Feedback Thoughts

The article titled "10 Reasons Why Failure is Important" caught my attention right off the bat. Perhaps I was enticed to read this article because I felt like there would be a list (which I happen to like) or maybe because it had an easy to read graphic that was informative. The overall message of this post was that it is OK to fail because failing means that you tried, that you're human, and that you can learn from your failures to become better. Even before this class I tried to keep that mentality in mind if I failed at something or if I messed something up and I would do what we call in the military an AAR (after action review) on myself to examine my weak points and strong points so that I can change and become better. I think that more people should use the mindset of failing is OK as long as they are striving to become better and not shrugging it off while being complacent.
Source: Why Failure is Important 
The next article I read was "Make Good Art: Neil Gaiman's Advice on the Creative Life, adapted by Design Legend Chip Kidd". In this article Neila Gaiman's message was that failure was not the end of the world, contrary to popular belief. Essentially making mistakes is a good thing because you are broadening your horizons and trying new things. He also states that if you're scared to do something then you should do it which meant a lot to me. Often times I get so caught up in my fear that I try to talk myself out of doing something, I have to remind myself that to fear something is good because it can help you grow. We will never know how fruitful an opportunity is if we don't take it because we are letting fear hold us back.. and that can be one of the biggest mistakes we can make.
Source: brainpickings 

Image info: Success and Failure:Flickr

Topic Brainstorm

I think a candidate for my storybook will be Hindu deities. Deities hold a special place in many cultures and can be the driving force when it comes to peoples' actions. Fortunately this topic is fairly broad so I will be able to do some serious research into it and learn plenty along the way!


A second topic that I'm interested to learn more about is yoga. I would like to think of myself as a yogi but I'm not quite there yet, though I do enjoy the practice. Yoga would be a great topic to write my storybook about because it could give me an opportunity to grow my practice. In addition to growing my practice I think learning about the history and traditions of yoga would be interesting.


A third topic that I hold very near and dear to my heart is travel! I think to learn about traveling India would be amazing and could give me a chance to plan my next trip even! I probably would also include traveling to temples and include some back stories and information on religious holidays. Another topic I could discuss in the traveling storybook is animal species and habitats because I believe ecotourism can be beneficial for broadening peoples' understandings of the local ecosystems and how the local people rely and interact with them.


The last topic I may use is Hindu creation stories. I think this would be a good topic for the storybook since we all have that question "how did we get here?" that we want answered. Creation stories are the way people try to answer that and many of them are very interesting to me. I'm always a sucker for a good creation story as they typically involve lots of gods and goddesses battling it out.

photo info: Battle of Lanka

Week 2 Story: She's a Maneater

Once upon a time in a far, distant land there was a city full of demonic shape shifting women who liked to prey on and eat men. The city that these shape shifters lived in was only inhabited by these women and their beloved cats, and elephants, and monkeys. Often the women would grow lonely and so they would deploy their monkeys to search for lost men who were traveling alone. Once these lonely souls were found the monkeys would lure the men back to this city where the women would pretend to be distressed. These men felt for the women and would often offer to marry the women to assist in home and city life.

Little did these men know that these shape shifting demonic women would soon grow tired of them. Once the men were of no use or annoying to the women they were as good as dead because the women would imprison them and eat them, ALIVE!

One fateful and stormy morning the women deployed their monkeys to search for new men since they were growing bored with their current ones. Being good little monkeys that they were they were able to find a ship full of sailors who looked like prime eating. The skilled monkeys caused the ship to wreck and informed the women of the wreck. Once on land the men were greeted by these beautiful demonic women who lured them back to their city with promises of riches, food, shelter, and lots of babies. 

Arriving in the city the men saw an affluent and booming city that had been completely created by the women with shape shifting skills. The men married the women and they lived happily ever after. 

(Continue reading past the image)

                                          Picture information: Ravi Varma. wikimedia

But they did not. 

The women knew that they still had their former husbands imprisoned and that they needed to eat them so one night they got together and did so. One of the husband's woke up while his wife was out with the others. To this day it's not sure why he awoke, though it's believed that the cat jumped on him and woke him up. The faithful husband realized that his wife was not there but heard her come through the door and pretended to be asleep. As he lay there he couldn't help but notice that she had a human head in her hands and that she was EATING the brains like spaghetti. She then returned to bed. 

The next day the man approached his men and told them of the ordeal. Naturally not all of them believed him but there were those who did. The men who did helped plot an escape. 

One night at dusk the men got together and did a chant to summon a fairy and her magical horse. The chant was successful and the magical fairy horse appeared for the men to jump on and escape. All of the believers were able to fit on this horse and they flew off to return home. The non believers however, were not so fortunate for they were eaten that night by their lovely wives. 

Authors Note: 

The story has been altered from Twenty Jataka Tales and The Goblin Town

Bibliography. "The Goblin Town" from Twenty Jatake Tales by Noor Inayat (Khan). Web source.

Reading Notes: Jatakas Goblin City

This story revolves around an ancient goblin city full of women goblins only. The only way for these lady goblins to marry was to take hold of travelers in a forced marriage, once tired of these husbands they would eat them in order to dispose of them and move on.
One unfortunate day there was a ship wreck near the goblin city and so the lady goblins enticed the sailors (who were all men) to come to the city with food and clothing. The lady goblins recognized that the men may be afraid since there were no other beings living within the city so they opted to use their magic in order to make shapes of men doing activities.
The rue worked and they were able to persuade the men to stay by telling the sailors that their previous husbands were dead at sea.. though they were actually imprisoned and waiting to be eaten by the lady goblins.
One night the lady goblins snuck off to the prison where their "lost at sea husbands" were and proceeded to eat them. Flesh and all. That same night one of the lady goblins meat eating habits were exposed to her husband due to some light insomnia. While the new husband lay awake and pretended to sleep the lady goblin came back to the bedroom but not before finishing her meal and saying "Man's meat, man's meat, that's what goblins like to eat".. the gig was up.
The following day the news spread but naturally some people did not believe him. Fortunately there were those who did and they all plotted an escape route. It was their lucky day as there was a fairy who hated the goblins and wanted to save the men. She deployed her horse to rescue the men and return them to their homes. That same night the goblins ate the men who remained.
Source: Goblin Story

Picture source: Kali, wikipedia

Reading Options

While looking through the reading options for this semester I noticed several titles that caught my attention. One of them being "Rama and the Monkeys" mostly due to the fact that the word "monkeys" is in the title and I once was an aspiring Indiana Jones primatologist type. In addition to the story being about monkeys I also noticed that it is a creation story which I tend to find interesting. The second story that caught my attention was "Hunaman and the Mountain" which seems like it will be a good strong story where the main character must overcome obstacles. Last but not least I think I'm going to check out the story titled "The Rainy Season" because life revolves around rain and every culture has a good flood story. 

                                                (Picture information: Vali dying, Wikimedia)

Time Strategies

One of my strong points is procrastination and sometimes I even procrastinate to procrastinate. I often feel that I work better under pressure and sometimes that is true because I have no choice BUT to focus, but other times that hasn't worked out to my advantage and I've received either zeros or a low grade. The post The Psychology of Checklists definitely caught my attention being that I may be slightly obsessed with checklists but sometimes I even procrastinate to write one out or I end up losing it and having to start over. I have found that making and using a list to organize and get thoughts down on paper has proven to be beneficial with my day to day life as well as academic life. As a grade A procrastinator I naturally decided to check out Four Questions to Help you Overcome Procrastination which had some good pointers that I try to use and will continue to work on using in the future. Time management is one of the issues that most if not all people tend to run into so knowing my weakness and how to change it is something that I definitely need to work on.

Photo Information: Flickr

Technology in the New Age

Prior to taking this class I hadn't really put much thought into using online technology let alone a blog and actually tended to avoid it. Since diving into this class a bit deeper I am finding that this blogging thing is kind of fun and that the class assignments no longer feel like a tedious chores. During this assignment I have been introduced to more web pages that I definitely look forward to, one being the cat meme generator (I love cats). Overall I look forward to learning more about web pages and technology that I can use in the future and will try to not run and hide from it as it continues to develop and progress.

                                                         Picture Information: flickr

Assignments or Fun or Both?

To be frank, not that I have anything against being Nicole but more that I would like to be straightforward, I am looking forward to this class structure and setup. Prior to this class I have never had the privilege of taking a class that is setup like this one but I am super excited. One of the things that I am most looking forward to about this class is the ability to use creativity in my writings and the freedom to express myself through words rather than research, numbers, and statistics. I am also looking forward to reading other students' blogs to see their style of writing and their creativity as they express themselves in their online work. Additionally, I look forward to developing my own class schedule to complete my work, although this will take a week or two to get used to. In my other classes that I am taking this semester we are not giving extra credit work so I am looking forward to taking advantage of the opportunities in here to either gain extra points or to skip over assignments that I may not be as interested in as another. Of the extra credit options I plan on taking a look at each on at least once this semester in order to gain more insight about what they are and I can use them in my day to day life. Overall, I am looking forward to this class and this semester!

                                                  Image Credit: ISU Creative Writing Program

My Growth Mindset

While I like the concept of “not yet” I do feel as though there would be some downsides for me personally. For instance, if I knew that I could slack off and receive a grade of “not yet” then I may not attempt to apply myself and reach my full capabilities. Say I did graduate high school and went on to college but had that mindset of “not yet”, will I actually apply myself in a highly competitive college and work world? Unfortunately the work world doesn’t believe in the “not yet” mindset and if you are not able to achieve what you need to succeed in a timely manner than you run the risk of being let go for somebody who can. Although I do find some of the above mentioned as issues, I do feel like there is some good in this mindset. On a personal level I do have the mindset of “not yet” in some of the things that I do, though not always academic nor work related. If I don’t first succeed at something I don’t get down on myself but rather reassess the situation, look at ways to learn or improve myself and return to whatever it is that I was working on. More recently an example of something that I’m working at using this mindset for, though previously to this assignment I was unaware that it was a mindset that had been well studied, is post op knee surgery, physical therapy, and recovery. I have to remind myself that I am not a failure because I am unable to reach the range of motion that I had originally planned and worked for but that I just am “not yet” at that point in my recovery but with work and patience it will come. I suppose that while I do have some issues with this mindset in academics and in the workforce that it is not necessarily a bad mindset to have if you are able to know when to use it rather than slacking and taking advantage of it. The image below is something that I do try to strive for and I can see how the growth mindset could assist in accomplishing this.

Source: growth mindset meme blog

An Introduction to a Pizza and Travel Fiend

Contraire to popular belief I am not in fact a pizza fiend but rather a seafood and travel fiend. My taste for seafood is very broad and because of that people believe that I travel to eat. Though I do eat my weight in seafood while traveling, seafood is not the sole nor even main reason for my adventures. The need for exploration is what fuels me but seafood food in general happens to just be an added bonus. As much as I love traveling and seafood, these 2 things do not comprise all of my likes and interests.


Nature, animals, life, creation, science, glaciers, corals, earth, Antarctica, cheese, mountains, cats football, reusable water bottles (I LOVE WATER SO MUCH), sleep, camping, cultures, hiking, documentaries, conservation, running half marathons, and Olympic weight lifting are just a few of the other things that bring joy to my life. In fact, nature, cultures, and conservation fascinate me so much that I have decided to pursue a degree and eventually a career in those fields. In order to do so I originally wanted to get my degree in Environmental Sustainability but due to my work schedule I was unable to pursue that particular degree program. Luckily I was able to apply and be accepted into the Multidisciplinary Studies Program where I am using my previous credits in Anthropology (my first major) as well as take courses dealing with the environment. I get the best of both worlds with this program!
After I graduate (fingers crossed for spring 2019) I plan on moving to Canada where my boyfriend currently lives. There I will continue my education and pursue a position with either a government organization or with a NGO, maybe even try my hand at the Peace Corp and apply.


So I suppose I can discuss a little bit about my past and a bit about where I am now.. I'm originally from Oklahoma City and my mom has actually lived in the same house my entire life. I went to Bishop McGuinness for high school and the basic training for the Oklahoma National Guard after graduation. When I completed military training I started my college career and life in Stillwater at OSU (sorry, I happen to be an OSU fan). I eventually made my way back to OKC where I worked full time for my National Guard unit until we were deployed to Afghanistan in 2011-2012. During my deployment I decided that I wanted to be an anthropologist after working with some of the local women and children in surrounding villages. Upon arriving back home I took a short hiatus from school but eventually enrolled in the Anthropology program before taking another hiatus to work and adult. Currently I work full time at Tinker and am taking classes full time with the hopes of graduation in the spring!


Speaking of work, I should probably get back to it! Thanks for stopping by and I look forward to chitchatting with you all in the future!


P.S. Below is a picture taken in July while flying to Seattle, where I happened to eat a ton of seafood!

                      (Image Information: personal photo of Mt. Rainer; photo from July 2018)

Storybook Favorites

                                                                   Image Information:

      Indra taking on Vritra in snake form. Source: Pinterest

Who doesn't love a good god of thunder? They often seem to be some of the major players in mythology and for this reason the storybook Indra vs. Thor and Zeus caught my eye. In this storybook you will find not only one god of thunder but three! One is Indra from Indian mythology, another is Thor who we see in Norse mythology and the last one is Zeus who appears often and prominently in Greek mythology. Like many powerful gods they don't see eye to eye and there is a lot of struggle for dominance. The storybook goes further into how Indra came to be and the struggle between the three for dominance of domain. The author does a good job of keeping the reader's attention, or at least my attention. Easily able to transition from one topic to another with a good flow also makes reading the storybook easy and enjoyable.

Image Information:

Vasai Fort Rains. Source: Wikipedia

Green things in images always catch my eyes and for that reason along with the title The Temple of Doom, I decided to dive a bit deeper into the storybook written by Madison Beneda-Bender. The introduction page was well put together with an interactive cloudy background and pictures of lush vegetation overtaking buildings that seem to be ruins. The images in the forefront are interactive links which take you to stories within her story books. The various stories are well written are easy to read. Overall this storybook easily grabbed by attention and kept it throughout the entire storybook.

Image Information:

Shiva. Source: Flickr

Since I was a kid I have always loved origin stories, whether they be scientific or mythological so when I saw the title Shiva the Destroyer: Origin of Ganga I was instantly intrigued. The layout of the storybook was easy to maneuver and fairly simple with links to take you to different chapters within the storybook. Within the first chapter we are introduced to James along with the brief explanation at the bottom of the page of who he will never be. Like the first chapter the storybook has some excerpts and asides that are both humorous and informational for the readers to understand how James is fairing.

One of my Favorite Places





(Image Information: personal photo of Lake Louise; photo from May 2018)

Lake Louise
Web Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/marilynjane/4777156161

Lake Louise is one of the most picturesque places that I have had the pleasure of visiting. I took this photo in May and as we were exploring around there were sheets of ice breaking free from frozen waterfalls and tumbling down towards crowds of people.

Número uno post

Once upon a time there was a lady who created a test post on a blog.
The end.