The Prince and His Friends

Recently, I've started back up my World Lit Survey. It's been a few months-- but they were not uneventful! My beautiful daughter Julianna was born on January 22, 2012. She's been a wonderful baby. I couldn't have asked for better. But of course I was still distracted by the novelty of motherhood, so I took some time off from my "school." I'm happy to have gotten back into it though, even if the pace is slow. 

I'm in the middle of reading "The Prince" by Niccolo Machiavelli.

Philosophical debate: "Your Christians are so unlike your Christ..."

I put this together yesterday afternoon and posted it on Facebook. This is an imaginary conversation between a stereotypical mainline conservative Christian and Jesus of Nazareth. I specifically used words of Jesus and not just general Bible verses. Even though I am an agnostic-borderline-atheist, and I do not believe in Jesus as my savior, I found myself asking if I would agree with only the words of Jesus if they were somehow taken apart from the rest of the Bible (in which there are several passages to which I am morally opposed) and just focused on the "Letters in Red."  I began a project based on this idea several years ago, but quickly found that unfortunately I do not agree with EVERYTHING Jesus says. Would have been nice. But he does say a lot of fantastic things, and even as a non religious person, I don't believe in throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Quick Update, and Happy Holidays

Well, I apologize (to myself, I guess, since I doubt anyone else really cares if I do my schoolwork or not!) that I have not been keeping up with my literature course.

Slow Going, and What is Consciousness?

I'm having trouble with my World Literature Survey. I've established the problem, and it is not doing the reading or the homework itself. In fact, some of the assignments and lectures have been quite enjoyable. The problem is finding everything I need: the reading material itself, a lecture, and a study guide/study questions. It is quite time consuming, and if I continue going at the rate I'm going now, it will take me almost 7 more months to finish this literature class! (My goal is to finish by January)

So I have an idea... 

The Epic of Gilgamesh- Summary Essay

History
The Epic of Gilgamesh is an ancient Mesopotamian poem, and is most notably one of the oldest known works of literature. The poem exists in its earliest form as several separate Sumerian legends dating around 2000 B.C.E, which were later combined into a great Akkadian epic inscribed on twelve tablets, thought to be dated around 1800-1700 B.C.E.  The Epic of Gilgamesh was discovered in 1853 C.E., and is a widely celebrated work of literature today.

The Epic of Gilgamesh- Lecture

Thank you to Mr. David Chadd who posted some informative and entertaining lectures about the Epic of Gilgamesh on vimeo. There was no contact information for Mr. Chadd, so unfortunately I was not able to thank him for sharing his knowledge. But it was exactly what I needed to complement my at-home study.

Vote on my Next Course!

It seems apparent to me now that I should only try to complete one course at a time. Perhaps at an accelerated pace if I can, but certainly not get overwhelmed with an entire semester's load of courses at once. I would ideally like to complete an entire semester's worth of courses in the same amount of time. Just doing them one (or possibly two) at a time. If I do it slower, so be it. It's not a race. I'm just here to learn the material and apply it to my life.