Week 10 Reading: Divine Beings

Reading: Divine Beings: Airavata, Jatayu, Nandi and Others, Amar Chitra Katha

The hellhounds that I used in my storybook are apparently called Shyama and Sabala aka dusk and dawn. The second story in this collection told their origin. I didn't expect this it was pretty cool. Apparently the Asuras built their own version of the Tower of Babel.  Indra struck it down and turned the two strongest Asuras into Yama's guard dogs.

Maybe I could make the Asuras overrun heaven for my storybook. That could make for a heck of a climax.

The last two stories are about Airavata, the last flying elephant (Yeah, apparently they used to fly. What's next pigs? haha.), and the last story is of the aftermath of Narasimha killing Hiranyakashapu. That second one is a straight up Kaiju battle.This one would have gone very poorly if Vishnu hadn't looked around and noticed the destruction, like if he was blinded or something...

Giant monster battle between Shiva(left) and Vishnu(right)
Taken from Divine Beings

This little graphic novel was really good from coming up with some subplots for storybook. There was a lot of good stuff.

Tech Tip: OUCreate Website

For this tech tip, I wanted to briefly go over the process for creating an OUCreate site and some of the benefits.

OUCreate sites are really useful for more advanced users. The content management system on the back-end gives the user almost complete control of the website. You can do FTP, build your site from scratch, or upload a CMS stack like WordPress. You can even do things like create emails, connect aliases, and build a database. Basically, if you'd want to do it as a web developer, you probably can.

All that being said, most beginners won't really need most of what OUCreate offers. However, even if you don't really need it. The basic version is completely free, and it's pretty simple to set up a blog site. I'll go over the process for creating a new site below.


To get started visit: http://create.ou.edu/

You'll come to a login page. Enter your OU 4x4 and password to login.

OUCreate Login Prompt

Next, the site will ask you to choose either a subdomain or custom domain. Domains cost $12/year (a pretty good deal), but subdomains are free. If you're not sure, choose a subdomain. You can always add on a custom domain later. To continue, enter your domain name and continue through the menu agreeing to any prompts that come up.

That's it! You now have own little section of the internet to do whatever you want with. You'll be emailed shortly with login info for the default admin account. Make sure you keep that stored somewhere safely; it's really important.

From now on, you can access the back-end for the website by logging in through create.ou.edu. Upon login you'll be brought to a page like this:

OUCreate Content Management System

For most of the stuff in here. If you need to use it, you'll probably know how. But, I'll go over some of the important stuff:

The Files Section -- This is where you can manually edit the file structure of your site. If you're creating your site from scratch, this is a really useful section.

The Web Apps Sections -- Click this link to go to a list of apps that can be auto-installed. Some big ones include WordPress, Known, and Drupal.

The Domains Sections -- This is where you can go to add new domains like I mentioned earlier.

That's a pretty brief intro to OUCreate. The rest of the interface is pretty intuitive, and I definitely recommend exploring the various sections. If you're having trouble, you can always check out the documentation linked under "Support" at the top of the page.

Week 9 Reading, continued: Divine Beings

Reading: Divine Beings: Airavata, Jatayu, Nandi and Others, Amar Chitra Katha

The story of Jatayu and Sampati was pretty close to the one I read previously, but there a couple of subtle differences. The first thing I noticed is that the vultures are give a humanoid appearance. I had been used to picturing them just as large birds, but I think this depiction make them a little easier to feel for.

Depiction of Jatayu and Sampati
Source: Divine Beings, Amar Chitra Katha

The relationship between Jatayu and Dasaratha was a little different than what I had pictured. It was a very isolated event in this story, but I had always pictured them going to war alonside each other. Also, Shani Dev is an interesting character. I'll have to look into him.

I think Nandi is very cool character. He reminds me a lot of Nachiketa, at least early in life. I think the story of he and Shiva drinking poison from Halahala to save the world might be good for my storybook. I like the imagery of Halahala as a multi-headed snake. He could make for a good villain. Likewise, I didn't realize that he was the one who cursed Ravana to die by the hands of monkeys. Since he and Jatayu both have something to hate Ravana for, it might make some good conflict for my story.

Week 9 Reading Diary: Nachiketa

Reading: Nachiketa: A Collection Of Stories From The Upanishads, Amar Chitra Katha (Volume 702)

I enjoyed the minimalistic style of these stories. Each story is quite short, but it never feels too short. They did a really good job of conveying the needed information clearly, and they left out anything that didn't serve the story.

The story of Nachiketa learning about the Hindu life cycle was a little unexpected. There were Brahmin in the story who didn't believe in the concept of the self going beyond the body (or enlightenment). This is really weird since it's one of the core concepts of Hinduism. There wasn't too much context around it (There might be more in the original Upanishads.) I'm guessing it's sort of an origin story for the concept which might be cool to do my own spin on.

Yama greeting Nachiketa
Edited by me (Original)

The portrayal of Yama in this comic is a lot like the one in my storybook. He looks almost exactly like the Asuras in the last story, but he has a kinder face and attitude. He is also with his water buffalo. I'll have to look into that creature. It might be useful for my storybook.

The last two stories dealt with concepts important to living a satisfied life. The second talks about being truthful and seeing the presence of god all around us, and the last details the three cardinal virtures, self-control, charity, and compassion. I think these might be good themes for my stories.

Tech Tip: SoundCloud Embedded

Just doing a quick tech tip with SoundCloud here. I haven't messed with the website much prior to this, but it's pretty cool. I'll have to look into it some more after this.

I was looking through the tracks thinking of what I wanted to post, and I thought of this song. I think it's very fitting at this time of year.

This one's for Bowie.

Reading Plans

Ok, so I started looking through the readings for the rest of the class, and there are a lot of options. That said, I think I found the next thing I want to read:

Cox's Tales of Ancient India

As I was going through the options, I thought that it would be cool to read a little more about Krishna, but I also felt like I didn't know too much about the Hindu gods. Low and behold, I found both, in one book. So, I think I'll start with this. I think it will help fill in the gaps of my Hindu knowledge and might give me direction on where I'd like to go next.


I'd also like to read some more of the graphic novels in Bizzel. I really enjoyed the story of Ravana,and I'd like to see more in the same vain. Besides, I'm a sucker for good art. Here's some of the ones I'm looking at:

Ramayan 3392 - They had me at SciFi, enough said. Apparently it's post-apocalyptic. Wait, I have a picture for this:

Hokuto no Kenshin "poem"
Source

Divine Beings - I don't know a whole lot about these characters, and I think they may be a useful supporting cast for my storybook.

Krishna - Krishna's an interesting character who is hard to nail down, and I think a more modern take on him might help.

Lastly, I wasn't able to find anything really focusing on Yama but I'd like to read a story or two about him to help me visualize him as a character. I think I'll look around and see if I can find anything out there, but for now, I think I've got enough options to move forward.

Blog Ideas: Theming

Here are links to some interesting blogs I found while looking through the class sites:
http://jasminepyeo.blogspot.com/
http://honeyandhenna.blogspot.com/
http://lexiconoflore.blogspot.com/

 After looking through several of the blogs, I have to say one feature stood out to me the most. It was good theming.   Jasmine, Dijon, and Lore all did a great job of give their website a cohesive nature.  That's something I'd like to work on for my blog. It definitely needs a face lift. I haven't done much with it since the start of the semester. I mean, it's just too orange, but I haven't decided on a color yet. Maybe red, or green. Green might be good. Anyways, I'll have to contemplate it, but I think I'll try to do some updating this week and give my blog a theme more in line with myself.