Final Assessment

To be completely honest, it is 1:00 a.m. Yes, I procrastinated on this project. Usually I never procrastinate on any project, but now I am starting to feel like summer is so close, and that it is time to just graduate. I wish I never did procrastinate on this project and I'm kicking myself right now. I liked this project and it had great value within it because I talked to some of my college friends and they said that sometimes they have to blog for their professor. Now, I don't know if you want me to touch on the course, or just the blogs but I'll touch on the course too.

It was time for me to schedule my classes for my senior year, and I said to myself, I like history a lot, and I'm already in an Honors course, why not just bump up a level and take A.P.? It'll look good for colleges, and it'll bring my class ranking up. The beginning of the course was probably the hardest for me. I didn't like all of the church background, and the monarchs. All of that just confused me and I'll probably get all of that wrong on the final. I'm not that great at remembering names, but I can remember important dates. As the course went on it seemed to get easier because I got used to the level of work. Then came the DBQ's... I had no idea what those were, even when we were doing them in class. But as we went on with doing more DBQ's, I started figuring them out, and I got a lot better at writing in general and writing DBQ's.

I want to thank you, Maz, for taking your time to teach me your knowledge about European history and that I apologize for not keeping up to date with my blogs. I really appreciate the time you put into looking at all of our projects and grading them. I look forward to finishing up the year, and graduating with your knowledge. Hopefully I will get to shake your hand at the commencement ceremony, because you have taught me a lot; not just in European history, but in writing, and life skills.

Israel and Palestine Conflict - Chapter 31

With the history of these two groups under my belt, I have a pretty well understanding of how these two started fighting. Israel was there first but because of famine, moved and in came the Palestine's and the Palestine's have been there ever since. Then Zionists (extremist Jews) came into Palestine to "claim" their land back because it was given to them by the Holy One and is considered the Holy land to the Jews. This is a very sticky situation. If you look at it from the Jewish point of view, they were there first and in the Bible it was their land granted to them by the Messiah. But in Palestine's point of view it's kind of like a move your feet, lose your seat kind of deal. The Palestine's were there for thousands of years and now the Jews expect the Palestine's to move out of their land. I wish I could side with both groups of people because they are both considered right.

September 11, 2001 - Chapter 31

When you think of September 11, 2001, what do you think of? I think of 9/11, plane crashes, terrorists, fire, and the word tragedy. I can remember what I was doing that day. I was in fifth grade and it was just a regular day for me. The whole school heard nothing of it until 3:15 when we heard the afternoon announcements. The principle came on and said "This morning, at 9:00 a.m., there was an attack on the World Trade Centers." The rest of his speech I can't remember, but I remember thinking to myself, what does this mean? I also remember walking home and all of my friends were saying what if we got attacked by terrorists on our way home? and I was just like what is a terrorist? I was completely blind to the world around me. I remember coming home from school and asking my mom all theses questions and then I asked where do we go from here? she just said that we'll probably find out who attacked us, and the go to war with whoever started it. Unfortunately, my mom is almost always right. This day will always go through history as a day of tragedy for the United States.

Population Decline - Chapter 31

I think it was Jonah who presented this topic and it really amazed me about some of the things that go on in the world because of the population. In the world today, the population is decreasing because of a couple key factors: population is decreasing in world powers, and women are having less children then they used to. Today, the population in third world countries are at a steady incline. This blows my mind because it seems like they would be the ones who wouldn't be able to afford to keep children around. To me, it just doesn't add up why someone would want to bring a child in to a third world country. I know it is a beautiful thing to have children, but to have them grow up in an environment that isn't safe, where water is bad, and maybe there would be a war/conflict going on, is not a good thing to have children grow up in.

After WWII was over, all the soldiers came home and had a bunch of children together with their spouses. These children are called baby boomers. Families were made up of 6-8 children. Now that they are getting older, they are starting to die off, and they didn't have as many children as their parents did so this leads to a decrease in population.

Waterfall - M.C. Escher - Chapter 31

Again, I use an M.C. Escher painting because this guy is a complete GENIOUS! I looked at this one for quite a bit of time trying to figure this one out (yes, just like the last painting). It's another simple, but complex painting. Escher uses the buildings to keep it simple, but then uses the little mill with the waterwheel to start his illusionary effects. It looks as if the water is traveling down a declined path, but the water is also traveling up an inclined path. In this painting it is all what the interpreter sees in the painting. To me I see the water traveling down the sloped path, and ending up above the mill, creating the waterfall. This painting is definitely one of my favorites by M.C. because he is a complete master of tricking minds. M.C. has a real skill at illusions and I can tell why he is a famous artist.

Ascending and Descending - M.C. Escher - Chapter 31

I'm going to be completely honest with you, I stared at this painting for at least 15 minutes, trying to find out why the people weren't going anywhere. I finally used logic to figure this one out. If you look at the sets of steps on the upper left and the lower right on the top of the building you can see that they look completely flat. But how Escher tricks our minds is he puts steps there to make it seem like the people are going up or down the flight of stairs. I like this painting a lot because it made me really think and use my brain to figure out how this works. I like the way that this painting is so simple but so complex. Simple because all the painting is is, in essence, a building with stairs on the top. But at the same time it can be so complex because the brain can't comprehend what is going on at the top set of stairs.

Print Gallery - M.C. Escher - Chapter 31

As I was looking for modern day artists, I saw an M.C. Escher painting called "Relativity" and I liked its design or layout. So I started to look up other paintings or drawings that he has done and I came across this, "Print Gallery". This is art, unlike paintings that have lines, and shapes all over them. Unlike them, this takes actual skill. In this painting, Escher has a man standing in a gallery and he is looking at a painting. Escher then connects everything in the painting, to the outside world. The way everything is detailed, it just looks amazing. I like how at the top left corner it looks as if you are looking through a window at a painting but as you go down you see a man standing inside of a building. It just amazes me how a person could have that much focus and skill to draw something of this stature.

Hitler's Success with Aggression - David Low - Chapter 29

This cartoon by David Low depicts how Hitler did what he wanted and that no one wanted to step up to Hitler. This cartoon shows how Hitler walked all over France and Britain because they were scared to start another Great War. So while Britain and France sat back and watched Hitler start another Great War. Maybe WWII was Inevitable? I think that WWII could have been avoided if France and Britain got together, and set Hitler straight. The only thing I do not like about this cartoon is that I can't really read what is on the carpet Hitler is standing on. It looks as if the first step says Rearmament, the second step says Rhineland Fortification, and the third says Danzig. Danzig is the German meaning for the Polish city Gdansk. These look like the steps Hitler took to start all the European conflict.

Suprematism - Kazimir Malevich - Chapter 29

I'm going to be completely honest with you, this picture means absolutely nothing to me. I see a bunch of rectangles with a yellow circle and a black dot that looks a little bit like the shape of an eye. To me, this isn't art, but something that was just made up by Malevich. I don't see how this artist is recognized as a leading figure in the development of modern abstract art. I think my little 11 year old sister could have done this and passed it off as so called "art". I'm sorry Maz, but this kind of art makes me mad because it's like there's no feeling in it and the artist just made it to make a quick buck. If I could talk to this artist, I would ask him what and why he made this piece because honestly, it looks as if no effort was present in this.

Connection Across Time- Chapter 29

Today, many are fighting a war at two fronts: Iraq and Afghanistan. Just like in WWII there were two fronts: Europe and the Pacific Islands. Just like in WWII, many are fighting for another people's freedom. In WWII the world was fighting for the freedom of the Jews, and the bringing of justice of a tyrannical leader, Adolf Hitler. In Operation Iraqi Freedom, the United States was looking to bring justice to another tyrannical leader, Suddam Hussein. The United States found Hussein in a ditch and was sentenced to be hung. Although no nation has found Hitlers body, most historians believe that Hitler committed suicide because he knew his reign as a leader was out of time and did not want to be captured by the United States and be charged of war crimes. There are some of the same countries involved with Operation Iraqi Freedom that were involved with WWII, such as Great Britain.

Japanese Prisoners of War Camps - Chapter 29

As the Japanese captured the American war hero's, the Geneva convention worked hard to protect their rights. The Japanese were just had too tough of skin to even react to the Geneva convention. The Japanese broke the Americans spirits by showing executions of the Americans fellow peers. The Japanese would keep the American POWs in cages and take a prisoner out and have him kneel in front of the cage. Then the Japanese officer would take a sword out and chop the head off of the victim. The Japanese would take the American's belongings and keep them for themselves. They would also line the prisoners up in a line and shot them one at a time. The Japanese starved the prisoners and eventually took prisoners on a 100 mile march that would kill thousands of prisoners, called the Bataan Death March. The only ones lucky enough to be "spared" from the march was the sick who were expected to die within the next couple of hours.

The Bataan Death March-1942 - Chapter 29

The Bataan Death March is considered the worst punishment of prisoners of war in the history of mankind. The Japanese made the POW's walk hundreds of miles to get to Bataan, if a prisoner fell behind on the march, he was killed, if the POW's tried to escape and they were caught, they were killed. The Japanese also lined up the soldiers and shot them. Even though the Geneva convention was set up, the Japanese deflected it because they thought that through war, they were being threatened and if their country is being threatened they should retaliate. The Japanese were very harsh because they believed that it is essential to have a strong army. They started out training soldiers from the time they were little kids until they were done being teenagers. The soldiers were broken from their daily routines and their personal lives into killing machines that would do anything to protect their homeland. This is why the Japanese soldiers did what they did to the POW's of WWII.

Connection Across Time - Chapter 28

Frank Lloyd Wright helped modernize our buildings today by creating buildings that "looked" like the work that the building was meant for. Now I mean "looked" because if the building is supposed to make pencils, you can't exactly build a pencil shaped building because it wouldn't be structurally sound, but he could put like pencil etching on the side of the building or something like that. Wright also helped develop houses that were forms of art, such as Falling Water. Falling Water is a house that has a stream running through the basement of it. He designed houses by using a concept called functionalism. In functionalism, there is no axial symmetry or classical proportions and it also dictates an outward form. If you were to look at some houses today, they contain the same concepts of functionalism.

Bridge at Givenry, Claude Monet - Chapter 28

This is another favorite painting of mine. It's another realistic painting that is easy on the eyes. I like that there is nothing to analyze because the painting is so simple. All the painting is is a bridge with brush around it and it's worth millions of dollars. I'm not saying that it's simple to paint this, because it is most definitely is not, but I am saying that this is a simple painting because if you can draw a bridge and brush around it then you could possibly get a lot of money if it's a good painting. I think a lot of people like this painting because it reminds them of a peaceful countryside where there's no worries about anything. I think this is why Monet painted this because in the Age of Anxiety, there was a lot of worries and this could have helped societies minds to relax.

The Dance, Henri Matisse - Chapter 28

The Dance by Henri Mattisse is a great painting because to me, it represents freedom. It has a group of people dancing around, naked, in a circle. To me, that would be one of the most ultimate freedoms; where you don't have clothes holding you back, and you can just be with your friends doing whatever makes you happy. This painting also makes me think of summer time. I think of summer because when it's summer and you're a kid, you get to have fun with your friends. In this painting, you could take it as a bunch of friends just having fun with each other. Matisse also used brighter colors around the bodies to make it look like it's sunny out and make it look like it's summer time.

Apples and Oranges by Paul CeZanne - Chapter 28

To me this painting looks like everything is popping out of the painting. It looks very natural and flowing. CeZanne uses a combination of colors to make it look like the objects in the painting are sitting right in front of you. Honestly, this could be one of my favorite paintings in the Age of Anxiety because other artists used dadaism and cubism. Dadaism and cubism don't interest me in any way. To me it just seems like a bunch of lines scattered around. The way Paul CeZanne paints this and makes it look like everything is real just blows my mind because it takes real talent to paint like that, where as using dadaism and cubism is just a bunch of scattered lines and doesn't take much talent to do. In this painting you don't need to analyze anything. It's just soothing to look at and is very peaceful. It seems like some people just want to analyze every piece of art but with Apples and Oranges you can look at it and it relaxes the mind.

Creative Writing - Chapter 28

There were three main authors of creative writing in the Age of Anxiety; Oswald Spengler, T.S. Eliot, and Franz Kafka. Spengler was born in 1880 and died in 1936. He was a historian and a philosipher. He wrote "Decline of the West". "Decline of the West" is about the idea of Muslims, Jews, and Christians (as well the Persians before them) are Magian (Mediterranean civilizations of antiquity such as Ancient Greece and Rome). The book also describes modern westerners as being Faustian, meaning lucky.

T.S. Eliot was born in 1888 and died in 1965. He was considered a poet and a critic. Eliot is known for his poem "The Wasteland". "The Wasteland" was published in 1922 and is considered one of the biggest poems of the 20th century. The poem shifts back and forth from a satire to a prophecy while Eliot talks about multiple cultures in this poem.

Franz Kafka was born in 1883 and died in 1924. Kafka is known for his short stories. One of Kafka's famous stories often studied in American colleges is "The Metamorphosis". Kafka wrote this in 1915 and is about a salesmen who wakes up in his bed as an insect. The story ends when the main character collapses and dies.

Albert Einstein - Chapter 28

Albert Einstein is considered the world father of modern day Physics. In 1921 he won the Nobel Prize for his services in Theoretical Physics and his discovery of the Photoelectric effect. The Photoelectric effect is the phenomenon where electrons are emitted from matter as a consequence of their absorption of energy from electromagnetic radiation of very short wavelength, such as ultraviolet light. This study led to important steps in understanding the quantum nature of light and electrons and influenced the forming of concepts in wave particle duality.

Albert Einstein was born as a Jewish-German. Although Hitler was collecting all of the Jewish population, he kept all the smart ones for his own use in scientific situations. The United States captured Einstein and brought him to America to save the world from Germany making the atomic bomb. America didn't keep him as a prisoner because Einstein wanted to escape from Germany because he knew what Germany was doing was wrong.

Connection Across Time - Chapter 27

Women's roles have changed greatly since World War I. During World War I women usually didn't work outside of the house. Women would take care of the house, shop for groceries, and take care of the children. There have been major changes in women's society; women can now do more things without having to ask the man of the house. Women can now go out with their friends whenever they would like, they can go out and drink in public, and most importantly, they can hold a job, even a high-end executive job. These major changes have changed our world as we know it. Now, instead of men going out and making the money, women can go out and make all the household income, while the man is staying at home watching the kids and taking care of the house.