HW 25: Responding to Riverbend

In Bagdad Burning, Riverbend writes her own accounts of what has happened in Iraq over the last few years. Soueif believes that this is powerful work, and never before seen accounts are described in Riverbend’s writings. Most mainstream media concentrated largely on the war, and what was being done to stop terrorists. However, Riverbend’s blog is about something more, something that we have never witnessed. In Ridgeway’s introduction, he describes Riverbend’s blog. Not about shootings and conspiracy theories, but about everyday tasks that we take for granted. “…rounding up enough friendly armed men to take the kids to the store to buy crayons (Ridgeway xi).” Never have I heard this report. The only news coming from CNN or Fox News about Iraq has been about the war and the larger perfect. We forget that we are killing and punishing innocent human beings. The introduction is about the history of Iraq and how oil has supported the country for many years. Britain invaded, took over, and the United States wasn’t in favor. This has led the United States to years of battling with the Middle East over the oil problem. Through the 2003 war in Iraq, with all the children dying and others crying, we forget that we made humans suffer. They weren’t terrorists, Muslims, Shia; they were people. Prior to the reading, I forgot about this tragic fact. I forgot about the actual people, and only thought about the country. I thought about oil, Saddam Hussein, and conspiracy theories. Bagdad Burning makes myself and everyone who reads it that human beings are affected by the war, and that is what’s most important.

HW 23: I am Virginia Woolf

With Apologies to Virginia Woolf


I began idly reading the headlines. “The Legacy of President Bush” was the article. I was eating the worst food I could imagine, my favorite prunes. The legacy of President Bush? Is starting a war and doing little to advance the country over the last eight years really considered a legacy? Another great example of how men can not possibly do anything positive. Whether it be making dinner, or running a country, I’ve never honestly seen a male do anything productive. I take that back, perhaps scratching themselves is productive. Hilary Clinton is a real candidate for the next election. She has more experience than all the men combined. Let’s face it, she’s been President of arguably the strongest country for eight years now. It’s reassuring to see that, in all the chaos, a female is taking charge. I hate men.

HW 22: Patriarchy

Virginia Woolf said that the paper she picked up at the restaurant proved that England was a patriarchy, meaning that it is run mostly by men. I believe that she said this because most of the paper had mentioned men. In chapter two, Woolf says that “…lesser ribbons announced that Sir Austen Chamberlain was at Geneva. …Mr. Justice commented in the Divorce Courts upon the Shamelessness of Women (33). The entire paper was composed of articles that were about men and how they proved their power. After reading several newspaper articles last week, it’s easy to state that even the United States is a patriarchy. Articles about Presidential candidates, sports figures, and politicians flooded the front pages. Very few, if any, articles were about powerful women. Yes, the occasional Hilary Clinton articles came up, but they were soon overwhelmed with stories about Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. Woolf states that England is a patriarchy, and it’s true. Even today, in 2007, we are still a patriarchy.

HW 21: A Room Of One's Own

Dear Amanda,
You are in luck! I in fact have read chapter one of A Room of One’s Own. I understand that it is a difficult read, and I, too, had trouble understanding the first chapter. Forgive me if I am way off point when trying to help you with the chapter. At least I will do my best, right? Anyways, here’s the meat of chapter one. Mary, the narrator in chapter one, has been asked to define the term “women and fiction.” She is troubled by this, because of the fact that it is a wide area of study. She is a student at Oxbridge, and the college has two paths to travel on: a gravel one and a turf path. She isn’t allowed to be on the turf path, however, and the Beadle yells at her. Back at the college, she notices a cat without a tail. Unfortunately, I couldn’t learn the significance of this sight. I think that that is a decent description of chapter one. Your teacher probably thinks that this is an important read because of the fact that Woolf is speaking about women. The book challenges the question, “what is the role of women in fiction?” However, I find the book very hard to understand and I’m not even sure that my description is anything close to accurate. I’m not really sure how a sophomore in high school could understand this difficult piece of writing. Don’t stress over the fact that it is very hard, I’m sure that your teacher will sympathize with everyone. I hope you got something valuable out of this, later.

HW 19: Web of Influence

On page 85 in Blog!, specifically the second paragraph, Drezner describes how blogs affect U.S. politics. In other words, blogs have a huge influential effect on today’s society. For example, Trent Lott, a U.S Senate majority leader had to resign in 2002 because of his comments made about Sen. Strom Thurmond’s birthday party. At first, the media didn’t focus much of their time on the controversy. They brushed it underneath the rug. However, word spread like wildfire on the Internet. Many bloggers discussed the subject and had heavy debates about it. After intense attention online, the media had a renewed attention to the matter and it became headline news. Media interoperated it as insignificant and rarely brought it up, while amateur bloggers felt that it was tremendously important. Bloggers revived the subject and Lott was forced to resign. It is pretty remarkable in this example to see how much power and influence bloggers have received over the last five years or so. In short, bloggers seem to have gained an edge over the media. One subject may not seem important to CNN or Fox, but it could be to several hundred bloggers. Several hundred can turn into thousands quickly, and those thousands can overrule CNN’s agenda and force the media to cover it. It’s incredible to think that in this short amount of time, blogs have gained so much power and influence in our society today.

HW 18: Least Favorite Blog

When asked to pick three blogs to watch, I was upset that I one of my blogs was probably going to have to be all about women. I picked Jezebel, reluctantly, and haven’t looked at it unless it’s necessary. However, every time I check out the blog site, I find something worth reading, and then worth getting mad over. Homework 18 is the perfect assignment to check out Jezebel for something that upsets me. Sure enough, the first post I saw on Jezebel is the one I’m most upset about. http://jezebel.com/gossip/unpretty-in-pink/my-bracelet-bra-care-deeply-about-cancer-308723.php was the first and worst blog I found today. The blog takes shots at The National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. “Unfortunately, in the minds of our nation's crap-pushers, this means it's time to sell breast cancer-branded paraphernalia…” This is offensive to me and I don’t have breast cancer, obviously, and I don’t even know anyone personally who has breast cancer. These cynical people find the worst ways to bring down something so influential to millions. The article says that this month and event is becoming Valentine’s Day; with the only purpose of it is to make money. Even though millions of victims of the cancer are being helped even more this month, the blog feels that it’s wrong to show support by purchasing the infamous pink bracelets. I cannot believe that someone would oppose this incredible fundraiser. Showing support for victims is the least we can do. Unfortunately, some just don’t understand it yet.

HW 17B: Wonkette and DailyKos

After reading about Zuniga’s and Cox’s blogs, I would have to say that I would be more influenced by Zuniga’s DailyKos blog. His blogs focuses on the real truth’s in politics. He served his country and was a GI. He has the credentials to be a real, big-time writer. Although I am slightly conservative, I do agree with some of the liberal aspects of politics. I am neither right wing nor left, I am simply in the middle with a small Republican bias. I believe that Zuniga has good things to say, and if I did more research on DailyKos, I would probably have a different opinion about politics.
On the other hand, Cox could never persuade me in anything. She’s an admitted drunk, and most of her posts are made under the influence. I can’t take someone like this serious in any way. She talks about sex scandals in politics. I could care less. I find her arrogant, cocky, and disrespectful. She couldn’t influence me in any way because I simply wouldn’t give her a chance. She’s failed as a writer, and only has political drama to write about. Unlike Zuniga, Cox has absolutely no credentials. Some may argue that she is successful and she’s established, however if anyone thought of talking about political affairs before she did, she wouldn’t even have that to rely on. I respect what she does and I respect her originality, but I believe most people could have done exactly what she did.

HW 17: Powerful Women

After exploring many articles on Jezebel, I would have to conclude that http://jezebel.com/gossip/womynism/do-powerful-women-appeal-to-your-inner-dude-308339.php has to be my favorite of the week. I realize that the site is mainly for women who think they have something important or funny to say. But, I tried it out anyway. I thought this article was pretty funny because it got me thinking about my “inner dude,” even though I’m a dude all the time. I think that a powerful woman is intimidating, and that’s kind of appealing I guess. With power comes money, and with money comes material possessions. That is appealing to me. Being with a woman with power would spice things up a bit. I can only imagine what women want to do when they are in charge. The article also bashes Hillary Rodman Clinton, which I always find amusing. After thinking about this a second time, I change my opinion about powerful women. I do not find Hillary Clinton appealing in any way. She could have all the money and power in the world and I still wouldn’t budge. I thought that powerful women would be pretty sweet, but after imagining Hillary making me take out the garbage, I’m all set with that.

HW 16: Scobles' Pillars

According to Scoble, there are five elements, or “pillars,” as he calls them, that have made blogs popular and hot. The first is “ease of publishing.” This means that it is very easy and simple to get what your ideas published. Anyone with internet access can post their beliefs, ideas, and thoughts. The second pillar is “discoverability.” Blogs have tags, links, and many other ways to discover new concepts. The third pillar is “cross-site conversations.” Blogs allow people to comment and post to what you have to say. This makes for an interesting conversation and attracts many. “Permalinking” is the fourth pillar. This means that all blogs and posts have a URL and every one can be accessed easily. Finally, “syndication” makes up the fifth pillar. Syndication is when users subscribe to other users’ posts. All five pillars make blogs user friendly and enjoyable to many. This is why blogs are so “hot” these days.

HW 14: Tranistionrama with Nick Deonton

Although Nick Deonton doesn’t promote making profits through blogs, I believe he really does think that blogs have a great potential of making extra money. For example, he says that he can make up to $5,000 per month just on advertisements alone. Actually, I think that Deonton wants his readers to believe that it is difficult to make a profit through online posts. To put it bluntly, Deonton is scared that people are going to take advantage of his second job. (Admittedly, I realize that this is probably an outrageous claim, but I want to take a different rout on this assignment.) Furthermore, Deonton says that his monthly income is nothing when compared to others on the internet. After all, he is one man doing this, and he can’t compete with entire companies. Although he says that it is difficult, I think it can be done with the right mindset. For example, Deonton did create these ideas and kept adding on to the sites, almost like our wiki page. Despite the fact that he became successful, I still have no intention of trying to complete what he did. In conclusion, I congratulate Deonton for all his hard work. In short, I have run out of transitions.