AP exam!! Finally OVER! pheeww..

I can't believe this year is almost over! and I'm done with both of my AP exams! Compared to my AP Bio, this one was so much better! The essay questions were really easy; cricket and politics: did something like that ever show up before? Because I feel like at the beginning of the year, you did show us something similar like this as in sports with politics! Anyways, it was easy for me except the time when the proctor announced that 40 mins are up out of two hours, I was still writing my DBQ and analyzing the documents! I thought there is no way I could finish all three essays in next 80 minutes, but... but surprisingly I still had time to do expanded core for every essay and I did manage to finish it on time. The multiple choice were also easy! I read the first question and I knew that this is going to be easy. 

For the review, to be honest, the review games were fun! It's more fun when everyone is sort of well prepared..  I was not really prepared during the review games which we played. I knew the stuff from second half of the year, but not the beginning of the year! I did start to study from Monday night to Wednesday night and it really helped with, of course, answering the multiple choice and essay questions. People say that you can't study the whole book and you are not supposed to be studying, but I'm glad I studied. Unfortunately, it did not pay off with AP bio exam but I feel confident about this one. 

For the next year, I think may be you should cover each period each day as in take foundational period as an example. You can just go over few important points/civilizations that people have questions on and refresh the memory. Since it was at the beginning of the year, for me, I had hardest time remembering. So, I don't know how this would work out, but may be worth a try? 

Communist Manifesto!! YAYYY!

Positives!
- Graduated Income Tax: Tax is necessary for any society to survive. I believe that the idea of graduated income tax is fair enough, because people are paying the tax depending on what they earn. It would not make much sense for someone who is earning less money to pay more tax compared to the other person who is earning more - paying less tax. Graduated Income Tax is necessary.
- Abolition of Children's factory labor and providing a free school education: Free school education? Yes, definitely a positive thing, because that way, at least people would learn something. The only problem with this is that they need to get money to have free education - which could only be possible by taxes. If people are paying the taxes then once they get the money = children could get free education. Abolition of children's factory labor is also a positive thing because (well, we live in a society where there are fixed hours for children to work and certain age limit) the children are not matured enough to work in factories and may end up hurting themselves or hurting the company.
- Equal Liability: Women working equally with men? Definitely a positive thing; throughout history, women were always considered weak and not equal to men. They always got paid less or not as much as the men did. Equal liability gives rights to women to work and earn same amount as men did.

- Centralization:I think centralization is needed in order to keep any human being under control. Even though everyone is being treated 'equally' in this type of society, you still do need centralization. Centralization of transportation and communication is in state's hands.

Negatives!
- abolition of all right of inheritance: This is negative because there are some things that you cannot abolish and this is one of them. According to him, this is direct tax and it hurts the policies of indirect tax which is not true. I believe that inherited things are not for pubic; sometimes those taxes are needed or else how else is the idea of 'free-education' going to work?
- confiscation of property: I found this one to be ridiculous one! I understand that sometimes it is important to be cautious but government cannot just take property away from ONLY emigrants and rebels if they are not sure. Even if they take the land away, what are they going to use it for? Probably public use again! I don't think this is a positive thing because think about it, rebels are rebelling just because they don't like the way society works. Guess what, if the government takes their property, it is going to make more rebels and make things worse for no reason!
- free education: This could be positive and negative thing. I did say it was a positive thing but I also do believe that it is a negative thing. Free education would require a lot of money which would be impossible to get enough with the taxation and amount of labor people do and earn.
- abolition of property in land: Property tax which is paid annually would not give any right to anyone to own a property. It is for the public purpose and no single person can own property. I believe that owning property is a good thing. There are a lot of properties, how much are you going to use for the public?

Revolutionary Heroic Figures :/ din't find them much interesting

Hmm... Revolution!! :/ First of all, these heroic figures... I believe they need to show off less and learn to pose! They are posing as if they are forced to pose and Marat just looks so miserable! George Washington looks all serious and not smiling at all; the last two just look so scary! Anyways, all of them share some similarities:

Similarities:
- all the 'heroes' in all the pictures are holding something in their hands such as a sword or quill! well, three of them at least had some kind of weapon in their hand - may be representing the revolution! Marat had quill; he looked miserable and more like sacrificing type of person; I guess the reason he had quill was to show the writing of some kind of document. Speaking of written document, all the pictures also had some kind of papers (written) somewhere in picture. For example, in George Washington's picture, the written paper (probably declaration of independence) is showed on the table. Also, in the next picture which was Marat's, he is holding the paper in his hand just like Toussaint Louveture. Even in the last picture which was Bolivar's, there is a certain type of written document showed in the picture.Also, almost all the leaders look confident and doing certain type of pose except Marat.


WHY???: The artist chose to portray them in this way because people would think of them as strong leaders and respect them. Also, the artist did made them confident, serious, and having attitude, doing wonderful showy pose. The pictures are shown in such way to make them more stronger and people would listen and it would lead to success! The artist probably wanted to show the people that 'ohh, look! these are our role-models; we shall be inspired and continue with the war'.

Heroic Figures!!!: Heroic figures are necessary for the revolution because in every war, you atleast need one leader who provides guidance, who also becomes your role-model, who orders you around and has somewhat of a clue on what is going on around and what to do! Heroic figures maintain the things around so they don't go all crazy during the war. Also, they are necessary for people because people need someone to listen to or else no one will ever listen to anyone and that would be just disaster!

Ferguson and his SIX killer apps.. why only six??? :O

Okay, so Ferguson talks about the six 'killer apps' which I do agree upon on. First one was competition; there is competition everywhere in this present time. I guess it's just us humans like to be better than others and somehow bring the other one down! I kind of disagree with competition being only western thing, I mean, there was competition before the 'western side' was even colonized. For example, daimyos in Japan (couldn't think of any other example). Second killer app is the scientific revolution: I do agree with him about this; I believe this should be one of the top things because westerners did come up with a lot of things in science! Third app was property rights. I do agree with him about owning property, even though western method differed from the one in Latin America. Number four was Medicine!! Definitely a big one, though I kinda don't agree with western side being the top one behind the medicine! Ancient civilizations did use medicine.. I guess what he was trying to say was the population increased which led to more money and western side became more advanced! I'm not so sure if I agree with that. Fifth app was the consumer society: once again, I'm kind of not sure about this since I believe that it's not only west who traded and produced goods; there were others as well. And last one is work ethic which I do agree with.
Another thing he mentioned was that the Great Divergence is more political than geographical, which he proved it in his sense but if you go back in time, geography did play a major role with the success of the civilizations and even empires.
I actually liked this TED talk but one thing I noticed was that he is very full of himself! It also felt like he was taking 'west' side and saying westerners were the best and came up with everything.. you might disagree with that but hey, that's the way I felt like!

Wow! I actually get to criticize a (school) book without teacher minding it!!!

According to me, chapter 28 is a huge mess. The information given in this chapter is not organized, and really, if you look back to the chapter, you will notice that there is more information on Ottomans rather than Safavids or Mughal. So why did the textbook authors chose to put all three Islamic empires together in one chapter? - well, in order to make separate chapters, you need creative titles and may be the textbook authors just got lazy with their creativity! I do not know what they were thinking when they 'created' this chapter; may be they thought it would be easier for students, or may be they just got lazy! Because you definitely need more information in order to make separate chapters or else it would be a chapter of a page or two with the information given on Safavids and Mughals. Personally, for me, I think this chapter was a mess with all information just messed up together.

This period of global interactions was definitely a good thing; if it wouldn't have happened, people would still be living boring lives! You could say this period brought in more colors in people's lives! It is always good to exchange ideas, cultures, traditions, food products, peoples, etc; I mean that's how modern world works!

Fabian Fucan REJECTS Christianity.. Noo wayy

Fabian Fucan converted to Christianity at early age but later he considered it as his mistake! So, he condemns the Christian faith by supporting Buddhist ideas. He attacks Christianity by describing the Christian faith as barberic, evil thing! Culturally, he attacks Christianity by saying that its mission is to destroy Japanese cultural traditions and bring in "their traditions". Politically, he attacks Christianity by saying how "they have dispatched troops and usurped Luzon (the Philippines) and Nova Hispania (Mexico)". Historically, he describes how Japan was without Christianity before! And now Christian missionaries are here to destory the history as well as cultural traditions, the reason why he attacks Christianity politically as well. In social aspects, he pretty much describes Christianity as bad and 'evil' and he is trying to prevent people from converting to Christianity; according to him, Buddhism is the best!

Chapter 26 Project :)

So since we could not do showme all together, we divided up the sections of the chapter and everyone did their own! Here is the order it goes in:

Part 1 (696-700)
Part 2 (701-704)
Part 3 (705-710)
Part 4 (711-715)
Part 5 (715-718)

Capitalism.. Hmm i think i know now!

Alright, so capitalism is an economic system in which there is a competition between companies/businesses/merchants and they run the state. Due to growth in agriculture and new techniques of manufacturing, the competition increased. A technique known as supply and demand, in which a businessman would buy cheap goods from a place where it was easier to find and sell it somewhere else where the goods' prices would be high because it would be rare to find, was used in a capitalist system. Also, the private parties organized institutions and services, such as banks, to promote capitalism. This resulted in higher stock-exchange in Europe. The stock-exchanges created markets for investors to buy and sell shares in joint-stock companies. The trading companies took advantage of communications and transportation networks. So pretty much, capitalism  led the society into more economic and financial direction with 'cheapness'. 

Christianity splitting... Origin of dilemma!!

Hmm, Christianity keeps on splitting, because there were new ideas evolving due to Renaissance. It keeps on repeating in history; everytime there is a new idea or reform or something going on, the religion changes. May be people just like to see new things rather than sticking with their old ones! Nah, can't be true though! Anyways, what I believe is because of new ideas, the religion changes and keeps on splitting. I guess people started to have new ideas and may be it was hard to maintain the old belief with people who have new various ideas. Due to Renaissance, people started to think in different ways and their beliefs of 'what the religion should be' like changed.

Capitalism? I absolutely have no clue what is capitalism! Might have heard it last year or so but I clearly don't remember.

StOrYtIMe!!!!

Learning about history through Griots is definitely an interesting way of getting knowledge, but as always, there are pros and cons in almost everything in this world!
Pros: well, one good thing about learning history through music and dance is one would understand the culture aspects. The culture is and will be always be passed down to generations by this method of storytelling. Also, it is an interesting way of getting knowledge: looks fun to watch and definitely is better than reading texts!
Cons: I deal with trust issues! I don't trust people easily, so of course, it would be harder for me to trust whatever the griots are telling me! How can they be so sure? How do they know about it? What if they are favoring one side? What if they are adding their own thoughts into the history? What about their opinions? I already have so many questions and doubts in my head! I do not think a person like me would trust and choose this method of learning history :)
I would prefer textbooks over learning history by griots! The reason is, first of all, you cannot put your opinion in textbooks meaning the information cannot be altered. Secondly, I just think textbooks are better for storing history rather than keeping history in mind because you have chances of mixing up things as in dates or mix up part of history with the other part!

Mongols on TRIAL!! Not so sure if they would come after me if I charge them as guilty or even for putting them on a trial!!! :O

          The trial was an amazing experience, totally different from any other projects I have ever done! I don't think I have ever done a trial in any of my classes before, so it surely was a different experience. I did enjoy it; it definitely was easier than the last project I did on crusades. Well, for the last project, Xtranormal was being stupid, so it wasn't in my hands. Anyways, overall, I did enjoy the trial, and it was definitely more easier.
I was on the defense side, doing an opening statement. I think I did a descent job; my opening statement was completely different from the persecution's opening statement. I didn't have to do much of the research since I knew what I was talking about. Also, reading the chapter did help me with understanding and defending the Mongols. Public speaking is definitely not one of my thing, and I did get nervous standing in front of a class - everyone staring at me even though I had my ipad with me. I really need to work on being confident in front of the class :)

According to me, Mongols are bad and good at the same time. I wouldn't say that they were horrible monsters or even typical empire builders. Their strategies differed from any other great empires. Yes, I do believe that we should admire for what they built since they built one of the greatest empires known in the history, but their way of building that empire wasn't great. They could have expanded differently, I guess, in a more nicer way rather than killing a bunch of people. 
As a verdict, I would definitely charge Mongols guilty for terrorism and kidnapping. They did create fear in innocent people by killing and kidnapping. Kidnapping was very popular war tactic of the Mongols; they kidnapped people and took them to their empire. Even though I was on the defense side, I would definitely charge them guilty for kidnapping and terrorism, but I wouldn't charge them guilty of genocide. Mongols did not attack any specific group based on religion or region. They were not racist while expanding their empire. They pretty much killed those whom they were trying to take over, which proves them innocent of genocide.

Genghis Khan: psychopath or killer?

Genghis Khan! I don't think he's a popular guy; even if people know him, he is most likely known as 'serial' destroyer! Even though he was born in an environment around tribes attacking each other, he could have chosen to become a ruler, uniting those tribes but he chooses to become a dictatorial ruler by attacking a millions and killing thousands of people. Khan created large united empire, but was filled with blood after winning a landmass. Rather than winning his people in more nicer way, he chose to do it the harsh way! In fact, he also killed children and women which was completely unnecessary. He also abducted others' wives. Now days, I do not think it's humane to do a certain things which Genghis Khan did.

Crusades Project! DONE FINALLY!

So, guess what people! It's finally here!!

I AM FINALLY ALL DONE WITH THIS VIDEO!

Crusades Final

It's a you tube video, since the blogger isn't letting me upload the video! (Seriously, the technology does not like me today at all)

Anyways, here is the link for the bibliography:

Bibliography: Crusades

Also, link for the access to the script of this video:

Crusades Script

Crusades Project: Part 3

Well, today I spent my whole evening putting the xtranormal movie making together. It gave me the hardest time since I was doing it on a software rather than online! So, as I was half way done, the software just froze and I had not saved it at that time. I had spent over 2 hours since you have to choose every action of an actor, where they would walk, talk, how would their hands be, what are they looking at, background music, etc. and the thing froze on me! Somehow, after waiting for over 20 mins, I got it back and saved it and it asked me to close it so I did. I tried to open it back and guess what happened? It would not OPEN! WHY? I DO NOT KNOW! I got all freaked out and I uninstalled the software and downloaded again. Thankfully it started to work after an hour! Technology just hates me sometimes! Lesson of the day: get the work done at least a day before so you don't have to worry about it at the last moment.

Anyways, I just kept all my sources into formal bibliography form.
One of the problems I had while researching was the information on how the Muslims were affected by the crusades! I couldn't find much on it; in fact, for this project, it was more like personal reaction of one being a Muslim and reacting to the crusades.
My project did work out the way I envisioned (kinda). The problem was, I have never used xtranormal, so it took me some time to figure out how to use it (which kinda sucked).

P.S. my final product will be coming up soon on this blog before the midnight! :) it will be like an xtranormal premiere.
Once again, thanks to Anjali for sending me more links; they really helped.

Crusades: kinda easy project but giving me a hard time! :(

Sorry, since I forgot to do a blog post yesterday, I don't have any other choice other than to combine today. Thankfully I had saved it on word document; sometimes word can be very helpful only if I can figure out how to use the 2010 one! Anyways, starting from yesterday's post:

Tuesday, January 10, 2012:

For this project, I will be focusing on the following crusades: The first, the Second, children crusade (not briefly), and the eighth crusade.

I chose these topics for my project is because I think these four crusades will help me capture and demonstrate the muslim perspective very well. The first crusade was the most extreme one since it left Jerusalem with nothing other than blood everywhere. Second crusade was interesting since Saladin comes and takes over Jerusalem. I found the children crusade to be also useful to demonstrate a muslim's attitude and thinking towards christians. I also chose the 'last crusade', which is the eighth crusade to demonstrate how muslims punished them and their attitude towards christians.

How do I hope to accomplish my goal??? of course, xtranormal is there for me!! I really am having hard time getting used to the website, but hopefully by tomorrow it works. If it doesn't then I might just do twitter or gloster.

How and where am I finding my information?? Well, today I just decided to stick with google.com for information. Yes, I know I need to get used to using other search engines, but I like google!

So, Today's research on crusades include:

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/first_crusade.htm

http://www.thetreemaker.com/last-name-meaning/crusades.html

http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/bible/crusades.stm#1

http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0857642.html

http://history-world.org/crusades.htm

So that was yesterday's post! Sorry for this long blogpost for today!

Anyways, for today, I decided to use another search engine. I experimented with yahoo.com and bing.com as well as sweetsearch.com. Bing didn't seem to help much and it kept on giving me the same search result as Google.com, so I used sweetsearch (I have never used it before or even heard of it). Anyways, it was helpful. I also tried using the international Arabic version of Google, but it didn't seem to help me much. So, today, I got my research done. Thanks to Anjali for helping me out with the research on the First Crusade and the Children Crusade. I got majority of my research done.

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Second_Crusade

http://www.umich.edu/~eng415/timeline/summaries/second_crusade.htm

http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/the-second-crusade.htm

http://atheism.about.com/library/FAQs/christian/blchron_xian_crusades05.htm

http://www.historyguide.org/ancient/children.html

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/childrens_crusade.htm

http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/the-childrens-crusade.htm

http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/wars_crusade8th.html

http://thecrusades.wordpress.com/2010/05/05/eighth-crusade-1267-1272/

I also played around with the xtranormal website more, and I figured that if I download the software, it allows me to have more than 2 characters talking and walking and doing their actions. So I decided to give it a try with that software and hopefully, it will work. I have made some trial videos and they seem to be working fine, except it takes forever for them to download as in save even though the video was only 30 seconds long. Lets see how it goes!

Indian Holiday Tradition... :)

Well, Holiday Traditions! I love doing a table in Holiday Traditions. This year it was not planned very well, but I guess we'll make it better next year. Anyways, the table which I did was India, or the Hindu holidays in India. As you can see in the picture, the posters say Navaratri, Raksha Bandhan, Diwali and Holi. The dress which I am wearing - is the dress people wear during the festival of Navaratri. Navaratri is a festival of dancing; it lasts for ten days and people dance for nine days. Diwali is a festival of lights; we, the Hindus, celebrate this festival for five days by praying to Hindu deities such as Vishnu, Shiva, and Lakshmi, and celebrate it with family members as well as with firecrackers. Holi is the festival of colors, and Raksha Bandhan is the festival for brother and sister.
In this class, we have learned about Hindu deities and the religion. We also learned what these deities mean to the Hindus and the evolution of the religion.