My theme: something about books, something about poetry, and something about tech – QA in specific. And J is Jazzy: J is for Jungle Book, Jueju, Jira

“Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.”
– Greg Anderson

Entertainment Corner

J is Jazzy: J is for The Jungle Book

The Book:

Rudyard Kipling’s ‘The Jungle Book’ is a classic indeed. It was published in 1894 and has since been loved by kids and adults. This book includes many stories, and not just those of Mowgli. One of the other more well-known characters who appears in The Jungle Book is Rikki Tikki Tavi.

Mowgli’s story is one where animals are your best friends, constant companions, and even mortal enemies;  where characters are endearing(and not) and last long in memories after you are done reading it. There are intense moments – both heartwarming ones and

The (Big and Small) Screen Adaptations:

So I first watched the Disney animated version years (well, decades) ago and recall enjoying it. Baloo charmed his way into my heart then. Later came the Japanese animated TV series that was translated to Indian regional languages. This was a favorite for many of us and we waited eagerly for the weekly installment (thankfully and cleverly on Sunday mornings). Finally, I watched the live-action movie from Disney released in 2016 and it was a joy to watch as well.

I have written more about the book (interesting facts et al) and the screen adaptations in an earlier post which I am sure you will enjoy! So go ahead and read that while you are on my blog.

The Question: Book or Movie

I watched the Disney movie first and it made an impression. While the book and the movie have differences – Disneyfication of themes and other things? – I don’t know which one I would pick here. I love Rudyard Kipling and was wowed when I finally read the unabridged version not too long ago. And while there are vital things left out I wish they had included in the movie as well as changes made that they hadn’t, I did (and do) enjoy watching the movies and the TV series based on it.

So this is one where I enjoyed both the book and the movie – each one having it’s own redeeming qualities.

What about you, dear reader? Have you read the book, and/or watched any of the TV/movies based on it? Which one did you like better ? Vote below:
[yop_poll id="10"]

“Find joy in everything you choose to do. Every job, relationship, home… it’s your responsibility to love it, or change it. “
– Chuck Palahniuk

Poetry Corner

J is Jazzy: J is for Jueju

What is the Jueju?

The jueju is a poetic form from China, with origins maybe in the fifth or sixth century. It gained popularity in the seventh century; and authors at that time followed the concept of “seeing the big within the small”. So jueju poems were oftentimes about grand things, including (but not limited to) philosophy, religion, grand emotions, and nature’s grand landscapes. It is certainly one of the older known poetic forms.

How to write the Jueju?

Jueju poems are always quatrains; or, more specifically, a matched pair of couplets, with each line consisting of five or seven syllables. The five-syllable form is called wujue; and the seven-syllable form qijue (from Poetry Soup)

The jueju has a few rules and focuses on tonal meter

So, a jueju has:

• 4 lines written as a pair of couplets
• syllabic – 5 or 7 syllables in each line (with a causera before the last three); preferred use of single syllable words and avoid use of filler words(like a, an, the, and, …)
• rhyme scheme of either xaxa xaxa … or xaxa xbxb and so on …;or a variant rhyme scheme of aaxa aaxa…. or aaxa bbxb and so on
• the third line usually introduces a shift in the poem
• In addition, jueju written in Chinese also follows tonal patterns (kind of like stressed/unstressed syllables in sonnets) which can be found in the Wikipedia page on Jueju
• One additional level of difficulty (optional) is parallelism between the lines – check the link below for more information on the same

I found this excellent resource on writing a seven syllable jueju using the variant rhyme scheme mentioned above.

My example Jueju:

In creation… 🙂

QA Corner

J is Jazzy: J is for Jira

J stumped me as far as an actual QA term. For any of you QA tech nerds reading this post, let me know if there is anything that jumps at you 🙂

In the end, I decided to introduce Jira to you. JIRA is developed by the Australian Company Atlassian.  This is a flexible tool that is widely used now across organizations; and used to help teams with project management, issue tracking, and reporting. While it was built as tool for software development, it has since expanded and found its use across industries – including manufacturing, health, insurance, and more.

The process monitoring and issue tracking tools that JIRA provides fulfills needs across the board, so to speak, of industries and organizations. The flexibility it offers means it can work no matter how simple or complex your business process is.

There are many options available online to learn all about JIRA and how to use it. And I am continuing to learn more about it (while I have used it in the past for work, there is so much more to explore).

Interesting fact about the name (source: Wikipedia): The product name is a truncation of Gojira, the Japanese word for Godzilla, which is a reference to a competitor, Bugzilla. 🙂

Some additional reading resources:

• How do you explain JIRA?
• The Altassian website
• What is JIRA?
• JIRA: A Complete Guide for Beginners

Wrapping up the J post

“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh

What are your comments or questions about the J post? I would love to hear from you. Check out previous posts in this challenge using the links below.

Day 0 Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 

Day 8 Day 9 Day 10

Linking up to BlogChatter A to Z, A to Z Blogging Challenge, and the Ultimate Blogging Challenge

h/t: Wikipedia, Poetry Soup, Altassian Website, Lynda, and more