Epics of India

A comic panel showing Darkseid and his destructive capabilities  Source The supreme overlord of countless worlds, Darkseid, was casually strolling through the universe looking for a new world to conquer. As he was going about his planning for the invasion of this new galaxy called "The Milky Way" he was stopped by his most trusted adviser who warned him about invading dangerous planets, as he had already been beaten out of Oa by the guardians. Darkseid pondered this intrusion, and decided to play it safe instead of possibly risking another failure and have his army begin to doubt his power as a leader. "Who are the most powerful beings on this planet" Darkseid ordered as he pointed his finger towards Earth. "Bruce Wayne and Kal-El" the adviser responded. "Here is a brief history of their lives" he said as he gave Darkseid a vision detailing the lives of the 2 beings. "Batman and Superman huh?" Darkseid paced. "This ma...

Standing Buddha Statue Source 1: The bodisat was born as a bull, and was brought up very well by his brahmin keeper. The bodisat told the brahim to challenge a farmer to see whose bull's could carry the most weight. The brahim did so, and a bet was made. The brahmin got on the bull and set "Giddy up you brute!" To which the bodisat's feelings were hurt and he didn't move and the brahmin lost the bet. Later, the bull asked the brahmin why he called him that and told the brahmin to ask for double or nothing and as long as he was nice to the bull, he would win. The brahmin did so, and called the bull "beauty" this time and the bull dragged the carts and the brahmin won great wealth 2: Still as a bull, the bodisat was sold to a woman. The woman raised the bull as her own son, and the bull wanted to repay her. He took a job with a caravan whose bulls couldn't move their carts. The caravan owner tried to sell the bull short, but the bu...

100 Jataka Tales Source 1: Buddha is born as a lion. A hare was convinced that the earth was going to cave in and started a mob of animals running away from "where the earth was caving in" and the lion (Buddha) asked what the commotion was about. The hare told him, so he and the lion went to the spot where the earth was caving in and realized that the sound was just a fruit that had fallen from a tree. They went back to the other herds and told them that there was no caving in of earth and everyone went home. 2: A croc's wife asked her husband to kill a monkey so she could eat its heart. The croc tells the monkey that across the river is a bountiful amount of fruits, and the croc volunteers to take the monkey over the river. The croc tries to drown the monkey for its heart, but the monkey tells the croc that monkeys keep their hearts hanging from trees, and if the crc takes him to the tree than the monkey will get the heart. The monkey gets to the t...

Lando and Han gambling in "Solo: A Star Wars Story" Source "Don't worry about it Chewy, I know my way around this part of the galaxy. And besides, Lando just invited me to play cards, there isn't anything that could go wrong." Chewbacca roared in disagreement and went into the kitchen of the ship and awaited their arrival at Lando's location. Han and Chewy had been traveling around the galaxy for weeks doing odd jobs, all in hopes of earning enough money to spruce up the millennium falcon, and luckily for them they just got invited to a high stakes card game that could win them enough credits to not just clean up the falcon, but completely upgrade its flying and combat abilities.  Han was confident in his ability to gamnble, as this is the reason he got the falcon in the first place.  "No doubt Lando is trying to win back his ship huh Chewy? But when will he learn that if you can't beat me once, then how could you beat me the seco...

Bhima victorious after killing Baka Source This time around, I chose to watch the Mahabharata rather than read it. I really enjoyed this telling of the story, as it incorporated my favorite aspect of the original reading: The massive world it creates that you can become immersed in. I also was a huge fan of the artistic style they chose to present the epic in. The hand drawn cartoon-like figures made me think back to the "Draw My Life Challenge" that went around the internet a few years ago, in which internet personalities and celebrities would tell their life story while drawing images to go along with the story. These images were commonly cartoon-like, just like the Mahabharata video I watched. I also enjoyed how they told the entire story, not just summaries like I read in the version by C.A. Kincaid. One of my biggest complaints with the original Mahabharata was how long it took to read and how confusing the family trees were, and this online film really helpe...

The death of Karna Source This week I was prompted with re-reading the Mahabharata, so I chose to read one of the online versions of the Mahabharata, The Princes of Elephant City by C.A. Kincaid. I thoroughly enjoyed this version of the Mahabharata, almost as much as the first version I read during weeks 6 and 7. One of the reasons I enjoyed this story so much is that is was severely condensed. Though I absolutely loved the original, being tasked with reading it is quite the commitment. There are many pages which vary in length and complexity, as well as changes in story telling from page to page. Sometimes the story is told in a traditional way, while on other pages it is told in the form of a song with rhyming couplets taking the place of paragraphs. Also, understanding the family tree is very confusing in this version, as in some pages it throws many names with many relationships at you at once, leading to you having to reread the same paragraph many times ...

Motivational quote from my favorite superhero (Green Lantern) from one of the worst movies of all time (The Green Lantern movie starring Ryan Reynolds) Source When I first started this class, it sort of overwhelmed me. I was always stressed out and rushing to finish assignments for this class as I would spend most of my day working on homework for other classes. Thankfully, I eventually found my groove and now I am not only less stressed in this class, but I am enjoying it quite a bit more. In the beginning of the semester, I would do the assignments the day they were due, but now I either work 1 day ahead, or 1/2 day ahead. This tactic has made me realize that I have so much time to finish assignments for this class if I either do them a day earlier or get a head start on them, so when I get home with all of my other homework I have one less thing to worry about. I am going to try and continue this habit, and hopefully get to the point where I am working 2-3 days ahead so I c...

21 Components of Effective Feedback Source I chose this image in particular, because I think it gives some pretty important things to keep in mind while giving feedback. Granted, not all of the 21 squares are always applicable to every situation (for example, when giving feedback on story posts, I couldn't necessarily give feedback that is backed by data and multiple sources, as I am giving feedback on how I think a story might flow better) but I think it is important to try and hit as many squares as possible when giving feedback. Feedback is one of the most important things when it comes to bettering oneself, especially when trying to become a better writer. I think the inclusion of weekly feedback assignments is very helpful for all, as we all become better writers by analyzing what worked and didn't work for others in their stories, as well as reading the comments on our own stories. I also really enjoy the inclusion of introduction blog comments, as even though I o...

The demon king Ravana Source This picture was from my week 3 reading post. The reason this picture stood out to me, is that it really helped me better visualize what Ravana looked like. When I first started reading, the concept of the rakshasas puzzled me. The multiple limbs that they possessed made me think of an insect-looking thing, whereas this picture helped me better understand and visualize what the rakshasas looked like. When looking back at my earlier blog posts, I have realized that I have an issue of writing too much or too little when taking notes. In my earlier reading posts, I would basically retell the entire story as if I were talking with a friend. This lead to fairly long blog posts over mid-small sized stories. As the weeks went on and I got used to the flow of this class, I began taking more condensed notes. Granted, this was during the Ramayana and Mahabharata readings, which were reading assignments that were split into 80 pages. Here, I would take n...