more so than my first article; it mentions taking purposeful breaks and starting with the worst part of the task first. These are two things i believe would help not only in any creative process but with any long-winded task you may set out on. 

The White Rabbit

Class Technology

I think it is pretty cool to get to utilize all the various resources online that one wouldn't normally associate with a class, for the sake of a class. I certainly never thought about utilizing a blog as a means of structuring a class, but now that I am partaking in this I feel like this is an effective means of sharing and learning with one another. I have never made a website before either, so I think that will be a cool learning process for me as well. It is also nice to have a new outlet for thought as I have never really taken to writing out my thoughts.

Technology is at our fingertips

Assignment Thoughts

                                                                  Mahabharata 

I thought this was a cool image

I think that the structure of this class is very unique. I have never had a class that followed a structure even remotely like this, and to this point I am enjoying it far more than I expected to be. I like the ability to pick and choose which assignments I am doing. I also like that this class is very self paced, and allows one to get ahead if they so desire. Not many online classes take advantage of the fact that there are no actual meeting times, so I am looking forward to that benefit. From reading the syllabus, it seems as though there is a massive time commitment to doing this every week, but after doing this on and off throughout today I am no longer worried about that. I am excited to continue on reading and writing throughout the rest of the class.

Discovering a Growth Mindset

A GROWTH MINDSET

Prior to this course, I had read about Carol Dweck and growth mindset. I originally discovered it through watching Ted talks on youtube a couple years ago. When I first read about the growth mindset I was interested in learning more. At the time I was struggling with school and organization. This type of mindset is not one that I have always embraced in all facets of my life. It is easy when you enjoy the area you're learning about to have a growth mindset in regards to your preferred subject. Since coming to OU I feel i have become better at learning because I paid more attention to the process of doing it rather than just on the outcome as I often did throughout my early life. So, on the spectrum of fixed vs. growth mindset I would place myself somewhere in the middle. I was never really challenged by anything until I got to college, so i never felt the need to prepare for things prior to arriving at OU. I am glad this topic came up in this course though, because it is always good to go at new situations with this type of mind set. I hope to actively learn as much as I can this semester in all of my courses.

Jedi Mind Trick

My Introduction

Hello World

I suppose it is a good idea to actually introduce myself, I mean not only is it worth points for this class, but it also allows us to gain a better understanding of the provider of the content that we are reading. So I guess I'll start with a brief synopsis from the beginning until i get to some of the more interesting stuff.

The Beginning:

I grew up in a military family, my Dad has been in the Army for my entire life. Fittingly, I was born in a very off the wall place to most people. That place is Alaksa, just outside of anchorage at Elmendorf Air Force Base. While I do not remember all that much about the state, I still enjoy claiming it as my place of origin. After about 3 years in Alaska the family packed up and moved to Ft. Irwin California (Do not recommend living here). Following Ft. Irwin we then moved down to Ft. Hood Texas, and that eventually led us to Lawton/Ft. Sill Oklahoma Where I grew up.

Growing Up:

I spent the majority of my life in a decently sized southwestern Oklahoma town named Lawton. The city gets a bad rap due to its high levels of crime and general lack of things to do, but it wasn't all that bad most of the time. I played soccer as a kid, and then began to play in the school band in middle school. This eventually became my biggest passion in life. I stopped playings soccer due to injury, and found my self enjoying playing my instrument (the euphonium) more and more. Marching band also became something that I put a great deal of time into, and i discovered Drum Corps for the first time. Marching at the highest level became a dream of mine. I graduated high school in 2013, and set out to OU to figure out what my next step in life would be.

College and Beyond:

A Pregame image from my final Year in the Pride of Oklahoma

I came to OU as a music composition major, but over the course of my time here I have changed majors multiple times. What I finally settled on was creating my own planned program that allowed me to take classes of my own interest with the end goal of being able to live comfortably and make a living writing music. I spend a great deal of time currently writing and listening to music. I would really like to write music for film in the future. If you have any interesting music recommendations for me, feel free to leave a comment with those, I am always on the lookout for new music.

Throughout my time at OU I have been a member of the Pride of Oklahoma Marching band for four years, as well as the Crossmen drum and bugle corps for two years (This was the accomplishment of a Dream). Because of the groups I have traveled to all but 7 states in the U.S and have performed for millions of people live, on television, and in movie theatres as well. I have provided a video of my last drum corps show for your entertainment. 

This past fall I helped with teaching at Norman High School's marching band, and that was a cool experience for me. Being on the educational side of this activity has truly made it come full circle.

I will continue to update this as I come up with more to include in it. Thanks for taking the time to read.

Story Book Favorites

After browsing through all of the story books for a little while I have found three that really popped out to me and gave me a little inspiration for my project.

https://sites.google.com/site/heroofkarma/introduction
This first link is really the storybook that provided most of the inspiration for my project idea. I enjoy how this one delivered its message as if you were the character going through the story yourself. The introduction did a great job of explaining the intent, but after wards the storybook kind of fell off. However, I feel that this storybook overall could have developed further into something that had a bit more continuity. Overall I found this design easy to navigate.

https://sites.google.com/view/tragicstories/home
After reading the introduction of this storybook I wanted to read more of the post. I thought it was a cool idea to look at a figure that was supposed to bring such joy to people in a tragic light.This storybook did a good job of filling out its content. This story book also provided some interesting images to look at at the end of each page in it. One of my favorite pictures from it is here:

A cool and creepy image from the tragic stories

https://sites.google.com/site/theravanadiaries/ravana-the-conqueror
This was the initial storybook that I clicked on. It helped me to understand what the project was exactly, as well as provided an interesting story to begin reading. I enjoyed the idea of providing such a major character his own outlet of sorts in the form of a diary. It really makes you wonder if they would have actually kept track of their own thoughts like that. I found this story book to be the most complete of the three that I have linked. It also stuck with its diary theme throughout in such a manner that it kind of felt Ravana may have actually written in this diary.

My Favorite Place

If I had to pick just ONE place to be my favorite place, I am not so sure that I could name one physical location.What immediately comes to mind as one of my favorite places is a Tour bus that made countless stops over the course of the two summers that I lived on it.

My Home for two of my summers

Not exactly the first thing that pops into most people's minds when they think about their favorite places they have ever visited. However, for me, this a bus like this was my home for two summers with some of the best people I have ever met in my life. During the Summer's of 2014 and 2016 I was fortunate enough to march with the Crossmen Drum and Bugle Corps as a baritone player.

Me in action

 A quick google search is all it would take to figure out some of what we did together those summers, but will really only provide a glimpse at all that went on. To be brief, drum corps are essentially professional marching bands, and they travel around the country competing with other top ensembles to crown a world champion. While all the music and marching aspects of that crazy activity were some awesome memories. The ones I truly miss the most now-a-days are the down time. All the crazy bus stories that I wouldn't imagine would have happened. Going to bed at 11PM in one city on your traveling home, and awakening 3-7 hours later in a completely new area ready to practice and work all day. Getting a day off and finding the closest place to grab a beer with my friends. It still doesn't make all that much sense to me how I could miss such an uncomfortable and difficult situation so much, but it was all worth it in the end. That Bus is still one of my favorite places in the world, and I hope it continues to create memories for all those future members.


When all else is gone...



Tour Bus Image

Test Post

Hello,

I am a test post. My purpose is for tests and tests alone.