Week 11: Reading Part A

The wise and foolish merchant: The foolish merchant was persuaded to poor out his water by a demon that said their was more water up ahead. He later found out that being in the desert meant there was no water and ended up getting taken over by the demon because he was weak with no water or food. The wise merchant did not trust the demon and kept his water for good reason.
The elephant Girly-Face: A very nice elephant was sleeping one night when it was woken up by some robbers talking about how they need to show no mercy and kill anyone that touches them. The elephant thought that it needed to do the same and killed men that got near it. Once the keepers figured out the problem then the king sent some men to talk about how it is better to be nice and not hurt anyone. The elephant heard this and was nice again.
The BanYan Deer: The king wanted to have a steady income of deer so he drove in two tribes and put them all in a pin. The deer were tired of dying so they started volunteering one at a time to die. When the volunteer fell on a mother of a young child she asked if she could wait till her child was grown. One of the kings didn't allow it but the other king said he would volunteer in her place. When the cook saw that it was the king he allowed them to be free for his act of valor.
The kings White Elephants: Their were carpenters that would cut down trees to use for lumber and one day they came across a elephant that had a splinter. The carpenters helped the elephant and he then helped them with their work after that. He later brought his son to also help with the carpenters and they learned to love the young elephant. One day the king saw the work and payed for the young elephant to have for his own and took great care of him.
The ox who envied the pig: The ox was jealous of the pig that got the good food to eat but they were just fattening him up for the wedding. The ox later realized that he was fed normal food and was able to live longer than the pig.
Grannies Blackie: The elephant worked hard for a day and earned money for the grannie.
The crab and the crane: the crane told some fish in a small pond that their was a bigger pond he could take them instead of dying in a small tiny pond. He tricked the fish and ended up killing them all for food. Later on a crab did the same thing but instead of lying on the back of the crane it rode with its claws around his neck. When he realized that the crane would kill him too he snapped the cranes neck and got away free in the new bigger pond.

The Deer that lived



Jataka Stories

Story Week 10

It was one of the biggest days for college golf and the coach had big money on his players for this very important round. He was betting with some of the locals that his boys would play the best that day. He had a lot of confidence in his team and knew they would perform when the pressure was on so he decided to bet a large amount of money that his boys would shoot the lowest. They were going against the best team in the country and while it was going to be hard he still knew how good they were playing and wanted to win big on this bet. The round started and his boys got off to a rough start falling behind early. The coach began to get really angry and yell at his players for playing bad. All of his players had never seen their coach like that and shut down completely. They finished the round and lost to the better team. Their coach yelled and screamed at them to play better because he had just lost a large amount of money due to their poor play. Once they got back home all the players questioned their coach on why he acted so poorly. He had never once yelled at them when they were home and that was part of the reason they always played good. The coach realized what he had did and apologized to his players for his poor behavior. He promised to never act like that again and said he would be encouraging again in their next round. The next week his team was back facing the best team in the country again. This time he bet twice the amount before because he knew what he had to do to make his boys come out on top. The locals gladly took the bet as they had seen how poorly his team had played before. They started the round and his boys once again fell behind early but behind the encouragement of their coach they battled back to beat the best team in the country by 1 shot on the last hole.

The yelling coach

Authors note: The ox was very strong and could pull many pounds but whenever his owner bet he could win a bet he talked badly to him. The ox didn't like that and could not pull the load but the next day the owner talked nicely to the ox and was able to win double the amount of money for another bet.

The Ox who won the Forfeit
 

Week 10 Readings

Monkey and the Crocodile: The monkey gets conned by the crocodile by getting a ride from the crocodile. The crocodile starts to kill the monkey by drowning him but because the monkey was quick witted he said that he had left his heart up in the tree and would need to go back to get it. He was able to trick the crocodile into letting him get back on land and safe his life.
How the Turtle saved his own life: He was able to save his life by tricking the people that going into the water would be worse than leaving them to die by the hands of the people. He would much rather be in the water and was able to escape his certain death.
The Merchant of Siri: The first merchant didn't want to buy the bowl for what its actual value was but the second merchant was honest and paid all he could for it and that ended up being great for him in the long run.
The turtle who couldn't stop talking: All the turtle had to do was not talk and hold on to the stick with its mouth but instead it talked and fell to its death.
The Ox who won the forfeit: The ox was very strong and could pull many pounds but whenever his owner bet he could win a bet he talked badly to him. The ox didn't like that and could not pull the load but the next day the owner talked nicely to the ox and was able to win double the amount of money for another bet.
The Quarrel of the Quails: The quails worked together at first but the catcher was able to get them whenever they weren't working together to catch them in his net and sell them for a good price.
The measure of Rice: The vaulor was able to set the prices of all the objects and to impress the kind he made a measure of rice worth 500 horses but it backfired when the king said 500 horses would be worth his whole city thus making the measure of rice worth a whole city.
The Foolish, Timid Rabbit: The rabbit heard a coconut fall out of a tree and gets scared and starts running. He tells people the world is breaking and other animals join in. IT is not until the lion says that it was just a coconut that the animals all stop running for no reason.

The lion stops the animals running

Jakata Tales

Week 9 story

Exiled from a loss

We flash back to the beginning of the year to the final tournament of the year. Oklahoma State was playing Oklahoma in the big 12 championship and they decided to put a little wager on the results of the game. A couple of the players made a bet that whoever lost the game would have to sit out the next year until they were released from their bet they made with each other. This was a very risky bet as it meant that one of the teams would not be able to play a competition for a full 12 months. While they knew what the consequences would be they still decided to go on with the bet.

While the game was going on both teams became really nervous when it got down to the end. It was the fourth quarter and Oklahoma was known to find a way to pull it out in the waining minutes. Oklahoma State was also known to be very bad at holding on to a lead when they knew they needed to win and this was going to be no different story. The quarter back for Oklahoma state had the ball with three minutes left in the game and decided that it would finally be his time to win it all for his team. However, the Oklahoma defense had something very different in mind.

On the final drive the Oklahoma state quarterback was starting to make a nice move down the field with his team and the Oklahoma crowd started to get a little nervous. The Oklahoma State offense was on the Oklahoma 25 yard line but this is where the play of the game happens. The Oklahoma State quarterback tries to throw a quick slant route to their talented receiver but the middle linebacker jumps the route and intercepts the pass. The middle linebacker takes the ball back all the way to the end zone to put Oklahoma back on top to win the game.

After the game you could tell the Oklahoma state team knew what was going to happen as they would be prohibited from playing for a full year but they should of never bet against a team they knew they would lose to.

Middle linebacker winning the game

Authors note: I wrote about how the pandavas were sent into exile after Yudhisthira made a bet against Shakuni that sent all of them into exile after he lost his gambling bet. they were in exile for 12 months just like Oklahoma State would be. 

Week 9 reading: Part B

The Five Tall Sons of Pandu

The story is the same as it describes the life of Pandu and his five sons that he is father too. Once Pandu dies his blind brother Dhritarashtra takes over but is know to hate his cousins sons. Karna challenges Arjuna, one of pandu's sons to an archery duel as both are great at the act. Drupadi is the king of Panchala and he has a daughter thats name is Princess Draupadi. Arjuna disguised as a hermit is able to win the contest after draupadi says that she will not marry a low born husband and thus allowing Arjuna to win Draupadi. In this story however instead of having to share his wife with the five other Pandavas he must give his wife to Yudhishthira as this is a big change in the story. Through all this Yudhisthira becomes king and takes over the land of the Yumanu river. Dorydhana gets jealous of Yudhisthira new found kingdom and decides to trick him into a bet. He loses a gambling match against the famous gambler Shakuni, he loses his family and his freedom through this bet and they are sent into exile. They are sent into exile without Draupadi but after she is mistreated back at home she uses his one wish to go into exile with the Pandavas. They had to spend 12 years in exile and then 1 year in a disguise. They spend their year of disguise in the court of king Virata. Duryodhana is up to plans again and steals King Virata cattle. Arjuna and his brothers get together to win back their cattle with their special weapons thus revealing who they really are to the king. They win back their cattle for the King and realize it is now time to win back their kingdom.

Princess Draupadi

The five tall sons of Pandu, Wilson, http://iereadingguides.blogspot.com/2014/05/guides-guide-wilson-mahabharata.html

Week 9 Reading: Part A

This shows where the dynasty started and how Bharata was first to to pass down the crown to Vichitravirya who had two sons. These two sons names were Dhritarashtra and Pandu. Panda ends up becoming the new king and has 5 sons that all end up running in a pack. Their name were the Pandavas and are said to be the sons of gods. After Pandu dies the new king is Dhritarashtra. Vidura is helps the pandavas escape the death set up by Duryodhana but they end up escaping by going through a secret tunnel. The Pandavas have a set of different battles against different demons that lose along the way. As they travel they go to fight for the hand of the beautiful Draupadi and it comes down to the end but Arjuna wins the contest and the hand of Draupadi. He must share his wife with his 4 other brothers. The Pandavas take over half of Dhritarashtra kingdom that he passed over. After this Arjuna sent himself into exile. We move on to Yudhishthira and his story of how he is an obsessive gambler. Shakuni is a very skilled gambler and the two go into a gambling match of dice for very high stakes. His loses are very consequential and it forces the pandavas into exile. When the pandavas are in to exile Yudhishthira sends them with a  copper pot that is able to provide them with food for their time in exile.

Burning forest

Mahabharata: the princes of elephant city       http://iereadingguides.blogspot.com/search/label/Guide%3A%20Kincaid.%20Mahabharata   

Week 8 progress

Looking at the progress chart I am just a little bit behind of where I want to currently be but I know that I can pick up those few missed points from past weeks. I have really enjoyed the storytelling each week and getting to use the reading to make my own story. I haven't taken advantage of the extra credit yet this week but I will start to pick up some extra points so that I can get my grade up to an A.

One of the things I want to get better at this second half is making sure that I am staying ahead of my reading for each week. I have fallen behind twice and need to make sure to stay one day ahead of the reported due date. I also would like to get a little bit more into my stories and understand the epics a little better.

I like this post because I think it is how this class is set up. We do a little bit each week but at the end of the semester we have a full storybook containing everything from the full semester. 

Inspirational Quote

Week 8 Comments and Feedback

I love the comments I get on all of my post because I think that the peers will help me become a better writer as the semester goes along. I think that all of the comments have been helpful and I really enjoy reading them whenever I get a new one. The most helpful comments have been the ones about my writing and what I need to improve on as I think it has made my storybook that much better.

I think I have been able take tips from comments that were left on my blog that I have been able to pass along to other students in the class. I have defiantly been able to enhance my own blog and storybook by getting to see so many other students post and taking little tips or stealing little ideas to make my storybook nicer.

Reading all of the different introduction blog post has been one of my favorite parts of this class because I think it really shows how diverse a online class can be. There are so many different people doing so many different things that it is cool to read about others taking a course at the same time. If you go through the list of people I don't think there would be one person like the other and I think that is really cool about this class.

I am looking forward to continue to help others improve their writing and getting a chance to read some more post and learn more about my classmates in this class. Right now I am happy with my blog but will continue to read the comments and see how I can make my story book the best it can be.

I like this image because I think we see a lot of similar people commenting on our post and I will try and comment back on theirs to help them as well. This is an interesting class because as a group we can all get better at writing overtime. 

Week 8 Reading and Writing

Looking back through some of my reading post I think my favorite from the semester so far would have to go back to the first story we read the Ramayana and the story it creates. I have liked the assignments and it has been easy to get into a little routine each week to finish all the assignments needed for each block. I haven't started too much with my project but I think I will enjoy the subject I selected and will have fun writing the other stories connected to it. I think my biggest accomplishment so far would be staying up with the readings and assignments each day. I have played out a nice weekly schedule and its been working well.

This would be my favorite picture I have found and I think I like it best because of the story that accompanied it. It is Rama and his golden bow and I just think the Rama has been my favorite character.

I think overall I need to spend a little bit more time in understanding the readings and more of the backstory of each character. In some of these stories their are so many different characters that pop up throughout the reading that they start to mesh together sometimes. That is one way I will help myself with the reading and be able to comprehend what is going on a little bit better. 

Week 7 Story: Changing of the Throne

It was coming down to the end of the year and the Team was going to miss its leadership the following season. They had 5 seniors that had led their team to many victories and showed great leadership along the way. You could tell the coach was going to be looking for someone to take their place and lead the what will be very young team to another successful season. Their was one junior that was the leading candidate to take their place but he was going to have to be put through the ringer to see if he was ready to lead the team the way the 5 seniors had the year before. It was the last tournament of the year and the junior knew he was going to have to show his growth in leadership this last tournament if he wanted to be the captain the next year. The coach and the 5 seniors were looking intently to see if he would show how he can be a leader. The junior started off roughly making bad scores on his first couple holes and instead of getting frustrated and throwing a fit he calmed himself and was able to come back and play a nice round. The coach noticed this because as a freshman he would of lost his self control and would not of finished a great round. He showed his leadership with his encouragement of the younger players that were also struggling. Instead of getting mad at the younger players that weren't playing good he showed them ways to get better and this gained the admiration and respect from the younger players. Finally, he was coming down the stretch of the tournament and needed to make a birdie on the last hole to win. If he was able to win then he would gain the respect of a leader from the 5 seniors because he could show that he could be the best. The junior was on the last green and had a 20 foot putt to win it all and he drained it for the win. This showed to the coach, 5 seniors, and younger players that he was ready to be the new captain.

(Yudhistira the person behind the story)

Yudhistira

The Junior in the story is how Yudhistira is able to gain the throne after having a long time coming of different hardships to make it to the top. The 5 seniors also symbolize the Pandavas leaving to go to the heavens. They left their lands how they wanted along with their wife Draupadi. 

Reading Notes: Part D

Drona takes over Duryodhana's armies and vows to take Yudhisthira under prisoner. It was a very well fought way from either side and it ended in many casualties from both armies. As more are lost it becomes time for one of the promising oaths of the Pandavas to come true and fulfill its prophecy. Bhima will finally take revenge over the treatment of Draupadi by Duhshana after the gambling match that had happened so long ago. The battle of Arjuna and Karna is the main climax of the whole war and the main scene that takes place in this story. Karna is dead and lost the huge battle. Just like any good story their is always a good twist and that comes when the pandavas are planned to be killed while they are sleeping by Ashwatthaman. After this twist we see a change in the leadership of the lands and Yudhisthira is now taking over the throne. A lot of things happen around the ganges river and Vyasa brings back the ghost of dead warriors. The Pandavas and Draupadi now decide that it is their time to go back to the heavens and ends with Yudhisthira taking over his new throne.


Mahabharat,Slavitt, David R., and Henry L Part D

(Pandavas and Draupadi)

Pandavas and Draupadi