Wikipedia Trail from Gilgamesh to Fast Offerings

Starting Article: Epic of Gilgamesh
I started with this Wikipedia page because Gilgamesh was the topic of the recent video I watched as an extra reading option! I read that Gilgamesh was the king of Uruk; when listening to someone say Uruk, it's hard to be sure what the spelling is like. I only say this because it reminded me of Tolkien's uruks.

2nd Article: Garden of Eden
The wiki page I went to next was the one on the Garden of Eden. I was attracted to this because I had no clue there would be such a connection there. Apparently, Gilgamesh's epic has parallels with certain parts of the Bible. 

3rd Article: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
I next came to this wiki page, as Mormons have their own interpretation of similar events. They actually believe the garden to be in Jackson County, Missouri. I know, I was surprised to read that too.

4th Article: Fast Offering
This was my first time hearing of this phrase. Mormons will donate money to their church, called a fast offering, which is then distributed amongst those in need within the church. Initially, I thought this would have something to do with fasting, but it has nothing to do with it!

China has no official Latter-Day Saint presence! For such a populous country, I'm honestly surprised. Source

Extra Reading: Epic of Gilgamesh

For this week's extra reading I chose to watch the CrashCourse video on the Epic of Gilgamesh! I had heard of the name before but had no idea what his life story/epic would be about, the morals therein, and the reasons why it became a popular myth.

A new concept that I learned about with this video was the monomyth, or hero's journey. Being introduced to the parts of a typical hero's journey was a cool treat; none of the components of it were surprising or foreign to me. Learning that those components were collected together and called a single thing was great to hear. This definitely eases the burden of recalling all the parts of a hero's journey and gives us a cleaner way to allude to them all. For this alone, I'm already glad I watched this video.

However, monomyths were not the only thing covered in this video. The main purpose of the video was to summarize and present the ancient Epic of Gilgamesh. The main takeaway from this video, for me anyway, was ways that one can learn from mistakes and grow past perceived limitations. Therein lies what made Gilgamesh a hero, regardless of his inability to acquire immortality. As humans, we can choose how we perceive the things that are thrown at us. I'm a firm believer that what you make of the things that happen to you is much more important than the actual things that happen to you. This falls in line with the idea that you should grab life by the horns and make it your own. Like Gilgamesh, no matter what we lose or what obstacles we have to face, we must continue to press on and not sacrifice our own happiness. That's all we can really do. 

Apparently, there are parallels in Gilgamesh's epic and The Bible! I'm curious to see how similar some parts may be. Source

Bibliography:
CrashCourse, The Epic of Gilgamesh: Crash Course World Mythology #26, Source

Learning Challenge: Time

Overall, I'd have to admit that I'm approaching this course in a non-concrete way. I've recognized one of the factors that make me lazy and not want to get to work is the specific assignments that I don't like having to do. Because of this, I see myself putting things off and completely disregarding the pre-determined schedule that I set for the course. I always tell myself, "Oh, I'll have time later to make-up whatever I need to do. Or, wait, I could also do extra credit to make it up!" But, in using those excuses, I give myself so little time to do what I need to do. One step I wish to make is actively substituting extra credit assignments for whatever core assignment I don't feel like doing that week, and just altogether ignoring that less than favorable assignment. And, I don't say that to give the idea that I hate certain assignments or feel like I'm forced to do things I don't want to do. I just don't always feel like writing in-depth feedback for peers, while trying not to be overly-critical but still helpful, or writing stories just for the sake of writing stories. I love writing with intention, as inspiration fuels it. It's ultimately up to me bear down and get ish down, or change how I approach the course. Letting things get to me and thrash my time management is no bueno, so I have to do something about it. Hopefully, these changes will help me manage my time better for the remainder of the semester!

I wonder how much better we would be at time management if we knew exactly how many more hours, minutes, and seconds we had left on Earth. Source

Growth Mindset Challenge: Cats

Source

I chose this first growth mindset cat because there are always challenges in life wherever you go. In school, work, or at home, one of the key things humans have to learn how to do is adapt and overcome. This picture shows that no matter how big the challenge may seem (the bicycle wheel), there are steps and smaller milestones (the spokes) along the way that ultimately help you achieve and track your goal.

Source

I chose this one solely because it's goofier. It's often hard to accept failure and not let it get you down. This picture kind of helps us put failure into perspective and show how we can/should accept the truth of a situation no matter how different we may want it to be.

Tech Tip: Blogger Favicon

Setting up a favicon for this class was cool! I actually used a website to just draw my own using shaded cells. As you can see above, I used "LJ" because those are my initials, and those two colors because they are my favorite combo. Before exploring this website, I had a limited idea of what favicons are and where they're used. I just sorta thought they were an avatar or mini-icon to be used somewhere: on forums, websites, apps, etc.

Having set it up now on my blog, I love the small touch of personality I was able to give my blog. I hope to continue learning about nifty lil tricks like this in the future.

Reading Notes: Turtle and Thunder

There once was a turtle that was continually getting hit by something or some animal. Unsure of what it was, he decided to find a friend who would help defend him. 

He set out into the woods in search of someone that could help him. 

He yelled out, "Who will help me?"

Deer replied, but broke his horns on a tree when trying to prove his skill.

Turtle called out again. Bear replied but was very clumsy when asked to show his power in fighting a tree.

Turtle asked once more, "Who will help me?"

A collection of smaller voices said "We will!" Turtle went closer to the tree stump where it was coming from and saw that it was a gathering of turtles.

Turtle said, "You're the very people I am looking for."

Turtle brought them back to his home.

However, Turtle being unable to house all his little friends, he had to leave them outside. One day a big rock came rolling along in their area and killed Turtle's friends. 

Turtle ran outside to see who/what it was and heard from his neighbor that it was the Thunder Bird. 

Ever since that day, Turtle has stayed underwater when a thunderstorm was present.

I wonder how big our big turtle friend from this story was. Source

Bibliography: Katharine Berry Judson, Myths and Legends of British North America, Source