HW 25: Responding to the Intro and Foreword

Baghdad Burning is a written account of a women’s experience in the Iraqi War, this women is known as Riverbend. The foreword of this novel is written by Ahdaf Soueif, in this Ahdaf explains that Riverbend is explaining her experiences and tribulations of her everyday life in Iraq. This book is not Anti-American at all; Ahdaf tells us that Riverbend just wanted the public to know what a person had to go through in this wartime. This foreword differs from the introduction written by James Ridgeway in that it is more focused on the life of Riverbend, while Ridgeway gives us a background of the relations between the U.S. and Iraq throughout the years. Both are intriguing and give us a good feel for the novel and the problems that Riverbend and other Iraqi citizens have been exposed to. When reading the history of Iraq and the “Bush War”, it seemed a little repetitive since I already had a good sense of what has happened. This is because I have had to study this subject earlier in my high school career and written papers on this conflict.

HW 24: Where is my Room?

I must say that I don’t have a room of my own. It seems pretty hard to believe since we have so many resources today that would allow me to have my own room. I run into one problem though, I am not open to a lot of new ideas and thoughts. “The whole of the mind must lie wide open if we are to get the sense that the writer is communicating his experience with perfect fullness” (Woolf, Chapter 6). As Woolf says there is no way to find completeness without throwing yourself completely into your work. I cannot do this because I don’t have a room to let these thoughts out. Maybe because there has not been a place that I call mine, I’ve always shared places with others. Another problem I have ran into is my narrow minded self, I always thought I was a sensitive person but when looking at the bigger picture I am mistaken. When looking at most situations in my life I have taken a prejudice to my own sex, I do not know if it was instilled in me or just a view I have chosen. “But, alas, I had done what I had determined not to do; I had slipped unthinkingly into praise of my own sex” (Woolf, Chapter 5). This is evidence that it is not just me that falls into this prejudice, after pondering this thought I have come to the conclusion that it is just our nature to do this. We have a certain attachment to our sex and Woolf is trying to attempt this bridge to understanding the other sex.

HW 23: Responding as Virginia Woolf

With Apologies to Virginia Woolf,
This article entitled Giuliani: Dems Will Change Minds on Iraq is a perfect example of the smearing that takes place in the government. One must think that on this website, Democratic National Committee Blog that there would be an article of this magnitude. To have a website dedicated to the Democratic Party, the content that is within will be only to benefit their own. Rudy Giuliani a Republican is the target of this article, Giuliani made statements about democratic presidential candidate Clinton and her views on the Iraq War. It is not a surprise that a narrow headed republican like Giuliani would try and discredit the word of a woman with power in this country. One has to understand that only men’s opinions are worth being taken note of, while women like Clinton need to stay in the kitchen and raise the kids. These thoughts run ramped in our society today and will continue until one thinks of a reason to change these views.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20071029/giuliani-democrats/ Link to post.

HW 22: Is the United States a Patriarchy?

Woolf has a problem with the paper because it showed that England was run by men. There is no evidence of women in this paper and the only one mentioned is very skeptical. “Mr justice —— commented in the Divorce Courts upon the Shamelessness of Women. Sprinkled about the paper were other pieces of news. A film actress had been lowered from a peak in California and hung suspended in mid–air” (Woolf, Chapter 2). Woolf has reason to believe that England is a patriarchy, the only time women are mentioned are in a bad sense or they have to be in Hollywood. Everything else in this paper is about how men run the government, sports and every other aspect of England. Now is this the same in our newspapers today? I took a look at the New York Times and it was pretty startling what I found. After seeing the front page and the main articles I found most were written by men and about men. Now there were articles about women and their actions in society but they were found in the later sections of the paper. Is this proof that America is a patriarchy? I believe this is not true, but women do need to be more recognized in our society and have more power in main stream news. Woolf would not be happy with the progress we have made, but she would also understand that there is improvement and that there is potential for more development.

HW 21: Dear Rascal

Virginia Woolf’s book A Room of One’s Own is a little hard to understand but let me try and help you out squirt. Virginia opens up with a description of what is to happen in the rest of the novel, and how she has to answer some of these questions she was asked to answer. The main question is women and fiction and she thinks about this idea in a couple of different of ways. She first visits the imaginary college of Oxbridge, this college is all men and women are not allowed in the library or the grass. She is making the point that women do not have rights at this sort of college and how upsetting and ridiculous this is. Virginia next has lunch at this college and realizes how nice it is, with the service and dessert, everything is perfect. Next she visits the college Fernham which is a women’s college that is located right near Oxbridge. This college is nothing compared to Oxbridge, this is because it is a women’s college and back in the 1920’s they were not as well equipped as men’s. Again this upsets Virginia and she then discusses the issue of women and why they were not able to leave anything for their children. I feel that she runs on about women and how they should be treated equally and how things should change for women in our society. This is good to hear and learn about, but Virginia seems to run on at some points and might become a little repetitive. Good luck Rascal and make sure you tell your teacher all the things you’ve learned from this chapter.

HW 21: Dear Rascal

Virginia Woolf’s book A Room of One’s Own is a little hard to understand but let me try and help you out squirt. Virginia opens up with a description of what is to happen in the rest of the novel, and how she has to answer some of these questions she was asked to answer. The main question is women and fiction and she thinks about this idea in a couple of different of ways. She first visits the imaginary college of Oxbridge, this college is all men and women are not allowed in the library or the grass. She is making the point that women do not have rights at this sort of college and how upsetting and ridiculous this is. Virginia next has lunch at this college and realizes how nice it is, with the service and dessert, everything is perfect. Next she visits the college Fernham which is a women’s college that is located right near Oxbridge. This college is nothing compared to Oxbridge, this is because it is a women’s college and back in the 1920’s they were not as well equipped as men’s. Again this upsets Virginia and she then discusses the issue of women and why they were not able to leave anything for their children. I feel that she runs on about women and how they should be treated equally and how things should change for women in our society. This is good to hear and learn about, but Virginia seems to run on at some points and might become a little repetitive. Good luck Rascal and make sure you tell your teacher all the things you’ve learned from this chapter.

HW 19: Let Our Soldier's Write

Why can’t we look at blogs from our soldiers across the seas in Iraq? This question was raised when I was reading the book Blog! for an assignment. I was reading the chapter Web of Influence written by Daniel W. Drezner and Henry Farrell. This chapter dealt with the blogging community and how it has expanded throughout the world. In other words, the chapter is explaining how popular blogging has become and now there are other countries in the world that are contributing to the blogosphere. What I found interesting in this chapter was a paragraph that described censorship in South Korea and the United States. South Korea had blocked some foreign blogs because it has been said that some of these blogs contain video recordings of a South Korean being beheaded in Iraq. But even more important, this paragraph says that blogs written by soldiers in Iraq have been shut down. Now the excuse for this is that sensitive information might be transferred, this is a bunch of bullshit. I am almost certain all of us know why this was shut down, because the army and the United States government have a certain image to keep. They don’t want a soldier telling stories of Iraq that might upset or raise controversy in the American public. I really don’t have a strong opinion about our involvement in this war and whether or not we should bring the troops home. My point is that while our soldiers are over in the Middle East they should have the right to express their experiences and feelings with the people they love back home.

HW 18: Giuliani, Dissapointing News

After asking us to find our least favorite blog post of the week, there was a feeling that I wouldn’t be able to find one that I would disagree with or just didn’t like. Surprisingly enough though it took me less than a full two minutes to find a blog that was upsetting to me. I found this blog through the Democratic National Committee: Blog. This article was about presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani and his recent comments that have got him in trouble with the public. He claimed to have added a certain amount of officers to the New York City Police force during his term as Mayor. This period was between the years of 1994-2000, it turns out that he was wrong about this number, and this caused a little more investigation into his other claims. It turns out that other things that Giuliani has claim to done in the past years have been found to be false or an exaggeration. This is not a huge deal to the campaign for his presidency but to me it hurt to read this article. I have been a strong supporter of Giuliani and the work he did in the city of New York but now he has been lying and I do not respect that very much. If you want to check this article out yourself check it out at http://www.factcheck.org/cop-counting_cop-out.html.

HW 17B: Answering Questions Behind the Scene

For this assignment we have been asked to pick a blog that would influence the way I would vote in an upcoming election. The two blogs we had to choose from were that of Markos Moulitsas Zuniga and Ana Marie Cox. When reading the interviews about both of these bloggers I came to find that Markos would have the greatest effect on my vote for the election. My first reason would be that I am a Democrat and that Markos seems to have a better grasp on the election and the truths that are behind each campaign. Ana does have an interesting and straight forward personality that helps her relate to the younger crowd but it is just not for me. When looking at the interview it seems that she takes these subjects of the election and the power of voting not as seriously as Markos does. Not to put her down because she is a much better writer than me but it seems that her work is just about the money. She wants to get money and do as less work as possible so she can live her life the way she wants to while Markos is there for the people. He wants to unveil the truth about democrats that are there for the money but not the cause. “One problem I write about on the blog, and that we’re going to try and address in our consulting work, is the influence that traditional democratic consultants and media firms have over the party. They’re not really interested in winning the elections. They’re only interested in making money” (44, Zuniga). When Markos said this I knew he wanted the people to know that even in his party there is many flaws, and I commend him because usually they try and cover these things up. He also has plans to use the money for the election in a positive and productive way. He wants to use it to help stock up on field organizers and developing strategies to help win the election for the Democrats.

Blog!, David Kline and Dan Burstein,
Quoted from Markos Moulitas Zuniga

HW 17: Desperate House Wives in Trouble with the Philippines

The blog that I decided to look at today was Global Voices Online- Thailand. On this website I found an interesting post that has caused a lot of controversy with the Filipino people. These people are responding to a recently aired episode of “Desperate House Wives”, a popular television show on ABC. In this episode one of the characters uses “racist slurs” against Filipino medical professionals basically knocking their profession. Now ABC issued an apology to this episode which was a whole paragraph long, and these people that are outraged believe they are due a more formal apology. After reading this post I have found that media and what is said even in fictional television shows are taken very seriously and are paid very close attention to. This was not the only response to this incident that had taken place on this primetime hit, there are 499 blog posts responding to this very controversial issue that is starting a fire under the Filipino people. In their eyes they contribute a great amount to the American medical society and are respected in their field. Also, in the Philippines people believe that their medical system is respected and should not be under ridicule and the butt of some jokes in American main stream media. I too believe that this was an uncalled for low blow at the Philippines’ medical society and there should be a more serious apology issued to the Filipino people. I know there would be uproar in America if a television show in the Philippines was taking shots at doctors in America saying that they were not credible. My belief is that treat others as you would yourself. But make your own opinion and check out the blog post at http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/10/04/philippines-desperate-housewives-apologizes-over-racist-slur/.

HW 16: Blogging Helping the Music Industry

While reading the chapter The Blog Business: It’s More Like Music Than Publishing, I became a little bored. Nothing against John Battelle, but relating business and blogging really isn’t my main interest in life. So I read the chapter as I was supposed to and then I came across the section that mentioned how small audiences can find their interests easier with the use of blogging. Then John brings up an example of this, he uses the producer Danger Mouse and how he got overnight success. Danger Mouse wasn’t a well known producer until he came out with the Grey Album which is a mash up of the Beatles White Album, and Jay-Z’s Black Album. John claims that with this Grey Album the word got tossed around the internet and people started reacting in an astonishing way. “He had something like a million downloads of his album in a week! It was really, I think, the first example of a smash hit in the music business that had nothing to do with a music label at all” (Battelle, 166). That is amazing to me, that he could have this much response in a week, and it is all because of the internet. After seeing this I had to learn more and actually looked up the album and listened to it. I really like Danger Mouse’s work and found out that he was part of another group Gnarles Barkley, I also like this group that he is in but never knew he was a part of it. The more important result of this reading and researching is that I did learn that blogging can have an effect on marketing and business. The way the information was presented this time though, with a current and interesting example helped me understand the concept better, so that may be a suggestion for others trying to get their point across. That is what blogs are trying to do essentially as John would say, trying to get that personal bond with the consumer.

Blog!, David Kline and Dan Burstein,
Quote is from interview with John Battelle

HW 14: Response to Nick Denton

Although some might disagree with a lot of points that are brought up in Nick Denton’s interview, I seem to agree with mostly everything he says. Hence, when Nick explains why he only hires unknown writers because of their fight and eagerness to get the news out, I understand this point. Actually I don’t just understand this point, I agree with it. After all when you let people that have had no chance to showcase their talent, they usually try their hardest to get the job done to the highest of their capability. Furthermore, Nick also gave his opinion that in some cases bloggers can be more credible than newspapers but most of the time it is the other way around. For example when a person wants to learn more about global warming, they would trust an article they would see in The New York Times than on blogger.com. That is exactly how I would of went about getting information for global warming because we have more trust in newspapers. Since the beginning of our existence we have been getting our news from newspapers and it would take the majority of our population to change our viewpoints, and trust the blogging world for our news. Therefore I take sides with Nick in saying that it will a while or even never before blogging is recognized as a credible place for Americans to get their worldly news.