HW 42, good bye blog

http://www.gabcast.com/index.php?a=episodes&b=play&id=8538&cast=52014&autoplay=true

last podcast

HW 37 Thanksgiving Podcasts

My pod cast link --> Gabcast! A Blog of One's Own #30

HW 36, first podcast

http://www.gabcast.com/index.php?a=episodes&b=play&id=8538&cast=49844&autoplay=true

Gabcast! A Blog of One's Own #12

HW 35 Letter to KatieE readers

Dear Blog Readers,
Blogging these last 13 weeks has been a very interesting assignment. I’ve learned a lot from maintaining my blog. I have learned different ways so write and express my thoughts. I have learned how to create a blog in general and how to look on other people’s blogs. I hope that that people who read my blog just understood what my thoughts were and where I was coming from. I hope they were easy to read and I hope they were somewhat interesting. I am just proud in general that I learned how to blog. I am proud that I started incorporating different words or word phrases into my writing when it was not the easiest thing to do. I do not think that I will keep blogging on a general basis however I am not going to delete it. I don’t want to delete because maybe one day I might just want to write and express what I am feeling. I hope my readers continue blogging and I hope my blogs were some help to you if you were reading the same books that we talked about. I wish everyone the best of luck in the future in the blog world!

HW 34 Evening tea and Palm trees in the life of Riverbend

Evening tea in Iraq is very important. No matter what everyone is doing and how busy they are they always get together in the evening to wait for their tea. It is nothing like sitting down and having some tea in the U.S. Riverbend explains that tea in Iraq is not just placing a tea bag in hot water; you actually go through the process of making the tea. She states “First, is kettle of water is put on the burner to boil. Next, the boiling water and a certain amount of tealeaves are combined in a separate teapot and put on a low burner just until the tealeaves rise to the top and threaten to “boil over”. Finally the teapot is set on top of the tea kettle on a low burner and allowed to “yihder” or settle” (pg 108-109, Riverbend). She then describes how the tea is “flowered” with cardamom and served in istikans which are glasses in the figure of an 8. They usually have a light snack with the tea for example something like bread and cheese. One thing similarity from Iraqi evening tea to US evening tea is that they sit and make conversation. The conversation in Iraq usually consists of kidnapping, abductions and things going on in the war. Riverbend states how the topic of choice today was on the Turkish troops. I have never heard of date palms until reading Riverbend. Date palms in Iraq are useful for so many different types of reasons. There are over 300 different kinds of date palms. Date palms are used as one of the main sources of sugar in Iraq. Riverbend explains how people use dates for all different types of things like vinegar or “khal” and date syrup that you can eat with either rice or bread and butter. There is even a purpose for the low-quality dates which are used as animal food for sheep and cows. Riverbend states “My favorite use for date pits is . . . beads”(pg 104, Riverbend).

Challenges at a Girls School in Baghdad HW 32

The title of the episode was called Challenges at a Girls School in Baghdad and it was a post in the series of Alive in Baghdad. The post was created on May 5, 2007. A link to this video pod cast is http://aliveinbaghdad.org/2007/05/21/challenges-at-a-girls-school-in-baghdad/. This video is about the problem with these young girls trying to get and education. In the podcast many young girl students are interviewed along with the teacher and the director of the school. The director of the school is Jinan Jamal Mahmoud. In the video she is seen sitting on a stool by a plain white wall. She is wearing a red and white shirt and a white Vail to cover her hair and neck. Her face is round and pale with red lip stick and eye shadow on. She talks about how she is worried about these children loosing and missing out on their chance to get an education. She talks about the teachers at the school and how they all have a whole range of experience. The school looks really run down and dirty. The white walls are cracked and there is little sun shinning through the window. The children are sitting by wooden desks and there is a black board for the teacher to write out notes on. From watching this video a viewer would learn how hard it is for these young girls from Baghdad to get an education. I hope that a viewer would watch this video and be thankful for the kind of education they are getting and the life that they are being able to live. This is different than any other news cast or video I have watched from Baghdad because it was so real. I felt like I was almost there giving the interview. I also have not seen this topic really mentioned or I have not heard of much concern about these schools in Baghdad. The most interesting part of this video to me was watching these children respond to the interviewer. I thought they were so mature and brave. One girl stated that she did not fear at all. Other children just answered the questions without even thinking as if it was no big deal. One student stated how she didn’t have difficulties getting to school, but when the interviewer asked if there were accidents she said yes, all the time. It seems to me these children are getting so accustomed to this way of life. I just think that it is so depressing and horrible and I could not imagine being in their shoes.

Riverbend's shops for school supplies HW 32

In this blog Riverbend talks about how in general this academic year is going to be different. She starts off by telling us about how she goes on a school shopping trip with her cousin, cousin’s wife and E. They look for school supplies for Riverbend’s cousin’s children. She describes the color erasers and whinnie the pooh and Barbie notebooks they pick out. She states “It felt a bit ridiculous-four grown people all out shopping for Barbie notebooks and strawberry-scented erasers . . . but I knew it was necessary” (Rivebend pg 95). After buying the school supplies they go back home where Riverbend’s parents were watching the kids. She tells us how the older child liked everything but the younger child was mad because she didn’t like whinnie the pooh anymore. The next morning Riverbend’s cousin took the girls to school. There were a lot of people in the school but the classrooms where empty with no furniture the only good thing was the broken windows had been replaced. The teachers had been asked this year to “not teach specific topics in the history and geography books” (Riverbend page 97). Riverbend’s cousin met with the teacher and other fathers to discuss security and that they agreed that their children would bring in small stools to sit on during class. For security they agreed to always have a father outside the school to guard it and they would switch off days. Riverbend described how the way kids used to leave and come to school “They always looked crisp and clean in the morning”(Riverbend page 97) “By 2 o’clock the majority of them are straggling home after school in little groups”(Riverbend page 97. She says how things are going to be different this year. She talks about how her cousin’s wife (S) is going to feel lost without the children while they’re at school. S states “It felt like they took my lungs with them- I couldn’t breathe until they got home” (Riverbend page 97).

HW 31 Rumsfeld

In the reading Baghdad Burning Riverbend talks very negativly about Donald Rumsfeld so i was interested to see what the web had to say about him. While searching the internet the first thing i came across was actually a cartoon making fun of him. I knew that i couldnt just listen to the cartoon to get all my background information on him so i looked him up on wikipedia. Wikipedia states " He is . . .the 21st Secretary of Defense under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2006. He is both the youngest (43 years old) and the oldest (74 years old) person to have held the position, as well as the only person to have held the position for two non-consecutive terms, and the second longest serving, behind Robert McNamara". That showed me his background but it really didnt interest me much. I then found a quote that he said on MSNBC "If you are a historian, you know that throughout the history of our country, there have always been things that need to be done where lives are put at risk," Rumsfeld said. "And this country wouldn’t be here if people hadn’t been willing to put their lives at risk." I do not think that Riverbend would react to that well. Riverbend states "And now hes going back to America to give a speech about how he dosnt know what anyone is talking about when they say chaos"(Riverbend,page 51). I just think it was kind of funny how all i have been reading about from Riverbend is how stupid and disrespectful he is and then the first thing i find on the web is a cartoon making fun of him, dosnt that say somthing? I still would like to further my reasearch on Rumsfeld but for now i am indeed agreeing with what Riverbend is saying and now i feel i have more knowledge by reading what she is blogging.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4871859/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Rumsfeld
http://www.toostupidtobepresident.com/shockwave/rumsfeld.htm
Baghdad Burning Girl Blog from Iraq by Riverbend

Keene State College Citizenship Symposium

I atteneded two speeches for The Keene State College Citizenship Symposium. The first speech i went to was supposed to be held by Bob Steele, “The Media Mosh Pit: Journalists, Bloggers, and Citizens in the Dialogue vs. Diatribe Dance" but instead it was a man talking about voting and the different ways to count votes. I came in late to the speech due to a proir class so i never caught his name. I thought that the the speech was very usefull and helped me learn somthing that i knew absolutley nothing about. He talked about how there are different ways that they count up the ballets in voting( somthing i had never known about). The most interesting phrase that he stated to me was that " different methods produce different results". I thought that was interesting because how do you know what method to use, or the question really is what is the right method to be used? I think the method that seemed to make the most sence to me was the Plurality- With-Elimination method. This method basically means majority wins. Whoever has the most first place votes is the winner and i think that is how its supposed to be. I thought overall the speech was informative and interesting but some what boring in the way it was persented. The second speech i went to on Thursday was “Animation as Political and Social Constructions.” KSC professors Jiwon Ahn, Sander Lee, Mark Timney. I thought this was an extremley interesting and enjoyable presentation. The first speaker to talk was Jiwon Ahn and she talked about Tokyo Pop. She showed pictures of chinese animation and drawings. When describing these pictures she stated things like "Men act and women appear" and she described a certain picture by saying "Thus she turns herself into an object often naked, also either beaten, mutalated..bleeding ect". I thought that actually looking and taking apart these pictures was really interesting.The second speaker was a man named Sander Lee who talked mainly about cartoons. He focused on two cartoons Bugs Bunny and Donald Duck. He talked about the message that these cartoons were actually portraying about events like WW2 and Hitler. I thought that the certain things he pointed out in these cartoons were so eye catching. Watching these cartoons as a kid i would have never looked past the kinds of way things cartoons were portrayed. The third speaker and my favorite Mark Timney talked about the show South Park. He played a an actual show from South Park about the War in Iraq. The show was funny but yet i didnt really know how to act because i didnt know if it was wrong or not to laugh. South Park is a satire it poked at issues like "going to the war and then say we never wanted to". The question was does South Park make us even more cynical of our government? To be completely truthful i had no idea on how to answer this. I thougth over all this Session of speechs was by far my favorite out of the two.

An Open letter to Riverbend

Dear Riverbend,
I am taken back by your blogs. Living in the United States you hear about these bombings and raids but to tell you the truth I never really sit down and think about how awful it is. Hearing you talk and explain in detail what is going on makes me feel useless and horrible. I was shocked when you told us in your blogs that women were 50% of the working class and that they received same pay. In the United States women don’t even receive same pay with some jobs. I can’t believe your job was taken from you after the raids and I couldn’t imagine having to walk out on the streets always having a body guard by my side. I feel awful for the poor innocent families and children that are getting killed during these bombs and raids. I have nothing to complain about your writing because everything you say makes total sense. If I were you I would show no compassion for the troops that are killing my people. You talk about how you feel bad that it’s so hot and that they are getting yelled at. You live your life in fear every day. I don’t understand how the US troops invaded a school and killed children and I think its weird how I never heard of that happening. I like reading your blogs because it shows me the true war. I get more information from reading what you write in your blogs rather than watching the news. I cannot imagine being in your place and having to live with the fear that you do.

HW 27 Annotated Bibliography, Riverbend

Riverbend. Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq. The Feminist Press at the City University of New York 2005
This book is about a 24 Iraqi girl who survived the war. She talks about her feelings and beliefs on the war and the people in charge. She is a strong and powerful speaker and really makes you feel as if it you were there. She writes this blog to inform people what she is actually going through and what the Iraqi citizens go through in their everyday life. She captures the reader with the details and intensity in her words and stories. People will be shocked and intrigued when reading her blogs. There is nothing boring about this book because it is all true. She takes the war apart and gives you a better way of looking at it. I know that to me the war is confusing and it seems like in skimming her book that she makes it easier to understand. I think that the reader who reads this book will be truly touched and angry after finishing it. She has to go through every day hoping that she doesn’t die, hoping that the Americans don’t bomb the bus she is on or capture her family. This book will teach you what it is like for theses ordinary Iraqi families living in the war.

HW 26 "eager to read"

While reading the foreword by Soueif it made me really eager to read about Riverbend’s blog. Soueif really focused on telling us how the book was written and how Riverbend really explains and lets us into her life. Soueif states that “Baghdad Burning brings us as close to the war in Iraq as it is possible to be (page 1 foreword)”. From what I understand after reading Soueif is that Riverbend writes blogs almost weekly on her everyday life, which isn’t in fact so ordinary. She talks about how Riverbend sits on the rooftops with her brother “z” and watches Baghdad burn. Soueif lets us know before reading the book Riverbends feelings on Ahmad Chalabi, Riverbend states “I stare at him when he gives his speeches on television and cringe with the thought that someone out there could actually have thought he was representative of any faction of Iraqi society”( pageix). In the introduction written by James Ridgeway he focuses on what and why this war is actually going on. He talks about the background of Riverbend’s culture. He then gets in conversation about the Gulf War and how that leads into the 2003 war. Some of the things he talks about shock me because I never really knew much about the war. I will be honest I don’t keep up with the news and what is going on in the war even though I know it is important to do. One thing that was most surprising that I read was when he stated that ‘The Bush administration appears to have determined to go to war against Saddam as a primary foreign policy goal well before 9/11. Maybe I am just being naïve but I always thought we went to war because of what happened during the tragic events of 9/11. I think my impressions of the War are more like the way Soueif writes about it. I didn’t know all the details and problems that lead us to war like Ridgeway writes about. All I really knew is that we invaded Iraq and many were killed. All I knew and still know today is that I think it needs to end, I think it is time to get our troops home.

HW 24 Do you have a room of your own?

Do you have a Room of Your Own?

I think I do have a room of my own. I am not talking about my own room at home or my dorm that I share with my two roommates, but a place or a state of mind where I can go and just think without holding back. Virginia Wolf’s message is that women must have a room of their own in order to have the freedom to create. “The rooms differ so completely; they are calm or thunderous; open on to the sea, or, on the contrary, give on to a prison yard; are hung with washing; or alive with opals and silks; are hard as horsehair or soft as feathers- one has only to go into any room in any street for the whole of that extremely complex force of femininity to fly in one’s face (Wolf, pg 87). Everyone’s room is going to be different because that is what makes it yours. I don’t think any women would have the same room because all women think differently. Wolf also states that “ I am talking about the common life which is the real life and not of the little separate lives which we live as individuals- and have five hundred a year each of us and rooms of our own; If we have the habit of freedom and the courage to write exactly what we think"( Wolf, pg 113). Women are now starting to get freedom in our world. We are now getting the chance to write what we feel and act how we would like to act. I think a room of my own is the freedom that I have. I have freedom to go where I would like or wear what I want. It has not always been that way especially for Virginia Wolf. She always knew that that was what women needed in order to step forth in the world and I think the life that women live now at least in the US do have a room of their own.

HW 23 "Has anything really changed at all"

“With Apologies to Virginia Woolf”

I am in disbelief of what I am reading. I don’t know wether to be filled with happiness or sorrow. A women hitting a man and getting away with it, well that seems out the question. I do belive that men think they are less vonurable to get hit so why not hit them? I know to some that might seem cruel and inamaginable but from what I had to go through in my past I am in shock. Don’t get me wrong I think there has got to be a better way to work things out, but it is suprising to see how the roles are starting to change. Well back in my day women were getting beaten from their fathers, loved ones, and just men in general for not following “female roles”. It seems to me now that things are starting to change. Women have had enough of the orders and unfairness that they are treated with, its our turn for people to start taking us seriously and if that means hitting a man to wake him up a little bit, then for all means wake him up!. I think this blog is quite histerical until I came across one of the readers who stated “Notice how when women are in abusive relationships they tend to blame themselves, but when a guy gets smacked by two different girlfriends, feminism must be at fault? Yeah.” I started to have relapses of when I had to give a speech on women and fiction. Maybe things aren’t changing in the macroscopic view of things. I mean sure some minor thing might be changing but when you look at the bigger picture has anything really changed at all?

HW 22 "Patriarchy dead or alive"

Patriarchy OptionWolf states " The most transient visitor to this planet, I thought, who picked up this paper couldn’t not fail to be aware, even from this scattered testimony, that England is under the rule of a patriarchy (page 33)". She says this after looking at a newspaper that was previously left on the table. She states that on the front page of the paper it says things like "Mr. Justice___ commented in the Divorce Court upon the shamelessness of Women (page 33)" and "Actress had been lowered from a peak in California and hung suspended in mid air (page 33)". I can see why Wolf would state such a powerful comment. I think that because Wolf is starting to really look at Women in Fiction she is starting to notice how they are being treated all over the world. When i looked on the Boston Globe website to look at a newspaper here the first thing i noticed was the way it looked. There were a lot of pictures of men on the front page. I couldn’t really tell by reading the articles that i would state that the US is patriarchy but it’s something i do notice. Right now i am in a Women’s Studies class where we go over this topic all the time. Its kind of hysterical in a way to think about how many things are left unsaid for women and the way that the male gender still does run alot of the way we live. I do however think that it has got a lot better and that women are starting to take on more roles in our government like Hillary Clinton running for president. Women i think are starting to take a more powerful stand, but i do still think men are the more dominant figure in our society.

HW 21 "Trying my best to help" Virgina Woolfs reading

Dear Emma,Reading Virgina Woolfs book is a very difficult read. I don't know how much help i can give you because i myself had probably just as hard of time reading it. After reading chapter one i picked up a couple of things. It seems to me Virgina Woolf might have some kind of problem, social problem but i am not positive, it might just be the way i read it. In chapter one the narrator has been asked to present a lecture about women and fiction. She is indecisive on the way to answer that. She feels the need to talk about women in general the need for a room of her own. I think she means maybe independence for women to write about what they feel or want. She asks you the reader to call her Mary and I think the setting is on a riverbank. She sits there and thinks about what women in fiction mean. A lot of the chapter i think she is going back to her past and recalling certain situations or events that help her ponder the idea of women in fiction. Your teacher might want you to read this because it is a different type of reading. It will be good for you. I myself have never read anything quite like Virgina Woolfs writting but i think it will be a good learning experience. It is really difficult to read and understand. If you

HW 19 Influencing US politics

The paragraph i concentrated on was on page 85 in Web of Infulence. It was how blogs are already influencing U.S politics. Consider Jimmy Or , the white house internet director, for characterized the "blogosphere" as instrumental, important and underestimated in its influence. For example the chapter talks about how Trent Lott, who resigned as U.S Senate majority leader because "inflammatory comments he made at Sen. Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party". The chapter talks about how there wasn't much attention about this on the news and mainstream media but the blogosphere was full of it. To take a case in point, i think blogosphere covers alot of different types of news then the mainstream. My conclusion then, is that the blogosphere is becoming really popular all over. It is influencing U.S politics in more ways then one. It also is influencing U.S politics more then the main media which is a pretty big deal. I what if people actually just go on blogs to find out the news instead of watching the television.

HW 16 Favorite Blog of the week

I know the assignment was to pick a particular blog, but i couldn't find just one that i really liked. I will tell you however my favorite site for blogs is definitely Jezebel with the link, http://www.jezebel.com. I like reading about all the gossip and crazy, random information she writes about. Jezebel is easier for me to read then the other blogs because its something i actually enjoy reading. It is basically like reading a magazine online, its great! She writes a lot about celebrities and their dare i say interesting lives. She also writes about such random things like "snuggle parties with adults". I did read one of her blogs about Dieting in the UK which was actually surprisingly some what serious but still easy for me to read. I also came across one of her blogs today that was talking about how theres actually a costume this Halloweens to be an anorexic girl. I wish i would have read that one before i submitted my "most depressing blog" cause i couldn't believe the pictures and the article i was reading. I mean i know it has its comical side, but i am sure it was degrading to some. So in conclusion my favorite blog site is definitely Jezebel because its easy to read and also pretty interesting.

HW 18 "depressing blog of the week"

The blog i choose was from jezbel the link is http://jezebel.com/gossip/food-for-thought/-308155.php. I choose this blog not because it was written poorly or because i didn't like the way the blog was showed i choose it because it was a depressing topic. I thought it was interesting to read about but after reading it i was like, wow that's really depressing. The blog was about dieting and weight conscious teenage girls and boys. Its says that "over one-third of 13-18 year old girls in the UK are on diets or have dieted recently", i thought that was crazy! Its not just girls either the blog also states that " 14% of boys admitted to dieting and 25% ate fewer then 800 calories a day". When i was reading the blog posts from other people it came across how alot of boy wrestlers do starve themselves so that they can get into a underweight group or braquet. Anyways this was the least favorite blog post i read this week and i hope that this issue gets better espically in the UK.

HW 17 B-> Could the answer be both?

Which blog would be more likely to influence the way you would vote in a coming election?
I think i would be more influenced by Markos Moulitsas Zuniga because it is more serious and i think more important then the information that Ana Marie Cox writes about in Wonkette. However the answer that i would like to answer this question is would be both. I would be influenced by both these blogs, i think reading both of them would keep me informed about different things in the election. The Daily Kos is very serious and is a liberal blog advertising network. Wonkette is completely different. I really liked reading Ana Marie Cox's interview because she was so down to earth and that is exactly what her page is like too. She does not use all formal words or phrases she writes as if she is a teenager writing about gossip. She says things like "Oh, and she put up some remarkably crappy personal web pages in 1999." or "Well, she went to Pat Robertson’s college, so she’s a Jesus-freak nutbag." I would read her page to find out all the gossip dirt for the election but i would read The Daily Kos to find out the major issues around the election and whose doing what to stop it. So i think a mix of both these blogs would be good in influencing the way i would vote for the election.

HW 16B-> explaining the 5 Pillars

I chose to focus on the five pillars of conversational software because they were something that i was confused about and wanted to research them a little better. The first one that Scoble mentions is the "ease of publishing", i thought this one was pretty easy to understand. The ease of publishing means that it is really easy to blog and to publish your work. Its basically just the click of a button and your published. The second pillar is 'discoverability'. Scoble states that " it helps with tags and pings that let services like PubSub and Feedster get on top of the blogosphere". So if i had to put it into my own words i would say that discoverability lets you discover everyone else's blogs and lets you see whats going on in the blogosphere. The third pillar is cross-site conversations. I think this is the part about blogging where you can see what people are writing back about your blogs. Scoble says this is "where i could see who was linking to me with trackbacks". The fourth Pillar is permalinking. When i typed permalinking into Google to see if i could get a definition a British blog popped up. The blog was called TopGold and it talked about permalinking and how you need to have feeds to have a blog. I guess permalinking enables users to click through directly to a review of interest. The last pillar that was mentioned was Syndication. Syndication is the sharing of content among different websites. Thats where the name RSS comes from, really simple syndication. Wikipedia states that RSS is a family of wed feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries.

HW 14 Interview with Nick Denton

To summarize the “Take an Obsession, Then feed it” , an interview on Nick Denton, he pretty much talked a lot about the topics of blogging that we have been going over in class. Specifically he talks about how people are losing their interests in newspapers and now looking for the top stories on blogs. Also, a point of his that I thought was interesting was when he talks about hiring an unknown writer for his blog sites rather than hiring someone with records in media. For example he says “ So when looking for new writers , we don’t look for resumes, and we don’t look for great clips, which are often less a guide to somebody’s writing ability then they are a guide to the editorial ability of the person whose been line- editing them”. In other words I think that what he is trying to say is that it’s hard going from being a journalist and trying to write on blogs because it is two totally different styles of writing. Although it is true that people say blogs represent more of an evolution than a revolution Denton states that “Sometimes an evolutionary process can be dramatic enough that it has the effect of a revolution”.

HW 13- Business blogs or Communication Blogs..whats more important?

From reading the past assignments I think that the impact of blogging on business is more important than blogging on communication. Even though I think it is more important that does not mean that I do not think that blogging on communication is not popular or important. Stephen Baker and Heather Green write in “Blogs will change your business” that “if a company can track millions of blogs simultaneously , it gets a heap map of what a growing part of the world is thinking about, minute by minute”. They also made a good point by noting “Think of the implications for businesses of getting an up-to-the-minute read on what the world is thinking”. Blogging can really help businesses see and understand what they’re customers are thinking. Blogging can help businesses promote and grow. I think that the impact of blogging on communication has to do with the impact of blogging on business. Its individuals (customers) that are blogging about these businesses that are helping them grow. Ultimately what is at stake here is the businesses reputation. Businesses do however have to be careful about what they’re promising or saying on their blogs and they have to watch what are other people might be saying that could hurt the business.

HW 11

I chose to look up the blog holder [holder.com]. This blog is all about the problems that Iran has to face and is facing with in today’s society. I don’t really understand a lot of what I was reading during this blog because I am not familiar with these problems. The blog has some pictures on it and has a lot of different blogs on it. Some of the blogs are in a different language. Some of the blog posts are topics like “Rejecting military attack shows nothing about where one stands. The right question is if one approves or disapprove of the economic sanctions” or “Ahmad Zeidabadi's comment on a recent post on his (and many others') attempt these days to paint Rafsanjani as a moderate.” MacKinnon states that hoder’s blog is “responsible for triggering thousands of Persian blogs both within Iran and amongst the Iranian Diaspora”. She also says that these blogs are one of the few places that young Iranians can speak their minds. I agree with what MacKinnon says. I think it does give young Iranians a place to speak their minds and they get a chance to see what others think about the issues and concerns that they have to deal with. Although I grant that some young Iranians might be a little taken back from this blog or scared to post, I still maintain that its good way to get young people from Iran a place to talk.

Hw 10

“A weblog that saved my life” which was an interview with Ayelet Waldman was a very interesting read. I was surprised to find out that this author and mother of four children had a blog. It was kind of disturbing to see what she wrote on her blogs. This reading actually made me not want to have a blog because I don’t want to see things about sex life, suicide and personal problems in other people’s lives. I think she took blogging too far. I agree with Waldman up to a point, that blogs do help people get their worries and problems out. However I cannot accept the way she put herself out there on blogs. Maybe that’s just because I have never experienced or felt the way she has, and maybe the blog is what she needed for her cry of help. I’m of two minds about Waldman’s claims. On one hand I agree that blogs really do help people out especially women who are going through pregnancy or rough times and you just need someone to talk to. On the other hand I’m not sure if I would put myself out their like that. I don’t know if I would preach how I’m feelings or my worries to people I don’t even know. She however was lucky with what she did because like she said it probably saved her life.

HW 9 My so called Blog

I think this is a hard topic to really take a side on. I think that parents need to be aware of what they’re kids are doing or who they’re talking to online but they need to watch their boundaries. I know that I wouldn’t want my parents checking up on my facebook everyday to look at my pictures or see who I’m talking to. So I think I agree with the statement “Parents should not monitor everything that their middle school children are writing online”. I agree with this because it says should not monitor everything. Which means to me that the parents should not be oblivious to what they’re children are doing online but give them some privacy. Being a teenager or a middle school student you don’t want your parents to always know how you’re feeling. Like it says in the reading “My so called blog” by Emily Nussbaum when she interviewed a boy referred to as J. He stated that “it’s better than therapy” (Nussbaum page 352). When you talk to your therapist you don’t want them to report everything you said back to your parents, it’s all about privacy. J also says “a way to get out his true feelings- all the emotions he thought might get him in trouble if he expressed them in school or at home (Nussbaum page 352)”. This makes my point by saying sometimes kids just need to vent and get their feelings out without their parents trying to know everything about their life. Sometimes kids/teenagers just need to let their emotions out and say what they feel without worrying about getting in trouble or made fun of it for

HW 5B

In the chapter “I Blog, Therefore I Am” by David Kline it talked a lot about how blogging is giving people a chance to have a voice, be heard and how its making the world a more democratic society. Kline emphasizes how popular blogging is going to be and how it will take over mass media. I do not deny that blogging will be very popular but I question if it will be the ruler of mass media. I still believe that television and the internet itself will be the main news sources in the media. I agree with him when he says that most young people don’t read the newspaper anymore which used to be huge in the 1960 to probably the 90s. The generation now, however is more interested with what they’re saying on the news or internet. I don’t think my generation has really gotten into the blog world, but maybe that’s just my point of view because I had never heard of blogging before this class. Also when he talks about the fears of blogging and says that they are a lot like the telephone or telegraph when they first came to our society. I question the familiarities between the two fears. I think they’re should be worries about blogging because let’s face it; the internet isn’t the safest place. At least there are restrictions for the phone but on the internet you don’t know who the people are responding to you, and I think that could be a major worry. Although I agree with most of what Kline has stated in this chapter, I reject the thought of blogging over powering mass media. I guess I will just have to see and wait on how popular it gets.

HW 6

My main intrests for this paper is do somthing with instant message/social networking on young kids in the US. Chat rooms, instant messaging and things like facebook or myspace are starting to appear in young kids life. I want to focus on how young is too young to get involved in these socail computing technologies. I want to focus on this problem mainly in the US, because this is where i see it happening most.
Another idea for this paper is focusing on sexism through out the internet. You see sexism all through out the internet either in chat rooms or social networking services. However this would be my second choice.
My third choice for this research paper would be focusing on the topic of overcoming homophobia through the social computing technologies i have talked about.

HW 4 "The Voice of the Customer"

The brand I chose was Olay Body. It’s a moisturizing lotion that i use. On the lotion it states that its promise is that its lasting moisturization to break the cycle of dry skin it also goes on to say that it helps repair skin's natural moisture barrier for long term dryness relief and it leaves skin looking naturaling radiant. When I looked this product up online on its main home page it stated the same thing "The power to break the cycle of dry skin". It states that it goes beyond basic mositurization.My experience using this lotion has kept its promises. I do believe that it breaks the cycle of dry skin and it is a very dependable moisturizer. However I don’t know if it "goes beyond basic mositurization, I don’t know who would be the judge of that.I think it’s important that brands keep their promises espically on their blogs. After reading "The Voice of the Customer" I read about all of stories where brands lost a lot of their customers after breaking their promises. For example a bike company that didn’t have reliable locks was pointed out on the blogs. (Kryptonite) The bike company had to give back all free locks to the consumers.So to wrap things up I do believe that Olay Body lotion breaks the cycle of dry skin and fulfills their promises.

HW 3

When it comes to the topic of political blogs David Kline shows his knowledge in the reading "Blog toward a more particuipatory Democracy". Many people assume that the news on the television or on the radio gives you the best and most reliable information. After reading this essay i learned political blogs might be a better source of information. David Kline stated that "political blogs and online organizing played in the 2004 election will go down in history as being just as transformative as the role televison played during the 1960 Kennedy debates". I think this is really interesting because it tells you were blogging is going in the future and how powerful it will really be. American people hardly belive what they hear today what they hear on the news and thats why political blogs are becoming more popular. Also another thing about the news is that Americans today tend to belive that religion is really important in their everyday life, but yet they hardly talk about religion in the news. I believe that political blogs played a huge role in the 2004 election. I also belive that this new world of political blogs will continue to grow and spread. Before reading this essay i never knew the effects blogs had on politics, i am interested to see the effect blogging will have on the next election.

"HW 2"

After reading Burstein’s 12 key ideas in “From Cave Painting to Wonkette” I chose "Blogging is going global" as the idea I wanted to study. I am interested to see how far blogging goes in this world. I think that it was interesting that it says that the most influential blogs comes from places like Japan, Korea and China. I was shocked by this because before this class I didn’t even really know what blogging was. It amazes me how popular and wide spread blogging actually is. I wonder how long blogging will continue to grow and how far it will grow. I am curious about how much more i will learn about blogging and i am interested to see how fast blogging will grow. It says that Etienne Chouard, created the opposition vote againist the European constitution in France. It states " the infulence was undeniable when the votes were counted and "no" won the vote". I think its intresting how much power blogs have to change the way people think.