Assigned Entry #6 The Experience of Blogs

It was interesting to be graded for such non-traditional type of writing which is Blogs. I personally enjoyed the idea of blogging, since it was a remarkable way of expressing our opinions. Blogging is different than the normal writing. When I blog, I only think of the audience, how they will receive the information and whether if they would like it or not. I tried to look for topics that would be interested to my follow students. I also worked on integrating pictures and sometimes videos in my topics to be entertaining.  

I took blogging experience seriously because I liked the idea of blogs since it was different than my usual ways of writing. Also I learned the importance of engaging the audience in my writing. As an assignment, it was very useful because it expanded our knowledge about different topics and at the same time reading other people opinions about our writing.

The Oldest Story in History

      What is oldest story in history? It is the Epic of Gilgamesh. The story origin is in Sumer, which is part of Iraq now. Sumer dates back to 4500-4000 BC, it was the city of one of the oldest civilizations in history.
   
     



      The story was engraved on big stone tablets, and it had many versions, but most of them talk about Gilgamesh, the king of a city called Uruk. He was one third human and two third god.
The story focus on the friendship between the king and Enkidu, a man created by the gods to match Gilgamesh's strength. The friendship ends after many adventures by the death of Enkidu on the hands of the gods, because the king and Enkidu angered the gods by killing two heavenly creatures. After that the king realizes that although he is two third god,  he is still one third human and that one day he will meet the same fate as his friend. The king learns of a mortal man who lives at the end of the earth where the sun set. He takes off to find the immortal man, but fails after many attempts to become immortal. When he returns home and come across the giant wall that he built around his city her realize that a man may die, but his name live through generations by the work he does. The king becomes good to his people, and after his death, he was remembered for his generosity and the great wall that he built around his city. The story was said to be the same story of Noah, with some differences.
   

Goodbye Cash

I was looking for a topic to write about and found this amazing Website that show you the latest inventions in many fields like medical, electronics, computers and many more. The invention that grabbed my attention was The Square. It is a small device that you plug into your iphone, ipad, ipod, and you can swipe a debit or credit card through the Square to charge people money.
The Square is a new way to eliminate the use of paper money, and become Eco-friendly. The inventor of the Square is the co-inventor of Twitter Jack Dorsey. With this invention less people will carry cash with them, therefore less robbery will take place, and even if a thief made you swipe your credit card, you can cancel the payment in 24 hours.
I think the only objection, will be why is it an I-device? I think the answer to that is that Apple products are safe, and it is very hard(or impossible)  to hack or put a virus on an Apple product if it wasn't Jailbroken. In the future, this device might be used on phones and tablets other than Apple's devices, but I do not believe it will be as secure as it would be on an Apple.

Assigned Entry #5 Fourth Estate

        Nowadays you can study a generation, by looking at the type of music they listen to, the movies they watch, and finally the news that interests them. Media has proven to have a major influence on people. TV and other type of media set the standards that most people think they should live up to, to have a perfect life.

        Ads convey many different messages, some are hidden and some you can spot directly. Some ads have direct influence on a person, and others have an indirect affect, which means that you may not believe an ad but you start to think about it and study the idea in your head, since it’s the humans’ nature to do so.

With time, the media have changed in purpose, content and the messages. In the old days, although there weren't many ads at that time, the message was direct. The major companies have noticed the influence of media on the viewers, so they started using media to manipulate people and make them buy or do what they want. That’s when the media became a million dollar industry.  Ads got into all types of media like TV, radio, internet, billboards, and newspapers. I miss the days where you didn't have to wait 25 sec to watch a video on YouTube.

        Media can be used to mislead people and that’s what the major companies did; they used the media to make people feel bad about themselves, or even scare them. so they buy their products and live the life style that has been designed for them . In Egypt, politicians and business men tried to use the media to suppress the revolution, by feeding the people wrong information, and scaring them into thinking that if they kept going with the revolution the country will collapse, but the people were tired of their lies, so they didn't believe the TV and started using the social media to get the real news and communicate with their fellow revolutionists.

        I learned that if I wanted to listen to the news, I should listen to both sides of the topic, and argue till I know the whole truth, not just some fabricated reality.

Assigned Entry #4 Main Influence

When I lived in Iraq for 12 years, I did not hear the word capitalism. In Iraq, the government used to control all the companies that worked in the country. So I didn't know the meaning of capitalism, until I traveled to Egypt in 2005.

 In Egypt, I noticed that the people in the government are the same ones who own the major companies. The best Example is Ahmed Ezz who was an Egyptian businessman and one-time politician, the former owner of Ezz Steel and the former chairman of Egypt's national assembly's budget committee. Also a former senior member of the ruling National Democratic Party of Egypt and has been described as "a confidant of the president’s son Gamal Mubarak, and two other former ministers. In his positions in the government, Ezz used his authorities to lower taxes for his business and buy cheap raw material for his factories. Also he used his connections in the government to eliminate any major competition in the market. Plus many more examples like Ezz, even the president Mubarak himself used his powers to make profit for himself. That was one of the reason people revolted against Mubarak and his government. 

  When I watched the movie Capitalism: Love Story, I realized that Capitalism here is the same in Egypt. The only difference is that here the competition is bigger, and poverty is much less than Egypt. While I was watching the movie, I kept comparing situations that happened in the movie to similar ones in Egypt, and wondered will there be a time that people revolt against the government someday like in Egypt? It is possible, and some people are already revolting, asking for their rights and better work conditions. Some people already noticed what Capitalism has been doing to the country, and they started educating people about the problems of Capitalism. The Government should control the private companies not the other way around.

In the 21^st century, Money became everyone’s ambitious and lifelong goal. Everything around us became labeled with price. If you don’t make enough money, then you are not living. Nowadays, people are running in circles, they work for minimum wages to buy food and pay the rent so they can go work at the next day. What kind of life is that? It is not a life. People in Europe work to live, and in the U.S they live to work.

Assigned Entry #3 More Options

    It is good to see that the colleges in Arizona are providing students with more more choices. In my opinion,  this new 7 and 1/2 weeks program is suitable for some students, but I don't think that all subjects can be crammed into 7 and 1/2 weeks. The new semester period has its advantages like: students can finish their bachelors degree in 3 years instead of 4 years and more flexible schedules, but it has its disadvantages also like: having a little time to finish the required material, a little time to do the assignments and projects that is requested by professors.

   I think that this program will not help many students because it is hard to cover 4 classes in a 7 and 1/2 weeks, therefor students will take less classes which means more semesters and that takes us back to the same time as they would have taken if they had chosen the regular 15 weeks semester.

   If I had to choose between the short classes and the normal ones, I would choose the normal ones because I am an old fashioned student who got used to the 15 weeks semester and besides the short semesters would be a stressful semester if some of my subjects were crammed into 7 and 1/2 weeks and would be hard to get a good grade in these subjects.

What is That in The Field ?

When I think that I saw everything that could happen in a soccer match, I get surprised by such event. How did that Marten get in the field. It was so hilarious how that animal stopped the match twice and was able to run between the players without being caught.

Assigned Entry #2 Is it the Whole Truth?

    When we write a report about a certain topic, sometimes we neglect to mention some aspects of the topic which changes the understanding and the way people see the report. After a long search on the internet, I came across this video and report “Violent Protests in Cairo after Court Upholds Death Penalties for 2012 Soccer Riot”

    Since I have lived in Egypt for 8 years, I try to stay updated on what’s happening in Egypt, and that's why I have a good background about this tragic incident. As I read through this report I noticed that this report neglected to mention few facts that may change the way you understand this report. For example: the reason why people burned the Cairo's headquarter of the country's soccer federation wasn't just because the 21 people were sentenced to death but for letting the real criminal walk free which they forgot to mention. Also this report lacks the detailed information of the incident.

A Glimpse into History

     The Presidents ‘Day is an important holiday in the history of the United States. President's day is in fact the celebration of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln's birthdays because both presidents' birthday dates are on February, Washington on 22 and Lincoln on the 11 of February. As a federal holiday honoring George Washington was first implemented by an Act of Congress in 1879 for government offices in the District of Columbia and expanded in 1885 to include all federal offices.

     Some states might have a different naming or date for presidents' day but in my opinion it is because each state is proud of the president that was elected from their state, For example:

  -In Massachusetts, the state officially celebrates "Washington's Birthday" on the same day as the Federal holiday. State law also directs the governor to issue an annual "Presidents Day" proclamation on May 29 (John F. Kennedy's birthday) honoring the presidents with Massachusetts roots: Kennedy, John Adams, John Quincy Adams, and Calvin Coolidge.

 -Alabama uniquely observes the day as "Washington and Jefferson Day", even though Thomas Jefferson's birthday is in April.

 -In Connecticut, Missouri and Illinois, while Washington's Birthday is a federal holiday, Abraham Lincoln's birthday is still a state holiday, falling on February 12 regardless of the day of the week.

In Washington's home state of Virginia, the holiday is legally known as "George Washington Day."

Is This The Future Car ?

While I was searching for an self generated  entry to write about, I chose to write about something modern and new. So I started looking in the news articles and found this article which is part of an episode of one of my favorite shows "Top Gear".

The article is about the worst/smallest car ever, or could it be the future car?. Personally I would rather ride a bike or just walk than driving that car, if it was the future car. This car might be handy in traffic jams, but basically that's the only good thing that it does, other than it is slow and dangerous to drive.

Entry #1. Why do we blog?

       Blogging is the basic step to web-design. I am not new to idea of blogs, but in fact I am new to the idea of writing a blog that is going to be graded. Four years ago I developed an interest for web-design. I started looking in the Internet for a fast ways to learn how to design a website, all clues and peoples' experiences led to blogs. After that discovery I started researching blogs, how they are made and for what purposes. I read many blogs and visited many sites that teach how to make blogs. I realized that creating a blog is a lot easier than designing a whole website and it is vital to know everything about blogs before I jump into web-design because blogs are just a branch of web-design and most of the famous websites have blogging section integrated inside of them that people can interact and express their opinions through. Some websites give blogs different names like "Forum" or "Discussion Board", these pages carry the same purpose and style of blogs but with different names.

       
     In my opinion, I think all the websites should have blogging section or whatever name it carries, so people can express their opinions about that website or the products that websites offers. 

        Not only does blogging give you the chance to express your opinions but it also provides a huge amount of information that is helpful to a lot of people. Especially when blogs discuss topics that weren't mentioned in many websites or there were controversies about these topics, as it gives the internet surfer the opportunity to read different opinions about the topic that concerns him. 

       The definition of blogs according to Wikipedia is : "A blog (a portmanteau of the term web log) is a discussion or informational site published on the World Wide Web and consisting of discrete entries ("posts") typically displayed in reverse chronological order (the most recent post appears first). Until 2009 blogs were usually the work of a single individual, occasionally of a small group, and often were themed on a single subject. More recently "multi-author blogs" (MABs) have developed, with posts written by large numbers of authors and professionally edited." in addition to "Blog can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog."

     
 To be fair in my judgment of blogs I try to pick the topics that interest me or affect my life, and that's why I picked the following blogs to talk about.

Google Official Blog

    The first blog I chose to talk about is Google Official Blog. I enjoyed reading this blog because it’s interesting to read, and there are videos and pictures integrated in it. I like reading Google Blog because it keeps me updated on the projects Google are conducting and the new ways they are applying to improve their services to maintain their reputation and rank in the World Wide Web. As for the style of the blog, it was professional well organized blog that targets any internet browser because the language is easy to understand. This blog was also opened a door for people to give their opinion and suggestions about Google products.

Cisco's Blog

    The second blog is Cisco Blog. At the Beginning, I was excited when I found this blog, but when I started reading through this blog I found it hard to understand some terminologies and noticed that the writer was addressing people with a lot of background about Cisco Networking. Although I was going to study Communication engineering when I was in Egypt, that's what pulled my attention to this blog, but still it was hard to understand some posts in this blog, and that's why I didn't enjoy this blog.

Introduction: Who am I ?

     My name is Raid AL Bayati. I was born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1992. When I was 12 years old, I traveled to Cairo, Egypt and lived there for 7 years. In Egypt, I met people from different countries and cultures, visited historical sites, learned the Egyptian dialect and witnessed the beginning of the last Egyptian revolution. 

     I came to the United States in January 2012. and as for my interests, I like all sports but mainly soccer and my favorite club is Manchester United , I played soccer as a goal keeper back in Egypt, and I also practiced some boxing in my first semester at college in Egypt. I haven't played soccer since I came to the U.S. 

      

      My hobbies are playing video games like: (Guild Wars 2, Call of Duty Modern warfare 3, God of war, Assassins Creed), watching movies and riding bicycle. 

      

     

  My plan in GCC is to finish my prerequisites to transfer to ASU and get a bachelor's degree in Computer Science.