Week 4 Review

Cartoon by Dan Piraro

The above image was taken from Tuesday, February 9th daily announcement. I love puns, and I thought this one was clever.  It's an Egyptian version of a fun little spelling Rhyme. 

Fun fact, there are more rules in the English dictionary that are an exception to the rule 'I before E except after C' than words that actually follow it.  I wrote a program for a class once that counted how many words follow this rule, and how many don't.

Famous Last Words - Week 4

Reading
This week I read a story called 22 Goblins.  I liked the premise of the story, but I did not really care for the story itself. I was really excited about reading riddles, but I did not care for the riddles themselves.  I feel like I was not able to answer a lot of the riddles because I don't know the culture behind them.  I may have enjoyed the story more if I knew more about the culture.

Writing
This class is where I do my best writing, because it is the only class that I do much writing in. I was OK with the story that I wrote this week, but I feel like I have done better work on the past.  Next week I get another chance, and will write a story that I am more happy with.  I get to start actually writing for my storybook, which is exciting.

Other Classes
My other classes have been going well this semester.  I am taking two graduate classes as well as my senior capstone. I have also been going to work, so this semester has seemed really busy.  I've been learning about search algorithms for my Artificial intelligence class, and learning about how Turing machines work for a class called Computational Complexity.

Outside School 
I have been doing some reading for pleasure this semester, which is usually something I only make time for in the summer. It's nice doing 30 minutes of reading before going to bed.  It helps clear my mind, and it's been letting me get further in the Dresden Files.  Not familiar with the series? You should check it out.  Jim Butcher has created a lot of interesting characters in a fantasy setting.  The main character of the story is a Wizard detective.  It's really good.

Dresden Files Wikipedia Article

Growth Mindset : Talk about mindset - Week 4

This week I talked to a friend about growth mindset.  I asked him what he knew about the growth mindset.  He said that he's heard about it a few times on the radio, but that he did not know a lot about the growth mindset, and that he'd never talked about it in any of his classes.

I then went on to explain what I knew about growth mindset.  It's about valuing effort, work, progress rather than feeling good only if the final product meets expectations.  He said this what not really something he applied in his classes, but that he did feel good about an assignment if he tried his hardest, even if he didn't get the best grade.

Growth Mindset - Flickr

Learning Challenge: Find a favorite attention meme - Week 4

Art by Kamil Kotarba

As much as I love technology and what it has done for the world, it really hurts attention.  Technology is a resource, it's a great way to share thoughts, to communicate quickly, to look up facts, to find directions on a map and many more things.  But I think some people become to dependent on technology, let it be part of every aspect of their life.  It's scary when somebody cannot go 10 minutes without their phone without feeling naked.  We should use technology, and not let it control us. Our attention and awareness will improve if we take the time to exist in this word, instead of existing only in a virtual one.

Week 4 Storytelling : A Journey through Riddles

Author's Note:
I wanted to try a storytelling style to before I finalize my decision on my storybook.  This story is based off of Twenty-Two goblins, and it combines two storytelling styles, story from the villain's point of view, and a backstory. Arguably there are two villains in the story, one is a monk, and the other is a goblin who tells 22 different riddles to a King.  The king must give the answer if he knows it, otherwise his head will explode.

A Goblin from Warhammer

A Journey through Riddles

All goblins are born with power, and they must work to master it.  The mechanics of the power is easy, every time a goblin tells a riddle, the person hearing the riddle has three option:  Give an incorrect answer that they believe is correct, give a correct answer that they know is correct, or give a an incorrect answer even though they know the correct one.  Each action has a different consequence.  If the listener does not know the correct answer, nothing will happen, if the listener gives the correct answer, the goblin will be able to escape.  And lastly, if the listener gives the wrong answer when they know the right one, their head will explode into one million pieces. 

Our story begins with a young goblin Gob, who was just been sent out into the world.  He left the small hold in the ground, and started to journey the world, hunting different riddles that he could use.  Gob planned to seek out all different kinds of riddle, easy ones, hard ones, riddles from Japan, South African, Norway, India, and many many more.  Many goblins only looked for the easy riddles, because the faster somebody was able to guess the answer to one of the riddles, the faster the goblin would need to go free.  Gob was different, and wanted to be prepared for all circumstances.

Gob traveled the world for many years, and found all sorts of riddles on his travels.  Once, he even though riddles inside of a church.  He went into the cathedral and witnessed a wedding taking place.  The seats were all full, and a man and women clasped hands by the alter.  He explored the area, and finally came upon two men gossiping outside the church.  "A man married twenty women in his village but isn't charged with polygamy, how is this possible" Asked one.  The second puzzled and though over this riddle but would not find the answer.  Gob though to himself, why this is easy, I just saw a priest marry one women, how hard could it be to marry twenty happy couples?

Gob stopped in an urban area.  The familiar there raised livestock and farmed the land.  Gob walked into one of the farm houses and saw a farmer milking a cow.  Gob requested a riddle, so the farmer though for a long time.  Finally the farmer said, "A box without hinges, key, or lid, Yet golden treasure inside is hid.  What am I?" This riddle stumped Gob at first, but then a chicken within the barn squawked and Gob had an idea. It was an egg!  A chicken egg!

Finally Gob traveled to India, full of rich culture and beautiful colors.  He went to talk to some of the wealthier people of the land.  They valued delicacy and virtue.  When he asked for a riddle, they told him a story.  A king had three very delicate wifes.  He took the first to a beautiful pond.  While they were there, a lotus-petal fell in the queens lap, and the wait of it injured her.  While she was healing, the king was in bed with his second wife.  The moon shone through the window, and burned her.  While the second wife was healing, the king went for a quite peaceful walk with his third wife.  In the distance, the queen could here the sound of pestles grinding grain and it bruised her ears.  These are the three delicate wives of the king. Which is the most delicate? Gob knew the answer right away, the queen who is damaged by only sound is the more delicate than a queen damaged by physical touch.

Gob had found a country whose riddles he enjoyed more than any other.  Not only did the people tell riddles, the people also told stories to go with the riddles.  Gob went around, gathering 22 more riddles from India.  Each of them had simple stories, so Gob elaborated on the stories, deciding that a riddle is not nearly as good as a riddle and a tale.
 

Bibliography: 
Twenty-Two Goblins, Arthur Ryder's translation of the Sanskrit Vetālapañcaviṃśati.
Second riddle taken from The Hobbit, by JRR Tolkien, 1937

Week 4 Reading Diary, continued: Twenty-Two Goblins

Part 2 of my notes about Twenty-Two Goblins, Arthur Ryder's translation of the Sanskrit Vetālapañcaviṃśati.

Shiva, by Arumugam Manivelu

The Snake's Poison

• "The Brahman who died because Poison from a Snake in the Claws of a Hawk fell into a Dish of Food given him by a Charitable Woman. Who is to blame for his death?"
• The beautiful lost wife has nothing to do with the riddle, the story could have worked without this section
• I think the snake murdered the Brahman, but the riddle answered that the man who ate the food was at fault for his own death. 

The Girl and the Thief

• "The Girl who showed Great Devotion to the Thief. Did he weep or laugh?"
• These riddles have a lot of story behind them, there may be a final question, but the stories are more than that, and for this particular story, I don't think the answer effects the stories outcome. 

The General's Wife

• "The King who died for Love of his General's Wife; the General follows him in Death. Which is the more worthy?"
• I am noticing a theme with these stories, all of the women are extremely beautiful, and they don't seem to have many other qualities.  All of the stories focus on virtue, beauty, and marriage.

The Four Brothers

• "The Four Brothers who brought a Dead Lion to Life. Which is to blame when he kills them all?"
• What are the odds that all four brothers find skills that work with each other, it takes all four brothers to create the lion. 
• This was one of the easier riddles in my opinion, the final step to creating the lion was the one that mattered the most, since otherwise the lion could not hurt people. 

The Old Hermit

• "The Old Hermit who exchanged his Body for that of the Dead Boy. Why did he weep and dance?"
• This question is similar to the girl and the thief, instead of weeping and dancing, the old hermit weeps and dances.  Life is full of bittersweet events, which is essentially what the answer to both riddles was.

Father and Son, Daughter and Mother

• "The Father and Son who married Daughter and Mother. What relation were their children?"
• I am curious to know the answer to this question, since it was not given in the story.
• It takes a lot of patience to answer 22 riddles and retrieve the body, now I find it ironic that patience is the name of the monk, and not the king. 

Conclusion

•  I did not really care for the ending to this story, it was abrupt and weird. How did the Monk get so many fruits filled with jewels?  Why did he wait 12 whole years to ask the king a favor, and who was the goblin?  Why was the goblin in the tree in the first place? I might create a answer for one of these questions in the next story that I write.

Week 4 Reading Diary: Twenty-Two Goblins

This week I chose to read Twenty-Two Goblins, Arthur Ryder's translation of the Sanskrit Vetālapañcaviṃśati.

 

Winding Tree from Flickr

Introduction

• Patience is a very fitting name for the monk.  He waited 12 years, giving fruit to the king every day, before he finally made a request.
• Unlike this other reading, this culture is not one I am familiar with, I am guessing part of their mythology includes goblins living in dead bodies, which is why the king automatically knew what was in the body.

The Three Lovers

• "The Three Lovers who brought the Dead Girl to Life.  Whose wife should she be?"
• One thing that is really fun about riddle stories and mysteries, is that the reader gets to try to figure out the answer before the story reveals it. 

Brave, Wise, Clever

• "The Brave Man, the Wise Man, and the Clever Man. To which should the girl be given?"
•  Before hearing the ending of the story, I would guess the wise man, because nobody would have known where the daughter went without this information, and other braver and clever men could have been found and sent to rescue her.

The Girl, Her Husband and Her Brother

• "The Girl who transposed the Heads of her Husband and Brother. Which combination of head and body is her husband?"
•  I was pleased to get this riddle right.  I guessed that the husband's head with the brother's body is the husband, because the mind is what determines who a person is.

Food, Women, Cotton

• "The Specialist in Food, the Specialist in Women, and the Specialist in Cotton. Which is the cleverest?"
•  I feel like this story would have a funny twist if the turtle wondered away the the three brothers were arguing. 
• I feel like the brothers are being praised and rewarded for being picky. 
• I noticed that none of the brothers are specialists in animals, so technically, any of the brothers could carry the turtle.

The Four Suitors

• "The Four Scientific Suitors. To which should the girl be given?"
•  As the story progresses, I tent to compare the current riddle to previous ones to try to figure out the answer.  Because the soldier one before, i will guess the solder again. 
• I managed to guess correctly, which means the riddles are consistent within each other.

The Three Delicate Wives

• "The Three Delicate Wives of King Virtue-banner. Which is the most delicate?"
• Although this in an interesting riddle, I have no idea how anybody would be so delicate, or why anybody would want to be so delicate. 
• I am guessing the third wife is the most delicate, because a curtain can hide the moon, and the first wife doesn't have to sit under a lotus tree, but it is hard to escape sound. 

Tech Tip: Alphabetizing Numbers

As everybody in this class knows, we are required to label all of our blog posts with the corresponding week number. You may notice that the label widget shows all the labels in alphabetical order, which is very useful.  It uses the first character of the listed word and sorts them, then uses the second, third letter, etc. for tie breakers.  Well duh, that's how alphabetizing works, you may be wondering why I am telling your this.

Notice that it does the Exact same thing for numbers:

Week 1
Week 2
Week 3

Which is also fine, until you start getting into double digits.

Week 1
Week 10
Week 11
---
Week 15
Week 2
Week 3

1, 2, 3 ... 15 are not being processes as numbers, instead the characters themselves are being compared. Since the 1 is the fifth (or sixth if you count the space) character, it will compare the character '1' to the character '2', see that 1 comes first, and not look at the rest of the word. This causes Week 10 to come before Week

The quickest and easiest way to fix this is by adjusting your numbers.  Use Week 01 and Week 02 as your labels.  Then every week that starts with a 0, will come before every week that starts with a 1 in the digit, displaying as follows.  (Note, this will work for up to 99 numbers, which is more than plenty for this class).

Week 01
Week 02
Week 02
---
Week 09
Week 10
Week 11

Did I go into to much details?  I have no idea how familiar you guys are with stuff like this, so I tried to format this post in such a way that even people without any technology background can understand why the labels won't sort correctly. I will answer any questions in the comments, and feel free to drop random tech questions.

Enjoy the nerdy glasses from Pixabay