Monday, October 29, 2007

HW 25: Responding to Riverbend

The foreward is a very short description written by Ahdaf Soueif explainining the blog of Riverbend. It is written before the introduction which gives some background information. He focuses on the blog, "Baghdad Burning" written by Riverbend. It allows the reader to associate more on the emotional level than the physical with the war in Iraq. Her blog is also important because she incorporates the reader in to her daily life and throught the posts is able to share some of her family history as well. He then goes on to explain the purpose of the book and how there is a fair amount of politics when it comes to the issue of war and this book. The book is meant to change the minds of those people who do not know or understand the Arab and Muslim people living in the world around us. The introduction on the other hand, is written by a man named James Ridgeway. He goes in to much further detail about the young women, "Riverbend" who calls her blog "Baghdad Burning." His main point was to emphasis her background and culture which is what makes her so unique and what captivates others to read her blog. He describes the reasons for our American troops going overseas and fighting in the war for oil, and other such things. He then does a flashback to the Gulf War and after to show how over the years our country has continued to fight violently with others, and how the results are devastating. More importantly, the 1991 Gulf War left Saddam Hussein in power, which we all know, ultimately led him to punish the Iraqis and commite further attacks and damage. Finally, what he almost talks the most about is the 2003 War. He states that the Bush administration determined the war to be a "mission that was accomplished." However, this is not the case at all. "The United States never gained enough control to restore any sort of order" Ridgeway 16) What shocked me the most was the facts and details that he listed. The maximum number of civillian deaths was 17,000 by late October of 2004. I remember that when we first went in to Iraq there was a lot of confusion and fear because as a country we did not know what we were up against facing. In the text most of things that describe the war are very factual and descriptive. What was very interesting for me to read was about Saddam and how he was a Sunni Muslem. Ridgeway states, "Saddam is a Sunni Muslem, and his political apparatus was largely managed by a middle class of educated Sunnis, most of whom lived in an area around Baghdad referred to as the "Sunni Triange" (Ridgewater 22) Personally, not knowing that much about the war, my own opinions of it are very different than what I read because I gained so much more knowledge about it than I had ever known before.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

HW 24: A Room of One's Own

How I have a room of my own is on a deeper level then just the physical. I believe that I do have a room of my own. Virginia Woolf described this in chapter five when she stated, "For women have sat indoors all these millions of years, so that by this time the very walls are permeated by their creative force" ( Woolf, 87) For women, this enables them to have thier own creative power, and it is this power which is a woman's own room. She also talks about the importance of women not being ignorant but taking a stance for themselves. It is her goal that we act for what is right and just for us. In chapter six, Woolf states that, "There must be freedom and there must be peace. Not a wheel must grate, not a light glimmer. The curtains must be close drawn. The writer, I thought, once his experience is over, must lie back and let his mind celebrate his nuptials in darkeness" (Woolf, 104). It is not the importance of materialsm that makes up a person's room it's their own opinions and ideas that make it their own. Woolf wants for a woman her room to be a reflection of who she is. My basic room has four walls, furniture, is very color and has familiar things. However, on a deeper level my room is my own space. A place for me to explore and let my mind wander off. In the last two chapters of the book, Virginia Woolf spoke a lot about the difference between men and woman and the difference between the sexes. I personally agree that each of us have our "own room". However, it is different for each and every person because it is whateverwe want it to be. I personally agree with the narrator in that women have had a lot less freedom then men have, especially when it comes to writing and expressing their own thoughts. Therefore my very own room is where i can think deep about everything that has happened over the past few years and how it has shaped me as well.

HW 23: Responding as Virginia Woolf

"With Apologizes to Virginia Woolf"

When I came across a website on the computer titled Jezebel at http://jezebel.com/. Here there was one article in particular which caught my attention. It was titled, "Otherwise Engaged" and I was throughly disgusted with what I read. Is it still the exception for women to be so mistreated compared to men? It is not up to the man to choose her life. As it was in my time, it was the exception for women of the upper and middle class to choose their own husbands, and when the husband had been assigned, he was lord and master, so far at least as law and custom could make him. All the conditions of her life, all her own instincts, were hostile to the state of mind which is needed to set free whatever is in the brain. However now the man is taking his power to far. The woman needs room to breathe. We should be thankful all women do not get caught up in such foolish games. Although I fear of women being degraded in writing I am pleasantly happy and suprise to see women being able to choose their own husband. Arranged marriage is a thing of the past and something that doesn't occur very much anymore. I still strongly believe that it the woman is important in her own right too. Imaginatively she is of the highest importance; practically she is completley insignificant. It saddens me to see the way in which my actions, and woman are still being mistreated. I still deeply feel that their right is being taken for granted, that the right of freedom is being too easily overlooked. Fiction is like a spider's web, attached ever so lightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners. Just because theses mere mishaps are occuring more and more they eventually will lead to something dangerous that will and can spiral out of control. I hope that day never comes.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

HW 22: Chapter Two (Woolf) Under the Rule of Patriarchy

The definition of Patriarchary is a society in which fathers are the powerful responsible heads of their families and households, and by extention, a society in whcih men hold a disproportionately large share of power. After reading chapter two of, "A Room of One's Own" it was very clear that Virginia Woolf supported this very well in her writing as well. The point of her paper is how men have everything and women have nothing compared to them. She states, "Nobody in their senses would fail to detect the dominance of the professor. His was the power and the money and the influence (Woolf)." In other words, it is quite clear that man have all the important things and rights such as power and money and it seems foolish of a woman to try and fight for the same things. Due to this, she is talking and proving how England is a partiarchy. According to Virginia Woolf women seem to be the center or main source of everything that is going on or needs to be talked about, and it is the men that take the inititive to make it noteable and obvious to others. For example, in this chapter it was all about women and one prime situation in which they were in a divorce court and a particular female actress was being devalued. After I read this chapter, I went on the internet and went to the New York Times website. However, I found the site to be extremely different than what I had just read in chapter two. I personally believe that, it wouldn't give a "transient visitor to our planet the impression that the United States is a patriarchy" because it is too hard to tell. The website mainly had topics and pictures that were government related, as they should be. It discussed speeches, elections, and everyday events and situation between the United States and our foreign counterparts. One of the major differences that I would like to state, is that compared to the book the United States has taken great leaps and overcome a lot. In the first chapter of the book, the main character or narrator is unable to walk on a certain part of the path because at that time, women we're not allowed to walk there, only men. Being a woman myself, I know that although there are still some minor differences between men and woman, overall we have been given the right to vote, own property and have good paying jobs that are of the same equality as men. Eventually, I believe that patriarchy will be diminished to nothing.

Monday, October 15, 2007

HW 21: Chapter 1, A Room of One's Own (Woolf)

Dear younger brother,
After reading chapter one in, "A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf it is very clear the importance of the chapter and how Woolf tries to explore the idea of women and fiction. In this chapter, Woolf was asked to speak on the topic of Women and Fiction. This is the beginning of the chapter where she suggests her thesis that, "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction." She says, she must take a detour through fiction: "I propose making use of all the liberties and licenses of a novelist, to tell you the story of the two days that preceded my coming here—how, bowed down by the weight of the subject which you have laid upon my shoulders, I pondered it, and made it work in and out of my daily life." After this, the essay is written in narrative. The narrator in the story sits on the banks of a river at Oxbridge pondering the question of women and fiction. She compares it to a metaphor by comparing her ideas to fishing. As soon as she gets a "bite" a university security guard enforces the rule that women are not allowed to walk onto the grass. She hurries back to her place on the gravel path and says that her "little fish" of an idea was lost. From there, she views the univeristy and surrounding buildings. She describes the wealthy, "And thus by degrees was lit, half-way down the spine, which is the seat of the soul, ...the profound, subtle, and subterranean glow which is the rich yellow flame of rational conversation." Her attention is then distracted by the sight of "a cat without a tail, something very unusual to see to the common eye. However, it triggers her brain to a time before a war. She also, describes a meal at a place called Fernham. She continues to jump from one place to another. However, i really enjoyed the end of the chapter because it is when the narrator ponders why whether or not women have always been poor. She then thinks how different things would be, "If only Mrs. Seton and her mother and her mother before her had learnt the great art of making money and had left their money" for the education of their daughters. The importance of this quote is that it emphasizes the transformation of our social classes, especially women, over time. I believe that this chapter was extremely informational for people to read because it entitles them to ponder the same questions and ideas that the narrator possesses. It also would be influential for someone who is interested in English and writing because she references many different authors and books in her examples. Many people could relate to these and be able to make their own opinions about her thesis.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

HW 19: Applying Graff Chapter 10 to Drenzer & Farrell's "Web of Influence"

I choose to pick a paragraph from "Web of Influence" which is about blogging and how it ties in politics and the media's reaction to it. The paragraph described how, "The most noteworthy was CBS News' acknowledgement that it could not authenticate documents it had used in a story about President George W. Bush's National Guard Service that bloggers had identified as foreigners." (Burstein and Kline 90) The importance of the paragraph is that it showed the parallels in the decline of journalism and the post also goes on to explain whyt here are so many problem between what the media broadcasts and the actual truth, which is often posted on blogs for people to comment on. "Their often blatant partianship discredits them in many newsrooms." (Burstein and Kline) In other words, the main point that I got from reading this paragraph, and mainly why I chose to post a comment on it was because it was explaining how blogs influence people and provide information that most people won't normally tend to focus on, let alone, read about. "It was really just the first time people could read about them." (Burstein and Kline 90) I found this to be very true. Often what people read in posts on a particular blog is something that attracts their attention or is part of another post so they wouldn't necessarily have choosen to read about it. My point is, that I personally feel that blogs are very important for this reason. Yes, blogs have their own problems but for the most part these problems are what people want to know about. For example, a Professor at Yale University named Jack Balkin said, "The blogoshpere has some built-in correction mechanisms for ideaological bias, as "bloggers who write about political subjects cannot avoid addressing (and, more importantly, linking to) arguments made by people with different views." (Burstein and Kline 90-91) Everyone wants to read about the faults or problems that are occuring in the world. It is what draws people in and somehow makes them feel better about their own lives. Drenzel and Farell both state that, "The reason is that much of the blogoshpere is devoted to critizing what other people have to say." (Burstein and Kline 91)

Monday, October 8, 2007

HW 18: Least Favorite Blog Post of the Week

When I went to the link for, “Blogs I’m Watching” I clicked on the link to one of the blogs that I've been watching. The name of the blog was Feministe at http://feministe.powweb.com. I went through the posts over the last seven days and came across a post about the war in Iraq. The title of the post was, “Torture in the USA” filed under Racism, Torture, Assholes, Crime, Race & Ethnicity. It was a very serious issue and extremely hard to stomache when reading. The post described how there is a lot more violence and problems going on in American then we are even aware of. In the post, it states, “People kept in secret foreign prisons without access to lawyers or rule of law aren’t the only ones being tortured – our domestic prison stystem condones torture and abuse as well.” (Jill- Feministe) The post then goes on to describe how prisoners are being treated unfairly in prisons. Personally, I am someone with very mixed opinions on the war in Iraq but I know for a fact that I completely disagree with the way in which our military was sent over to Iraq and the way that they are being treated and handled. We need to respect them for human beings and realize that they are giving up their lives to protect the lives of others and their country. I didn’t really enjoy the post, not necessarily for the way in which she spoke about the war and the people who fight in it everyday, but just the gruesome and disgusting tactics. It is hard to say what is true and what is not but it is definitely somewhat unbelievable to believe that anyone could ever be treated this way. The post really made me rethink my thought on the war in Iraq.

HW 17B: Applying Graff Chapter 9 to Zuniga

After reading the two blogs there was one blog in particular that motivated me the most. The blog that would most likely influence the way I would vote in a coming election would be, "Blogging the Presidency" with Markos Moulitsas Zuniga. He states that, "The name of the company is Armstrong Zuniga (armstrongzuniga.com) and Jerome and I do what we call "netroots consulting"- building and leveraging online communities- for political campaigns and interest groups." (Burstein and Kline 44) I really liked this blog opposed to the other blog because its primary focus was on that of the elections and political campaigns. Zuniga states, "It's all very stealthy, you know, because nobody wants to come out and take on the consultancies publicity." (Burstein and Kline 45) I really liked this blog because Zuniga realizes that the topics he is writing about are very controversial and that most people probably will not like the things that he says. However, he is willing to take that chance. His blog is extremely informational and contains a lot of valuable information. Furthemore, many of the political activists go on these sites, especially blogs such as his which is a political blog. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about his blog and then going to the actual site because it gave me a clear overview of everything that he was about and believes in. I also learned a lot about politics and how his blog was a way for other people to stay connected with one another and form opinions about their favorite political leaders.

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Hw 17: Favorite Blog Post of the Week

I browsed through the posts of the last seven days on my list of three, "Blogs I'm watching" and chose to read posts on Jezebel's weblog at http://jezebel.com/. On her weblog I came across one post in particular about celebrities. Jezebel's is mainly about celebrities or Hollywood and all of the gossip that goes on related to it, which is mainly why I am interested in her site. The title of the post I found most intriguing was, "Britney Spears Chooses Starbucks Over Court-Date." The post described how Britney Spears has lost custody of her two young boys, Sean Preston and Jaden James. " After three hours in court (Kevin Federline showed up, Britney Spears did not) a family court judge decided that Kevin will retain custody of the kids. For now Britney is allowed monitored visitation. There will be another hearing on Oct. 16." (Jezebel) It was sad for me to read the post because it seems that so many of the celebrities that we are meant to look up to as young people are failing us. I will admit that I was a huge fan of Britney Spears and her music when I was a teen, and even up until recently. However, it wasn't until all the recent news and scandalous things that she has been doing that has really turned me off from her. In the post, other people commented on what they thought of her as well, for example, Perez Hilton who is a noted celebrity trash talker. "Is Britney checking in to a Caribbean rehab facility this weekend," he jokes for how calm she could be at a stressful time like this." I completley agree with him. You would assume that with her world falling apart, and now, losing her kids, Britney would have a wake up call and try to turn her life around. Is their hope left for this fallen star? Only time will tell but for right now, the light at the end of the tunnel seems to be barely visible.

HW 16B: The Five Pillars of "Discoverability and other Golden Qualitites"

Robert Scoble, who worked at Microsoft believes that there were five main things that made blogging "hot". To begin with, Scoble speaks of something that he refers to as "RSS." He says, " RSS is the technology that corporations should pay more attention to than even blogging." (Burstein and Kline 130) The initials RSS stand for "really simple syndication" which in other words means it allows a blogger to offer his Weblog for people to subscribe to, as well as to attach valuable links and news that he finds from other websites. Scoble believes that there are many different things that went along with RSS that hepled to make blogging "hot" or as popular has it has become today. He refers to this as the, "Five pillars of controversial software." The first pillar is "ease of publishing." In order to have an affective blog you must be able to publish blogs that people will want to read and that they can easily access to post comments on. The second pillar is "discoverablility." You must put your blog out there. First, start with interesting title, colors, and pictures to draw people to your site. Most often than not, people will end up at a certain blog because they came across something that they liked or were attracted to. The third pilar is "cross-site conversations." Often when writing on one person's blog, multiple people will comment on the same topic or idea and you've already initiated a conversation with them wihtout even knowing it. It's actually quite neat how one person's ideas and thoughts can be intrerrupted in many different ways by various people across the web. The fourth pillar is "permalinking" or linking on your site. For exampe, if you have a quote, or picture you should include a link so that the readers can read up on more about it or find other sources that are related to the same thing. It makes your opinion and ideas a lot more understandable and believable. The fifth pillar is "syndication" which is the last S of RSS. Scoble states on page 130, "Syndication started in the late 1990s, and it means that I could see a large number of sites, and not only that, but I got them on my terms." (Burstein and Kline 130) He also states that he never had to give any marketing information or his e-mail address which is a good safety feature. All of these five pillars are what Scoble believes helps someone to run a safe, organized and correct blog.