HW 42: Third and Final Podcast

Gabcast! A Blog of One's Own #56

HW 36: Podcast

Gabcast! A Blog of One's Own #5




Our Podcast is Episode #5

HW 35: Letter to My Readers

Throughout the course A Blog of One's Own, I have maintained this blog over a 13 week period because it was involved with my homework assignments. From doing so, I have become to understand why blogging has become such a huge phenomenon, because it's so simple. When my teacher first mentioned blogging I thought "Oh no" this is going to be so much work to read and write a blog about it, but it turned out to be the complete opposite. For the future, I hope that my blog can help other students enrolled in this class that need help understanding the reading or just to get an idea of how the blog is used for the class. As well as I hope that my blog is informing and interesting for any other people out there reading it. I feel most proud about on all the blogs, I was able to fulfill the requirement easily, after doing the reading even if I did not understand the chapter completely, I was still able to complete the assignment with the knowledge that I did have of the story or chapter. After this course ends, I do not think that I will continue to write blogs but I will not be deleting it. I think that I will keep the blogs up so that later on I can look back at and kind of like an old photo album that are juts fun to look back at or like a diary from when you were a kid that you can look back at and remember the things you discuss in it. There is not much else I wish to tell me readers except that blogs are a simple thing to use for any type of communication that you want to have and that writing in a blog is not necessarily something you can explain but kind of like something you have to experience for yourself.

HW 34: Why Gold's So Important and What evening tea means to Iraqi's

All cultures and all people love gold, it's pretty, looks delicate and is a nice gift for any occasion. In Iraq gold is a way for the people to say money or earn money becaues the value of gold does not fluctuate like the value of a dollar does. "People began converting their money to gold-earrings,bracelets, necklaces-because the value of gold didn't change" (Riverbend, 100). Often times, when the houses get raided, the troops clain that they take the gold because they find it hard to believe that people "like that" can actually own gold. But often times gold is given as presents at wedding and baby showers, etc. just like they are in our society. As a way of not getting their gold taken during the raids, many families often if they know there is going to be a raid put on all their gold jewelry and try to cover it up with their clothes such as bracelets that can be covered by long sleeves. Like gold, evening tea is also a large part of their life in Iraq. Tea is drinken at breakfast,midday,evening and with dinner. "Iraqi tea isn't a simple matter of teacups and teabags. If you serve "teabag tea" to an Iraqi, you risk scorn and disdain-a teabag is an insult to tea connoisseurs" (Riverbend, 108). Although Riverbend states the evening tea is not as formal as it sounds, the fact that they make tea a special way and serving teabags is unacceptable shows that evening tea is still quite important to their daily lives. At evening tea they have casual talk like families all over the world, but they also discuss blockades, war strategies, bombings, and politics. Reading this book has increased my knowledge of cultural literacy because even tho people say that everyone is unique and each place has it's own culture and is different, that is not necessarily true. Although we may do things different most places often do the same type of traditions but in a different form.

HW 33: Podcast, Challenges at a Girl's School

I chose to watch the podcast called "Challenges at a Girl's School in Baghdad". It was made on May, 21, 2007. The podcast talks about the Al Safina Middle School in Adhamiya serves kids all over Baghdad. In the podcast, the children discuss how regardless of all the violence going on that their education is very important and they plan to keep on learning and keep going to school. The director of Al-Safina, Jinan Jamal Mahmoud discusses that not only schools in Adhamiya have issues but schools in all districts because when the Americans are searching the area, certain roads and bridges are blocked off preventing the children as well as teachers from getting to school on some days. They question on of the girls and ask her if she is afraid of explosions and shooting that she hears and she answered "No" because she is used to the sounds. In many of the district schools, numbers of girls has dropped out and been forced to go to different schools because of the difficulties in getting to school and how is they miss school, it is hard for them to keep up in their studies. When they show the outside of the school, it has murals painted on the outside but not much color, faded almost, not many people outside because of the dangers.

For a viewer watching this video, it can show them the fears and issues that this war is having on young children and how it is even affecting their education which is unnecessary because education is one of the most important thing in a child's life.


http://aliveinbaghdad.org/2007/05/21/challenges-at-a-girls-school-in-baghdad/

HW 32: KBR

On page 78 in Baghdad Burning written by Riverbend, the Ministry of Oil tells S that if he is not part of KBR he should not bother to do anything. Everyone was wondering the same thing, who is KBR? What do they do? E. believed the KBR was a committe type group like the CPR, Riverbend though it was just another company. They finally learned after about a week that KBR stands for Kellogg, Brown and Root, a subsidary of Halliburton (Riverbend, 78). KBR works with construction and engineering for the communtiy. KBR is know for more then just constructing, in fact in 1997 KBR was sued 6 million dollars for overcharging the American army on Plywood. The Rashid Hotel is know the headquarters on Kellogg, Brown and Root. Riverbend says, that in other words, foreign companies can never own all of the oil industry but they can have a job in running it, just like they could never fully own Iraq but they can have a part in running the Governing Council.

HW 31: Al Amriyah Shelter

In Baghdad Burning Riverbend discusses the Depleted Uranium which I had no clue what it was. Riverbend said that the Depleted Uranium was a term that all Iraqi's knew of and that it had something to do with the rising cancer rate in Iraq. Riverbend dicusses how the depleted uranium poisoning affected children being born with no face, a single eye, or even three legs (Riverbend 47). After reading what Riverbend had said about the DU, I still was confused, after some research I found out that the DU is what is left after the removal of an isotope Uranium-235 (Wikipedia). In past year the DU has also been known as Q-metal, depletolly and D-38. Although it contains only Uranium, it is barely radioactive but the external radiation is about sixty percent of the same mass of uranium with the isotope. The DU is used for military weapons and because of its radioactivity it is toxic to mammals because of the compounds that are inside it. The organ that is at the greatest risk of being affected by DU is the kidneys. However, Wikipedia states that because it is weakly radioactive, the Depleted or Natural Uranium has never been proven to have resulted in human cancer.

HW 30: Citizenship Symposium 1,2 and 3

The Symposium at Keene State College that I attended was called "Citizens Gone Wild" and the speaker was Nancy Tobi. Nancy first started off by talking about Moses who led his people to freedom by democratic law. Nancy grew up in Lexington, Ma which is know as the birthplace of liberty. Nancy's speech mostly discussed about how the state of New Hampshire votes, and how their votes are counted. In New Hampshire all votes are supposed to be counted and sorted in an open meeting, but most often are not. Eighty-one percent of NH votes are counted by a secret vote counting software, which is not good because the only things that are supposed to be counted in private are the ballots. There are two ways that she discussed on how votes can be counted, a hand count vote with community counters, which is only about nine percent of how NH counts, and then the Diebold count which is eighty-one percent of how the voted are counted. In 2003, a CEO Wally O'Dell created the Diebold count and said "It's not who votes that counts, it's who counts the votes". However; the people that run the Diebold count are not able to be fully trusted for these reasons, one is an embezzler who was caught for alterating computer forms, another was involved with the Watergate burglary and another one was also a cocaine trafficker. So are the NH votes really be counted correctly? How can we be sure that the vote counts are not be changed? We can't be positive, but one way to get the votes to be counted in an open meeting is to bring it up with a petition in your town meeting. What I took from her speech was that votes are extremely important to the well being of our country and that the ballots should be counted by hand and not machines because they have a larger chance of having "the glitch" and needing to do a recount. There is a 4.4 error rate in using machines to count votes, which is unfortunate because that error rate is part of the eighty-one percent of the NH votes.

The second Symposium that I attended was "Citizenship and Responsibility" by Tom Lantos. Tom Lantos is a Holocaust survivor in which I think it was incredible just to hear him talk because although the Holocaust was such a terrible time, it is still interesting to meet people that could survive a time like that. Katrina Sweat, Tom's daughter introduced him as one of the only holocaust survivors to be elected to serve int he US Congress. The main topic of the speech was "America did not teach men the idea of freedom, she taught them how to practice it". At first i did not understand what he meant by that by by then end of speech i realized that he meant that in America everyone is free and welcome to their own beliefs and morals and are not forced to anything where as in other places in the world they are not as lucky. However, America did not create freedom but it is one of the places that it is allowed to be used. Throughout the speech Tom discussed America's history and how we achieved our freedom. At the end of the session, Tom closed the speech by mention the two main things our upcoming president may do. Bring our country together domestically and rebuild the prestige. In the whole speech, just by listening to him, you could tell that Tom was enthusiastic about everything he mentioned, he never made his speech boring and I was interested throughout the whole symposium.

The other Symposium that I attended was called "Iraq Body Count: Real people Fake numbers". I was interested in this speech because first it was by Steve Clark, an professor here at Keene State and because, while reading Baghdad Burning I realized that I do not know much about the issues going on in Iraq and that this speech would give me a little more information to what is happening. One thing that Steve said was that "Iraq is not as dangerous than our nations capital Washington D.C which was quite shocking to me to hear because it meant that both places are almost the same. He proved this point by showing the statistics that just as many people that die in Iraq from the war is about the same amount as people that die in DC.

HW 28: An Open Letter to Riverbend

In Baghdad Burning, you discuss all of your interactions and feelings that you had to go through living in Iraq during this time. Reading some of your blogs I am shocked at how you handle yourself, because I know that if I were in many of those situations I am not sure what I would have done exactly but I would not have reacted as calmly as you have. "Today a child was killed in Anbar...Do they show that on Fox News or CNN?" (Riverbend 8). I think that this is a horrible thing that kids so young are being a killed and you are right by saying that no one even notices because they never talk about this like this on the news which are just as important as what cities have been bombed and the attacks. On page 11, when you and your brother E hear the bullets, and you immediately start guessing how far away what kind of gun and whether it was "them" or "us", I think it is incredible but also extremely sad that you hear those thing so much that you have started to determine all the information about the gun shots. "Females can no longer leave their homes alone." (Riverbend 16). That statement right there is absolutely ridiculous, yes there is war going on and it is very dangerous to be out of the house, but to completely take away a women's freedom is just unfair. Yes it is one way to protect a young girl or wife from getting beaten and have bad things happen to but it's just another way for them to show that they have more power over you. April 9, 2003 as you said, was a terrible day for you, your friends, family and all of Baghdad. I however, do not know much about it which is unfortunate. You say that American troops were everywhere, killing, bombing explosions all over the place and Iraqi people getting hurt. Since this was such a tragic day for people in Baghdad, i think that it is important for people in the the US to know about it and have knowledge about days like this however I was completely unaware of this day. Living in the US who you happen to be at war with is weird when reading your blogs, because as you describe everything that you have been going through many of the occurrences that have happened people here as well as I are uninformed about some of the tragedies that have been going on there.

HW 27: Annotated Bib

Riverbend. Baghdad Burning:Girl Blog From Iraq.The Feminist Press. New York 2005.

Baghdad Burning is about an a girl from Iraq that writes blogs about her daily life and the dangers she endures while living in Iraq during the time of war. Her blogs are so enticing that many of her readers begin to use them as their most important news source about things going on in Iraq. This book fits into the course Blog! because is the course we discuss how blogs are such a large phenomenon now and how many people do use them as a news source just like a newspaper and this book shows that the things we discuss are true. From reading this book, we will learn what it was like for this girl to live during the time of war and try to understand what war is like for anyone that's around it through their perspective. Many people think that Riverbend can not honestly be Iraqi because she has Internet access and the knowledge of how to use it but these are just horrible stereotypes that have been made about Iraqis.

HW 25: War, War and More War

In the foreward of the novel Baghdad Burning: Girl blog from Iraq written by Riverbend, the author whom is also the narrarator discusses her blog in which she writes about her adventures in Iraq. "I wish" "every person who e-mails me supporting the war,safe behind their computer, secure in their narrow mind and fixed views, could actually come and experience the war live" (Riverbend, vii). Riverbend is basically stating that although people may agree with the war, they really should experience the type of situations people in the war are placed into before that agree for it and send people out to fight. Her point of the foreward is to tell the audience that throughout the novel she is going to be telling her point of view on the war as it is experienced in her eyes. In the introduction, Riverbend describes her own characteristics and information about her blog. "And to many of her readers, these entries have become perhaps the most important source of news from Iraq" (Riverbend, xi). Riverbend does say that her blogs are important to others but this quote reaffirms that her blogs are so in depth and captivating that her readers use it as a news source. I think it is amazing that her blog is so interesting to other people that they are encouraged to learn and want to find out what is going on with the war instead of just agreeing or disagreeing with it. Riverbend also goes on to describe the Gulf War which occured during her teen years. She also discusses the war during 2003 which is still going on. Basically by the end of the introduction, Riverbend has discussed many important wars that have gone out throughout her life which she writes about in her blog on how it affected her life and why she now is in Iraq.

I support Soueif and Ridgeway when they say that after the war of 2003, the US never regained control to try and win or even stop the war, everything just got out of control and turned into and even bigger disaster then needed. With all the tragedies that had happened throughout the war, none of the money was spent on healthcare or sanitation in Iraq to try and help any of the people that got hurt within the disaster, all the money was spent on more weapons of mass destruction.

HW 24: A Room of My Own

We have made much progress since these which can easily be seen by how many books have been written by women, and simply the fact that women can do and go anywhere that they please without consent or being accompanied by someone. In the very beginning she finds a book written by Mary Carmicheal that she sits down to read. In the library she says "There are books on all sorts of subjects which a generation age no women would have touched" (Woolf 79). She is saying that a while ago all these books in this librarby would have never been toched by women until now because they were not allowed into the library.

As for a room of my own, I have two. I have one which is my dorm room and another at my home in Mass. Both rooms are extremely comfortable and a place for me to go an relax or just hang out. My room is a very important place to me because i spend so much time there whether it be doing work, watching television, or hanging out with friends. "The rooms differ so completely;...are hard as horsehair or soft as feathers" (Woolf 87). This quote may not be very important but to me it seems that she is saying that a room can be anything. A room can be calm or is can be thunderous, if a room is full of candles and beautiful aromas, it peaceful and calming. But if you walk into a room and it is dirty with loud music and dark, it's thunderous. My room is a light pink, with a black white and pink comforter,many pillows to match, pictures all over the wall and a large closet, to me it is peaceful to other people it may seem girly, or sporty with the trophies up on shelves, everyone has a different perspective on how a room may look to them.

HW 22: Patriarchy

Woolf said that the paper in England proved patriarchy because it is proving that men have more power and are more important then women. "A film actress had been lowered from a peak in California and hung suspended in mid-air" (Woolf 33). After she says this quote, she talks about the man in charge of the paper and how he can control almost everything in the world except for how foggy it is. When she says "With the exception of the fog he seemed to control everything" (Woolf 34) it shows how much power everyone in England really believes how much power this man has over all of the people. Although women do not have as much power as the man and it is foolish for them to even wish they had that same power, it seems as if all men are always writing about women. So although women are not as "important" as men, people are always talking and writing about women as if the world revolves around them.

I went and looked at the New York Times and I do not think that it would give someone the idea that the US was ran like England under a patriarchy. On the front page of the paper, it does not focus much on women vs. men or anything along those lines but mostly on government related topics.

HW 21: Dear Taylor

Dear Taylor,
I agree with you 100% that this book is extremely difficult to read, not to mention that the beginning of books are never very intersting so it makes it harder to keep reading and comprehend what is happening. In the first chapter, the narrarator introduces herself as "Mary Beton, Mary Seton, Mary Carmicheal or by any name you please-it is not a matter of any importance". She is basically saying that knowing her name is not imporant because it is going to be her that is known not necesarily by her name. She starts by discussing women and fiction and what is can mean. "A women must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction" (Woolf 4). What she means by this quote is that fiction is unsolved, it has many mysterys that anyone can interpret the stories how they want to and everyone person will do so differently. "Mary" attends a luncheon, at which she overhears a man humming a song about women and war but not in a positive light, which offends her. When hearing the song being hummed she thinks back to how at college, Oxbridge and Fernah, the women are inferior to men the women cannot even enter the library without a letter allowing them or the company of a student at fernham. After the luncheon, she then goes back and thinks to herself what she should write about, women and fiction but what to actually write about. Basically this chapter talks about the difference between men and women and how men were shown to be more powerful and important then the women back in these days. I as well am having a hard time understanding the completely basis of the chapter but I hope I helped you out!

HW 17B: DailyKos or Wonkette?

DailyKos would be more likely to influence the way I would vote in an upcoming election because the writers take it more seriously then the writers at Wonkette do. Markos Zuniga talks about how writing for DailyKos is more like a job because so many people read it and because it is such an important part of his life. He gets roughly 500,000 visitors daily to his site because he is so passionate about the elections that he writes about it is as if he is an expert. Ana Cox however discusses how while she is writing for Wonkette she can be lazy and not have to work very hard. Basically in that statement she is saying that it is not that important to her and that she does not do much where as DailyKos is a very serious blog site. Cox also says that she likes how the people that read her blogs feel like they have a connection or relationship with her but her writing for Wonkette is not the real her "Wonkette is me after too many margaritas". I just think that saying that also reduces any important value that people had of her blogs and kind of reduces her amount of people reading it because she is basically saying it's almost like made up stuff.

HW 19: Web of Influence

On page 85, Daniel Drezner and Henry Farrell in the second paragraph, talk about how blogs are having such a large impact on US Politics. Many blogs have discussed how peoples posts can have such a large impact on the outcomes of votes nad political elections and things but I just find it so hard to believe. My point is that although many people can go on and comment about who should win the election or what to vote on with their school board and things like that it seems that just because blogs are written and people are reading and commenting on them does not mean that people should be persuaded by something that a random person wrote on the internet. Trent Lott resigned as a U.S Senate majority leader in 2002 because of the inflamtory comments he had made at Sen. Strom Thurmonds 100th birthday party that people had been talking about in an online blog that had recieved major media coverage. Essentially, I am arguing that clearly using Trent Lott's issue, blog conversations really do have a large impact on people and the media but people should not be easily swayed with their opinions and decisions just by what has been put on the internet.

HW 18: Torture in the USA

I read a blog written on Feministe called Torture in the USA and I did not like this blog because the basis of it was just a little disturbing.http://www.feministe.us/blog/. This blog reports people kept in secret foreign prisons with no connections to lawyers or legitimate rules of the law. In these foreign prisons, the guards watch over the prisoners with cattle prods, stun guns and dogs in case they get out of line or act up. The guards use foul and unnecessary language when talking to the prisoners yelling out orders at them just to watch them suffer. Many of them men are ordered to strip naked while doing the orders for the guards so that when they do not do it right and a dog bites them of they get shot with the stun gun, it does more damage to their body. I acknowledge that it is important for people to know about the secret prisons and what goes on in them so that they can be stopped but it is just a disturbing article to be written about and they include a video showing what exactly goes on. I also think that Feministe does not have the reputation to be writing about prison camps and the brutality that goes on in them. It just seems weird that this blog was written on this particular page especially with such a disturbing video.

HW 17: Girls destined to be Babysitters?

I chose a blog called "Is it every little girls dream to babysit? One video game company thinks so" from the blog Jezebel.http://jezebel.com/gossip/low-score/is-it-every-little-girls-dream-to-babysit-one-video-game-company-thinks-so-306751.php I find this blog intersting girls love to shop and love clothes and who doesnt find babies adorable? But this blog discusses how becaues of stereotypes, girls dont like cars and war and so therefore they won't like bloody, or racing video games. But recently studies have shown that women own gaming consoles (they often hold many of the high scores). World of Warcraft is atleast 40% shopping but shopping is not only what girls like. Shopping is definatly one of the popular things that girls love to do, however; it is not the only thing that they do in their spare time and video games made for girls should not only support those stereotypes of typical girl video games. Ubisoft games that have been made for girls ages 6-14 have mostly been games promoting, babies, fashion design and girly sports games which many girls may enjoy to play but some may prefer other games. Alice Taylor argues that just because babies and clothes are popular with any age girl, that Ubisoft's new line of "girl-orientated" video games is basically supporting the stereotype of girls only liking girly things.

HW 16: Five Pillars of Conversational Software

Scoble discusses five things that made blogging hot, these five things he refers to as the five pillars of converstional software. The first pillar that he talks about is "ease of publishing".When Scoble refers to what made blogging hot and says that it has a lot to do with the ease of publishing, it means that it is simple and a quick task to write a blog and have it published. Publishing a blog can take up to 3 minutes, where as publishing a book can take years. Blogging is an easy way for people to put their opinions out there without taking a longtime, therefore their thoughts can be published easily. The second pillar is "discoverability". If a person writes a blog for the public to see, anyone can read it, a journalist, a movie director and keep track of them over time if the blog catches their interest. If a director is reading someones blog everyday, and he see's potential for that person as a writer or actor, that person could easily be discovered as was Scoble by a Microsoft executive because the executive followed his blogs for five months. The third pillar that made blogging hot was "cross-site conversations". When Scoble refers to cross-site conversations, I am not sure directly what he means but he says that he can see who is linking him with trackbacks. So I assume that it means if someone is to read his blog they can go back and forth and recieve updates for when Scoble writes a new blog so that they can go read the blog immediatly. The fourth pillar was "permalinking". Permalinking means that if a person is looking for a blog written about a certain topin, they can type in any key word that may be used in the blog and it will take them directly to a post written about or using the key words. Such as when looking for something using Google, a person types in the key words that they need to find information about and many links come up. The same thing can be done with blog posts. Then the last pillar that Scoble chats about is "syndication". Syndication is a large word that i am not famliar with but Scoble says "I never had to give any marketing information or my email address and it just organized itself" (Kline and Burstein 130). It makes sense to me that when Scoble talks about the fifth pillar syndication, he means that he can see many peoples blogs, and possibly even comment if he feels the need without having to give a the blog writers all of their information to just lookover their blogs. Basically because this person has a blog and it is open to the public eyes, anyone can read it without having the writers permission and having to give them all of their information. These five points, also referred to as the pillars of conversational software by Robert Scoble, are the five important things that made blogging such a hot phenomenon.

HW 14: Joi Ito's Interview

In Joi Ito's interview they ask him what he thinks about the blogging phenomenon of 2005 and he says that the tools to create and publish content have become affordable where as it used to require a good amount of money to become any type of creater or publisher. In other words, years ago to become an investore required money, a good education and many other things, but now you can have any type of job and manage to be a blogger, creater or anything without being wealthy. Along the same lines, Ito discusses how things are the computer are connected to the network so they are basically not in the owners control, any computer can get virus's and spam regardless of what protecters they have set up on the computer. In addition to people being able to read about, write about, and comment on whatever they want, in blogs it is very easy to ignore something that it not important to the reader, or if someone writes something interesting it is easy to find it.

HW 13: Blogs Will Change your Buisness

"Blogs Will Change Your Buisness" written by Stephen Baker and Heather Green talk about how all companies have some sort of blog whether it be so promote the company or an employer talking about the companies secrets.I think that the impact of blogging on buisness is more important then the impact of bligging that is not buisness related. I feel this way because if there is a blog written that talks about the good qualities of a company and basically promotes what the company stands for and makes a good name for the company, their buisness will most likely be imprved. Likewise, if a blog is written about how the company is unfair and the products are not worth the money and basically trash talks about a company or a specific product, the company will decrease in popularity. My discussion on the impact on blogging of buisnesses is in fact addressing the larger matter of companies having to watch their employers and make sure that they have a code of privacy that protects people form talking about their upcoming products,of personal company issues or anything that the public should not be informed about."Potential customers are out there, sniffing around for deals and partners. While you may be putting it off, you can bet that your competitors are exploring ways to harvest new ideas from blogs, sprinkle ads into them, and yes, find out what you and other competitors are up to" (Kline and Burstein, 223). Basically every company has secrets that need to be kept within their employers because if customers find out the entire buisness could go downhil depending on what the company is hiding.

HW 11: Making Global Voices Heard

I looked at Jeff Ooi's Blog (http://jeffooi.com) which interested me because his website is said to have become popular because he dares to criticize the Malaysian government. Ooi talks about how the Malaysian government does not listen to the citizens concerns about the way the media works. Jeff Ooi's blog is written in a an almost note type of blog, instead of writing out paragraphs and stories, he states basic points about things that he thinks is important. In the interview, MacKinnon states that he questions and bash on how the Malaysian governments ignores the thoughts and concerns of its own community. Of course many others will probably disagree with the assertion that Jeff Ooi's blog is different then what it is said to be. To me, his blog seemed to talk about many different topics, however government regardless about the Malaysian was not a very big subject in his recent posts. People that disagree with my previous allegation, may say that he writes about many issues going on in the world that are a cause and effect type of thing although the blog may not have to do with the immediate Malaysian government, or any of government for that fact. Nevertheless, both followers and critics of Jeff Ooi will probably suggest that regardless if he talks directly about issues with the government that everything he talks about can make a difference in the world because if people are being persuaded by what he is saying then they can make a different to their government personally then by Ooi trying to do it over a blog.

HW 9: Punching Holes in Old Faded Mirrors

After reading "Punching Holes in Old Faded Mirrors", and interview with Arianna Huffington I feel that I can relate to her the most with the statements that she makes. Huffington says, "But with blogs an enormous amount of people have become their own reporters. They are driven not by the assignment desk but by passion. When they decide that something matters they chomp down hard and refuse to let go." (Kline and Burstein, 344). I agree that in blogging when people write they write about things that they care about, unlike reporters who are often told what to write about even if it is not something they care about because my experience as a college student is that when you are forced to write something that is not important to you, you do not try as hard to write a good essay or do well on a test. Huffington says that blogs are now a vital news source in our country, maybe even more then the news on television. " We thought this vitality would come from a five-hundred-channel universe, but what we ended up with was the same conventional wisdom endlessly repeated." (Kline and Burstein, 345). I disagree with Huffingtons view that the news is not as vital because the same covers stories are often just repeated on every channel because, as recent research has shown althoghut newspapers and television are not as popular as they used to be back in the day thousands of people still get their news from these sources. Huffington makes many points that are easy to disagree or agree with depending on a person perception and how they want to interpret what she says in her interview.

HW:7 My So-Called Blog

I think children should be able to express themselves on their blogs without having to worry about if their parents are going to read them. There are some things that children can talk to their parents about and some things that they can't, so they go to their friends to talk about their issues. Shy kids may have a hard time talking to their friends about something personal such as their depression or parents divorce so they write it on their blog so they do not have to have a face to face conversation with anyone that may make them feel uncomfortable. In "My So-Called Blog" by Emily Nussbaum, many of the kids write personal things on their blog that should not be written, I think under certain circumstances parents should be monitoring what their children say online however I do not think that they have the right to spy on their children and read what they write unless the child knows that they are doing it. Children need certain boundaries when it comes to using the internet depending on their age just to make sure that their children and others are being safe and not causing harm to themselves or others. Many of the children talk about personal encounters and problems on the internet to fit in and so that others will read their blog and comment and maybe somewhere down the line they will become friends. Emily herself writes "As the reality television stars put it, exposure may be painful at time, but it's all part of the process of "putting it out there", risking judgment, and letting people in." (Kline and Burstein, 352). Blogging lets the children know that they are known by others and that they are being listened to. On sites like LiveJournal, and Blurty, the children can read anyone’s blog even if the two are not friends besides on the internet. According to Emily, "It's a drama heightened by the fact that the journals are linked to one another, creating a constant juxtaposition of posts among the students."(Kline and Burstein 355).
What is all comes down to is that children do need to be monitored but only on a certain basis. The children do not need to have their parents going online and reading each blog that is posted because although the children are writing on a public journal/blog, they must be writing about things that they are not comfortable to talk to their parents about so reading each blog is like reading their diary.

HW 6: Semester Long Research Paper

The three social computing technologies that I am interested right now are, social networking services, instant messaging, and text chat. I find social networking services a fun way to talk to your friends, things like facebook and myspace are almost like e-mail and instant messaging except it's more fun because you can look at your friends pictures and see what they have been up to. If you have not seen a friend in a long time because they went away for the summer or went to college or moved these services are a fun way to see what they have been up to and how they are doing. Instant messaging is an easy way to talk to friends and family without costing money or taking up a lot of time. People can talk online while they do something else, it's hard to be on the phone or talking to someone in person while you are writing a paper because you have to answer back immediatly and forget what you were going to write down. On instant messaging you do not have to answer back immediatly but you can also just talk to them whenever you want. Text messaging is a big thing with teenagers today because we like to be in constant contact with our friends incase something funny or serious happens that we need to tell them but we cannot talk to them on the phone or in person because they may be in class or at work or just doing something where it is not okay to be on the phone at that time.

For empowerment of marginalized groups I am most interested in overcoming racism and overcoming sexism. I am interested in overcoming racism because I grew up in Framingham, MA which is a very diverse town, however other towns may not be as diverse so when they do come to a town like Framingham they sometimes have a different attitude towards people of other races because they are not used to being in such a diverse region. Sexism is an issue although it is not as big of an issue as it used to be. Sexism still exists today but in different ways that people do not notice as much but it does still exist.

I think I will start looking at the US and North America to find out about the technologies because both countries are very technologically advanced.

HW 5b: "I Blog, Therefor I Am"

"I Blog, Therefore I Am" written by David Kline, discusses that because blogging has become such a large phenomenon that it may possibly take over the mainstream media. I do not deny that blogging is getting more popular everyday but I disavow that it will ever be so popular that it will take over mainstream media. Kline observes that since the 1990's the amount of people reading the newspaper has declined rapidly, but people are still getting their news and important information from media. Blogging is not something that people do as a job or as something that they must do in their everyday life, but it is something that people do for fun. The mainstream media does involve people whose job is part of the media and it is something that they must do everyday to make a living so I think that it would be impossibly for blogging to completely take over the media. Since not as many people are reading books and writing as much as they have in the past, Kline believes that people will start to use "Netspeak" instead of using proper spelling and grammar, however; language classes will still be taught to people of all ages so I do not think that people will just stop using correct english when reading and writing. Anything can be put on the internet, so there is a possibility that anything a person reads on the internet could be false. Kline insists that all companies may come to a downfall if they do not have a blog because of how much attention blogging has been getting. Blogs are a good way for people to talk about their opinions and beliefs that have over something they heard on the news or on the radio, if blogs are going to become a way of getting our news and information we cannot be sure that it will all be truthful.

HW 4: The Voice of the Customer

Greg Thomas believes that "Great brands are always built on promise" as he says in "The Voice of the Customer" in Blog! How the newest media revolution is changing politics, business, and culture. In my room, I have a bottle of Febreze to make my dorm room smell good. Febreze has a website that they use to give people information and sell their products. The Febreze slogan is "Febreze: it's a breath of fresh air" and they declare that it will add simplicity to your life. They claim that it will add simplicity to someones life because as soon as it is sprayed the room will smell fresh and amazing and all it takes is one spray of the bottle. They say that the smell of the fragrances and fresh air will welcome anybody into the house because it just has that fresh aroma and that no matter how bad the smell was in the beginning, Febreze can handle the job and get rid of the stench. Febreze however is not made to just cover up the odors but to get rid of them completely. "Make your space the place to be!™ With Febreze products, you can keep the air and fabrics throughout your home smelling fresh and inviting."

I think that Febreze does do a good job of making a room smell nice and clean but the smell does not last as long as they say it does. The room defiantly smells good after you spray it and it is a very easy way to make something smell nice, so it does add simplicity although depending on how bad the smell was in the beginning they may have to spray a few times to completely deodorize the room.



The Frebreze website:
http://www.febreze.com/en_US/febreze/home.do

HW 3: Toward a More Participatory Democracy

In Blog! How the newest media revolution is changing politics, business, and culture written by Dan Burstein and David Kline, they talk about how a person just simply expressing their opinion about a political debate or election in a blog can change the voters opinions as well. In the chapter "Toward a More Participatory Democracy" it states that a well written and explained blog can change the votes of thousands of other people. I think that it is amazing that just because one person expresses their opinion in a blog that others are able to read and comment back with their own opinion, has the power to change other peoples opinion. Although people may read these blogs as just something to do in their free time, often after they read it they start to question and/or agree with what the writer was saying. Of course people that read the blogs and those who don't are still getting information from other sources of media, however; people that read the blogs are the voters that actually engage in political discussions rather then those who just believe what they hear on television or a radio.

Hw 2: Bursteins 12 Key Ideas

Dan Burstein and David Kline write about 12 key ideas in Blog! How the newest media revolution is changing politics,buisness and culture. Bursteins sixth key idea is "Blogging is going global". Basically saying that it is not just a select few amount of people that are using blogging. I can relate to this because when I think of blogging I think of text messages. Everyone uses it, adults,teenagers and children all know how and often use text messaging whether to just ask a quick question or tell someone a story without having to actually communitcate. A lot of people write blogs while they have some spare time at work or just hanging out at home as a way of communicating and that is what texting is to me because I have to be constantly talking to people and having some sort of conversation. In blogging people can comment back and they can have a casual conversation over the computer as many people also do with cell phones.