Week 4: Famous Last Words

Oh... this week...

I have been so busy with work and school. I have to read Virginia Woolf's "Three Guineas", I have to watch Hotel Rwanda, and I just got done selling way too much makeup to the whole city of Norman.

I have read "Three Guineas" before in my Intellectual History of Twentieth Century Europe class that I took about a year ago. Saying that, I must emphasize the "YEAR AGO". I have to reread the whole book, and the one thing I do remember is that I did not enjoy this piece very much. She takes too much time going off on tangents, speaking in ways that completely connect to only people from her time period, and she is always talking about being the daughter of an educated man and what that means to her. Oh, man, I cannot take it anymore!

(Image Information: Three Guineas. Source: Wikipedia)

I have also seen Hotel Rwanda before, but my teacher is making us rewatch it. For those of you who have not seen this movie, it is completely exhausting putting yourself through that much sadness. Hollywood sure knows how to pull at the heartstrings.

Last but not least, I had an event at Ulta in Norman yesterday! For anyone that has ever been to Ulta, you know it is this magical place full of makeup and skincare and fragrance and anything else that makes you feel beautiful. Well, yesterday I was a makeup artist for the makeup company, BareMinerals, and I did makeovers back to back for eight hours straight. The least I can say is I am exhausted. I did get some really nice lipgloss out of it though. :)

To anyone that ever wants to get a makeover done, come to Ulta! We are having some events with Murad, Urban Decay, and IT Cosmetics coming up soon! You can get your makeup or facial done by moi, personally.

Week 4 Review

My favorite item from this past week's announcements is.....

Punctuation Personalities

And it may or may not be because of Laura's excellent usage of the phrase "a dash of dash".

I feel like I am personally the comma with a mix of the ellipsis. I chose the ellipsis entirely because I absolutely love to use them... even if I don't use it correctly. I may be addicted. 

(Image Information: Punctuation Social Personalities. Source: Online Course Lady)

I included the image if anyone else wants to share what their personality punctuation symbol may be!

Google Timer Tech Tip

(Image Information: My biggest problem. Source: memeblender)

 I did not know that google could become a timer! That's so cool. I guess it makes sense because google can be used for literally A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G. Although I have never used google as a timer before now, I do use timers to help me stay on task. I will set a timer for five minutes to ensure that during my breaks in between readings for my classes I don't do exactly what the frog above is warning of. I also reward myself when I get through a session, sometimes with a cat video!

Week 4: Growth Mindset

(Image Information: Whose Line is it Anyways? Growth Mindset Style. Source: The Human Potential Project)

This week I have decided to write my growth mindset post about this meme. I have been saving this one in my bookmarks for a while now and thought now would be the time to talk about it. I have to say, I absolutely love the show, "Whose Line is it Anyways?" and I immediately connected with this meme the second I saw it. I had read the blog post that the image brought me to, and I have to say that I agree with a lot that the writer is trying to argue.

The United States' school system is set up in a way that is supposed to fuel children to become a bureaucrat, a military member, or something of the sort. This got me thinking. On more than one occasion, I have been told that your degree does not matter. That the biggest reason you are hired after college is because the employers see that you actually stuck with it. That in the end, you were able to sit there for hours and come and go as your teachers wanted you. However, we are also taught that grades matter. We are granted with scholarships and high praises at the sight of good grades, but at the same time I'm being told my hard work does not actually matter to those trying to hire me. Then, you have the students that may have a better sense of what to do in the job force, but because I may have a higher GPA in a field than they do (because they may be bad at taking tests, but, in fact, they are much more well-versed in the material than I) I may get the job over them. I believe that there is a problem with our school system, but also a problem with what we tell students their priorities should be.

Week 4: Reading Feedback

I chose to watch "Sita sings the Blues" for my assignment this week. I chose this piece because I actually had found this film about two weeks ago while I was doing some research. After reading a little bit about it and watching the trailer to the film (which is in my Curation post from Week 3), I was very excited to see this as a choice for the reading in week 4! I am very happy I went through with that choice.

I thought it was very refreshing being able to see how people who know the story by head understood the lessons and themes. There were moments in which the narrators pointed out things I never had even thought of. One example of this was their view on Ravana. They all had this understanding that he was actually in good moral character on everything except kidnapping Sita. He apparently prayed to all the right gods and was even said to be one of the most intelligent people in that time. However, from my point of view, I don't know who "the right gods to pray to" are or if Ravana had even prayed to them. 

I also enjoyed that they were not afraid to make fun of something so important to their culture. I really enjoyed the comic relief that they brought to the story. Not only was it fun to watch, but it also reinforced a lot of the storyline I may have been confused about. They basically went over every inch of the main plot so that anyone, even someone like me who does not have experience with ancient Indian Epics before this class, could understand. 

(Image Information: Nina reading the Ramayana with her cat. Source: Filmic-Literacy)

Week 4 Storytelling: Everybody loves Rama

Everybody Loves Rama: Season 1
Review by Heather McGuire

In the city of Adoyhya, a man named Rama lives with his wife, Sita, and their two sons, Kusha and Lava. Their family seems pretty normal until you include his mother and father into the story. Rama's father, Dasaratha, and his mother, Kausalya, along with all of Dasaratha's other wifes live right across the street from the couple. Rama has a brother named Bharata, who sees that Rama is the chosen one to rule Adoyhya one day. This day would have to wait, however (until season 2, actually). Bharata's mother, Kaikeyi, became jealous and made Dasaratha promise to ban his son to never leave his house, and, therefore, he would not be king. Rama decided to become a sports writer while he was locked away inside his house for 14 years.

In this TV series, Rama turns his sports writing hobby into a career and becomes one of the most famous writers of all time. Bharata realizes everyone loves him and becomes jealous just like his mother. Basically, he convinces his friend, Ravana, to steal Sita from Rama. Rama ends up getting Sita back at the end of the season, but when he does, his mother never believes that Sita was loyal and always brings it up at the worst moments. Rama and Sita constantly have marital disagreements because Sita believes his mother needs to give them space, while Rama is afraid to talk to his mother in that way.

Eventually, Rama has to send Sita away to appease his blabbering mother. By the end of the season, this family is so messed up. Dasaratha has died. Kausalya and the other wives are always spreading bad rumors about Sita. Rama is too little of a man to actually confront the women and save the woman he loves. And Bharata... he has his own personal problems, like always having to touch his food to his chin before he eats.

I would say that if you enjoy watching shows about majorly dysfunctional families and love listening to TV show laugh tracks, you will love this one. I personally, however, only got through the season because I knew at some point Sita and Rama would die and I would never have to watch it again.

Rating 2.3/5

(Image Information: Everybody Loves Ray(ma) Source: made in paint)

Bibliography:

Paley, Nina, Annette Hanshaw, Reena Shah, Sanjiv Jhaveri, Pooja Kumar, Debargo Sanyal, Aladdin            Ullah, Nitya Vidyasagar, Aseem Chhabra, Bhavana Nagulapally, Manish Acharya, Todd                      Michaelsen, and Vālmīki. Sita Sings the Blues. Jersey City, N.J.: Film Karavan, 2009.

Author's note: I chose to write this piece as a TV review critic for the show "Everybody loves Raymond". I got the idea because in the video, there was a moment when a group of women literally were singing "Everybody loves Rama" and it put the idea into my head. I took a risk with this one, and I'm not sure I completely like the way it came out, but at least I gave it a try! Any feedback would be appreciated. Also, yes, I actually really hate the show "Everybody Loves Raymond". 

Reading Diary B: Sita Sings the Blues

I really like that they had three different stories going at the same time. The narrative, the blues songs, and the story about the modern day couple. I actually got my idea for my storytelling this week from watching this second half of the movie. I was a little worried I would not be able to come up with another story because I had already wrote two about the Ramayana, but I'm really excited about this idea! It actually didn't even come from a story in the film, but rather a song that a group of women sang.
Also, I finally made the connection the girl in the story was the girl who actually made the film. I really enjoyed this film. I also liked how the narrators pointed out something I know most of us were thinking. Why would Sita still be so devoted to someone who has treated her so badly? He is willing to send away this girl that loves him more than anything just to appease the people in the city. Then he makes her prove her loyalty, not once, but twice! I am married, and I know "true love" but I am not sure I would even go through that much for a guy. It reminded me of the article I found on how Sita was supposed to represent the ideal woman.

(Image Information: Rama thinking Sita is contaminated. Source: Nina Paley)

Reading Diary A: Sita Sings the Blues

(Image Information: Sita Sings the Blues. Source: GStatic)

I chose to watch "Sita Sings the Blues" for my first reading assignment this week because of the fact that I actually found this film a couple of weeks ago and watched some parts of it and absolutely loved it! I was really excited to see this as an option this week.

Watching the video from beginning to end was entertaining. I enjoyed the way they had people that knew the stories from heart (or parts of the story, as you can see from the video they don't remember specifics very well). After they told the story, it would show an animated video of Sita's story to the tune of a blues song.

I think my favorite thing about this video is how the narrators seemed to be discussing the story with the viewer, almost as if I could chime in with my idea at any time. I also appreciated that the story was an overall view of the Ramayana, rather than a detailed reading. It was definitely refreshing after having to read each story one by one for the last few weeks. I would recommend this film to anyone watching to learn the basic story of the Ramayana. The readings I did before made this laid-back type of narrative more enjoyable because I already knew what to expect.