Indian Epics Fall 2019

Okay, so I did another typing test. I know it was only a few weeks ago that I did the first one, but not only am i typing lie crazy in this class, I am also typing like crazy at work. We recently have been having to enter hundreds of labels into a database. These tubes do not have actual words on them, rather they have random letters and a date on them that have to be entered correctly. It is not very fun to be typing at a computer for 5 hours at a time, but at least I am getting paid. This is why I decided to redo the tests to see if I have increased in my typing speed. I did not. I was literally the exact same on both websites and the exact same as last time basically. What always trips me up on the typing tests is that I feel the pressure and whenever I mess up I have to go back and fix it without continuing on. I know that a lot of time you can just fix it all after, but I hate seeing those red lines as I type so they need to be taken care of right away. I still think I type well...

Siddhartha (the first Buddha) had grown up a prince and was sheltered from the real world for most of his early life. He was even married before getting the explore the world outside of the palace he lived in. One day, The prince wanted to go into the city and see how the people outside of the palace lived. What he did not know is that the king ordered all of the old, sick, poor, and weak people to be taken out of the city. This was done so that the prince would not see the bad things that occurred in the world. While the prince was riding his chariot through the city he was struck with happiness at all of the youth that he saw. The people and buildings were so young and happy. He continued to ride through the city until he saw and old man come out from around the corner. The chariot stopped and the prince saw the old man. He was confused at first by the lack of youthfulness in the man. He asked his adviser if this was normal and he replied that everyone awaits the same fate of old...

For this week I decided to read more abut Buddha because I still have not come to the point where he becomes the actual Buddha. This week was interesting because it started off with Siddhartha going away on a pilgrimage away from home to learn the teachings of peace basically. However, when he gets there, he realizes that the man who is teaching him may not know what he is talking about. I was a bit confused by this because the teachings seemed like what I know Buddha for. Subjecting yourself to harsh treatments, but still being able to survive and be calm throughout them. Siddhartha did not agree with these teachings and decided to leave to start his own teachings with meditation. Eventually he came across the Tree of Knowledge and started to meditate there. This caught the eye of the King of Evil, Mara. Mara started to become afraid that he would not be more powerful than the Buddha if he continued to gain wisdom from the tree. The way Mara is described is almost like a beast, but ...

Siddhartha (the first Buddha) had grown up a prince and was sheltered from the real world for most of his early life. He was even married before getting the explore the world outside of the palace that he lived in. One day, The prince wanted to go into the city and see how the people around the palace lived. What he did not know, is that the king ordered all of the old, sick, poor, and weak people to be taken out of the city. This was done so that the prince would not see the bad things in the world.  While the prince was riding his chariot through the city he was struck with happiness at all of the youth that he saw in the people and buildings. He continued to ride through the city until he saw and old man come out from around the corner. The chariot stopped and the prince saw the old man. He was confused at first at the lack of youthfulness. He asked his adviser if this was normal and he replied that everyone awaits this same fate. The prince fell sad and returned the palace....

For the second half of the reading, I finally got to see the prince in a new light. The man who I thought was Buddha (and still was Buddha) gave me insight that the Buddha was not born without the normal thoughts/temptations of man. I have always made the comparison between Buddha and Jesus, thinking that he was always without the thoughts normal people have. This section of the reading really gave me a new view on who the Buddha is/was. At first when they were speaking of the three men who came to see him while he was going through the city, I was convinced that he was going to treat them with compassion and have something wise to say about it, but rather it was the opposite. He became sad with each new person that he saw. This is just like many children when they first experience these things. The difference between a child and the prince is that the prince was so sheltered that he was not exposed to sadness or the real world until after he got married. This made me mad at first an...

For this weeks reading I decided to read about Buddha. While it is not a traditional "epic", it makes me wonder how the story of the birth of Buddha was. My favorite part of "The Life of Buddha" was the birth of Siddhartha. The stories here are written in old English and it translates hard to read. It would be cool to write a story in this manner, but that would take me way too long and I do not think my audience would enjoy it that much. The birth of Siddhartha was very interesting to read. For some reason I thought Buddha would have been born in the winter under the light of one candle. What I read was the complete opposite. I envisioned a warm summers day with greenery surrounding a large house. Everything was so bright and vibrant. The reading even mentioned there were peacocks. The husband and wife were very interesting too. Their dynamics were like it was almost a business to birth the Buddha. At the same time it seemed like they both loved the child more th...

A family of five stand in the long line at the Mexico/US border trying to get through. The mother asks the father if he has the correct paperwork needed to cross through. They believe there will be no issue as they are only seeking refuge in the states. With anticipation they wait. Longer and longer as the sun beats down overhead. Finally, after about six hours waiting, their turn comes. The border patrol asks for their paperwork. He stares at it for a long time as if trying to find something wrong with it. Eventually he hands it back to them and tells them to pass. The children start to get excited, but the mother tells them to calm down. They are not in the clear until the border is no longer in sight. As they begin the cross the bridge by foot, they are stopped by another patrol. He tells them to come over for a random inspection. The father does not know what they are going to inspect. All they have are the clothes on their backs. The officer searches each one of them, even t...

The two sites I tried were KeyHero.com and Typing.com. I was a lot better on KeyHero at 54 wpm and 47 wpm on typing.com. I have never considered myself a fast typer, so I never know how good I should be. I also have really fat fingers, and I think that causes me to make a lot more mistakes than people that don't have sausage links as fingers. One thing that people always tell me is that I type very loudly too. I always get made fun of by my friends for always typing so loud and distracting them. I have tried to type more quietly but I do not feel like my point is getting across as well as I want to. It also goes back to the whole sausage fingers thing. They are too heavy that every keyboard they hit has a ton of course behind them. In middle school we had to take a typing class for 9 weeks. We would always get a document that we had to type and also some games to play on a software for typing. I do not remember much about it other than we always got to do our own thing whenever w...

For the second half of my reading, I read more Jataka tales from the same book as before. This is one of my favorite collections of Jataka tales so far. The first story that I really enjoyed was the Great Elephant. It brought together sadness, a great message, and a happy ending. I mention sadness because that is something that is not seen very much in Jatakas, but this one was particularly emotional. Elephants are known to be noble animals and seeing one be so distraught over the safety of man hit a heart string with me. Because I have seen elephants in real life and even bathed them, I have a close connections with them. These men were not bad men either. They were trying to escape a terrible leader. This story also parallels modern issues. There are often immigrants that travel to try and find safe refuge from their country, but many do not make it on the way. Thinking abut someone who is willing to risk their life for people to be able to reach safety is something that could go rea...

Reading Jatakas is one of my favorite things to do in this class because they are such easy reads and they remind me of all the stories that I would hear as a child. One of the stories that I read today that stuck out to me was "The Empty Lake." there was nothing of significance as far as people surprising or out of the ordinary, but I loved how it took personification to the next level. It gave things such as wind, rain, and thunder life and I pictured them in my head that way. When Mother Earth's came down to drink the water away, I actually pictured Mother Earth as a human, coming and drinking the water from the lake. When Queen Rain began to fill back up the lake with King Thunder, I saw both of them working together to try and refill the lake. If I were to write a full story with this as my source material, I would try an elaborate on the King Fish. They did not give him as much insight to him as they did the other characters. I dislike when a character is made a s...

A few months had passed since the Jackal/Lion cub was made fun of for using his voice. Many had forgotten as he had fell into the background during the games and activities that he went to. He still had the body of a lion and that was enough to stop others from continuing to make fun of him. The worst part about not using his voice is that the cub was terrified to pursue his true dream: to sing. One day the cub was running errands for his father (the lion). He had some food strapped on his back that he was carrying home and was getting bored on the long walk back home. Then, a thought popped into his head. He looked around and saw that no one was there, so he began to sing. What many do not know about a jackal's voice is that they have the most beautiful singing voice. It had been so long since the cub had been able to use his voice that is was a little hoarse, but shortly it became a lovely clear tune that his mother (the jackal) used to sing for him when he was little. Every ...