Semester DOS, Blog #14

1. What are the most interesting aspects of World Wars 1 and 2?

- The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. He was the heir to the Austrian throne and was murdered by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip. This was the spark that caused war to be declared.

- First known use of chemical weapons (mustard Gas) was in World War 1.

- More than 9 million died on the battlefield, and nearly that many more on the home fronts because of food shortages, genocide, and ground combat.

- World War 1 or the First World War, 1914 - 1918, was the first war that involved nations spanning more than half the globe.

- The World War 1 was commonly called “The Great War” or sometimes “the war to end wars” until World War II started .

- 12,000 heavy bombers were shot down in World War 2

- There were 433 Medals of Honor awarded during World War 2, 219 of them were given after the recipient's death

- Air attacks caused 1/3 of German Generals' deaths

- Most members of the Waffen SS were not German.

- 84 German Generals were executed by Hitler

Sources: http://www.strange-facts.info/facts-about-world-war-1, http://www.world-war-2.info/facts/

2. What do you hope to learn about these wars?

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3. How/Why are these wars important today? How do they impact and/or inform our world today? hint: think about alliances, democracies around the world, cultures, international institutions, nuclear (and other) technologies, etc.

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Semester TWO, Blog #13 (GOW Final Essay)

In my opinion the balance between the “zoomed out” chapters and the regular chapters was not mind grabbing at all. Zoomed out chapters distracted me so much that it took away from what story was suppose to be about. It was dull, boring, slow, and got me off track of the storyline. Way too descriptive in the zoomed out chapters. Consequently, these unnecessary "zoomed out" chapters are what ultimately ruined the story as a whole.

Zoomed out chapters weren’t helpful in the book. For example, when you’re reading about Tom Joad and the truck driver talking,and then suddenly switch to an entire chapter about a turtle crossing the road, and then back to a chapter about Tom Joad and Jim Casey meeting Muley. Every other chapter has major jumps, and sometimes don’t even relate to each other.

The book was uninteresting because of how slow paced it was. It made me want to put the book down because of how little happened, and the way things were told in the book. For example, even though the turtle chapter was clearly random, in my opinion, it had one action part in it but after that, you don’t get much of it anymore. I believe that the more action it would’ve had given me much more interest.

The “zoomed out” foreshadowed and symbolized different things throughout the book. They could have inserted them as clips in the normal chapters instead of making them full on “zoomed out” chapters that made them seem very irrelevant to the story. These chapters that were very broad meant something later in the book. For example, when the turtle was crossing the road and almost got hit, then Tom picked him up, then put at symbolized the farmers and croppers going West to California.

In conclusion, because of the random chapters in the book, they had a big impact on future situations. Although they symbolized something, me and my fellow classmates wouldn’t read the book again, because it had a huge impact on us.

Semester TWO, Blog #12

Mind is going blank right now......

Semester TWO, Blog #10

So Far I would say so because of how the book focuses on the journey of the Joad Family getting to California. Also because of the way it goes into detail about the trip. It seems like you know every move the characters make in the book. At the beginning, the book, was clearly biased to the Dust Bowl farmers because of the length the author chose to talk about it. It just seemed like the author put more effort into the beginning, then he did when he started getting further into the book. Although the book elaborates more on the journey to California, in the beginning the Grapes Of Wrath does establish sympathy for the plight of the Dust Bowl farmers.

Semester TWO, Blog #9

I think i have let my imagination and thought process go wild in a way that helped me pic my topic. in this more structural way for ampersand helped me stay focused on what certain type of writing i was suppose to be doing

(Adding more)

Semester TWO, Blog #8

(Will ADD MORE!... I'll Try To..)

Barack Hussein Obama
- Stimulus packages

- Trying to bring back the troops from Iraq

- 700 billion dollar bailout

- Hands-on government

- Better health care

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt
- FDR was adamant about helping people and changing the economy, and he compared it to a “war against the emergency”

- FDR was willing to confront congress aggressively

- Created Social Security and the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) to safeguard the people

- Made disability benefits available to the disabled

- Established the REA (Rural Electrification Administration) to bring power to rural communities

- He brought us the New Deal: new agencies, new policies, new bills, passed

- He started broadcasting on the radio (“Fireside chats”), to reassure the public and gained even
more popularity as a result

- He was very approachable, warm, caring, involved, and reassuring

- People seemed to like his ideas better because he was focused on the people

- Big picture

- Endorsing new governing philosophy; government should serve the people by getting involved/taking action

- Higher expectations for govenrment thatn the people

- Almost assassinated

Semester TWO, Blog #7

I believe that my company would have sunk. Being that my company was a non-profit organization, they thrived on for profit organization, which would cause them to fall. It would cause them to fall because if the for profits were running out of business and loosing money, then that would mean that non profits--which is the org. where I had my internship--wouldn't be able to support themselves because they wouldn't have the money. My internship also depended on consumers. If the consumers weren't buying products then the company would loose money which cause them to give smaller org's less money then they usually would donate. Or they wouldn't have any money to donate at all.