Burke Blog for Epics of India

In Part D of the reading, the story that attracted me most was Ashwatthaman's Jewel.   The reason for this was it would give me something in the D&D stories that I have been missing, something crucial to a good D&D campaign.  This missing element is a Big Bad Evil Guy (BBEG), and while Dee-yem is an antagonist, he is not actively evil or against the quintet, and this is the role Ashwatthaman can fill.  I went beyond the reading to find out more about him, because the idea he was almost immortal due to the gem in his head, as well as the continued legends until today, allow for a lot of artistic liberty with the character.  The story itself is somewhat vague on the hunt to retrieve the gem from his head, so that angle is something I would like to bring out more, because it would be an adventure/encouter for the hero's, direct conflict other than running from an overwhelming horde. Ashwatthaman, from  detechter Bibliography: Indian Myth and Legend ,  Donald A. M

This week, I saw the opportunity to take the D&D theme I have been building into an area without the usual battle, but maintaining the conflict.  This was with the Riddles at the Lake reading in the Mahabhrata.  Riddles are a classic DM tool to provide a new challenges to players, so I was thinking that instead of the brothers, the Quintet of Capriciousness could undertake this challenge, with an opportunity for a new character to shine under this challenge, along with some more character development for the one's who have not really been mentioned.  This setting change will require a slight change of riddles, to make it more D&D appropriate.  Other than this I do not have much in the way of takeaways from the reading, other than potentially replacing Darma with Dee-Yem, which could also make him seem more villian-y.   Oedipus and the Sphinx, from  Here be Dragons This image was inspired by the most famous of puzzles of all time, drawn in the traditional sort of D&a

Rejoicing after their long adventures, the five Pandava brothers threw a feast for their companions, the Quintet of Capriciousness, made up of Adalard, Uther, Luna, Dro'vahkin, and Ush-Goth.  Dee-Yem, god above all, decided that he was done looking out for the party this week, and sent the god Krishna instead as his ambassador to their rejoicing.  Rejoice with them he did, and as the fest went on he grew more confused as to why Dee-Yem was always complaining about the adventurer, because they were exceptionally fun to hang out with.  As they were eating and drinking, a cleric in tattered garments approached the revelers and asked for food.  With his deep insight, Uther recognized this man as more than a cleric, in fact, it was Agni, god of fire.  The brothers rushed to his side, asking what could be done to help him.  Agni explained that he had been weakened due to staying in his mortal form to long, and there was but one way to get his strength back.  Agni, god of fire, from 

The story I focused on for potential storytelling exercise this week was the Burning of the Forest as told by John Mandeville Macfie.  I liked this story because the opening, with the feasts, drinking, and games, presented a celebratory down time not really seen in any of the stories thus far.  This offers an opportunity to explore a new side of writing where it can focus on storytelling and fun rather than just war.  Also, the idea of a god consuming so much he weakened himself and needs the help of heroes to fix his situation is humorous, and something to work with for the Mythological DM portfolio.  This quest, and the way the characters agree to help, provided they get divine weapons, is the perfect opportunity to show some peacetime D&D situations.  Plus, the battle with Indra at the end of the story maintains the combat presence, providing an epic conclusion to the relatively short adventure.  Indra, King of Storms, from  Pinterest Bibliography: The Mahahbarata, A S

This week, the story that inspired me during reading was Drona' revenge.  The imagery of the battle, the description of the noises, the sights, give me something to work with in my own writing.  A heroid story centered on Drupada would be a great story, due to his heroic nature in the battle, as well as his resolve to quest for Brahmin power with which to defeat Drona.  This would give me a story of Drupada's quest, which I could not find anything in the reading to explain his actions further.  I will have to discuss if expanding a story rather than re-writing it is an acceptable storytelling assignment, and will go forward on that count accordingly.  Honestly, most of the notes I took away from this story were similar to my previous ones, and my goal is just to avoid making all my stories sound the same, while staying in a similar setting. Drupada insults Drona, from  Romapada Bibliography: Indian Myth and Legend, Donald Mackenzie,  Source

As the band of three adventurers, Rama the Ranger, Lakshmana the Fighter, and Sita the cleric pressed on through the forest, continuing on their quest, to where and what end only the god Dee-yem knew.  Their previous conquest, slaying the giant army, had angered a powerful giant named Ravana, who was a formidable opponent, with 10 heads and 20 arms, easily a challenge rating 20 opponent for a level 13 party.  To add to his power, he also was a formidable spellcaster, and casting illusion, turned a Rakshasa into a golden deer, and himself into an old priest.  The golden deer presented himself in front of the party, and the adventurers, certain this was Dee-yem's way of leading them to some magical items, sent Rama after it.  After a chase, he shot the deer, and the Rakshasa's dying breath was to call out, in Rama's voice, for the rest of the party.  Fearing the consequences of splitting the party, they rushed to the door, where an old priest was there, asking for a place to

In part 2 of this weeks reading, I mainly focused on the retelling of the story that I myself wrote about last week.  I was thinking about writing this story again, because I want to challenge myself to find a way to rewrite this story without repeating myself.  I found the different elements in this story, such as it taking place in a cave instead of a palace, a magician creating the head instead of Ravana, someone taking pity on Sita rather than her figuring our the illusion.  Furthermore, I could write the story more about the battle this time, the trees being torn up by the roots to use as clubs.  As previously noted, the "godlike" armor Wilson describes also could be a detail used to bring forth a D&D story.  The "deaths" of the heroes is another detail that would be amazing to write about.  Rama Slays Ravana, from  Ritsin Bibliography: Rama's Quest, Wilson,  Source

For my reading this week, I read Rama's Quest by Wilson.  The Ravana and Sita story I thought very interesting, because it could bring back another Dungeons and Dragon's story, due to its depiction of Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana as wanderers, Ravana as a giant, and the idea of kidnapping, magic, and rescues felt like the perfect tale.  Another interesting thing is that the focus on Ravana's thoughts in this story allow me to make a story potentially villain focused.  The 10 head and 20 arm description of Ravana also gives a great literary tool to play with, I have several ideas but nothing I am sure I want to use as of yet, and is mostly situational om whether I want a more epic or humorous story.  Rama with bow and Sita from  Flickr Bibliography: Rama's Quest, Wilson,  Source

This week, not much happened for fun, everything was focused on classwork, particularly in my graduate studies.  My capstone class had to have the aircraft for each sub team built, so that was a massive undertaking, and then had to build a final, completed prototype as well as write up a almost completed draft of the report.  My main portion of this project was the report writing, because it was something that I could do while completing all of my master's research and research assistant work out at the Advanced Dynamics Laboratory.  For research, we hit a massive ramp up in workload, as now we are moving to both the flight computer programming and control law portion as well as the actual physical construction of the octorotor.  This has taken up almost all my time, as I spent almost all of my week in the lab when I was not in class, and all of the weekend, so it was rather uneventful on any other front.  The only thing outside of this work I really did was go out for a early Va

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For this challenge, I talked to my girlfriend about growth mindset and what it entailed.  She had never heard of growth mindset specifically, but when we discussed the details,  it was similar to many concepts covered in her nursing program.  The one key difference is in nursing there is no learning from failure, the decisions you make are literally life or death, so she felt that taking lessons away and always being open to learning were good takeaways, but that the parts on failure had no place in your field.  Discussion, from  Pixabay

For this tech tip exercise I added the Gameday Weather sticker to the sidebar of my blog.  This means that when the weather forecast for an Oklahoma Sooners Football game is available it will be in the sidebar, so you can get a quick peak at gameday weather

It was an ominous day, one that was fated to be filled with war and bloodshed.  The day started with a pouring rain, but this was not water.  This rain was of blood, foreshadowing what would flow once more later that day.  As the army of bears and monkeys stood, howling and roaring across from the city walls, the earth shook from the din.  Inside Lanka, the city under siege, Ravana and his forces prepared for battle, while the captive Sita was filled with hope.  The news from the scouts suggested Ravana surrender his captive, but Ravana was filled with pride and refused to surrender, so he decided to attempt a different strategy. Rama and his Monkey Army, from  British Library In the meantime, a great phenomenon occurred, a circle of fire fell from the sky.  This appeared to be the provocation needed for war, as it sent Rama's army rushing towards the walls, and the din of the battle surpassed even the noise of earlier.  The battle raged on for several hours, with both sid

The story that inspired me for my storytelling exercise in this was the story Rama attacks.  The visuals in this story are amazing, the rain of blood, the fiery circle falling from the sun, etc.  This imagery provides a stunning canvas to paint my own tell, and attempt to make my own version even more epic.  The whole battle stories to tell with the siege and then the lies spread by Ravana give a psychological narrative as well.  The battle of psyches between Sita and Ravana gives another battle narrative, one that could become its own story.  I am not decided which of these two narrative I wold want to tell, but I do know all the groundwork that I need is there. Rama and Hanuman fighting Ravana, from  Wikimedia Bibliography: Myths of Hindus and Buddhists, Sister Nivedita,  Source

This week, the story that caught my attention for doing my weekly storytelling assignment was the story of Sampati and Jatayu. Ravana Cutting off Jatayu's Wing, from  Temple Purohit This story stood out due to the complex emotional themes of the brothers relationship, and the folly and pride of their race that led to Jatayu's death.  The image above is a different story, but one that I did further reading on and might consider finding a way to work into this tale in this week's storytelling.  I loved how the race itself could be given a deeper meaning or purpose, adding another dimension to the story.  Sampati's sacrifice could also be given a longer telling, and once again, the potential of fusing this story with the other version I read is tempting, having the brothers encounter Ravana on their adventure.  Overall, between this weeks reading and extra research, I feel confident in the amount of material at hand to work with.   Bibliography: The Iliad

Following up on last weeks happiness jar, I found that keeping a running tally of happiest moment made me really appreciate the moments as they occurred, rather than just reflecting about my happiest moments at the end of the day.  Several highlights of happiness included: completing my research project ahead of schedule, finally getting the capstone plane signed off of by the professor in charge, and getting to go on a date to Das Boot with my girlfriend.  This exercise made me realize just how many times throughout my day I am happy, which is many more times than I expected.  Positivity, from  Pursuit of Happiness

The first article I read this week was  Criticizing praise  by Alfie Kohn.  I found it interesting because of how it talks about how not to use praise as just a feedback reward for some task, but actually appropriately use praise.  I found this article to explain a lot of my own way of giving feedback, which tends to not be overly praise filled, but not heavily criticizing either, mostly just observations on patterns and trends.  Potentially, this article is telling me I should praise just slightly more, provided it does not go over into "effort praise."  The second article was  How to craft constructive feedback  by Jenn Gibbs.  This article talked heavily about being a neutral and balanced observer, pointing things out with really criticizing, offering the author a chance to explain their mistakes, as well as offering your own advice on what a potential fix could be.  This helps them get out of a potential jam they might be in by not really having a solution they can read