My head hurts: the AP Exam

Well quite honestly, this exam went much better than I expected. It was also much easier than the AP Bio exam.I actually felt like I knew things while doing the multiple choice. There were a few questions that I wasn't too sure about, but I was able to narrow it down to two answers. The first DBQ was actually really good. The fact that I grew up watching cricket and know the history of it helped a lot. But I really think it was the best essay I've written all year. The other two were horrible. I completely forgot what the Colombian exchange was so I just made up stuff. I think you prepared us really well for this exam. Doing the essays every month helped so much. Even though I didn't know facts I could follow the outline on how to write the essay, and I think I still got some points on it. Overall I think I stressed way too much for this, and I'm just really happy that it's over. Also, the fly swatting game helped, because even if I didn't know the answer, I could write it down and study them later.

Oh you're cool

I've noticed
That all these people look very stern, none of them are smiling. This is so because they have to look serious so that people have faith that they can lead the people. I also noticed that in three out of the four paintings, the leaders are standing in a stiff position, holding a weapon. This is intended to make them look scary and overpowering, to get the message across that they should not be messed with. The artists probably drew each of the leaders this way to make them seem big and important. They all seem like they know what they're doing and they look experienced just by the way they are standing. When future generations look at these men, they probably look silly, but mostly they look dignified and experienced. Revolutions need heroic figures to keep order. Those people are already in the
Minority, so they need a strong individual that can help them overcome their adversaries. Each of these people are heroic in what they did for their own people and country. George Washington helped America gain independence form britain, Toussaint helped the Haitian slaves create a revolt and so on. They were each strong individuals that benefitted their countries.

Where can I get these apps??

Mr ferguson made a a lot of good points in his talk, and I agreed with him. Although he made some extremely terrible jokes through his speech, he kept his audience captivated and brought up many good topics. Fist, I agree that geography didn't play a major role in why the west "defeated" the east. His examples with Germany and Korea were well founded and made a lot of sense. And quite honestly I think the "6killer apps" are true as well. These apps were competition, scientific revolution, property rights, modern medicine, consumer society, and work ethic. Back in the 1500 the west had all of these things and were superior in every aspect, but now they are greatly lacking. Again I agree that China and India are going to whoop our butts in economy. The fact that the US rarely make their own products is a huge hindrance which costs us millions.

The Muslim empires

The book probably put the ottoman,Safavids and Mughals together since they are all Muslim empires. This could be a good thing because you can see the Muslim empire progressed and how they adapted. It may be confusing because they do mix them all up in paragraphs and sometimes it is difficult
To tell the difference between the three. Also sometimes it is difficult to differentiate the time periods in which each of the empires existed and the location of the empires. I think the period of global interaction was a good thing. They learned about the cultures of different places, and their culture changed with the other people. They were sort of infused into one.

Fabian Fucan and his hatred of Christianity

Fucan has a lot of hatred for Christianity, but what he really hates is that he strayed form his original religion to practice a new one, and in the end he reverted back to neo- Confucianism. He discusses everything he hates about Christianity and compiles it in an essay. To begin, he says that the Christian people want to destroy Buddhism in Japan, and that they made it their goal to destroy it. They want to subvert the Royal Sway, overthrow the Buddhas and gods, and eliminate the Japanese customs. This goes in to the political part, in which they want to overthrow the Japanese government and make it more westernized and incorporate Christianity into the government. Fucan criticizes the fact that they have martyrs, and that they kill themselves for their religion. For the historical part, he says how they took over other lands, and basically dominated them. He believes that Japan is much better than all the other conquered areas. Lastly,on social aspect, Fucan believes that they want to get rid of everything Japanese, and just make them extremely westernized.

Chapter 26 show me

So I worked with Sam, Nrupa, Shannon, and Melissa. We each did our own show me for different pages in the chapter.

Me(pgs 696-700) http://www.showme.com/sh/?h=jlGPHfs

Shannon(700-705) http://www.showme.com/sh/?h=iwh3SQi

Melissa(705-710) http://www.showme.com/sh/?h=k4a0MLI

Sam(711-715)http://www.showme.com/sh/?h=JFOqKUi

Nrupa(716-718)http://www.showme.com/sh/?h=EfIKRiC

Haha... Capitalism

I think the reason that Christianity keeps on splitting up into different forms is mainly becuase when people don't like something in the religion,they change, and then other people begin to follow them. First of all, people began to resent the Roman catholic church, and it's involvement in politics. If you look at Martin Luther, he didn't like their principles so he changed them,and started something new. He then gained some followers and boom, there was Lutheran Christianity. As for capitalism... I honestly have no idea what it is. I've heard about it, and I learned about it, but I guess my brain can't retain the knowledge about it. So ummm yeah

The Great Griots

The griots had many pros, but they had many cons as well. To begin, griots were a very simple way to pass on history. It was passed on from generation to generation. People never had to go to great lengths to hear their songs and stories because chances are there was always a griot near you. Also, they were able to break the history down in a way that was easy to understand and easy to remember. Since most of their stories were told by song, people would probably song those songs at home and remember them. The bad part about them though is that the information may not be extremely accurate. With the story we read for homework tonight, I highly doubt that their leader was that amazing, and I highly doubt that their city flourished that much. It is easy for people to change around the history to fit their needs. That might just be to make the story more entertaining,or the song more catchy. In this day in age,I would say that a textbook is so much more efficient than a griot story. It contains more relevant and accurate facts,and it is not subjective. But, back then when paper was in very short supply and expensive, I think that the griots worked just well. I mean their storied couldn't be all wrong,they had to have some factual backing to them. Hopefully....

Those darn mongols!

The trial was honestly so much fun! I love activities that are interacting like this and they really help me understand what is going on. I was really happy that I was on prosecution becuase it way easier, and I believed what I was saying. I liked being a witness becuase it seemed pretty straight forward. The direct examination was easy, becuase it was all planned, but I have to say, I did enjoy my self maybe a little too much in the cross examination. Going back to the Mongols, I think that they were one hundred percent ruthless leaders. Yes, their military was amazing, and their conquest was brilliant, but that doesn't take away from the fact that they stole so many lives. That they tortured and killed thousands. If I were to judge them, without being biased, I would definitely say that they were guilty of genocide, kidnapping, and terrorism.

Genghis Khan: was he a crazy murderer?

There is a lot of controversy whether Genghis Khan was a great military leader, or a ruthless murderer. It is justified to say that he was a murderer. He killed many innocent lives,and spared few. It is even said that he killed his half brother because he stole his fish. But even with all this murder, it was to expand his kingdom. In the video we just watched g'day in class, it is said that Khan spared the lives of most of the women and children of the people he conquered. But personally, I don't think that takes away form all the other murders he committed. He also tortured in cruel and unusual ways to show his strength. I think he was crazy, but there must have been some kindness in him, if you can call it that. I say this becuase he was willing to spare the life of his best friend Jamuca. They were basically lovers, but became enemies. But when Jamuca was captured, the only reason Khan killed him was becuase he was asked to by Jamuca. And even then, he did it regretfully. So that small form of compassion shows that he is somewhat human.... Maybe.. All civilizations during that time think of his name, and associated it with fear.

My link!

So since this is all on twitter, just go to www.twitter.com and search the hashtag #APworldSillyCrusades. Sam is @Quran_4evah and I'm Allah_luvs_me.

My sources

So most of these sources are Internet, but we did use the text book. Also some are arabic, and some are Italian.
Sources

"Al-Ahram Weekly | Culture Page | The Crusades through Muslim Eyes." Al-Ahram Weekly | Front Page. Web. 12 Jan. 2012. .


"Arab-Islamic History." AL-BAB: An Open Door to the Arab World. Web. 12 Jan. 2012. .

Juma, Leila. "Muslim Perspectives on the Crusades - Through Western Eyes || Imam Reza (A.S.) Network." Imam Reza (A.S.) Network || شبكة الإمام الرضا عليه السلام. Web. 12 Jan. 2012. .

"Italian Visits - All about Italy - Frederick II - Emperor of the Sun." Visits Travel Network. Web. 12 Jan. 2012. .

Bentley, Jerry H., and Herbert F. Ziegler. Traditions & Encounters: A Global Perspective on the Past: Volume A: From the Beginning to 1000. Boston: McGraw Hill, C2011., 2006. Print.

How twitter worked for me

So I was kind of nervous using twitter for this project, but it surprisingly worked out very well. It was so easy to make two accounts, and work with both of them. Sam and I used the app, which was great, becuase you can have more than one twitter account in one app. So basically we just responded to each others tweet. We made fake characters that were supposedly alive at that time. The whole thing is like one big conversation over the Span of a few hundred years. So basically we're REALLY old. The only problem I really had with the twitter feed was the character restriction. It's hard to go into detail with less than 140 characters, especially when your hashtag is really long.

More fun project stuff

So I find sweetsearch.com an amazing search engine. I honestly believe that it is better than google. The hardest part is actually finding how Muslims felt during that time. I mean, it's very easy to assume how they would feel, but when you look it up, there's a book that basically focuses just on that, and that's the only thing that shows up. I did use google in Afghanistan, and it actually worked out pretty well. There were a bunch of new sources and there were new perspectives.

Yay information!

So it is definite that sam and I are working together, and are doing the first, fourth, and peace crusades. I collaborated information with Melissa and Shannon, and Futaba posted some helpful links. Sam and I are doing a twitter feed, and I have to say, so far, it is so much fun. I love doing it, and it's a great way to get your own personal opinions about something. We each made a fake account, and acted as Muslims during that time. It think it's going to be amazing!

Starting the project

Seeing as this week has been extremely hectic, and I've been co stanly doing work, I didn't have anytime to work on the project and realizes that it is due this friday.... So this is basically just a blog post to begin it all. I'm going to be collaborating research with my usual group, which is consisted of Sam, Melissa, Shannon, Nrupa, and Helli. But, we are all doing our own projects. Well, actually sam and I are working on the project together as well.so I looked at all the crusades, and I want to do the first crusade, the fourth crusade, and the peace crusade, but it isn't official yet. I'm waiting on confirmation from the rest of the team. So until I get that, I can't really do much. But sam and I are thinking about doing a twitter hashtag for the project, which I think will be really cool. Especially if I act as the Muslim :). So that's about it...