Tech Tip: Canvas Notifications

I have had Canvas Notifications since we switched to Canvas from D2L. My notifications were just a weekly report of what happened the previous week that comes in as an email. After reading this post I have added in notifications to remind me to do assignments for this class if I have missed them. This is very beneficial if you have a busy week. 

Wikipedia Trails: Buddha to Consciousness

I was reading the announcements and saw that Buddha means "awakened" which can be changed to stay woke so I decided to start my Wikipedia trail here haha. Buddha is the founder of Buddhism and is a sage.

I clicked on sage to find out that it is one who obtains wisdom which a philosopher wants. The article goes on to say that some philosophers are self-aware that they lack wisdom and pursue more wisdom.

I then clicked on self-awareness. Self-awareness is sometimes confused with consciousness, but it is not that. It is recognizing yourself as a human being separate from the environment and other humans.

I ended on consciousness which is the state of being aware. You are alive and know what is going on around you in the environment or to yourself.

Consciousness Wikipedia

Week 11 Story: Trippy Ducks

Once a year there is a festival on an island in the middle of the lake. The lake feeds into the river that travels down stream where a bunch of ducks like to gather and talk and gossip about all the passerby's. The day before the festival DJ ET was traveling north along the river. He was carrying a large backpack on his back and a folded up white table in his right hand. His apprentice was also carrying a backpack on his back as well as two large speakers in his hands. The ducks saw them walking and carrying a bunch of bulky objects.

"Why are you carrying such heavy objects along the river," one duck said to another so that the two man could hear.

One of the ducks remembered that there was a festival every year and said "oh that must be DJ ET heading to work for the festival. Can you come play for us instead?"

"I cannot," DJ ET said.

The apprentice whispers to the DJ ET, "I am kind of hungry maybe we can trick them and eat them for dinner."

"Okay my apprentice just told me that we can play for you and make it to the festival in time," DJ ET said.

The ducks swam out to the edge of the river waited for DJ ET and his apprentice to set up their systems. They played a couple of songs to get the ducks in the grove of things before telling them, "Now this next song is an EDM song, and before you dance you must take these pills. For they will make the song even better and you shall not tell anyone you took them." The apprentice scattered a bunch of the pills onto the dirt in front of the water.

The ducks started eating the pills and DJ ET started the song, and they began to dance like nobodies business. Enjoying the song so much, the did not notice the DJ's apprentice swimming up behind them and snatching around fifteen ducks.

One of the youngest ducks did not eat any of the pills because his mother told him to not take anything from strangers. He turned around and noticed a bunch of his friends were missing and cried out, "FLY FLY FLY, the DJ's apprentice is killing us."

The ducks that got away found their friends and told them what had happened. The ducks got a plan and headed to the festival.

The ducks arrived before the festival had started and began ripping apart the stage, leaving nothing a pile of rubbish. Making sure that the festival could not go on.

dj Setup Flickr

Author's Note: In the original story, the main character is an Old Man. He is walking along the river and tells the ducks he is going further. He does not specify where to. He is also carrying a pack that has all of his songs in it. He tells them the second song is a medicine song and that all the ducks have to keep their eyes closed. The little duck does not feel anyone next to him and opens his to see the Old Man plucking up all the ducks to eat later. He then warns the ducks and they all fly away.

In my retelling of the story I change the Old Man to DJ ET with his apprentice along side who is going to DJ at the yearly festival festival. He has his table setup with his computer and speakers. Instead of telling them to close their eyes, he has them eat some of his pills while he plays his EDM song. These cause the ducks to not know what is going on, giving his apprentice time to kill them to later eat them. The little duck was scared of the pills and did not take them and warned everyone else to fly away so they can get back at the DJ and his apprentice later.

Bibliography: The Red-Eyed Duck from Blackfeet Indian Stories by George Bird Grinnell (1915).

Reading Notes: The Red-Eyed Duck

In this story, the old man tricks the ducks into closing their eyes so he can kill them and eat them later. However, the twist in the plot is when the coyote comes around and eats all of his ducks and stuffs some of them with ashes. I think when retelling this story, I could change the old man to a young man and have him be a DJ rather than be a singer. This would had a more modern twist to the story.

DJ setup Flickr

Bibliography: The Red-Eyed Duck from Blackfeet Indian Stories by George Bird Grinnell (1915).

Reading Notes: Bluejay and His Companions

In this story, the Grouse is picked on and tormented a little by the Bluejay. The Bluejay's companions warn him not to do so, but he continually picks on the grouse and the Grouse does not say a word back. The Grouse is scheming and decides to crave a wooden seal for the Bluejay and his companions to skewer with a spear. The wooden seal was told to drag them as far away as possible. I think that in retelling this story I could change it to the perspective of the Grouse and have the Bluejay and his companions make it back to where they started and tell the Grouse what he caused them to go through.

Grouse Source

Bibliography: Bluejay and His Companions from Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson (1929).