Hw 36 and Hw 38

your going to see the podcasst in class

Hw 35. letter to blog readers

Dear blog readers,
Over the last 13 weeks I have learned several things from maintaining my blog and completing my homework assignments. I have learned to express myself in any way I would like. The blog is my opinion, you can agree or disagree. I have learned that a blog is truer than any other source of writing. Bloggers are normal people just like you and me voicing their own opinions. I hope that people will get an understanding of who I am and what I believe from reading my blogs in the future. Since I have started writing blogs I am most proud of how my writing has improved. When this class is over I think that I will continue blogging on topics that really interest me. I will save my posts to look back on my first blogging experiences. At this point I would like to tell you that taking a blogging class has opened my eyes to a new world of writing for me. Writing is no longer papers you are forced to write. It is a way for people of all kinds to voice their voices and opinions in our world.
alex

Hw 34. Gold and Palm Trees in Iraq

The role that gold plays in family’s savings in Iraq is that it is a very important part of their culture and has been since 1990. This started when the Iraqi Dinar began fluctuating. Many of the people started to convert their money into gold such as jewelry. People took their money out of the bank and converted it into gold before the war and bought “zeeneh” what women called gold instead. This is good because gold people can wear gold as jewelry to show off but can always be sold when in need for extra money. When Iraqis couples get married than man gives the women a dowry usually containing gold jewelry. When a baby is born the gifts are usually gold trinkets so the parents can sell. As you can see gold is a very important to Iraqi people Riverbend planned went over this phrase in her head in case the troops came to her house. “Take the money, gold and gun, leave the computer”. (p100) Dhuluaya a area near Sammara, north of Baghdad. This area is famous for their date palm, citrus trees, and grape vines. Many people in this area make their living by caring for these orchards. These trees are the pride and joy of many Iraqi land owners. These trees are very handy in the winter. They are used for birds and other animals to stay in. the leaves of the trees are used to make baskets and furniture. The palm trees are also used to provide shade for the citrus trees. “Historically, palm trees have represented the rugged, stoic beauty of Iraq and its people”.( p103-105)

hw 33. children go to work.

The title of my episode is “Iraqi teens work to help their families” by alive in Baghdad. It was published 10/15/07 you can find this episode here: http://aliveinbaghdad.org/2007/10/15/iraqi-teens-work-to-help-their-families/ this episode generally discussed how young teens need to go to work in Iraq to help their families survive. Hussein Kamal appears in the episode. He is 15 and helps his dad at work everyday in the carpentry business. Life is hard for them. he now has to work from home because the have tried to shut them down so many times. The background consisted of where they worked which was usually outside working on furniture. They begged for people to stop encouraging terrorism and bombing in Iraq because they have suffered enough. The viewers may learn how hard it is for Iraqi children in today’s world. I find how sad this pod cast is most remunerable, that Hussein has to work his whole youth away just to survive.

HW. 32 KBR

KBR stands for Kellogg, brown and root, a subsidiary of Halliburton. It was founded in 1919. to the oil and gas industries it was the second largest provider. Halliburton bought the Houston based brown in 1962. They then bought the dresser industries in 1998 which led to the petroleum company in 1988. Dick Chaney served as the CEO until 2000. He left only to run for office. Chaney has over 33 million in stock and sold it under public pressure for 30 million. $709,320 of Halliburtons money went to political contributions and 95% of the money went to republicans. There are also many scandals that took place. A federal bankruptcy court gave Halliburton more time to review the 30,000 dollars in clams. Halliburton inherited the claims. KBR also has a record of overcharging taxpayers and was sued for 6 million. There were many contracts in Iraq one being to put out oil fires and to help pump and distribute oil, another being work related to operation Iraqi freedom, another to get rid of chemical weapons in the region the last to feels and house U.S troops in Iraq.

Riverbend, Baghdad Burning. New York 2005 .78

Hw. 31 the Al-Amriyah shelter bombing

The event that I choose to do more research on that Riverbend mentioned in Baghdad Burning was the Al-Amriyah shelter bombing. Riverbend mentions that the bombing of the shelter occurred on February 13, 1991. The shelter was a populated residential area in Baghdad are. She explains how the first bomb drilled through the heart of the shelter and the second exploded inside killing many women and children. Many family members frantically went from dead body to dead body looking for their loved ones. (Baghdad Burning, 46) I think this is so sad that these people trusted the shelter to live in during these hard times. These people were yearning for safety. They certainly did not get it here. When I researched more on the bombing of Al- Amriyah I found out that it killed more than 408 civilians and that the U.S. government claims that the attack was based on signals and human intelligence reports suggesting the bunker was a military command site. I also found out the United States was responsible for this bombing and their failure to warn them that this bombing was coming was a huge broken law of war. At 4:30 am the morning of Febuary13,1991 two F-117 stealth bombers each dropped a 2,000 pound, laser-guided, GBU-27 munition on the shelter. The shelter still stands today as a memorial to those who died. Umm Greyda,is a woman who lost eight children in the bombing who has now moved into the shelter to help create a memorial. She now serves as its primary guide.

Hw. 30 2nd Syposium

The symposium on Tom Lantos U.S representative and holocaust survivor was very interesting to me. The holocaust itself is a topic that I am very fascinated with, and for him to be the only person in the U.S to have survived the holocaust and become a congressman it’s amazing. The symposium started with Tom Lantos’s daughter Katrina Sweat introducing him. She told us that tom came to the U.S after the Second World War at 19 with absolutely nothing. He ran for congress in 1980. In 2006 he became the head chair member of the foreign committee. When Tom came out he talked firmly about freedom in America and how they wanted to begin a whole new era of U.S relations. He is a firm believer in our country and has high hopes that the people who are running it will continue to make us proud. One of the quotes he stated that really caught my eye was “people whom we have done so much for forgot about all the positive things and are only remembering the negative things”.

Hw 30 Citizens gone wild

I attended the symposium on Tuesday called “Citizens gone wild” talked by Nancy Tobi. Nancy talked mainly about the government and how and who run it. The name of the presentation was “What kind of democracy do we want”.She talked about taking control over our democracy. Nancy is the founder of blockboxvoting. Nancy grew up in Lexington Ma. The slide show she presented was called citizens gone wild. It was about the two different types of techniques the state of New Hampshire used to count the votes. These were called hand count and Diebold. There were a lot of errors with the method Diebold. Diebold is machine that counted the votes and the hand count method was when the citizens counted each vote by hand. Nancy believes that the votes should be counted by hand. She also talked about how New Hampshire has free and open elections. Nancy really stresses that she wants to change the voting system for the better not only in New Hampshire but in America itself. She explains how there are many crimes that take place in the voting system as of right now. She really says that we need the citizens’ to help make these changes possible.

hw 28 Letter to Riverbend

Dear Riverbend,
I know you wrote your blog for a place to vent about how the war was affecting your life. I know from the reading that you have found comfort in your blog, and that it helps you express your feelings about what is happening around you. I know you never thought you would get so many responses from your blog but since that this war started in our lifetime and we are fully aware of what the circumstances, we can really relate to your blog. We are more likely to want to know what is really going on in Iraq. We know many people who are fighting in Iraq and are risking their lives so your blog really interests us because we want to know about the war coming from an average girl like yourself. You writing about waking up to loud explosives and how the electricity goes off on a regular basis really brings us to feel like we truly understand what is going on. Because I am now a blogger I can really related your blog. I think it really helps many people understand what is truly going on in Iraq. I thank you for writing your blog because most of the things we here on the media is false. Your blog is true and we can interact and listen to your stories.
Thanks again.
Alex Tuttle

Hw 27 Baghdad Burning

Baghdad burning by Riverbend is about a young girl who is growing up in Iraq with the war surrounding her. Riverbend’s blog is about a young girl who is growing up in Iraq while the war is going on. She tells us her day to day life and the horrifying events she has to go through. She writes this blog to share with people the experience of the war in Iraq from first hand experienced. She is very relatable because she is a young normal girl who is going through horrifying times. She writes an online blog that explains her daily life and how the war is affecting her and her family. This blog that Riverbend writes is important to our class because her blog explains what is going on in a different part of the world. Many people can read into what she is saying and feel as if they are really in Iraq. It also shows us the technology of the blogosphere world today.
Baghdad Burning. New York: First Feminist Press, 2005.

Hw 25 Baghdad Burning.

The forward of Baghdad Burning by Soueif gives us information about Riverbend. He explains to us that this blog is closest they could possibly get to without actually being there. Riverbend goes through struggles that her and her family deal with on a day to day basis. Soueif explains to us that English speaking readers are so lucky to have this blog because in a sense it is the only truth they may get. The introduction of Baghdad Burning by Riverbend explains that Riverbend is a girl who lives in a middle class home in Iraq. She writes a blog of the destruction that is revolving around her daily. She is descriptive in her blog that she writes which she called “Baghdad Burning”. She gives us detail by detail of what it is like to live her life. Ridgeway gives us a good background of what has been going on in Iraq over the last four years, such as the gulf war and 9/11. Ridgeway explains how these events have led up to the mess that is occurring in Iraq today. On pg viii it reads how on October 7, 2004 many people felt badly for the troops who were stationed in Iraq did feel bad for these men. This was an awful thing that happened and these men are risking their lives being there.( Viii, Soueif)

Soueif,Ahdaf. Baghda Burning: London: the feminist press, 2004

Hw 23 Feministe

“With apologies to Virginia Woolf” I choose the blog line Feministe which can be found athttp://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2007/10/17/newsweek-on-feminist-bloggers/#more-5971 to write about. Feministe to me is a very good thing because it shows that the mainstream media is showing feminist bloggers in action. This is a huge step for me because I’m not used to seeing women being treated equally. Of course there is a downside to this blog. I must say that this blog is defiantly an improvement but yet it still shows that there are still many things used against women. First it explains that the blog focused mostly on the activism and blogging of white mostly-middle-class mostly-heterosexual feminists. Than it says that younger feminists don’t really know what they are talking about and that there not focused on the right things. This topic really gets me mad because me myself being a young feminist I no fist hand that this not true. I think that people need to give women a lot more credit than they already do.

Hw 21 Dear Jess

Dear jess:
As you know I also have to read A Room of One’s Own by Virginia wolf for my blog class. I as well thought that the reading was extremely difficult. In chapter one the main character Mary, is attending college at Oxbridge place which is a very good school. It is said it the book that women needs money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction. In the story Mary shows her anger towards this. Mary is sitting on a bank near the river thinking about the connection to women and fiction, and how she disagrees with the statement women and needs money and a room to write fiction. Mary gets stopped by Beadle and tells her that women are not allowed on the turf. Throughout this chapter she is not allowed to do certain things because she is a girl such as going into the library. She thinks and expresses her thought about her anger and women and literature. Your teacher might think that this such an important work because it talks a lot about how sex what such a huge issue and it will show us how much has been changes since than. I really did feel that this is an important read but very difficult as well.
Love Alex

hw 22. Virginia Woolf

I strongly agree that England is a patriarchy from Virginia Woolfs reading “A Room of One’s Own.” In this reading the think that made me strongly think England was a patriarchy was when the girl hung herself it seemed like they were happy and that the world would be better without her. Another example is on pg 29 its reads “wise men never say what they think of women? Wise men never say anything else apparently….. What is so unfortunate is that wise men never think the same thing about women. The reading talks about how men don’t think anything of women and how they are not as important as men. They wonder if they are even capable of things such as education. When I looked in the newspaper this past week I was actually surprised to see the newspaper showed many stories of both sexes. There was the movie section, sports section of both male and female, there was also a job section. None of these topics in my opinion were headed in the direction towards male or female. I think it was actually pretty equal.

Hw. 19 Pg 86 The Influence on Weblogs

Hw 19 Pg 86
What this paragraph on pg 86 of Kline and Burnsteins Web of Influence really means is weblogs is very important because it explains how if a weblog focuses on a topic that is ignored or not talked about as it should be, blogs can bring this back. In other words when people see the blogs and realize how important certain topics are the main stream media will concentrate more on the topic because they need to. This is basically what the paragraph explains. It also talks about how blogs talk about national debates for example, racial profiling at airports and keeping the media focused on scandals that probably would have not been talked about if it wasn’t for bloggers finding this information important and taking the initiative to write about it. This paragraph also talks about how blogs are filled with teenagers which is great because this shows that people of all different ages can speak their opinions. Many teenage kids have great ideas but no policymaker would ever make the effort to hear them out. Blogs do just this; give many people the chance to influence policymaker’s decisions which is great for our country.

Hw 18 Sexy Anna Rexia

My least favorite post in “ the blogs I’m watching” this week is Eek, it's Sexy Anna Rexia! The link to this blog is http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2007/10/04/anorexia/index.htm. This blog was most disturbing to me because they are basically making fun of anorexia in this article. Anorexia is a huge disease among girls especially in this day and age. I think that is absolutely horrible that someone would go as far as making a joke costume out of it. I had a friend who went through anorexia and if she ever saw someone wearing that costume it would have been extremely hard for her and have made her even more uncomfortable. I don’t think this is a very funny joke at all. “But of course, it's not supposed to be repugnant and chilling, but sexy and so, so fun” This quote is especially disturbing for me to even think that someone who is anorexic could be considered sexy.

Hw 17B Which blog would be more influential

Ok. Well I’m a little confused on the question” which blog would be more likely to influence the way you would vote in a coming election. I suppose the interview with Markos Moulitsas Zuniga would be more inflectional to me in the way I vote for a coming election. I mean it sounds as if Markos really has his stuff together and takes it very seriously. His blog is doing fantastic and it keeps getting better. This is even more impressive considering this is his second job. For his blog to be doing this good on top of another job really shows he knows what he’s talking about. Ana Marie Cox on the other hand, who I feel like is kind of just taking a long term vacation, is In a way just having fun with her job, not doing a great deal or work and just taking some time to be lazy. This is defiantly not a bad thing. She just take her job a lot less serious than Markos does so obviously going with Markos on this would defiantly be the better choice.

Hw. 17 Not Funny

I chose Not Funny By Jill on Business on “Blogs I’m watching” I thought this article was very informative in many ways but, In the first sentence it says “this woman has been stalked..” whose this women? It was very well written. All the grammar seemed to be used in the right way. This post was actually very disturbing to me. I feel bad for this lady. She must have gone through a lot within the last year. Being stocked is definitely not a joke in any way. This lady must have been extremely offended when she saw this shirt. The blog I got this off of is called “charlotte observer” and I found it at: http://www.charlotte.com/news/story/293341.html "Some say it's stalking, I call it love." This was the quote on the T-shirt. This is certainly not funny because being stoked is very different is than being loved. Love is mutual but being stocked is certainly not welcome by any means. I picked this blog because I find it very interesting what this lady has to go through and how this shirt upsets her very much.

Hw 16 B: Five Pillars

Robert Scoble believes that there are five main pillars of conversational software that made blogging hot. To start off Scoble talks about something called RSS which is the technology that corporations should pay more attention to than even blogging. (Kline and Burstein 130)RSS stand for "really simple syndication" which basically just means it allows a blogger to offer his Weblog for people to subscribe to, as well as to integrate links and news from other websites. This is where the five pillars come in. the first pillar is called “ease of publishing” in order to have a blog that people want to use you need to make it easy and simple for them to use the blog. The second pillar is called “discoverability” you need to make your blog noticeable, you need to make it easy for people to discover. Make it interesting and well liked by everyone. The third pillar is “cross-site conversations” make it so you don’t have to stick to one topic. Make it so that people aren’t sacred to change the topic. The forth pillar is “permalinking” which will make it easier to bring me directly to a post. And the fifth pillar “syndication” This helps you see a large number of sites. This helps you out when your blogosphere starts to get bigger.

Hw. 14 My Response to Ito

In fact Ito say that his motivation to find time and energy to write these blogs, having done it for so long and having so many businesses competing for his attention is that the comments he gets are very deep and will help his knowledge, he also says that is very important to him that he gets back a lot of feedback. To put it another way Ito refers to his blog almost as a community which I feel is so good. For instance, people can really feel that this blog is for them. Ultimately I feel that it is so good that he thinks his comments are just as important as his posts. As a result, this really shows that his blog is like a community. In the same way, I think it its great that it doesn’t cost so much to become a publisher like it did before. Despite the fact you used to have to go to school and buy the equipment, but now blogs make it painless to become a publisher. Ultimately in m opinion this is why blogs are so popular, you could be anyone and still have a blog. Along the same lines, I think the creative commons idea is really good. Consequently this makes is so much easier for people to borrow other peoples work. For instance, if you have the creative commons attached your work than you already have permission to use it. As a result, this saves both ends a lot of time. In addition, I think Ito touches on a great point when he talks about how the fun in professional journalism is going away because you are being influence to say the right thing or what your boss is telling you to write about. Naturally, I strongly feel that this is why blogging is so popular. Granted that you’re not being paid, you can talk about whatever you want. As a result this is what makes blogging so fun.

Hw.13 Blogging Helps the Business World

In my opinion I think the impact of blogging for business is way more important than the impact of blogging on communication that is not business. In Burnstein and Klines reading there are many examples of how blogging helps businesses find things out about their workers, and put information about their companies out there for people to see. An example of is one of Google’s employers mark Jen blogged about his first days at the company. He started blogging about information that he should have not been. He got fired two weeks later. This helped Google get rid of a bad employee. Another example is that companies can set up videos and editorials on what they are all about. GM uses blogs as well to get past the main stream media. Steve Rubal who works for CooperKatz & co is one who pushes people into the blogging world. He jumped in one day and it really took off great for his company. “I became a living guinea pig for what I preach” Rubal says. These are many examples of how blogging helps the impact for business.

Hw. 11 . Iaasc Mao's blog at Isaacmao.com/meta.

I picked the Isaacmao.com/meta blog to research on. I picked this one because in the reading MacKinnon said that it was the only blog that was written in English and in Chinese. This made me feel that they were encouraging Americans to read this blog. From what I can see most of the blogs were about computer problems, environment and the Chinese culture. There were also pictures on this blog as well. Mackinnon states on pg 328 of Kline and Burnstein that many people have gone to jail for things they say on websites. This makes it very difficult for Chinese bloggers to just feel free and say what they want. I think that is a major difference in our culture compared to the Chinese culture, considering we have so much freedom in the United States. Mackinnon also states that a lot of journalists in china are starting to look at blogs first to get their stories. A lot of journalist in the United States do this as well.

Hw.9 Interview with Ayelet Waldman

While reading a Weblog Saved my Life Last Night, I agreed and disagreed with many things this interview states. I do indeed agree that it is a great way for women to meet other women. Waldman states that it is a great way for women to be involved in a social community especially for women who are not working. Waldman is surely right about women needing to interact with other women because, as she might not be aware, recent studies have shown women need other women in their life. I agree that you are more likely to avoid men if you go places that men would avoid. In rare cases men could always pretend to be women but I think this is the most promising way to avoid men. If she was such a popular mommy blogger I don’t think that she should have stopped. It sounds like so many people loved her blogs. I do disagree on this. I think she should have continued. I think that she could have defiantly kept blogging even though it seemed as if she was writing a novel. This is the point of blogging, your free to write whatever you want. I agree that Waldman having the suicide incident was a pretty good reason to stop, but just think if she wasn’t blogging who knows what would have happened. This proves that blogs are such great ways to express your feelings.

Hw 5b. Get the main stream meadia out of here!

In David Kline’s I Blog, therefore I am, I acknowledge one of the paragraphs that states that it would be a mistake to get rid of the mainstream media at this point. It states that they have some of the best equipment, skills, access, and the credibility to carry out the information than any other source. Even just, the media cannot even come close to competing with the bloggers diversity and originality. It reports that it is still mainly the media that relays most of the information to our world. I strongly reject what this paragraph is pleading. Just because the main media has all this equipment to relay information, why bother reporting it if it’s false. Why bother watching/reading it? As one of the people being lied to, I strongly suggest that we end this by not giving into watching or listening to them. Once again I urge that we do get rid of the mainstream media as soon as we can.


p242

Hw.4 Febreze

“Rinse your way to a healthier mouth”
Common sense seems to dictate that Listerine mouth wash will give you good breath and kill bacteria, and germ. I also think that Listerine would promise you a clean white vibrant smile. I went on the site www.listerine.com and Listerine does indeed promise that it can fight plaque and gingivitis. Listerine also promises to give you a cleaner, healthier mouth, and will fight plaque and gingivitis germs for a full 24 hours. Listerine also states that no other mouth wash comes from a formula of 4 essential oils that kill millions of germs on contact. Listerine says that they are the most popular mouth wash. In my experience Listerine has delivered their promise. I have been using Listerine mouth wash for a while now and I haven’t yet had a cavity. My teeth seem to be staying pretty white and so far no one has complained about my bad breath.

Hw. 3 A more participatory democracy

In Toward a more participatory democracy by David Kline he states how the world is being taken over by false media advertisements. He tells us how CNN and other news broadcasters take stories that are barley even stories. They are bias and just plain wrong. Most of the world doesn’t even believe what they hear on the news anymore. This is where blogging comes in. for example before the 2004 presidential election blogging completely wiped out the media. No one believes the news anymore. They lie. If it wasn’t for blogs people would very rarely get the correct information. Kline explains that people are getting down rite frustrated that they can’t just get the truth. CNN even brought in a comedian as if it wasn’t already a big enough joke. Although we are still not sure blogging is the right way to go. Kline says that he doesn’t see many bloggers respecting one another, more or less trying to destroy each other.

Hw. 2 Bloggers will continue to grow.

Key idea 9

The number of bloggers will continue to grow because it is a great way for people to express their feeling. For people blogging is a way that they can post, interact, respond or even argue a certain topic. It is a need for people to let out how they feel or to express a topic you would like to discuss with many people. This key idea connects with an issue of my own. Many people could argue the topic of cheerleading being or not being a sport. I haven’t blogged about this topic yet but this would be great way to start blogging for me. This is a topic that many people agree and disagree about, and me being a cheerleader myself this topic always strikes a nerve with me. I know many cheerleaders are dying to get their hands on this topic and argue it to death. I know I would. This would be a great way to finally have our voices heard.