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.