HW 42: Last Podcast

Gabcast! A Blog of One's Own #51

HW 37: Thanksgiving and Eid

Gabcast! A Blog of One's Own #25

HW 36: First Podcast

Gabcast! A Blog of One's Own #20

HW 34: Iraqs Culture

In Iraq gold is seen different than here in America. As Riverbend states, “Gold is a part of our culture and the roll it plays in “family savings” has increased since 1990”(Riverbend, page 100). In Iraq after the 1990’s people began to exchange the money they had for gold because the value of gold never will change, unlike money that was changing at the time. In Iraq when a couple gets married the husband will offer the wife a dowry filled with gold jewelry, and when a child is born into a family the gifts that the family will receive are often gold trinkets. In the Iraqi culture a lot of gold is more common to have than in our culture where money is often more common to posses. In Iraq palm trees are thought of as a big part of their culture and home. “They are a reminder no matter how difficult the circumstances, there is hope for life and productivity”(Riverbend, page 105). All of the parts of the palm tree can be used. The leaves can be used to make baskets, mats, brooms and much more. The dates that the palm trees produce might be the most useful and cherished part of the tree. The Iraqi people eat dates, produce syrup from the dates, vinegar can be made from the dates, and dates can be used in trading. Even the pits of the dates can be used, the cows and other pasture animals can eat them, and they can also be used to make jewelry.

HW 35: Letter to Blog Readers

Since this is my almost last blog post for the class A Blog of One’s Own, I would just like to say that I learned quite a bit of information. If I had not taken this class, I do not think I would have ever started a blog in my life. Blogging was something that I was completely unaware of before I entered into the course. Now that I am in the course, I hear about blogs and blogging a lot more, on T/V in the news, and I actually have one too. The material we have been reading and blogging on is once again material I never would have read or had knowledge about if I had not taken this class. I do not think I have a particular blog that I am the most proud of, but I do enjoy writing about Riverbend because it is something happening in the world right now and I find it very interesting to hear the other side of the story since we only get one. For any one who has read my blog, or will read my blog, I hope they just understand where I was coming from and understand my point of view on the various topics that I have blogged about. When the class ends I do not think I will end up continuing to blog, but I do not think I will go back and delete all of my blogs either, I think I will just leave them where they are.

HW 33: Iraqi Teens Work to Help Their Families

The podcast “Iraqi Teens Work to Help Their Families” was part of the Alive in Baghdad series. The podcast was published on October 15th, 2007. After watching the podcast, it is quite obvious that the message that the podcast is trying to get across is the simple message that most teens in Iraq must help their families with the work because the unemployment rate in Iraq is over half of the population, so those who are able to help their families do. Throughout the podcast three children are shown talking about their lives in helping out their families. The first is Hussein Kamal who tells us that he helps his father with carpentry. The next is Mustafa Malek Fathullah Ali who informs us that he has worked with his father in carpentry since he was a child. He is now fourteen and currently helping his uncle at his house. The final child that they show us is named Yousif. Unlike the other two boys, Yousif does not help his family with work; he is enrolled in the College of Agriculture. Yousif was born with a birth defect and is currently unemployed; he lets us know that a habit he has developed is just sitting at the computer. Yousif is sitting on a patterned dark couch with a white curtain hanging behind him. Outside there is a lot of clay stone structures and the streets look dry and dirty. Any viewer who may watch this podcast might feel a sense of pity towards the Iraqi people who were once able to live normal lives, but since the war are forced to be more cautious with their daily lives and help out their families by working with them instead of attending school. Although I have not seen many videos from Iraq, this video seems to be put together nicely. The boys they chose to interview were very honest and sweet. The most memorable thing I find about this podcast are the boys ending statements to the world. It is like a cry for help, saying please just fight terrorism and defeat it so I can go on with my normal way of life.

HW 32: School Supplies

While reading through Riverbend's posts in the book Baghdad Burning, she talks about going with her cousin, his wife named S, and E to go shop for school supplies for her cousins two younger daughters. The girls used to be able to go to pick out their own school supplies, but since the conditions have drastically changed in Iraq S does not feel that it would be safe for them to go along with her. Riverbend describes the stores that line the streets of Iraq and informs us that there are no malls, just stores that have a variety of things in them. The stationery shop is where they went to get the girls school supplies. It took them a while to decide what the girls would want according to their age, one was ten and the other was seven. After finally reaching a decision on the various supplies, they left the store and returned back home to see the girls. Shopping for school supplies has seemed to change drastically since the war has broken out in Iraq, and it's too bad that the children now have to be guarded at schools and bring their own chairs. Hopefully soon the life in Iraq will go back to being the way it was before the war occurred.

HW 30:Animation as Political and Social Constructions

The second session that I attended at the Keene State College Citizenship Symposium was titled, Animation as Political and Social Constructions. The speakers of this session were Jiwon Ahn, Sander Lee, and Mark Timney. I unfortunately missed most of Ahn’s talk because I was coming from another class and it caused me to come in later and I missed the beginning. Lee talked about two different cartoons that compared the aspect of the German Nazi times. The first he talked about was a Disney cartoon that featured Donald Duck. In this cartoon Donald was working for Hitler at what seemed to be a sweat shop making different kinds of ammunition, he was tired and going insane, but instead of having one of his normal temper tantrums he continued to obey Hitler and work. At the end of the cartoon, Donald wakes up in American flag pajamas and discovers that what he thought was to be an arm in the air was just his statue of lady liberty. Lee thought that this cartoon made it out to seem that the only force able to defeat the terrible Nazis is the more powerful Americans. The other cartoon that he showed us was a Warner Brothers cartoon featuring Bugs Bunny. Bugs seemed not to be afraid of Hitler and posed as a Russian that the Germans feared and caused them to run away very scared. He compared these two cartoons and how they approached the idea of the German power. Bugs cartoon was more humorous and the Disney cartoon was a little more serious showing the power that the Nazi’s had over Donald. The second speaker that I got to see was Timney and he talked about a good citizen and compared it to South Park. He showed us a video clipping from South Park and showed that even though South Park is known for its violence and sometimes controversial material, it often shows a problem that most people have, and then a solution for solving the problem. All this happens while still including comedy. I thought this session was interesting and that it took very different views of cartoons that a lot of people do not go that deep into thought about, which was great to hear about.

HW 30: Iraq Body Count, Real People, Fake Numbers

The first session I went to was titled, Iraq Body Count, Real People, Fake Numbers. Steve Clark was the presenter and he did an outstanding job. This was one of the sessions that was offered at the Keene State College Citizenship Symposium. He made sure that we knew that it is important as citizens to know what to make of statistics because constantly the news and government are throwing numbers at us to prove a certain point, and we must be able to understand what they are getting at. Clark told us about his bias and about why he stands where he does, which is opposed to the war in Iraq. He has a son who is enlisted in the army and did so after 9/11, he was at age of the draft during the end of the Vietnam War and had two of his friends commit suicide when they returned from Vietnam. He informed us that statistics can be misleading, and virtually can say whatever we want them to say. He let us know some of the questions we should be asking when we hear a statistic. They included: “Who produced this statistic?”, “How was this statistic produced?”, and “Why was this statistic produced?”. He also talked about the actual war in Iraq and the number of Iraqi people who have died. He said that the number of how many Iraqis have died gets little attention. “We must be able to see them as less human than us to kill them” (Clark). Lancet came out with a study and found that six hundred and fifty thousand Iraqis have died as a result from the war in Iraq. Lancet did a cluster sampling and Iraqi doctors went door to door and asked families about deaths and asked to see death certificates. From this was calculated the astonishing number that no other study has come close to. Clark’s talk was very informative and I thought he did an excellent job keeping the audience’s attention and adding humor in here and there.

Iraq Body Count, Real People, Fake Numbers

The first session I went to was titled, Iraq Body Count, Real People, Fake Numbers. Steve Clark was the presenter and he did an outstanding job. This was one of the sessions that was offered at the Keene State College Citizenship Symposium. He made sure that we knew that it is important as citizens to know what to make of statistics because constantly the news and government are throwing numbers at us to prove a certain point, and we must be able to understand what they are getting at. Clark told us about his bias and about why he stands where he does, which is opposed to the war in Iraq. He has a son who is enlisted in the army and did so after 9/11, he was at age of the draft during the end of the Vietnam War and had two of his friends commit suicide when they returned from Vietnam. He informed us that statistics can be misleading, and virtually can say whatever we want them to say. He let us know some of the questions we should be asking when we hear a statistic. They included: “Who produced this statistic?”, “How was this statistic produced?”, and “Why was this statistic produced?”. He also talked about the actual war in Iraq and the number of Iraqi people who have died. He said that the number of how many Iraqis have died gets little attention. “We must be able to see them as less human than us to kill them” (Clark). Lancet came out with a study and found that six hundred and fifty thousand Iraqis have died as a result from the war in Iraq. Lancet did a cluster sampling and Iraqi doctors went door to door and asked families about deaths and asked to see death certificates. From this was calculated the astonishing number that no other study has come close to. Clark’s talk was very informative and I thought he did an excellent job keeping the audience’s attention and adding humor in here and there.

HW 31: Amiriyah Shelter

After reading Baghdad Burning, I decided to look more into the Amiriyah shelter (Riverbend, 46-48). The shelter was mentioned in the reading to act as a comparison to the tragedy that our country experienced on September 11th. Civilians used the Amiriyah shelter as an air-raid shelter during the Iraq-Iran war as well as the Gulf War. “It was destroyed by USAF two laser-guided “smart bombs” on 13 February 1991 during the Gulf War, killing more then 408 civilians”(Wikipedia, Amiriyah shelter). The United States says that their reasoning for bombing the shelter was because they thought that the shelter was a military command site. Riverbend's description of what happened on February 13th, 1991 would make anyone sit back and feel saddened. Although we mourn for all the lives we lost on September 11th, and for good reason, Riverbend points out that we are not the only ones in this war who are continually losing lives. Her example of the Amiriyah shelter is perfect, she explains that the people who were occupying the shelter at the time of the bombing were women and children, not military or higher intelligence, women and children. She goes on to describe the horrible scene that happened after the bombing, the frantic families trying to find their child in the mist of the burned faces of all those who died, the bodies that hardly resembled a body anymore being dragged out in hopes that someone would recognize them. Riverbend so truly states, “ all faces look the same when they are witnessing the death of loved ones”(Riverbend, page 48).


Works Cited


1. Wikipedia. 11 May 2007. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. November 8, 2007.
< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiriyah_shelter>
2. Riverbend. Baghdad Burning, Girl Blog from Iraq. City University of New York, New York. The Feminist Press, 2005.

HW 28:An Open Letter to Riverbend

Dear Riverbend,
It's hard to even begin to imagine what you must be going through living in a place that you used to call home but now is so completely different for you. As you know, a lot of Americans only get one side of the story in Iraq. We are only shown on television what seem to be the worst parts of your country and not the parts that were once so beautiful, like the highways and bridges decorated with flowers. I think that it is hard to be totally for or totally against the war. I think that most people have mixed feelings, and I for one still do not completely understand why we are still in your country. I feel pity for all the soldiers who have gone over to Iraq to do their parts. I know that it is not easy for them to be over there either, see all the horrible things that you see, and come back to the United States and not being able to sleep for days, weeks or months because things seem too quiet. I do feel bad for you and your family having to deal with raids and worrying about driving to your aunts house, having to carry weapons with you when you go outside, and being used to hearing guns, bombs, tanks and airplanes. Most people take for granted those little aspects of life that come so easily, and I agree with you that it is not fair that all the people in your country are being taken away from their families, and their jobs are being taken away from them in a split second. Although it is awful, I believe that it helps for Americans to read Baghdad Burning and understand what is happening in your country, to understand really what is going on from a person who is living their point of view and not from the news, because the news only shows a part of the story and certainly not both sides of the story. I enjoy reading your blog posts because they continue to inform me about what exactly is happening in Iraq. I wish the best for you and your family and I hope that this war soon comes to an end for both the United States and Iraq’s sake.

HW 27:Annotative Bibliography

Riverbend, “Baghdad Burning: girl blog from Iraq”. New York, NY: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2005.
This book is a number of different blogs written by a twenty-four year old female that lives in Iraq during the war. She talks about political issues, what it is like living day to day during the war, the many misconceptions that Americans do not know about what is going on in Iraq. The female writing these blogs goes by the name Riverbend and she is primarily writing to rant about all the issues and things that she is sick of dealing with in Iraq since the war has been going on. A lot of people benefit from the blogs that she is writing because even though people might think they know all there is to know about the war that is going on in Iraq, however we only know what the government is telling us. It is always a benefit to have someone who is living through the war and experiencing it tell us what is happening to her and her family and how it is affecting their daily lives. The complications in writing a book like this involve, to a degree, the safety of Riverbend because the information she is giving out on the internet is information that her government or the United States government probably would not want to be disclosed. I believe that any person who would read this book would learn a great deal more about what is going on over in Iraq. This is important to know because it is happening now, as we speak, and it is always important to know what is going on especially when it involves your nation.

Hw 25: Riverbend

After reading the forward and introduction to Baghdad Burning, I learned a lot about what is going on in the war in Iraq and what to further expect when I continue reading the book. In the forward to Baghdad Burning Soueif reports to us about Riverbend and her blog “Baghdad Burning”. Soueif informs us what we can expect when reading the book, he states, “ Baghdad Burning makes painful reading. It also makes enjoyable - even fun- reading. It is certainly necessary reading.”(Soueif, page ix) Riverbend's blog tells how she feels about the war, what her and her family experience and the effects that the war is having in her country that affect her life daily. In the introduction to the book Ridgeway gives us more facts about what is happening in the war and how Iraq has progressed over history. Ridgeway talks about the background of Riverbend's culture, he also informs us about what Iraq was going through with the Gulf War until the war that is currently going on in Iraq. Ridgeway reports to us about the troubles that post-war Iraq is facing, mostly because of religious issues and since the post-war Ridgeway states, “ Postwar Iraq has seen the formation of gangs inspired by Islamic fundamentalism, that have made a habit of kidnapping women who in their eyes flaunted Islamic law in clothing and behavior.”(Ridgeway, page xxii) What I thought I knew about the war in Iraq has drastically changed after reading all that is going on in Iraq and how it is affecting the everyday life of the people who live in Iraq. It makes you think about how the circumstances would be drastically different if the war we were fighting was in our country rather than in Iraq. I did not know a lot of the information about Iraq and the religious groups that reside there. After reading the introduction, I learned a lot more about Iraq and can better understand what the people have been and are still going through.

HW 24: A Room of One's Own

According to the research of Virginia Woolf, in order for a woman to write fiction or any type of writing, they must be educated, have money, and most importantly a room of their own. Women have come extremely long ways from the days when women were not thought suited enough to write anything or have any purpose besides tend to the house. Woolf strongly stresses over and over again that women need money and a room of their own to be successful with writing. When talking about Mary Carmichael and her first book, Life’s Adventure, she states “ give her a room of her own and five hundred a year, let her speak her mind and leave out half that she now puts in, and she will write a better book one of these days.”(Woolf, page 94). Indeed it is important to have a room of one’s own when one is trying to think and write a marvelous book. I currently do not have a room of my own. I share a room with two other girls and there are usually more than three people in my room. I do agree that it is hard to think with lots of other things in your way distracting you from trying to create your own ideas in your mind. Often I find myself in the library to escape the noise and laughter, so I can have a quiet place to think and analyze my thoughts to produce a better paper. Being educated and being given the opportunities that most women did not get the chance to take advantage of also helps when writing. Woolf states that even though money and privacy are important, there is one other key factor when writing, “five hundred a year stands for the power to contemplate, that a lock on the door means the power to think for oneself, still you may say that the mind should rise above such things.”(Woolf, page 106). Indeed the most important factor I believe is having such a strong mind that will be able pick up the slack if you are not given money or a room of your own.

HW 23: Feminism 101

With Apologies to Virginia Woolf,
I went to the site Jezebel to look for intriguing articles about women; I came across an article that caught my eye. The article was titled Feminism 101. Immediately I was interested to see what the article had to say about women. This article in fact had to do with women in writing; it was short but non-the less interesting. It so briefly stated that Doris Lessing was the eleventh woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature with her book, The Golden Notebook. This is quite a fascinating piece of information to find, that a woman, actually the eleventh, had won a Nobel Prize for writing. It seems to me that I will have to take back my statement that I made prior to reading this which stated, “ it is a perennial puzzle why no women wrote a word of extraordinary literature when every other man, it seemed, was capable of a strong song or sonnet.”(Woolf, page 41). I am quite pleased to find out that women are actually making progress in literature and being recognized for the genius that they have always possessed. If you would like to view this remarkable post it can be found on the Jezebel website (http://jezebel.com/gossip/feminism-101/-309664.php).

HW 22:Patriarchy is dead

In chapter two of A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf believes that anyone who reads the paper would know that England was under the rule of patriarchy. Woolf believes that everyone would know this because it is evident in the paper that the males make up the headlines and write the papers. It is clear to understand that when it comes to what is important in the world, women are not; they are not talked about in the news and their writing does not go in the newspaper. When talking about the professor she states, “ he it is who will acquit or convict the murderer, and hang him, or let him go free. With the exception of the fog he seemed to control everything.” (Woolf, page 34). This topic plays an important role throughout the chapter; it is made clear that women are thought of as inferior to most men. Woolf provides a theory on why men feel the need to think of women as the inferior sex, she states, “the enormous importance to a patriarch who has to conquer, who has to rule, of the feeling that great numbers of people, half the human race indeed, are by nature inferior to himself. It must indeed be one of the chief sources of his power.”(Woolf, page 35). In today’s society in the United States it is well known that women are not the inferior race but rather equal to men. One of the prime examples while browsing through the newspaper is the headline, “Hilary leads in donor refunds”. Having a woman run for president shows how the roles that women once played have drastically changed, and it also shows that the United States is far from a patriarchy.

HW 21: Dear Freddy

Dear Freddy,
In the first chapter of the Virginia Woolf book A Room of One’s Own, Woolf is trying to address women and fiction. She comes to the conclusion that in order for women to write fiction, they need money and a room of their own. Throughout the chapter Woolf describes the disadvantages that women have had over the course of history that has delayed the great writing styles of many women today. Some of the disadvantages that she addresses include: education, money, and how society treated women. Through many fictional stories that Woolf tells, it explains all of these disadvantages that women have faced over the decades. Education was something that was very rare for women to receive. When women’s colleges finally came about, they were nothing in comparison to colleges made for men. Woolf addresses this by explaining the different luncheons that occurred at both fictional colleges. Money was something that a woman rarely had and perhaps was one of the many reasons that women were not as educated. Women were never thought of as worthy or useful enough to have the type of jobs that men had. Often if a woman did have a job, all of the wages would not be hers but her husband's. Finally Woolf addresses how society treated women. She explains that when on the break of some idea that might be brilliant, she is thrown off her idea by some silly rule that women were made to follow. She uses the example that women were not allowed to walk on the grass, but rather on the gravel. English teachers would consider this book important, even though it can be at times a little overwhelming and confusing because it shows the growth of women over time especially in writing and education and the roles that women play and their importance in society. After I finished reading chapter one, I found myself a little in the dark. I had to think about what Woolf was trying to say in her reading, because she uses a variety of different examples to explain and prove the points that she is trying to get across.
-Lindsay

HW 19: Web of Influence

After reading “Web of Influence”, I found out a lot of important information that helped me to understand more about what the blogosphere represents and does to help the mainstream media. The blogosphere is one way for the mainstream media to keep an eye out to see if there are any stories that should be covered to a greater extent. Although some readers may object to this and say that the blogosphere is such a wide range of topics it would be almost impossible to find out what is important and what’s not, I simply state that the more a subject is talked about in the blogosphere the more noticeable it becomes to the mainstream media. In “Web of Influence” it uses the example of Annie Jacobsen who wrote a blog about unusual activity at the airport involving eight Middle Eastern men. This story demonstrates that although it may seem unreasonable to be suspicious about foreign passengers, you can never be too safe when you are dealing with people’s lives. So in other words the blogosphere, although it is wide and ranges many different topics, does attract the mainstream media to important issues that are not necessarily being covered as well as they should be. They almost work together in helping each other grow and feeding off each other for stories and topics.

HW 18 Least Favorite Blog

After reading through my “Blogs I’m Watching”, I came across an extremely sad and horrible blog. The blog was called “Iran: Thousands of hungry workers go on strike.”( http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/10/07/iran-thousands-of-hungry-workers-go-on-strike/). I found the blog in Global Voices. The blog talked about how thousands of sugar cane workers in Iran were going on strike because they were not getting paid and were going hungry. The reason I did not like the blog was because it is upsetting to think about thousands of workers who are not being treated fairly, getting enough money to pay for food or support their families, and even when striking not being recognized. The blog talks about how the workers went on strike previously, and the government made them promises but failed to keep them. The blog explains that, “after two days of striking, Iranian intelligence agents started to put pressure on workers and threaten them with severe punishment”. After reading how poorly the employees were being treated, this blog suddenly became my least favorite. One worker was even arrested at his house and put in jail. When he needed to seek medical attention, they had a video of him handcuffed to the hospital bed. This blog is a reality shock of how horrible some places in this world really are.

HW 17 B Cox and Zuniga

After reading and looking at the blogs Wonkette and Daily Kos, I realized that the blog that would be the most influential in the upcoming election would have to be Daily Kos. Wonkette is a very interesting blog and would be more enjoyable to read, but I would not start basing my opinion on who should be president based on their sex life or scandals. Daily Kos is a more serious blog bringing up issues that could have some value when looking at the candidates for president. It is a trusted blog that has gone very far from the start and seems to have many fans. Their fan status was booming especially around the times of elections, which would make me assume that a lot of people think that Daily Kos is the site to go to when you want valid information to help you make your decision. Wonkette writes more in an informal way, not bringing up important topics that would normally be considered in choosing a president. The blog Wonkette is made to be humorous, as Ana Marie Cox is quoted saying, "I can write stuff that I think is funny"(Kline & Burstein page 59). So when it comes to reading for fun I would visit Wonkette, getting the inside scoop on who is doing who in office, but for helping me decide who should run our country I would visit Daily Kos.

HW 17: Favorite Blog Post

As I was browsing through Jezebels posts, I found one that struck my interest titled “Panic-Stricken Kim Basinger’s Maybe Not-So-Healthy Heart” (http://jezebel.com/gossip/broadsides/panic+stricken-kim-basingers-maybe-not+so+healthy-heart-306680.php) . The blog was set up in bullet form, with each bullet telling a different fact or interesting piece of information, which I thought was more attention grabbing than just a paragraph about one topic. Most of the bullets were facts about women, which ranged from anxiety and panic attacks to how romantic partners’ copy each other’s health habits. Some of the bullets were quite outrageous and something that would seem almost impossible; Babble was quoted in telling us about Mother Nature. Babble warns us, “A woman gave birth to two babies on the same day, but they aren't twins. Seems that she got pregnant twice over the course of two weeks. Mother Nature, you fucking creep us out.” (always a good thing to know if you are a woman). Jezebel is an excellent website to look at if you are interested in knowing what’s going on in the world, or just random fun facts.

HW 16 A: Scoble's Rules

After reading Scoble’s rules of engagement, I went to Jezebel’s website at www.jezebel.com to find out if they followed the same twenty rules as Scoble suggests for all blogs to be a success. Jezebel is a website that definitely follows the number sixteen rule “Never hide information..” (page 134). Since Jezebel is a site based on the gossip and truth of the main stream celebrities and what kind of trouble they are getting into, the site makes sure that it gets all the angles and sides of the stories. When reading a blog about Britney Spears, “Is Britney Being Judged More Harshly Than Her Baby-Daddy?” Jezebel makes sure to address the two different views of the story. Jezebel also incorporates rule number three, which states, “Use a human voice.”(page 133). Jezebel really lives up to this rule when posting their blogs; they state their opinion and they don’t edit what they have to say about the issue at hand. One rule that Jezebel may need not to address is, “Underpromise and over deliver.”(page 133). This does not apply to Jezebel necessarily because they are not offering a product on their blog, they are just feeding peoples interests on the media. I do not know how to determine if Jezebel follows the rule that tells weblogs not to ignore Slashdot. I think that Jezebel is a pretty successful website. They find out what interests a group of people and then they supply lots of pictures and information about it, which in turn keeps people hooked.

HW 14: Response to Denton

As I was reading through Nick Denton's interview, I realized that I agreed with him on a lot of his key points. For instance, Denton explains that everyone seems to think that weblogs are a completely breathtaking invention to technology, when really it's just an extension on what has always been happening online. After all, weblogs have been around for a while before becoming socially noticed. Nevertheless, weblogs will most likely explode and adopt a much larger audience and come up with new uses. Along the same lines, Denton talks about how weblogs are important in the news and will soon have numerous ways for you to receive what you want to know faster; he explains, " Just as TiVo allows television watchers to make their own channel, so will weblogs allow individual users to make their own "newspaper"". Even though newspapers will never be replaced by weblogs, I believe that the two will have a big part in news for a long time. To put it bluntly Denton states, " while I don't think blogs are going to change the structure of original reporting, they are going to supplant in some ways the editorial layer of the news". In conclusion, I think that Denton has some great points in his interview that most people do not touch on when talking about weblogs.

HW 13: Blogs Will Change Your Business

After reading "Blogs Will Change Your Business" by Stephen Baker and Heather Green, I came to realize that the role that blogs play in business is very important. Not only are blogs important for advertisement purposes, but also to keep track of how your customers feel about the product you are presenting them, and to get feed back on what could be changed. As Baker and Green quite frankly state, " Blogs are not a business elective. They're a prerequisite". Businesses who now have blogs in a sense are more powerful; they are putting themselves out there and making their product known. A lot of people used to think that blogging was just a fad that would soon be replaced by something new, nothing to take too seriously. However, having blogs when you are running a business has proven to be an extreme success.All this is not to say that blogs do not play an important role in day to day communication for many people world wide. Many people need to put their feelings out there and blogs are the perfect way to do so. The world is becoming more and more dependent on technology and at the rate it is prospering I feel that blogging will become a major part of businesses.

HW 11: Making Global Voices Heard

While looking over all the blogs, I decided to look into Jeff Ooi's blog at http://jeffooi.com. I thought his blog might be interesting because he is known to be the voice of the younger generation. This immediately appealed to me because I might be able to understand where he is coming from more than I would an adult. Ooi talks about the government of Malaysia and about the corruption that is taking place. When looking through his blog, I found that Ooi talks a lot about what is going on throughout Malaysia, He is either challenging some of the news report stories or simply stating what is going on for other people to read. His blog is plain, red titles and black writing, he posts videos and images on his blog to illustrate what he is talking about. He talks about what is going on throughout Malaysia that might not always come up on the day-to-day news. One of the blogs that Ooi writes about is Marcel Marceau, the clown who recently passed away; it includes a video and picture of Marceau and some of the famous quotes he has said throughout his lifetime. I feel that what MacKinnon said about Ooi's blog is pretty accurate and up to date, Ooi still talks about politics and his blog seems like a news report station that people might go to in order to find out interesting information and different opinions of what is happening. Looking at his website many news reporters or political people would have trouble understanding how someone who is not a professional and younger than them could have something important to say. However, everyone's opinion is important and Ooi's in particular has seemed to catch many people's attention and trust.

HW 9: A Weblog Saved My Life

When reading "A Weblog Saved My Life Last Night", I was a little shocked at the title; I never thought that a Weblog could save someone's life. Ayelet Waldman explains how when she wrote a suicide note on her blog, it ultimately saved her life. People responded and reached out to her, letting her know that she had a serious problem and was not thinking clearly. Although I think that it is great that the people on Ayelet's weblog helped her out, I think that she overlooks all the blogs that are made for depressed suicidal people. Normally suicidal people talking to other depressed people does not work out well. So even though it is a nice story of how blogging helped her out, I would not encourage others to go online and chat about how they are going to kill themselves. I do agree with the statement that Waldman makes when she says, "the blogosphere has given these people a sense of community". I believe that people often blog for that exact reason, wanting to feel as if they are a part of something bigger, like a community. So I have mixed feelings about blogging online as a daily routine, especially expressing your inner feelings, although it could end up saving your life, it also could be very dangerous. There are many predators online that will influence your thoughts for the worst. My solution to this would be to make sure you are entering a blogging community that is known to be safe and helpful.

HW 7: My So-Called Blog

I think it would be ridiculous for parents to monitor everything that their child is writing online. One would hope that the parents would have enough confidence in their children to know that what they are writing online should remain private, and is most likely nothing horrible. I believe that middle school children especially need online resources to know that other people may be having the same problems as them. Ultimately, I feel that online journals are just a phase that young adolescents go through. In “My So-Called Blog”, Emily Nussabaum states, “ But for a significant number, they become a way of life, a daily record of a community’s private thoughts- a kind of invisible high school that floats above the daily life of teenagers.” (Kline and Burstein 351) Nussabaum is right in stating that the online life for most teenagers is a way of interacting with their friends, almost like another high school. Sometimes teenagers have a hard time talking about their insecurities, especially to their parents. Middle School is a very awkward time for most adolescents. Blogs such as LiveJournal and Xanga provide an outlet for some teens to get out what is bothering them and in turn find others who are having the same types of problems. Nussabaum explains, “ If teen bloggers give something up by sloughing off a self-protective layer, they get something back too- a new kind of intimacy, a sense that they are known and listened to.” (Kline and Burstein 352) In reality that’s the whole reason that most young adolescences blog, to feel that they are listened to, to let out their feelings and hopefully get something back in return. I think it would be silly for parents to track everything that their child is writing about online. Even though some things may be upsetting, the majority of the posting will be about daily events and expressing who they really are without feeling as if they are putting themselves out there too much.

HW 5 B : Problems through blogging

When reading “I Blog, Therefore I Am”, I had many questions about certain parts of the reading. The paragraph that I had the most trouble understanding was on page 249. David Kline suggests that the number of people attending therapy sessions is declining because the internet is opening up new ways to talk about your problems through blogging. He claims that “ one must assume that the more deliberatively people appraise and document their lives, the more purposefully those lives will be lived.” Kline insists that when people are talking to other people about their problems they will come together to overcome them. I have a hard time understanding where he is coming from in stating this. Blogging today may be a way for people to talk to others about their ongoing problems, but I do not believe that it is always a healthy way to go about it. Take for example the blogging websites about suicide; people who are depressed talking to other people who are depressed can never lead to a positive outcome. In many cases families end up finding out after the matter that their child was going through depression because instead of going for professional help they joined a community of people feeling the same way they were and ended up ending their lives. Although blogging communities may be a good way for some people to talk about their problems, I do not by any means believe that it is a better place to go to than professional help.

HW 6: Semester-Long Project Interests

When reviewing the paper with all the topics for the semester long research project, I found myself a little overwhelmed as to what to choose. A lot of the options I had never heard of before, nor did I know much about them. After going over what each option was, I decided that it would be interesting to learn more about e-learning and distance education. My cousin who lives in Colorado doesn’t go to Middle School instead she takes courses online for all of her education. Another subject that caught my eye was social networking services, like facebook and myspace, because everyone I know uses them and I am interested in learning more about other networking services. And finally, chat rooms and text chats, which I know of but would like to know more about. The types of empowerment I would like to know more about include: overcoming sexism, issues of disabilities or learning differences, and issues of refugees. These topics all interest me because I don’t know a lot about how they would come into place on the Internet. Some areas that I think I would like looking at include North America and Europe. I think it would be interesting seeing what is happening in the country in which I live. Also Europe interests me because I have always wanted to travel there so its fun learning about the differences and similarities that their countries has in comparison to ours.

HW 4: Option 2

When I walked into my room the product that caught my eye was the skinny purple bottle of heavenly softlotion. Its promise to “melt away stress” is what caught my eye in the store. As I took a closer look at the bottle I realized that it had a lot more promises than just to “melt away stress”. Johnson’s softlotion promises to “help you sleep better by melting away at your muscle tension” and with “Aromasoothe” it is shown to quiet your senses. When I went to www.jnj.com to find out more about the promises that Johnson & Johnson had to offer, I found out that it promises to “help people live longer and healthier lives”. It also says that if you use Johnson’s softlotion you will “maintain healthy skin for life.” In my experience with using the product I have discovered that the promise to help you maintain healthy skin is true, also the lotion does have a scent that calms your senses and relaxes your body, which in turn helps you sleep. I can not be too sure if the promise “helps people live longer and healthier lives” is true because I have not been using it all my life nor do I know if I hadn’t been using it my life would be much different. However, I am always impressed when using lotion from Johnson & Johnson because I believe that it makes my skin a lot healthier than other skin care products.

HW 3: Respond to "Toward a More Participatory Democracy"

In David Kline’s “ Toward a More Participatory Democracy”, he makes some very compelling points on the issue of how involved the world is on political blogging. Most people would not believe that political blogging is actually a more used and trusted source than newspapers. Newspapers have been found to have errors, known facts that suddenly become fictional, and do not tell the whole truth at times. Political blogs online often release untold information about politics, war, and religion; furthermore they have a wider variety of topics to read about. The newspaper and news shows limit what topics they talk about, often the same subjects repeatedly; whereas online news blogs appeal to everyone because there will always be information on the topic you want to know more about. During the election most candidates used online blogs to gather money, inform people about themselves and get a following of supporters. In turn the voters get to gather further information about the candidates to make a more informed vote. Bloggers can quickly gather up various statistics about their favored candidate, and meet others who are also interested in the certain candidate. The only downside that I can see from political blogging is that the arguments online are more informal and therefore might not appear to be as intelligent.

HW 2: Posting to your reading response blog

Blogging has opened a door to many as a means of communication. Certain blogging websites such as myspace, facebook, and other communities allow people to talk to each other, gather information about one another and serve as a place where people can be as open as they please. Facebook is commonly used among college students, it has communities that students can belong to ranging from their interests, where they are going to school to what concerns them most. Many students use facebook before entering college to find out who they are living with, who is going to be in their class, and get a feel for the people who are going to be attending the same school as them. Blogging websites are a way for even the most self-conscious people to put themselves out there, come out of their shell, and meet people they normally would be to afraid to approach in person. It allows people with similar interests to meet and talk about what they enjoy and possibly become friends. As Kline stated blogging has become “ the key metaphor for interactivity, community-building, and genuine conversation.” I think blogging will continue to grow as a means of communication across the world.