HW 35: A letter to my blog readers

Over the past semester, I have learned so much from my class, A Blog of One's Own. Not only did I become familiar with what a blog is, but I was lucky enough to be able to construct my own blog and update it frequently. Over the last 13 weeks of class, I have learned that from maintaining and completing the homework assignments for this class, I have grasped a better knowledge of the blogosphere and for what it means to be a true blogger. I learned through research and readings that blogging is a serious thing that is not just a hobby. Many "bloggers" in the world consider this to be their career and I find that interesting. From reading my blog, I hope someone will also learn and value blogging and how important it is becoming in this culture. When this class is over, I actually think I will continue to maintain and write in a blog. I did some research outside of the classroom and discovered a blog called LiveJournal that I would like to check out and hopefully create and account with. I would like to tell my readers to give blogging a chance. Personally for me, when I first started the course, I wasn't completely sold on the idea of blogging, but now that I gave it a shot, I've found it to be interesting and something that I would like to continue even after this course is through.

HW 34: Learning about Iraq's culture

The role of gold in family savings in Iraq has increased since 1990 when Iraqi money began fluctuating. Riverbend describes how Iraqis started converting all of their money into gold, through jewelery. The gold is usually worn to be shown off, but if the family savings start to get tight, a small piece of the gold can be sold to help tide the family over.
Date palms are important to the Iraqi people because the dates are used in so many Iraqi foods. Riverbend mentions how there are hundreds of different types of dates in Iraq and each one has a different taste and purpose for preparing food. The dates are so important to the people because without them, the people of Iraq would not have the foods they have today.

HW 33: Responding to a PodCast

The podcast that I responded to was called "Iraqi Teens Work to Help Their Families”, which was published on October 15th, 2007. This podcast was interesting because it interviewed young teenagers in Iraq who are forced to do manual labor to help their families along. At one point in the podcast, they filmed a boy who was working with wood to help his father out. When the teens were interviewed, it surprised me that they were so used to doing this manual labor. They had no problem carrying the extra load in order to help out their family members. The interview with the teenagers in Iraq truly showed me the difference between cultures in Iraq and in the United States.

HW 32: Summerizing RIverbend

In her blog, Riverbend speaks about wearing veils in Iraq. Riverbens appears to be somewhat outraged that Dr. Kurtz associates veil wearing with Muslim women. Riverbend states that most women did not even wear the veils prior to them becoming an occupation. She goes on to list and describe the different kinds of head pieces worn by women in the Middle East. Veils, hijabs, and burquas are all mentioned as types of head scarves or cloth that women have worn. I found this post interesting because I was not aware of the different types of head pieces worn by women. I was also not aware that the type of head piece you wear, usually depends on where you live. Her post proved to be fascinating and informative.

HW 30: Citizenship Symposium

Speaker Name: Vincent Forlini
Title: "Voting theory and the question of fairness."

When I went and listened to the symposiums this past week, the first one I went to was about voting. In Forlini's lecture, he spoke about the different voting methods and how each one worked. There are three voting methods -- Simple Voting Method, Borda Count Method, and the Method of Pairwise Comparisons. The most interesting thing I learned in this session had to be when Forlini spoke about how the voting systems go all the way back to ancient Greece. I found it interesting that the Greeks would use a broken pot called an Ostraka to record their votes.

Speakers Names: Sander Lee, Mark Timney, and Jiwon Ahn
Title: "Animation as political and local construction."

My second citizenship symposium I went to was very interesting. Each speaker spoke about different forms of animation and how they related to out culture today. Japanese animation, Donald Duck, and South Park were the three examples of animation that the speakers used. One quote I found interesting in this lecture was, "men act and women appear." This quote was from Ahn's lecture on Japanese animation. I found her lecture the most interesting because out of all the animation spoken about that day, Japanese animation was what I was most unfamiliar with. It was interesting to learn about the culture in Japan and how it differs from that in the United States.

HW 28: Baghdad Burning So Far

Dear Riverbend,
as I have been reading your book so far, I've already learned many things about Iraq and your life there. To be honest, I never thought that people in Iraq would be so familiar with computers and the internet. You have proven to be a talented blogger. I found it interesting reading about your encounters with the troops you see each day. It's nice to know that some people in Iraq care about them and understand that they need to be there because it is their job. Another interesting thing I learned when reading your blog posts was how controversial the issue with the different types of Muslims was. I was not aware that these ethnic and religious groups cause Iraq's population to divide.
I have enjoyed reading Baghdad Burning so far and look foward to learn more about life in Iraq through your eyes.

Sincerely,
Vanessa

HW 25: Same war, different experience

After reading Souleif’s introduction to Baghdad Burning, I started to get an idea of what the book will be about. In the introduction, Souleif illustrates some of the experiences and encounters that occurred when the War on Iraq was first declared. Souleif went on to explain how although the book is political and there are certainly opinions racing in through out the chapters, the book is “far from being anti anything, this book is firmly on the side of humanity and on the side of life.” (Souleif viii) Ahdaf Souleif wanted to make it clear that this is not a book about “anti-Americanism”, as he points out that when the invasion first took place, Muslims felt bad for the troops who where stationed in Baghdad. They knew that the troops didn’t particularly want to be there and appear to be “monstrous” (Souleif viii) and feared, they just wanted to be recognized as humans along with everyone else. I found this introduction to be helpful because it can tell the stories of the war starting from Baghdad’s point of view. Most Americans only know their stories and what the war looked like to us as we sat in our houses across seas from where the real turmoil took place. I remember hearing about the war and becoming interested in it and curious to know what the future would hold, but never did the war actually affect my everyday life. American children would pray for their family members or friends who they knew were fighting in the war. Children in Baghdad would pray that they wouldn’t get caught up in the war while walking to school. There is a significant difference between Americans and Muslims and how this war that we all are experiencing affected each of us. This introduction proved to be interesting and informative. I’m excited to continue reading this book because it seems to have a fair balance between important facts and fascinating personal stories relating to the war.