Learning Challenge: Empathy

The article I read is 10 Reasons to Stop Judging People. I found it helpful to consider where a person is coming from before forming a harsh or critical thought. Another thing I struggle with is taking disagreements personally. In the future, I need to work on depersonalizing critical situations. Overall, this article helped me to remember that there is basic good in most situations, and I need to be better at putting myself in other people's shoes.

Empathy 

Growth Mindset: Advice from Students

This week, I looked at the paddle with advice from other students. The first I found helpful was the idea of feedforward rather than feedback. This allows you to still give advice about the past, but you can present it in a manner that is helpful for the future. This ties in well with growth mindset and getting better at your craft. Another quote I found was that failing is good. Growth mindset is all about getting better, so it is good to fail in order to learn how to grow from a failure.

Failure is Success 

Tech Tip: Word Counter

I installed the word counter in google chrome. As a science major, we are always taught to be as clear and concise as possible, so I often struggle to meet the minimum on word counts. I find this extension of chrome to be very helpful. Usually, I would just pull up a Microsoft word document and type first on it in order to have a word count, so this is very helpful.

Story Lab: Advice to Writers

I explored the advice to writers website. The first piece of advice that I found helpful is that nothing can break the mood like a bad dialogue.  This is helpful for me to keep in mind as I craft dialogue. I need to do better at making sure that the dialogue is smooth and flowing. I do not want it to interrupt the flow of the story, and it must be useful. In fact, it should build suspense and add to the story rather than take away from it.

The other piece of advice I found helpful was from C.S. Lewis. The advice is to practice, practice, and practice some more. This states that it really doesn't matter what you write, as long as you spend time writing. I found this to be helpful. I need to spend more time with my writing practice in order to turn out better stories. Even if it seems pointless, just the practice of writing can prove to be beneficial when it matters.

Writing 

Reading Notes: Narayan's Mahabharata Part B

In this section, there is a game of dice. Shakuni decides to play. Yudhishthira loses everything he own in this dice game.  Vidura says that the game needs to stop, but it is not stopped. Yudhishthira keeps losing and gambles away his brothers, himself, and Draupadi.

            I think this little excerpt provides the grounds for a fascinating story. I am from Miami, Oklahoma, and we have many tribal headquarters in our town. Many of these tribes have one, if not multiple, casinos under their ownership. Therefore, Miami has more casinos than just about anything else. It is not uncommon for people to spend their weekends by going to the casinos. Self admittedly, going to the casinos is a fairly big deal when you turn eighteen in Miami as there is not much else to do. As a result of this high casino population, it is also not uncommon to see many people lose their savings by spending more than what they have available. There have been multiple business that were forced to close down as a result of the owner gambling away the rental payment or operating funds. This story really finds familiarity for me and the town I am from. I think it would be interesting to write a story based on this excerpt in which a man gambles away all that he owns. Perhaps he could be someone of fairly large stature in the community, and he losing everything as a result of his competitive nature and this bad habit. It would also be interesting to include a moral of some sort in which it is clear that you should only spend what you have available and that it is not worth it to lose everything. IF length permits, I could even add in how he rebounds from hitting the bottom and losing it all.

Bibliography: Narayan's Mahabharata 

dice 

Reading Notes: Narayan's Mahabharata Part A

Shantanu is the king in this story. He falls in love with a woman that makes him never question her actions. She then drowns their babies, but Shantanu is not happy about it. She tells him that she is the river and is to give birth to Vasus, who are punished for the theft of cows. In her mind, she is returning them to heaven. She takes the last child and returns him when he is no longer a child and is named Bhishma. Later, the king falls in love with the daughter of a fisherman. Her father does not approve of the marriage because her offspring will not have access to the throne as Bhisma is next in line to be king. Bhishma therefore gives up his right to rule so his father can marry the woman.

            I think this would be an interesting excerpt to do a story or possibly a portfolio project story on. I could do a story in which a father wants something, but access is forbidden due to the status of his son. The son then gives up his position in order to benefit the father. As this is what Bhishma did for Shantanu, I could write a story in which a father is applying for a new job, but the fact that his son works for a sister company prevents him from getting the job as a product of nepotism laws. The son could then give up his job for the benefit of his father. Perhaps I could even change the story so that the son gets a better job opportunity later down the road as a result of the good deed that he performed for his father.

Bibliography: Narayan's Mahabharata 

Shantu stopping Ganga from drowning Bhishma