Chinese Cultural Revolution Photos

One way that Red Scarf Girl connects to my photo is that in the begginng of the book, Ji-Li, her little brother, and her best friend witnessed the breaking of a store sign because it contained the four olds in it's name and it was considered bad. Another way that it connects is that when The Red Guards went and deystroyed or took everything that contained the four olds from Ji-Li's neighbor and from the man in the excerpt from Life and Death in Shanghai by Nien Chang. Also when Ji-Li's family had to diguise her grandma's dowery by dying the red chests black and cuting up all the clothing.

GPA College Blog 2

I discovered that my GPA was 3.69 which is inbetween A- and and A. I was a little dissapointed with my grade since I know I can do better and get an A or maybe even an A+ and also because when we first looked at our GPA's it was higher. I don't think that the difference between an A- and an A is big and that I can still get into any college I want but I still feel like I should aim for a higher grade even if it's just one letter grade higher. Most of the colleges I want to go to are UC schools and for most you need high GPA's and I guess average SAT test scores to get in. So I guess I'll fit in when it comes to that but then I think about the extra curricular things which I need to, and will, do more of. Something that has gotten worse as the year progressed I guess are my quiz/test scores even though I do all my homework and I study a bit. So I guess I need to work on studying more. That's one thing I can do. Another is that I can look for extra credit work I can do like going to Office Hours.

Internship Talks

There was a lot of things that struck me about the internships, most people worked on computers, some people didn't like their interships and others did, some people had good experiences, and other's had some that were not so good.
Some of the things that I am going to look for in an internship is something that I like to do, that is related to my future career, something that will give me knowledge that I can use later in life, and something that will push me forward in the career I will pursue.
One that I thought painted a good picture was the one about the student who identified herself with a little girl from her internship. I think that the reason why it was so discriptive was because she gave the little girl an independant air around her. I also thought the part where she mentioned that she stalked the girl and her mom a little was funny.

Suheir Hammad & Marjane Satrapi on War Part 2

I think that the way that Suheir's poems and Persepolis define revolutions is that people were meant to be free, not constantly watched, monitored, and having everything they hear and see censored, like in Iran where everything was censored to the Ayatolla's agenda, which is to keep everyone under control. That the people with "the loot and the nukes" can be overthrown and made to show their true colors. The line from Suheir's poem that says this the most is, "Who worked toward social justice, and opposing hateful policies, Either you are with us or with the terrorists, meaning keep your people under control and resistance censored, meaning we got the loot and the nukes."
Another way that Persepolis defines revolutions is that Marjane was always rebeling, as a young teenager to a twenty year old woman. She was always wearing things she wasn't supposed to wear, she was always partying(which was not allowed in Iran, at least the way that Marjane was partying.) She also wasn't a virgin and she wasn't and never had been married(though she did have a boyfriend), which was frowned upon in Iran.

Suheir Hammad & Marjane Satrapi on War

One of the lines that struck me from Suheir's poems are, "I will not dance to your war drum, I will not lend my soul nor my bones to your war drum, I will not dance to that beating," because she refuses to join in and support wars. Another quote that struck me was, "I will not hate for you or even hate you. I will not kill for you, especially I will not die for you,I will not mourn the dead with murder or suicide," which again, to me, says that she will not support or join wars. Another line from her peoms that struck me was, "Girl spoiled before ripened, language can't math me, I experience exponentially, everything is everything. One woman loses 15 maybe twenty member's of her family, one loses 6, one woman loses her head, One woman searches rubble, one woman feeds on trash." because it reminds me about what happened to Marji and how countries that are at war become impoverished and filled with sadness and death.
The connections between Marjane's ideas and Suheir's ideas on war are that war is painful, pointless, and is not as powerful as peace. Also that too many young people die in wars and that everyone is left broken by war, physicaly and emotionaly. That families are torn apart by wars and death. That refugees (like Marji) don't have many places to go.
Something that struck me about Persepolis is that it gave the point of veiw of someone who knew how life was before and after the revolution, it gave a good comparison of both times. And also that Marjane was very discriptive about how life was in Iran at that time.

Islam: Customs

There are two main Muslim holidays that are celebrated by all Muslims. The first is Eid Al Fitr, this holiday marks the end of Ramadan and is held on the day after Ramadan is over. In this holiday people exchange gifts, have a big feast, have a community prayer. After the morning prayer, people greet eachother with 1-3 hugs, depending on their culture. Another holiday is Eid Ul Adha. In this holiday people honor the sacrifice Abraham (a prophet) made by almost sacrificing his son Ishmael and Muslims believe that God sent a lamb to take Ishmael's place as a reward for Abraham being so obedient. On this holiday Muslims slaughter lambs and give out the meat to the poor and their family. They also have a community prayer on this day.

I liked how Thierry used photoshop to create his posters and that makes me feel a little more comfortable with using photoshop and not making a sculpture. I also noticed that the artists incorporated their message into the art piece. I guess we're already doing that because of our original idea but I still wonder if it's enough, if people will still get the message.
A lot of the artists had their own unique way of making art. They all had different mediums like paper, paint, metal, photoshop; they had things that I don't even know what to call. They also had very different messages. They all did their own thing and I liked how artists from all over the world came together and used the world as their canvas.
The artists used a lot of different ways to convey their message. Some painted words, others by the actions of the subject in the art piece, others by where the art piece was placed and others with all three. Bansky used the placement and the actions of the subject ways when he painted on the wall in Israel.