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.

Political Cartoons

The purpose of a political cartoon is to show something that someone thinks is wrong with or to make fun of a certain current situation in the government. Like the picture to the right, it is from the Revolutionary War and I'm guessing that what it means is that you have to join the 13 colonies or you will die or that the 13 colonies were bad.

The Metamorphosis Chapter 3

I think that Kafka was trying to bring to light the way a certain type of family (that is quite similar to Kafka's family) behaves. He did this by giving them a problem that brings out the true colors of each family member. In order to do that he had to transform one of the family members into something, well, horrible, and apperently he chose Gregor as the one to suffer a horrible fate.
This brings me to the next question, why a beetle/roach? Kafka could've chosen a frog or some other well known fairytale creature. Well, I think that Kafka chose a beetle/roach because it fits the way that Gregor's family treated him, like an invalid or something disgusting. They abused him in order to pay off the family's debt and when he turned into an insect they didn't even bother to try to communicate with him before they decided to get rid of him!

The Metamorphosis Chapter 2

The Samsa family benefit and harm each other in many ways. One way that they sort of harm each other is that they all depend on one person at a time, an example of this is at the beginning of the story when we learn that Gregor is the only one working in the family to pay a debt that his parents owe, pg. 1"Once I've got together the money to pay off my parents' debt to him [the boss]" One way that they benefit and sort of harm each other is that Mr. Samsa, Gregor's dad, is very aloof and at times rude and frightening. For example on page 3 "'He will be good enough to forgive the mess in your room.'" when Mr. Samsa was talking to Gregor, this is an example of his rudeness on how he didn't really care for his son's dignity. An example of when his is frightening in the story is on page 14 "And now, without for the moment taking accurate aim, he was throwing apple after apple." when he is throwing apples at Gregor.

I believe that the Five Rules to Having a Happy Family are:
1) Support (not money support but like people giving other people emotional support!)
2) Understanding/Listening (you have to listen and try your best to understand your family members and their problems!)
3) Free of Judgement! (this kind of goes with Understanding/Listening in the way that you have to not judge your family, why do you think it exsists?)
4) Respectful (you have to be respectful to your family, their belongings, feelings, etc.)
5)Work Together (every one has to pitch in, not just one person making the money and another cooking and cleaning, you have to do something too!)

I would probably give the Samsa family a D becuase although some people do help and at times some are respectful with Gregor's bug issue, they don't really work together, most do judge, they don't listen much(and i don't think they can understand what Gregor's saying.), and they don't support each other!

The Metamorphosis Chapter 1

There are many ways that Gregor might've felt dehumanized. One way is that his parents had been using him to repay their debt, something that was not his responsibility, he is of course a grown man. Another way is that since he was always so punctual he was probably thought of as someone who was more like a clock than a human being. And althought he hated his job he always worked at his best which is quite odd.
His family also probably thought of him as a pest seeming as he was never to move out of his parents house and gain some sort of independence. His parents would always be stuck with him until they died unless they did something, but of course they didn't seem to care for him much since they did nothing. Another way that he might've felt dehumanized is that his bosses never really cared for him, just his productivity and his punctuality.