Carlo Williams

The first topic I wanted to search on Wikipedia was Durvasa . He is a sage that casts curses on people, while also sometimes rarely giving people blessings. He is known for being ill tempered and he was a major reason why the churning of the ocean needed to be done. Then from Durvasa I clicked on the Samudra manthan . This is an episode that involves the churning of the ocean found within the Mahabharata Bhavagata Purana. It is interesting that this is found in several different sources and how the telling of the story may be a little different in each source. From there I clicked on Mount Mandara . Mount Mandara was actually used as the churning rod by the gods and demons to churn the ocean. Lastly, I clicked on the Mandar Parvat , which is a small mountain within the district of Bihar. Supposedly, this may have been Mount Mandara that was used to churn the ocean.                                 ...

The first picture I wanted to comment on was my DIY graphic Professor Gibbs shared on the class blog today! Pugs are one of my favorite dog breeds so I thought the pug in the swimming pool was cute. I do need to take my own advice and chill. Many times I just want to rush through things, but I need to just chill and enjoy the time I do have.                                                                         This time I found my creation on the Canvas blog homepage. I also watched the video called "Why is English Spelling so Weird? " It is interesting learning about how various words became what they are today in our modern day English language. I was always so confused as to way we never pronounced the "l" in salmon even though I do. I love that English is my first language, but I can imagine it i...

Week 7 is almost over! Time has been flying by fast. The semester is almost halfway over, which is very scary to think about. Can time slow down a little bit and the semester last longer. I am not ready to adult yet. I still have no idea what I am doing with my life. Well I have an idea, but I still feel like I am so far away from achieving my goal. I was thinking about what I wanted to write for my famous last words this week. I am hear just listening to music, thinking about what I want to write about. One word came to mind and it was endurance. We are constantly enduring challenges throughout our lives whether it be emotionally or physically. Mine this week happened to be physical. As I was getting ready for work Wednesday morning I left my apartment at 7:30am. However, the apartment complex did not put the salt over the ice. My dumb self slipped walking down over the first step and landed on my butt. I basically bounced down each step. I tried grabbing on to the railing, but the ...

One day there was a quite an ill tempered sage by the name of Durvaasa. He was traveling one day when he noticed a divine woman who happened to be wearing a garland of flower. He thought the woman was beautiful, yet he thought the garland of flowers were even more beautiful. Thus, he asked the divine beauty for the flowers. She hesitantly gave Sage Durvaasa the flowers, for if she said no to the Sage's request he may have cursed her. Durvaasa left happily with his garland. The god Indra then came down to earth on his elephant named. Airaavat. Durvaasa payed his respect to Indra by giving him the garland. Indra then put the garland on his elephants head. Airaavat then shook the garland off his head and smashed it with his huge feet. This made Durvaasa extremely upset, for he had a bad temper. Durvaasa then cursed Indra because he believed Indra had insulted his gift, so he cursed Indra taking away all the luxuries, strength, and powers of the gods which then caused chaos on Earth....

Within the Vishnu Purana found on Hindu online, it describes an important event: the churning of the ocean. A sage by the name of Durvaasa was given a garland by a divine beauty; therefore, when he saw Indra riding his elephant, Durvaasa wanted to give Indra the garland. However, when he gave Indra the garland, Indra put it on his elephant, Airaavat, who ended up smashing the garland. This angered Durvassa and then he cursed Indra causing all Indra's treasure to be destroyed. Since Indra's luxuries were lost the earth began to change and people became more greedy and virtues were lost. The demons also saw the opportunity to attack heaven, driving the gods out. However, Lord Vishnu found a way for the gods to regain their splendor which involved the churning of the sea. The gods worked with the demons to churn the sea. They churned the sea using Mandaraachal Mountain, and wen thte mountain began to sink, Lord Vishnu became a tortoise holding the mountain. Poison emerged during t...

The article in the New York Times website, " I Wish My Teacher Knew " was a sad but hopeful read to me. It is sad to see the challenges many students face that many times other students do not notice and teachers do not see. Utilizing this may open a teacher's eyes to the various struggles many kids face today. In addition, this can be a way to have a classroom be a space for students to open up to their teachers about problems they face within home and maybe various problems students face can be addressed.                                                                                      A random I wish my teacher knew. Source: New York Times

I watched the video, " Learning with Passion and Enthusiasm ." The video explained that there is a link between learning and being excited. Being excited makes it easier for children to learn, so there is a correlation between having dopamine released and being excited which then makes it easier to learn. That may be a reason children can learn new things easily such as languages because they are excited to learn. I was looking online about dopamine levels and I was thinking maybe always having more dopamine would be good for us (obviously not). Too much dopamine can cause problems such as aggression and euphoria. There must be a balance of dopamine within our system.                                                                               An image reminding us to let our minds grow. S...

I installed the Google Art Project extension and I find it amazing. As soon as I pull up my Google Chrome Browser a piece of art pops up covering the entire background. The artwork of John Peter Russel called, "Madame Sisley on the banks of the Loing at More". I love seeing different works of art and I want to go to museums more often. This is a great (and educational) tool to have. This is the picture that popped up for me. Source: ArtGallery

I am reading the conclusion of Narayan's Mahabharata. Duryodhana is being hard-headed and refuses to have peace among his brothers even though Yudhisthira is offering peace to him. When I was reading that, I felt at that moment that would be the downfall of Duryodhana. I also thought the scene between Karna and Arjuna was really interesting. When Karna's chariot wheel was stuck due to Krishna I was like Arjuna has the chance to kill him, yet Arjuna for a moment held back. It was no until Krishna told Arjuna to finish off Karna, that Arjuna killed him. Karna's death was also quite gruesome when his head was cut off. It was sad to see that a lot of the Pandava family that I became familiar with began dying towards the end of the story, but I am glad that the line continued under Abhimanyu's child.                                                      ...

Reading the Part C of Narayan's, "The Mahabharata" was interesting. It has been a few days since I have read Part A and B, so I had to go refresh myself on the various characters because the names can get confusing at times. I found it heroic of the Pandavas to free Duyodhana from captivity, even though he Duryodhana conspires to eliminate his competition. Another part of the reading that stood out to me involved the lake. When I was reading and saw that Nakula randomly died I was surprised. Then I saw one by one all the brothers were dying. I was like there was no way this is the end of the Pandavas, that would be a sad way to die. However, of course Yudhisthira was intelligent and answered all the questions, and all the brothers were revived. If only that could happen today, it would be nice to get revived. One thing that surprised me was the rape of Draupadi. I do not understand why Yudhisthira did not do anything to avenge Draupadi, Bhima was the one to avenge her.  ...