HW 27: First 2 Blog Posts

Works Cited:
Riverbend. Baghdad Burning. New York: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2005.

This book so far seems really interesting. It is written by an Iraqi girl who goes by the name Riverbend. She made an online blog to share with the world her day to day life living in Baghdad during the war. This book/blog fits into our course work because it is, as I said, a blog and our class is based on blog writing and the importance of blogs on our country and world today. It ties in with women in the digital revolution because the book is in fact written by a young girl today. Riverbend explains that she made this pretty much just to rant and complain about the war, (Riverbend, 5). From reading this book I will learn to have a more open mind about this war and what it feels like to be living in Baghdad. I learn about life in Iraq as a woman and how it feels to live in the middle of a war, since none of us have had to deal with that. I think overall I will just learn more about this war going on, on the other side of the world. It will provide many benefits for me because I will learn more about our world and other cultures.

HW 25: Intro & Forward of "Baghdad Burning"

I thought the Forward and Introduction of Baghdad Burning was very interesting and it has already begun to open my mind and see the war in a different perspective. The forward, by Ahdaf Soueif, was a very brief description of the blog written by “Riverbend.” He uses many good quotes from her blog about the war and it helps bring his forward together. He talks about the recent war, and the invasion in 2004 to Iraq and how Riverbend approached her new lifestyle because of this.
The introduction of Baghdad Burning, by James Ridgeway, goes into much more detail about war and how Riverbend’s family is dealing with it. He talks about American politics and how the Bush administration wanted to send troops into Iraq even before 9/11. He talks about the American Government and how Riverbend refers to it as “the puppet show.” Ridgway talks about the Gulf War and World War II and how they built up to the 2003 war in Iraq. Riverbend also had to deal with the Gulf War by her home. He goes into depth about the Riverbend’s culture and the background of her culture like how it is “one of the oldest and richest civilizations in the world,” (Ridgeway, xii). Riverbend comes from a good part of Iraq where she was able to have a job, but unfortunately had to stop working after the war began. She now lives at home with her family and in fear of American Troops. There is also much talk about Saddam Hussein, Sunni Muslims, Shiites and many other different groups of Muslims living throughout Iraq.
The forward and introduction were very informative and well written. They each had a lot of emotion and passion about Riverbend’s blog and they have made me want to start reading this book/blog and learn more about this girl’s life.

HW 24: Then and Now

Woolf explains deeply as to how far history has come by the end of her book. Women have come very far and are not treated so inferior to me. Woolf notices that women and men are more equal as well. “I had come at last, in the course of this rambling, to the shelves which hold books by the living; by women and by men; for there are almost as many books written by women now as by men,” (Woolf 79). Women also were not only writing novels they were writing information books such as books on Greek Archeology and aesthetics. This compared to now has completely changed. Women are very equal to men, we can do whatever work men can do, we can write whatever men can write. Women don’t sit at home raising a family and cooking like they use to do in Virginia Woolf’s time. I would definitely say we’ve come a long way.
Woolf says, “…if we have the habit of freedom and the courage to write exactly what we think…” (Woolf 113) and to me, that is what a room of one’s own is. In comparative to this quote I believe that I do have a room of my own and I think anyone can have one. Back in Woolf’s time I think she was lucky to have a room of her own because where women were treated inferior to men she wrote exactly how she felt in this book. She wasn’t afraid of what other people think and I think Woolf would love to see our world now.

HW 23: Woolf and Jezebel

"With Apologies to Virginia Woolf"

I have been reading blogs online lately and it seems that everything revolved around gossip. The blog Jezebel has many blog posts about women celebrities and the gossip going around about them at that specific time. I do enjoy all this dubious gossip (Woolf 61) though. Where do I find information about Lucia Moses? Hair? Comediennes? Movies? Angelina Jolie? The latest celebrities? Why all my questions can be answered on www.jezebel.com. Women getting noticed about the new film Smiley Face is wonderful in the post “Living Dolls: The Stepfordization of Hollywood’s Comely Comediennes.” I love how this blog does not agree with patriarchy. They are trying to show people that films with a girl protagonist in a comedy film can be a good thing. I should fondly agree with them about this. Overall Jezebel is a great feminist blog and I should continue keep myself updated with it.

HW 22: Chapter 2 Patriarchy

I think Woolf said the paper proved that England was a patriarchy because it mostly had to do with men. “Somebody scored big in South Africa (who I would assume to be a man.) Sir Austen Chamberlain was at Geneva,” and “Mr. Justice commented in the Divorce Courts upon the Shamelessness of Women,” (Woolf 33). The only bit of news that mentioned a woman was about a woman who hung herself. The paper and Woolf makes it sound like England thinks society will be better now that there is one less woman around. This paper had headlines about men, which proves the point that England is a patriarchy. Woolf also discusses throughout the chapter how men are said to be superior to women and they have all the money, knowledge, and education. It basically seems to be saying that women are stupid and pointless.
I took a look at The Boston Globe to see if it would give a transient visitor to our planet the impression that the United States is a patriarchy. In my opinion no, The Boston Globe does not give this impression. The front page of The Boston Globe had stories about high school students in Massachusetts, the unfortunate loss the Boston Red Sox had last night, Romney and Giuliani in the presidential election, and expected layoffs for Boston Scientific Corps. There are also many other stories and sections of The Boston Globe such as arts and movies, automotive, books, weather, and jobs that could interest people of both sexes. In conclusion I don’t think The Boston Globe shows patriarchy in the United States at all with its broad range of stories included in its paper.

HW 21 Dear Sissy

Dear Little Sister,
A Room of One’s Own is definitely a difficult read even I had some trouble reading the first chapter. In the first chapter the character, Mary, is heavily contemplating the importance of women and fiction. She talks about walking by a river and through a college and how she is inferior to the man she comes across. She compares two poets and their poems about war. A lot happens in the first chapter but the most important is the connection of women and fiction and also a woman having a room of her own to write this fiction. I think all this is meant to show the inferiority of women to men. Men can have money and a room of their own and women cannot. Mary shows her anger towards this idea in chapter one. Your teacher may find this important because it’s a lesson in the history of gender issues. Women were barely allowed to right because they weren’t as good as men. It is important to know what gender issues were like back in the early 1900s and this book is a really a good piece of literature to show this. I think this book is difficult and confusing, and I had some difficulty with the reading as well, but it’s an important essay of it’s time.

HW 19: Juan Cole

After reading the article by Drezner and Farrell in Blog! How the Newest Media Revolution is Changing Politics, Business, Culture, the most important paragraph I found and easily understood was on page 86 to 87. It is the first paragraph under the title, “The Ties That Bind.” The paragraph is about Juan Cole and how he made a blog after September 11, 2001 called “Informed Comment.” He was not being heard by the people around him, because no one was interested. Being online and creating his own blog with his own thoughts helped Juan become heard throughout the United States and even throughout the world. Juan Cole knows three Middle Eastern languages fluently which allowed him to look at Muslim blogs and monitor reports throughout the Muslim Region. He kept his fellow American bloggers updated constantly. In other words, this paragraph is important because it proves that anyone who’s anyone can have a blog and express themselves on blogs. Blogs are great things to create and Juan Cole is a great example of this.

HW 18: Amy Winehouse Least Favorite Blog Post

I took a look through the Jezebel Blog and as I was scrolling down, and scanning through posts a couple of pictures caught my attention, and absolutely disgusted me. The headline of the post states, “Amy Winehouse never lets a good fag go to waste.” The headline sums the story up and the pictures show what no one wants or even needs to see. One picture shows the singer bending down to pick a cigarette up off the ground. The second picture shows her with the cigarette in her mouth and she’s lighting it. Check it out yourself: http://jezebel.com/gossip/snap-judgment/amy-winehouse-never-lets-a-good-fag-go-to-waste-307758.php. Right when I saw these pictures I knew nothing else could compare to this blog post. I thought it was gross and dirty. Smoking cigarettes in my opinion is gross to begin with, never mind picking it up of the dirty city street to smoke it. Although this cigarette could have been dropped by Amy the pictures make it seem less so. She has a bunch of things in her hands and it seems impossible that she would have the hands to pull a carton of cigarettes out of her purse. Therefore I’m convinced she found this cigarette on the ground from who knows who, picked it up, and smoked it. Ew.

HW 17B: Zuniga Influences Election

The first interview I read was the interview with Markos Moulitsas Zuniga. Although it was a little confusing to read, I could see that it was very political and that Markos is very passionate about politics and his democratic view. After Markos’s interview I went right to Ana Marie Cox’s interview and felt like it has absolutely no connection to politics. Ana seemed to blog for the fun of it, to make fun of people, because she had nothing else to do. I really couldn’t see how these two blogs connected with each other. Overall though, to answer the question, I chose Markos’s blog to make me more likely to influence the way I would vote in the coming election. Actually, Markos’s blog would actually make me want to vote in general. His interview was much more informative and I could really tell that he blogged to change people’s minds. His blog was to inform people about what’s going on in the political world and I could tell he really loved doing it. I looked at each blog on the internet as well. Markos’s blog is serious, informative, and formally written while Ana’s blog was more playful and used more everyday very informal language such as, butt hole. All in all Markos Moulitsas Zuniga’s blog would influence my decision to vote and the way I will vote next month.

HW 17: Gossip Girl

My favorite blog was under the Jezebel blog about the new series Gossip Girl. Here’s the link to the blog: http://jezebel.com/gossip/critical-mass/gossip-girl-depressing-delicious-eye+candy-301389.php. This blog about the new TV show starts out with a brief review of her feelings on the TV show. Then the writer, Jennifer, leaves reviews from many newspapers on the blog. The newspapers include, LA Times, NY Times, USA Today, Washington Post, Boston Globe, and Chicago Tribune. Many newspapers, and Jennifer as well, compare Gossip Girls to the show The O.C. It seems like many of the newspapers though don’t feel like it’s a good show but you can’t help but watch it. It’s a show about snooty teenagers living in the city and there’s a lot of mention of a lot of sex. It seems like this show is bad, but it pulls you in. As Jennifer says, “New York prep schoolers with more money than we'll ever have, having more sex than... Well, you get the point. And apparently it's kinda good.” I picked this blog because it was about a modern TV show that I’m sure a lot of girls in my age group watch. I’ve never watched it but this blog sure made me want to. I was never an O.C. fan but I do like the show One Tree Hill and Gossip Girl looks like it could be a close equivalent to that.

HW 16-B: The Five Pillars

The Five Pillars of Conversational Software are “ease of publishing,” “discoverability,” “cross-site conversations,” “permalinking,” and “syndications.” Ease of publishing is making sure that a website is published easily so people can understand what the website is about and what it is trying to portray. Discoverability is making sure that people can find a certain website. Like Robert Scoble was saying people want to make sure they link their website to every place possible. This way people find the website off of bigger websites and check other stuff out. Discoverability will help websites get to the top of the photosphere Scoble says (Kline & Burstein 130). Cross-Site Conversations is when a website is linked to another website, or two or more websites are linked to other websites and they are conversing with each other. Scoble says he “could see who was linking to me with track backs, (Kline & Burstein 130). Permalinking is a made of word so it is hard to describe. Scoble says, “Permalinking is where I can isolate a URL that will take me directly to a post,” (Kline & Burstein 130). Last but not least the fifth pillar is “syndication” which is the last “S” in RSS. RSS stands for Really simple syndication. In the dictionary syndication is described as, “a group of individuals or organizations combined or making a joint effort to undertake some specific duty or carry out specific transactions or negotiations,” (www.dictionary.com). Syndication makes it easier to look at a bunch of different websites. So instead of groups of people working together like said in the dictionary its more of websites working together so it is easier to look around and find different websites and blogs on the blogosphere.

HW 14: Japanese Blogger Champions Internet Democracy

After reading Japanese Blogger Champions Internet Democracy in Blog! How the Newest Media Revolution is Changing Politics, Business, and Culture, the interview with Joi Ito, I came to agree with some of Joi’s ideas. As a result I enjoyed this interview that Kline and Burstein had with Joi. Admittedly I thought the “copywriting” on blogs was a good idea, and even though it did not completely copy write the whole blogging page it put some ownership on the blog, indeed that is a neat idea. Also Ito explains how blogging is such a great way to meet new people over the internet for instance his encounter with Reverend Akma in Chicago. Although I do think it’s neat that you can communicate with different people all over the world, I still think it is a little sketchy. Ultimately Reverend Akma may have not been a reverend at all, that’s why blogging is scary, because people can hide their identity. Overall my favorite comment that Joi Ito made was the last sentence of the interview, “A lot of the media are thinking about blogs as a new form of publishing but it’s really a new form of conversation and a new form of community,” (Kline & Burstein 150). In other words I like how he connects blogging to conversations and not just publishing like we have talked about in the past, and other interviews we have read have stated. Ultimately Joi Ito puts blogging in a whole new perspective than we have discussed and therefore made this interview more interesting and worthwhile to read.