Legendary Myths

Article 1: The Trouble with "Amazing": Giving Praise that Matters I now understand why praise needs to be carefully thought-out and communicated. Most people give praise just so that it shows support for someone else. Most people also like to be praised as it shows that other people support what they're doing. However, not all praise matters. People could praise you for winning a Nobel Prize, but they didn't congratulate you on your tireless years of research. Praising the effort that someone puts in is far more important than praising a result as it demonstrates that a person is capable of achieving such tasks and willing to put in the time and effort. The effort that people put forth should be praised because it has reaped them a reward; the reward is simply a consequence of their efforts. Praising someone's effort can also shift their mindset towards a growth mindset, enabling them to put forth effort in various avenues that they would otherwise avoid altoget...

Story #1: Vietnamese Dragon Many legends in Vietnam revolve around the mystical dragon creature. Statues of dragons can be found by temples and palaces. The legend speaks of how the king of dragonkind married a goddess who was the daughter of the birdkind king. The legend tells of how 100 eggs were hatched from which bore 100 sons, who ruled over various dynasties throughout the history of Vietnam. I plan to retell the legend from the perspective from one of the kings who were born from the 100 eggs and ruled over Vietnam. I think it'll be a interesting twist to the ancient legend. Vietnamese Dragon Roof Decoration - Courtesy of Waymarking Story #2: Thánh Gióng This folktale stems from rural Vietnamese legends about a boy named Gióng who was born to a poor mother who desperately wanted to bear a child. At three years of age, he was still unable to talk, smile, or walk. However, due to impending attacks from the invaders, the King send out messengers to call his subjects...

Story 1 || 25 words: An Indian saved a young hawk, whose feathers provided flight. The arrow adorned with the feather of the hawk flies straight and meets its mark. Story 2 || 100 words: A baby hawk fell from his nest, too young and helpless to fly. The hawk would surely would have been eaten if it were not for a young Indian boy who found him. The young boy raised the hawk until he could fly, yet the hawk stayed with him. The young boy made arrows that could not steer straight and faltered in the breeze. The clever hawk drew his own feather and adorned it to the arrow, which now flew as straight as the hawk. The villagers gave a great shout, as now their arrows flew straight through the air. Red-Shouldered Hawk - Courtesy of eBird Author's Note: For this set of microfictions, I wanted to experiment with different levels of detail for my stories. I adopted a story that the Caddo people told of how a baby hawk was rescued by a little boy, and now gave his feather so th...

Once upon a time, there was a King of Oklahoma who had a beautiful daughter named Teresa. So beautiful was this maiden there was not a lad in the entire state of Oklahoma whom did not wish to hold her hand in marriage. Alas, the great King of Oklahoma made all the men swear an oath. An oath they all swore to be good friends with the maiden's suitor. An oath they all swore to protect the maiden at all costs, else she be stolen away from her suitor. The fair maiden Teresa chose a suitor whose name was Boomer, brother of Sooner, who reigned over the province of Norman. Years later, the maiden's father passed away, and her husband now became the new King of Oklahoma. All was well with their marriage until a young man came along into the province. His name was Pete, and ruled over the province of Stillwater. Overwhelmed by the Queen Teresa's beauty, Pete carried her off in the night, back towards his home of Stillwater. Overcome with rage, Boomer and Sooner traveled throug...

For the second part of this week's reading, I chose to focus primarily on the continuation of the Rousing of Achilles. I appreciated the story's exploration of the grief and remorse felt by Achilles for his friend. As the slain body of Patronclus lies in the ground, the Trojans and Greeks continue to fight over the body. The Trojans fail to carry away the body, and the Greeks fail to save it. The Greek chiefs, desperate to save the body of Patronclus of an honorable burial, sent a messenger to inform Achilles of the unfortunate fate of his dearly beloved friend. Achilles, struck with sadness and overwhelming grief, threw himself on the ground. He was devastated, for he had sent his beloved friend into battle. His own anger and repose for King Agamemnon had clouted his will to fight. As such, his friend has perished and his body lay stiff and lifeless on the battlefield with both sides fighting over the spoils. Feeling his immense emotional outburst, Achilles' mother c...

For this week's reading that I opted to do over The Iliad, I was most interested about short story of The Quarrel. In the quest of the Greeks to besiege the city of Troy, they took the city of Chrysé and captured the women of the men. The Greeks had taken the priest's daughter as the spoils for Agamemnon. Still, the priest, desperate for his daughter's safe return, ventured into the Greek camp to offer gold and riches for his daughter's return. Agamemnon, content with his reap of the rewards, reject's the priest's offerings. The priest prays to Apollo for aid; Apollo then takes out his anger on the Greek encampment. Following the onslaught, Agamemnon is angered as Calchas the prophet undermines his superiority by advising the safe return of the priest's daughter to appease Apollo. At this point the plot starts to escalate with Achilles taking the side of Calchas, protecting him from Agamemnon at all costs. Agamemnon, fit with rage and greed, lashes out a...

For my Pomodoro experiment, I used my phone to set a timer for 25 minutes. When my timer rang as I was working through my readings for my Leadership and Management class, I took a short break to relax. I spent some time browsing social media on my phone, answering texts, and watching some interesting YouTube videos. Although, perhaps I spent too much time taking a break from studying. Often, I found myself distracted away from studying for 20-30 minute long intervals. Maybe I should set a timer for my breaks too. Overall, I found that these timekeeping strategy helped me focus more on my readings and actually capture more of the detail and context that the author intended. The Pomodoro definitely helped me keep my attention during my readings. Although, I found myself looking at the timer often to see how much time was remaining until my next break. It was definitely an effective strategy to help me focus and be more productive. However, I would probably hide my phone somewhere so that...

For this post, I used the following article: Why Understanding These Four Types of Mistakes Can Help Us Learn This article confirmed that mistakes are a natural consequence of learning. I already knew from prior experiences with working on vehicles that I was bound to make mistakes at first, especially since I had little to no knowledge in the beginning. My Principles of Engineering Design class also discussed how people are bound to make mistakes, but they can learn from their mistakes and continue to grow and develop. This article also taught me that not all mistakes are created equal. Some mistakes, such as sloppy mistakes or high-stakes mistakes, are undesirable because of how the outcomes could be negatively impacted. On the other hand, stretch mistakes and aha-moment mistakes can be leveraged in order to learn from that particular experience and act as a learning exercise. I am now curious to explore stretch mistakes since they will be an indication that I am challenging myse...

I was having some issues with logging into Canvas at the beginning of this semester as courses were being published and made available for students to view. For one of my courses, PowerPoint presentations are posted online as notes for upcoming lectures for students to easily follow along as the professor is teaching the course material. However, I was having issues with my browser, Safari, not being able to load the PowerPoint presentations within Canvas. Following the Browser Troubleshooting Tech Tip, I was able to change some preferences for the blocker I use with my browser to allow Canvas to load PowerPoint presentations. This was especially helpful since I did not need to close or reset my browser, potentially losing all of my open tabs. By checking the blockers first, I was able to solve my problem without needing to reboot my computer, logging out and back in, or using a different browser altogether! I was able to save all of my work and quickly solve my issue!