HW 42 "Last and Final Podcast"

Gabcast! A Blog of One's Own #58

HW 37 "Podcast #2"

Gabcast! A Blog of One's Own #31

HW 36 "First Blogpost"

Gabcast! A Blog of One's Own #9

HW 35 "Last Blog Post"

Having a class where I had to read about a certain topic in a book and be able to give my own opinion to questions on the reading and how I feel about what the author is discussing was really a lot more effective then just answering questions on what I read. I enjoyed being able to say how I feel, even if I completely agree or disagree with what the author is saying. I learned that I was able to speak my mind and give my own opinion and put it into words better through my writing. In the future, if someone were to read my blog posts would hope that by reading them they would be able to get something out of them. Maybe not learn something of what I read about in a story, but at least the style of writing and how I responded to another person’s opinion. The work on all of my blogs I am most proud of is the chapters of the stories I read and where I summarized what happened. From the book, “They Say, I Say”, it gave me many tips on what to always include in a summary and what’s not important. I probably won’t keep the blog posts that I have written about for the past thirteen weeks for this blog class. I won’t delete them, but I will always keep up just in case I need them for future reference to help me with another class. If I ever need some info from for example, the book “Baghdad Burning” I can easily log in and access a summary of the first few chapters of the book. I feel that this class really helped my writing skills and gave me a good idea on what is expected in an opinionated response based class.

HW 34 "Gold and Date Palms in Iraq"

“Gold is a part of our culture and the roll it plays in ‘family savings’ has increased since 1990 when the Iraqi Dinar began fluctuating crazily” (Page 100). Gold is played as a huge role in Iraq when it comes to the Iraqi’s jewlary. Since the value of the gold in Baghdad did not change, they transform their gold into all different sorts of jewelry consisting of necklaces, bracelets, earrings, etc. Usually the jewlary they receive isn’t bought at a store. People get them when they are married, have a child, or have a special event occur in there life where they would receive a gift. When they receive this gold they can either keep or sell it. “People pulled their money out of banks before the war, and bought gold instead” (Page 100).
Date palms are used for syrup which is used for rice, syrup used for bread and butter, sugar used for Iraqi sweets and vinegar. There are over 300 different types of dates. “Every bit of a palm is an investment”(Page 104). You can also use them to make furniture and some use the seeds to make beads. They are considered so important to the Iraqi people because they have so many different uses. In a typical garden of Iraq, you will always find a palm tree. Everyone has one. They are used to protect flowers in the garden. When the U.S. troops go and cut down these trees it is considered an appalling and terrible act to commit.

HW 33 "Challenge's at a girl's school in Baghdad"

The title of the episode of the “Alive in Baghdad” podcasts that I chose was called, “Challenge’s at a girl’s school in Baghdad”. It was published on May 1st, 2007. I provided a link to the episode I have just previously watched and it can be found at http://aliveinbaghdad.org/2007/05/21/challenges-at-a-girls-school-in-baghdad/ . This video is about an all girl’s school in Baghdad and is trying to help the Iraqi children educate themselves and better there life. This school is in a dangerous area of Baghdad. In this podcast they talk to students, teachers, and directors of the school. Some of the students tell this interview how sometimes there are explosions around their school and they find themselves not even being able to walk to school. Although the school is a good distance away from their homes, they are striving to continue their studies and do well. In the opening scene you see groups of girls and they show the inside of the classrooms in the building. There are not many but a few decorations on the wall. A viewer watching this podcast will learn what a typical all girls’ school in Baghdad is like. They will be able to see the differences of a classroom there versus one we are used to in the U.S. This video compares to other footage I have seen of Iraq in that all the schools and outside of the schools they have the same dress code and wardrobe. What I find most memorable about this video is the fact that even though this war is going on all around them, children are still trying to better themselves and going to school acting as if it is not as big of a deal than it really is.

HW 32 "School Supplies"

Riverbend starts off by discussing the first day of school and the first day of the new academic year (Page 94). School supplies were the main topic in which she explains her first day of school. The start of a new year of school for me is full of mixed feelings. I’m excited for a new year to begin but also sad because what usually a great summer I have has come to a fast end. When I was little, I loved going out to the store to buy all my new school supplies which consisted of new pencils, pens, notebooks, paper, folders, etc. Riverbend goes out shopping for her cousins’ daughters. Her cousin doesn’t allow her children to go out themselves because of the war that is still occurring and it is very unsafe as a child to be aimlessly traveling around Baghdad. Riverbend chooses a theme for her cousin’s daughter’s school supplies such as Lion King, Winnie the Pooh, and Barbie. I feel bad for the children who cannot go out themselves to pick out what they want, but they’re lucky that they have Riverbend to be willing to go out for them. As excited as she was to go out and purchase these things that they could not get themselves, the children ended up not liking the certain theme of Winnie the Pooh that Riverbend picked out, but instead wanted Barbie. If this war was not occurring, innocent children of Baghdad would be able to go out and pick exactly what they wanted.

HW 30 B "Blogging for all Citizens and Reporters"

Today I attended the symposium speaker “Blogging for all citizens and reporters”. There were two people that spoke today by the names of Mike Caufield and a guy that goes by the name of Jim. Caufield is a blogger in New Hampshire and also the Keene State College webmaster. Jim is the Keene Sentinel editor. Throughout this speaker they discussed blogging and journalism and what they feel these two mean to them. They discussed how blogging has a change in the attitudes of ownership and sharing of information. This can include music downloading, academic honesty, and plagiarism. They also discussed the different attitudes about politics. One quoted sentence that the man whom I didn’t get his name but he speaks throughout Keene State to students said “Young people today want to change the world. They are more interested in local politicizing than voting.” His view on blogging said that he feels that the comments made about blogs are more important than what is actually said in the blog itself. Mike Caufield was the next to speak. “The question is not are bloggers journalists, but how we create a median environment of the people. And if I were to answer this question, then I hope not.” I found this interesting because I completely agree with what he said. I feel that anyone can be a blogger. You write how you feel. Bloggers are not journalists. Caufield did his first online homepage in 1997. He wrote a sonogram of his daughter. He wanted to be a political blogger so he could educate people about Charles Bass and get him out of office. The next man Jim began to speak. He’s been a professional journalist since 1970. “Most people put more faith in what they read if there is a name attached to it.” Jim continued to argue that he likes to be presented with something that has its own facts so then he can make his own opinion.
This whole discussion today was very fascinating to me. I got to here different views on blogging and journalism and the types of people who can do it. Anyone can blog and anyone can become well known for it.

HW 30 A "Secret Daughter Documentary"

I attended the speaker on Tuesday night titled, "Secret Daughter" with June Cross. I found this documentary to be very interesting and it really intrigued me with facts that I didn’t know about what African Americans went through. Secret Daughter was about a girl who grew up where her mother was white and her father was black. They divorced when she was at a young age. She went through her life having a mother who was embarrassed to have a black daughter and it was considered shocking ad appalling to even be associated with them. Her mother would make up excuses for being around her; saying she was adopted or they were just watching her as a friend of their neighbors. One quote I found to be pretty appalling was about what people would say about her mother. “She says her society will drop her if they find out she’s her daughter”. I found this to be shocking because I thought to myself why would her mother ever marry a black man if she was going to be embarrassed of her own daughter in the future? June Cross also stated about her aunt and uncle that “their love helped her withstand the loss of my mother”. Since she lived with her aunt and uncle they treated her as if she was their own daughter. They helped fill the spot of not having a mother always there. One interesting topic that I listened to throughout this documentary was that her grandmother was completely ashamed of her being black. I don’t know how I would be able to go through life knowing that my own family was ashamed of me just because of the color of my skin. I really was fascinated by this film of June Cross’s own life and I find her to be a pretty brave person to be able to stand before us today and tell her story.

HW 31 "Al-Hakim Assassination"

When reading the past assigned reading in Baghdad Burning, I found a name that seemed to be significant to me and decided to research it. On Monday September 1st, 2003 when Riverbend discusses Al-Hakim in her blog(Page 43), she talks about him and about how his assassination was very significant. In the book they discuss how his assassination “was used as an excuse for vendettas, faction fighting, and more violence between Shi’a and Shi’a and Sunnis and Shi’a.” Since his assassination in Baghdad, they are blaiming all Americans and holding them responsible for the amount of security in this country. Since I knew the effects of Al-Hakim from what Riverbend discusses, I thought I would actually look him up and see what his background was. Ammar Al-Hakim had an uncle who died from legitimate security in Iraq. "Just as martyr Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim stressed in his last Friday sermon, [there is a] need to involve effective popular and political forces in preserving security and contributing to bring about security and stability in Iraq. This is because the truth of the matter is that these forces are more capable of knowing who the enemies are and who the friends are, most interested in preserving and bringing about security in Iraq, and closer to people. This, in turn, will make people have great confidence in these forces, give them information, and help them hunt down criminals and aggressors so as to bring about security."( “Leading SHI'A Comment On Al-Hakim’s Assassination”). What Al-Hakim is basically saying here is they need strong security in Iraq. After reading this article and getting a better idea of the type of people in this book that Riverbend discusses, I am able to get a feeling as to what is occurring around her and the awful events that are taking place.

http://www.rferl.org/specials/IraqCrisis/shia-comment.asp

HW 28 "Letter to Riverbend"

Dear Riverbend-
As a requirement for my A Blog of One’s Own Thinking and Writing class, I am writing a letter to you to discuss your recent posting from August 17th- August 30th 2003. The way you write about what is occurring all around you doesn’t make it seem as bad as I know it really is. The way you are able to incorporate a sense of wit and funniness into such a serious act happening all around you is unbelievable.
One part you discussed that I found to be the most interesting considering I am from America is your argument about your hatred for the U.S. troops. It seems like they are completely invading your privacy and you can’t do anything without being questioned. It’s extremely crazy how girls have to wear skirts to look less suspicious. I feel that your lack of independence that you and other women have is slowly diminishing since the war. I hate the fact that young children are being affected. Their not allowed to go to school and is wrong that their education has to be an effect of the fighting that is going on around you. It really bothers me how all the innocent people who have done nothing wrong are having such negative outcomes. It’s unfair and it’s very brave of you that you are able to take it on such a light note and make positivity of what is going on around you and your family. I admire your courageous acts and way of putting things in a lighter way.

Sincerely,
Heather

HW 27 "First two entries of Baghdad Burning"

“Baghdad Burning”
By Riverbend
The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, New The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, New York
Foreword by Ahdaf Soueif
Introduction by James Ridgeway
Copyright 2005

“Baghdad Burning” was written by Riverbend in the year 2003. As the cover states, the book is basically ‘A girl blog from Iraq’. The story is composed of short blog entries of a young girl in her twenties being on the outskirts of watching the war in Iraq and what she is able to witness and her views and opinions on the battle. I think that this book was written because it was a way for people to be able to understand what was going on in the war. As it says on the first page of the introduction, “And to many of her readers, these entries have become perhaps the most important source of news from Iraq”. From reading this book, I feel it’s beneficial and that I will be able to get a better understanding of the war of Iraq. I will be able to feel as if I was there through her reading what went through her mind and what occurred that she had witnessed. Some challenges that will go through my mind through reading a type of book like this is I feel that my personal views may change from seeing what the young girl had to go through from just being on the outside looking in.

HW 25 "Introduction to Baghdad Burning"

“Baghdad Burning” was written by a young woman who goes by the name of Riverbend. The story seems to be written in a blog type format as you would read online. She describes her blog as a “Girl Blog from Iraq”. The beginning of the Introduction goes on to explain the type of person Riverbend is. It tells us that she is in her mid twenties living middle class with her family in Baghdad. A lot of her blogs “have become the most important sources of news from Iraq”. Riverbend depicts what has been occurring in her life being in view of the war and of the actual burning of Baghdad as she watches from her rooftop with her brother. In continuation of the introduction to this bog story, it discusses the wars and the full effects of them afterwards. “…and have learned to identify different types of automatic weapons by the sound of their volleys” (Page 1 of Introduction). My impressions of the war in Iraq are somewhat similar to what Riverbend describes in her story throughout the introduction. I can imagine from past experiences of watching programs on television about wars about families being able to view from their houses and witnessing the gruesome effects of battle.

HW 24 "Have you got a room of your own?"

Have you got a room of your own? A room of your own in comparison to Virginia Woolf’s story is not a typical room in a modern day lifestyle living as a woman. Women these days are considered just as equal as men and have the same rights in everything. Back at the time period when this book takes place, women have pretty much have no rights compared to males. They seem to be owned by men and are the property of them. Sexism at this time was still occurring and made it seem that men can say and do one thing but for women it’s a completely opposite story. Now that it is 2007, times have changed. I can have a room of my own. My room is full of equality and I am free to do what I want, when I want. “I had come at last, in the course of this rambling, to the shelves which holds books by the living; by women and by men; for there are almost as many books written by women now as by men” ( Pg. 79 Chp. 5 Woolf, Virginia). By this time in the story, this statement and the next one that I quoted from chapter 6 is how my life in my room will be right now. “And the fact that the ordinary sight of two people getting into a cab had the power to communicate something of their own seeming satisfaction (Pg. 96 Chp. 6 Woolf, Virginia).

HW 23 "Singing with the Enemy"

With Apologies to Virginia Woolf

“Singing with the Enemy” is the title of the post from the blog Feministe. Singing with the Enemy is actually the title of a British TV program. It is a reality show about a women’s rock band called Severed Heaven and an all men’s band that call themselves the Lethal Fixx. In this reality show, they both had to compromise and put their music together to construct a song. But as in every reality TV show, there is always a twist. This short passage of a post parallels with the two chapters (three and four) from Virginia Woolf’s- A Room of One’s Own. The rest of the blog post discusses “The twist was Severed Heaven believed strongly in feminist values while Lethal Fixx did not have great things to say about women in rock and just genuinely were all about shagging women. One band member even said that women don’t make good rock music”. Throughout the first few chapters that I have read thus far in the book, Virginia is all about getting equalized women’s rights with men and is always bringing up issues that women have and men don’t. At the college Virginia goes to, women aren’t allowed to walk on the grass and a beadle stops her. Women can’t own their own property. According to the story, “husbands were their property”. If she were to respond to this article, she would most likely compare it to her life right now. Women in this band are being looked down upon because they “aren’t good enough” and women aren’t considered to even be able to have their own life in the book. If Virginia were to base her story on women roles today, I think that she would have a completely different story to tell and have a much better outlook on the equality of women.

http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2007/10/22/singing-with-the-enemy/

HW 22 "Chp.2 Response to Virginia Woolf"

“The most transient visitor to this planet, I thought, who picked up this paper could not fail to be aware, even from this scattered testimony that England is under the rule of a patriarchy”. Patriarchy is a society where men hold the most power over women. The quoted statement above parallels with what was said in chapter two about Patriarchy in that they discuss how women are beneath men. She looks through books at the library about women and comes upon a topic and a line that really intrigues her; about the physical inferiority of women. She comes to the conclusion that male scholars don’t care about the inferiority of women rather than defending the male superiority. “Have you any notion how many books are written about women in the course of one year? Have you any notion how many are written by men? Are you aware that you are, perhaps, the most discussed animal in the universe”? (pg. 26) This quote is basically saying that talking about women is done more than men. Even though they talk about it more, it’s usually in a negative way.
The front page of the New York Times newspaper article is titled, “Endorsements for Giuliani, Romney”. If a visitor to our country were to open up this newspaper they could have mixed feelings on patriarchy occurring in the United States. On one side, they could assume that the elections are only men and have no women in them. They could be excluding all females from them. On the other hand, they could also think nothing of it and just presume that women weren’t running this time around. I feel that the use of patriarchy in our country if someone from outside were to come on would have completely mixed feelings about it which is why I take either side of this.

HW 21 "Chapter One Response to A Room of One's Own"

Cassie-
After reading your last email you sent it seems like your having a bit of trouble with the understanding of the book, Virginia Woolf- “A Room of One’s Own”. I’ve read the first chapter and I can try to help you with my perspective and understanding of the story thus far. I’m not positively sure if I am all that correct on what is going on because it is a difficult book to understand, but I can try.
Chapter one starts off by discussing Virginia Woolf. She was asked to discuss her opinion on Women and Fiction. She had many different ideas-“women and what they are like, women and the fiction that they write, or women and the fiction written about them”. She came to the conclusion "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction." The narrator of the story follows this by having the story take place sitting on the side of the river. She sits and contemplates what Women and Fiction mean to her. The narrator converses about a story she had remembered reading about. When she goes to the library they say, “ladies are only admitted to the library if accompanied by a Fellow of the College or furnished with a letter of introduction." Throughout the rest of chapter one, she describes different things that are taking place around her. This includes the church, and meals at the University. She also starts to think about why women are “poor” and don’t seem like they are created equal. She thinks how different things would be if her mother and women in her family before her had money. The chapter ends by her thinking why “Mrs. Seton had no money to leave us” and also on the effects of poverty and wealth have on the mind.
Some people might consider this an important piece of work because the story although it is difficult to read, it makes you think. It makes you understand more and if you don’t understand what they are trying to say you can look deeper into it. As it says on the back of the book, this story has a legit meaning. “Women must have a fixed income and a room of their own in order to have the freedom to create”.
In my opinion, I think this book so far seems pretty complicated. I thought it was difficult to understand and felt that I had to keep going back and re-reading sections because I couldn’t remember what was going on. It is only the first chapter so I think that by reading more of the book I will get adjusted to the style of the writing and be able to comprehend a little easier than I have.

HW 19 "Web of Influence"

Daniel W. Drezner and Henry Farrell are the writers to the article in the Blog titled, “Web of Influence”. One paragraph that appears to be fascinating to me about the effects of blogging is the second paragraph on page 85. This paragraph provides the full results between the differences of international blogs and media coverage. In this paragraph, it discusses the influences of blogs on the United States politics. It informs us about the millions of people that are drawn to the blogosphere per day. The White House Internet Director Jimmy Orr “characterized the blogosphere (the all encompassing term to describe the universe of weblogs) as instrumental, important, and underestimated in its influence”. I feel that blogging is having a huge impact on the political world today. They are a way for bloggers who are sometimes more informative about world issues than actual media reporters to discuss and give you a better chance to find out the real deal of what is going on. In this article, they give you solid examples of people in politics that have been affected by the blog world. I like how the authors used good back up cases to show its readers the actual outcomes of online blogging. United States Senate Trent Lott resigned in 2002 after he made harsh remarks at another Senator Strom Thurmond’s 100th birthday party. Throughout the media, they made as little fuss possible over the statements he said. Apparently they were big issues that shouldn’t have been taken lightly. My point is that online blogging took this story to a whole other level. For instance, “the incident was the subject of intense online commentary, prodding renewed media attention that converted Lott’s gaffe into a full blown scandal”. In other words, we can thank the blogosphere for making unpopular issues going on in politics today to be ‘Headline News’ in the blogging world.

HW 18 "My Least Favorite Blog Post of the Week"

My least favorite blog post of the week that I came across was titled, “Black Women Less Likely to Receive Chemo” falling under the feminist blogs category. Apparently, a recent study showed that “Black women are three times less likely to receive chemotherapy and five times less likely to receive Tamoxifen (a drug used to help treat breast cancer) than their white counterparts”. In my opinion, I disagree with this recent post. Throughout society today, we don’t have close to any problems with racism; at least not around me. I feel that no matter what culture you are or what color you are does not play a role in how you are medically treated. Years ago when we did have problems with racism I could believe this post and see why people might think this. At this day and age, I feel that no one cares about what race you are and everyone is equivalent with one another. “Despite previous studies having found difference in the types of cancer that black women get verse white women, it is clear that it is cultural and racial factors that motivate the difference between why white women get the treatment they need more than black women do. Most experts were not surprised by the results of the study, but stated that figuring out why the differences existed would be difficult”. I 100% disagree with this statement. I feel that weather you are black or a white women doesn’t affect how you are treated with your health. They also didn’t give much back up information making this not a well written post. Because it is a brief statement that has no support to such a controversial issue, I have problems and disagree with this entire post.

http://feministing.com/archives/007877.html

HW 17B "Which Blog would most likely influence the way I would vote in the coming election"

After reading the two blogs, “Blogging the Presidency, An Interview with Markos Moulitsas Zuniga” and “Sex, Lies, and Political Scrapes: An Interview with Ana Marie Cox” I feel that the reading that would most likely influence the way I would vote in a coming election is “Blogging the Presidency”. In this interview with Zuniga, he discusses the reasoning for why he started to blog. His main reason was for blogging after the Afghanistan War. He said that the country was criticizing the president which seemed to be an “unpatriotic act”. He felt that he needed a place where he could “have an outlet to vent”. He felt that by starting a blog which he called the DailyKos, he “could get things off his chest and hopefully not go crazy”. Considering I am now eighteen years old and I am at the legal age to vote, I feel that this interview would have much more of an impact of who I would vote for. Bloggers always seem to be honest and have more of an opinion on issues in the world than the media does. In my opinion, what separates “Blogging the Presidency” and “Sex, Lies, and Political Scrapes” is that this second Blog seems to be more of a gossipy blog rather than a legit blog that discusses the real issues about the presidential election. “She gets to write about whatever she finds funny- everything from the sexual preferences and habits of Bush Administration officials to the sexual preferences and habits of everyone else in Washington”. This type of blog doesn’t seem appealing to me and wouldn’t help influence the way I would vote in the coming election.

HW 17 "Jack Abramoff: High School Bully"

After browsing through the recent posts in the blogs I am watching, there was one that I read that I found to be very interesting. Under feminist blogs, the post I chose to respond to was titled, “High School Bully” by Jack Abramoff. According to this post, Abramoff starts off by saying, “This is sure to cheer the high school bully victims among you”. In it, he tells the story of a young boy who always brought a cello to class. He was known as the ‘class nerd’. There was a particular bully in his school that would push him around and make fun of him with his friends. Many years later when the nerd had grown up he heard a story about the bully becoming a criminal and his story of what he did all over newspapers across the country. I’ve always believed that what goes around comes around. This specific story in my opinion follows that quote. I believe that even though it’s a sad story about a youth’s negative experience through high school, it’s definitely a good way of getting across the point that if you do something wrong in your life karma does come back to you.

HW 16A "Scobles' rules of engagement"

According to Scobles’ rules of engagement blog, he discusses ideas of things to consider before you start broadcasting about your company on a blog. One of the blogs I am watching about “Feminism and women’s rights” is about issues that many women are being faced with today. Some of Scobles’ 20 principles that they appear to be living up to in the Blogs I am following are that that he says to always tell the truth. When talking about there feministic stands on certain issues, they told the truth about feelings without being afraid to be judged by others who read the blog. They use a human voice as if we were in a one on one conversation which tends to grab our attention more in conversations. There are always blogs updated daily and change frequently. After looking over the feminist blogs, I don’t find anywhere that they are not following Scobles’ principles. In my opinion, I think that the principles of the corporate weblog manifesto are applicable to the blog because it tells you how to achieve the best blog you can. By representing such a good blog about your company you are able to increase your business reputation for the future.

. The Corporate Weblog Manifesto.. 26 Feb. 2003. 2 Oct. 2007
.

Hw 14 "Take an Obsession, Then Feed It!"

“Take an Obsession, then Feed It”, consisted of an interview with Nick Denton. Accordingly, Denton discusses how “hiring unknown writers for your blog sites rather than writers with track records in the media” is better. In addition, he talks about how people who are extremely talented writers don’t get the recognition they deserve just because they are not well known. Ultimately, I find this to be completely true. In contrast, Denton also says, “Of course, it works the other way too. Writers who are good webloggers often don’t do that well when they try to make the transition to magazine journalism or newspaper journalism”. Consequently, webloggers seem to be more ‘hungrier’ to discuss issues that the media seems to be incorrect on. In addition, webloggers in my opinion have more to offer about controversies in the world today. For instance, Denton responds in his interview, “As the audience grows, so will the advertising potential”. Thus, I feel and agree with Denton that as blogs becomes more popular and technology with it becomes more accepted, weblogging will alter businesses and could quite possibly “unbundle the existing newspaper publishing business”, as Denton stated.

HW 13 "Impact of Blogging on a Business"

Blogging in businesses these days are becoming very influential. Besides for the internet being the most popular way for people to receive information, blogging itself is having a deep effect on how the world perceive issues on just about anything. According to the article: "Blogs Will Change Your Business" by Stephen Baker and Heather Green, "there are some 9 million blogs out there, with 40,000 new ones popping up each day. 40 new ones everyday that could be talking about your business, engaging your employees, or leaking those merger discussions you thought were hush-hush". With bloggers discussing there businesses over the internet, it's leaving no privacy. This is how businesses are finding things out about what there current employer may think about them. Businesses expect that you would use simple common sense when discussing there company-especially when it's open for anyone to view. Google was one company that unfortunately had a problem with this. Baker and Green discuss how a young programmer blogged about his first few days on the job. He said that "Google's health plan was less generous than his former employers Microsoft and he argued Google's free food was an enticement for employees to work past dinner." Google fired the programmer. This goes to show that blogging about your company in a negative way can result in punishment. "If it's something you wouldn't email to a long list of strangers, don't blog it." I highly agree with this statement. You shouldn't broadcast to the world-especially about your job, because nothing on the internet is ever private. Anyone can access it. Society used to think that before the internet became as popular as it is today that nothing was so open and you can pretty much vent about your life in a blog. You never would have thought people would look into it, or even be interested in what you were saying. But recently (or within the past few decades) society suggests that "Blogs are what's causing the Web to grow. If a company wants to track millions of blogs simultaneously, it gets a heat map of what a growing part of the world is thinking about, minute by minute."
Besides the drama of what Blogging can do to a company, it can also be used as an advertising tool and be very influential towards a business. In a positive blog, company’s employees can discuss what the job offers and makes them standout aside from other businesses. Although competitors are able to view this and could find out what they are up too, competition is what makes businesses achieve better greatness.

HW 11 "Making Global Voices Heard"

The name of the blog that I decided to discuss for this assignment was the topic on The North Korean Zone titled, “The Tragedy of Building Trust with North Korea”. In this blog, it discussed how the International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors tried “shutting down North Korea's nuclear reactor at Yongbyon, and heavy fuel oil and humanitarian aid are shipping from South Korea to the North”. Throughout the argument, it talks about how North Korea is still in crisis and “playing to the domestic politics of other countries to command a higher price for its cooperation.” Whenever a country tries to build trust with North Korea, it always seems to backfire. The types of people who comment back on this type of blog are people who seem to be very confrontational about North Korean problems because they are probably from around there. They have a strong opinion on the issues.
Rebecca Mackinnon in her interview called, “Making Global Voices Heard” discussed why she chose to start her new career focused on North Korea. She tells us that the “media covers the stories in a haphazard fashion”. Mackinnon states that there are no blogs in North Korea. She started a blog there called the Watch Blog that is a group outside North Korea that talks about what is happening there. I feel that this blog parallels with the blog online because they both discuss the issues going on in North Korea and this place doesn’t have a very trustworthy government.
Of course, many will probably disagree with this assertion about the issues going on with North Korea. Mackinnon thinks that North Korean’s internet access is very bad because they’re scared about what their government might do to them. People from North Korea may think differently and that there government is not the problem. This could provide a conflicting issue within my blog.

http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?at_code=425196

HW 12 Intro Para of Semester-Long Project

Throughout humanity today, one of the most popular pastimes being used on the computer are social networking services. In my opinion, it would be interesting to learn about these types of services online that include face book and MySpace; for two examples. I think it would be fascinating to learn if about the networking services in the United States versus Asia. It would also be interesting to find out if they use them in other places around the world and how often as well as how long they have been using them. If they have been using them before Americans have I feel this would also be very appealing to me. The type of marginalized groups I am most interested in learning about are overcoming sexism. Throughout my youth and educational career, I was able to learn a little about the different issues going on with sexism. In researching this for my semester-long project I feel I will be able to get a better understanding of it.

HW 9 "Punching Holes in Old Faded Mirrors"

“Punching Holes in Old Faded Mirrors” was the title from am interview with Arianna Huffington. In this interview she discusses her participation in the blogosphere world and starting her own Blog; referring to it as a ‘blogazine’. Called the Huffington Post, she describes it as a “Combined breaking-news section with a group blog”. Huffington has made many explanations about blogs. She states how “Blogs have made a huge difference because they have broken the monopoly of the mainstream media. An enormous amount of people have become their own reporters”. Huffington is surely right about bloggers being their own reporters because, as she may not be aware, recent studies and from other readings in the book, “Blog!” have acknowledged the fact that bloggers are becoming more accurate with the issues they are discussing. I also agree how Arianna Huffington discusses that in the blogosphere world, the chance of a Blog being incorrect have a better chance in being corrected and improved.
Although there is not much information stated by Huffington that I disagree with, there was a line she said that I found a little controversial. She thought that the media was “Suffering from attention deficit disorder”. She thought that they only paid attention to one story at a time and don’t talk about any other issues. Although I agree with Huffington up to a point, I cannot accept the overall conclusion that the media constantly only deals with one problem on the news or in the newspapers at one time. Looking through any daily newspaper, there are plenty of breaking stories throughout it. They may have one huge breaking story more intense that some of the others, but the media never fails to not discuss them. Overall, I feel that Arianna Huffington portrayed well her thoughts upon blogs and I believe The Huffington Post will be a successful blog in the future.

HW 7 "My So-Called Blog"

Most parents would agree that in order to protect their children they should monitor all the websites and things that they do when they are on the computer. Inn my opinion, I think that it is better to allow your children to have their own privacy and be able to decide for themselves what they do when there using the internet. If they are old enough to be able to work and successfully use a computer, then they can determine what responsible acts in using the World Wide Web. Blogging and journals online are ways for kids to open up and express themselves if they feel they can’t any other way.
As Emily Nussbaum’s put in her chapter titled “My So-Called Blog”, “…exposure may be painful at times, but it’s all part of the process of putting it out there.” (Kline and Burstein 352)
“Teens, especially says Nussbaum, seem to be aching to share what normally would be considered private experiences: For a significant number, they become a way of life, a daily record of a community’s private thoughts”. (Kline and Burstein 349)
These two quotes are basically stating how teenagers and young adults who use the internet for blogs and journals feel that they can talk about their life easier by typing it out online rather than putting it all out there in person. Blogging has become so popular with teens that it has essentially become a way of life to express your feelings on a day to day basis over the internet for others to read.

HW 5b "I Blog, Therefore I Am"

In David Kline’s reading titled, “I Blog, Therefore I am”, I found a paragraph that I disagreed with. The quote starts off by saying, “It was a once thriving medium killed by decades of mediocrity, fueled by the insidious tradition of older strips never going away, resulting in an apathetic generation of younger readers who no longer have reason to ever open their newspaper.” What this emphasizes is that they think that the youth rarely ever reads the newspaper. I disagree with this quote because being a teenager myself, I personally read the newspaper. We’re forced to read newspapers considering I am in college they always have newspapers in your dorms and dining halls. Even if you don’t read it, sometimes you need to relate your homework to an article for a certain class. Walking through my campus on a daily basis I always observe someone looking through the ‘morning paper’. I can definitely argue with this quoted statement from Kline’s passage in the “Blog” book and I feel that this is a negative speech.

HW 6 Interest Statement

After looking over the possible options on the list for the Semester-Long Project, I was able to decide what interested me.
The social computing technologies that interested me were email and email lists, instant messaging, and social networking services. I found these to be fascinating because these three choices I already use in my free time when I am on the computer. I enjoy using them and have much background on the three.
The type of employment of marginalized groups that I am most interested in finding out about are overcoming sexism, overcoming racism, and overcoming ageism (inequities based on youth or lack of youth). I find these three topics to be very interesting to me because they are controversial issues.
The two geographical areas that I am interested in learning about are North America and the United States. Because I live in the United States I think it would be fascinating to look deeper into what kind of issues are occurring in our country today. Learning about the issues in North America would also interest me because I can compare the problems that occur here to that of it North America. I can see how they are similar and differ.

HW 4 "The Voice of the Customer"

“Great brands are always built on promise”, quoted Greg Thomas in “The Voice of the Customer”. One great brand that I have always loved and continue to use is Lander Baby Lotion. This brand parallels with Thomas’ statements upon brands because Baby Lotion has continuously for years been a popular and reliable lotion for your skin. In my opinion, I speculate that this brand offers to have a soothing and moisturizing effect on any skin type.
After looking into this brand on the internet I was able to find out many things about this product that they don’t tell you about on the actual bottle. Lander promises that its product “Smoothes, Soothes, and softens delicate skin”. It also states to be “effective in restoring healthy feeling and looking skin. This unique formula absorbs into the skin to soothe as it softens and protects your skin”.
I think that Lander Baby Lotion does deliver on the promises that they say on the bottle and on the website. From personal experience of using this cream my whole life, I can fully agree with what they say about this product.

http://store.darisimall.com/520817.html

HW 2 "Burstein's 12 key Ideas.."

“Blog will continue to be important in politics for a long time to come”.
In this blog entry it discusses how blogs are beginning to become more important than the actual media when it comes to the presidential campaigns, for example. They have more important things to say about the elections and can actually influence the votes when the elections are pretty equal. They discuss how blogs are an interesting part of the campaign coverage.
I find it interesting to have blogs when it comes to politics because on a good note, they can be very supportive in helping the running politicians. It can influence the American voters with whom they choose by giving them more realistic ideas of who is a better choice to be working for our country. I can relate to this blog because now that I am 18 years old I am of legal age to vote. I feel that by reading blogs online about the presidential elections I can get a more fulfilling idea of who is the better choice.
Many people assume that the media is always correct when it comes to the elections. I have come to realize through reading “Blog” by David Kline that you can’t always believe what you read in the media. Bloggers are becoming more precise with their entries which make me comfortable with the fact that I can get a better knowledge of elections by reading them.

HW 3 "Toward a More Participatory Democracy"

In reading Chapter 1 of “Toward a More Partipatory Democracy” David Kline recognized the idea that Blogging is conflicting differences between opposite views. Elections have become the greatest example of how blogging has had an impact in our daily lives. Blogging has influenced the different political views of many Americans opinions; especially how our country is being run today. For example, according to the media, they broadcasted that “Iraq had weapons of mass destruction; then suddenly, their wasn’t.” This goes to show that what they broadcast on the news and in our newspapers isn’t always politically correct. Bloggers almost always catch these problems in the news and there ideas are more accurate. Problem is we’re so used to the idea of the news always being right that no one takes into consideration anything about the accuracy of bloggers.
Another problem occurring with the media today is they don’t have coverage on religion and it is becoming “remarkably absent from most mainstream American media”. People have begun to find this a problem because some of the worst issues in our country today have resulted in the disagreements between religions. Bloggers have been able to fill the lacking of religion from newspapers and television by writing precise blogs discussing what the media is refraining from.
It has become common today that “the media can merely benefit from some new (blogger) blood”. Americans today tend to believe that having some of the bloggers intelligent backgrounds on large issues in our country today can only benefit us and make our media become more accurate.
In my opinion, I feel that blogging is more correct than a good amount of stories that the media tells us in the newspapers and on the daily news today. I no for a fact that newspapers can completely butcher stories and turn them around to something that didn’t even happen. For instance, I went to High school with a student who committed a crime and it was put in the newspaper. He was in one of my classes and discussed that they made the story sound worse than what really happened and was extremely upset with how the media told the story. This makes me more familiar with how David Kline discusses the inaccuracy of the media today and how we need more bloggers to be part of the media.