Filed under: IDS Class Blog
Welcome back to another edition of my blog.
This week we have been asked to take a look at several articles relating to the Industrial Revolution, specifically in Great Britain.
http://victorianweb.org/history/chadwick2.html
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1844engels.html
We were asked to take a look at those links just provided, and to gain insight into different observations on the times and to see if anything intriguing came forth to go against anything we knew about the Industrial Revolution.
Honestly, with the prior knowledge I have of the time period, however limited it may be in scope to some, nothing interesting jumped out to grab at my attention, in fact, the articles were along the lines of what I remembered and expected from the time period described to us. Each of the articles talks about the poor conditions of the workplace and living accommodation that were characteristic of the Industrial Revolution. The articles seemed completely legitimate to me and were very believable as the authors of each were recorded as having been real as well as being close to the situations they described in each of their respective writings. Both of the articles seemed to show bias in some manner, but is allowable in each case for the sheer sake of perspective, and actually adds to the credibility of the writings. As far as whether these writings are accurately demonstrative of the typical atmosphere of the Industrial Era, the answer is a resounding “yes”. In many of the writings of authors from the same era, there is a tendency to portray situations as-is in every case. Each of the writings reviewed for this post very plainly described the situations as would have been typical of the era.
Next we were asked an interesting question of comparison on the topic of the industrial working class and urban poor in the modern era. Honestly, between the different things we have read and studied, regarding different generations of urban working poor, all urban working poor share similarities. In each case we have seen so far, the urban workers have been same minded in their writings. Carolina, in Child of the Dark, was a realist writer who wrote about her life without dramatic embellishment in almost all cases, which matches up with the writing style of many other Industrial authors throughout history.
Well, this is the end of yet another blog, thanks for reading.
See ya next time.
God Bless,
Ryan
This week in IDS, we were asked to write a blog post concerning the teachings of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, and what became the faith of Islam.
Muhammad was a devout religious man hailing from Mecca. After proclaiming that he received revelations from God, Muhammad fled from Mecca with the few followers he had returning later with a vast army to conquer the lands and establish his religion. The religion states thats he was the last and greatest of the prophets of God, or Allah, and that Jesus was simply a prophet along the lines of Moses. The sacred text, the Quran, is the divine writings of Muhammad himself as dictated by Allah. The largest components of the religion are the Five Pillars of Islam. They are as follows:
1. Shahadah – proclamation that Allah is the only deity and that Muhammad was his messenger.
2. Salah – the ritual prayer which must be performed 5 times a day
3. Zakat – giving to the poor and other charity
4. Sawm – fasting during the holy month of Ramadan
5. Hajj – a holy journey, or pilgrimage, to the holy city of Mecca once during the lifetime of a Muslim
Today the religion is primarily focused on a debate between two division, the Sunni and Shia Muslims. The primary difference between these two sects, is there disagreement on the importance of several of the written laws of Islam which have erupted into extremely serious war between the two factions which has raged for centuries to this very day.
Each of these groups has several subgroups within their structure which uphold their own set of ideas on importance. The Sunni’s are made up of four smaller groups named Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i and Hanbali.
The Shia’s are broken into several branches as well, the largest of which are the Twelvers, the Ismaili, the Seveners, and the Zaidiyyah.
This concludes my post on the very brief summary of Muhammad the the religion of Islam.
Filed under: IDS Class Blog | Tags: Brazil, corruption, drugs, history, IDS
I have been doing a little bit of research for this particular entry. We were told to take a look at the country of Brazil, and the current political situation of the country.
From the investigations I have conducted, Brazil is currently in a very interesting situation. The President’s advisor is being accused of buying votes, drug cartels are murdering hundreds to thousands of people a year while immigrants from northern parts of the country migrate to the favelas which surround many of the prosperous districts of the largest cities.
Looking back to post World War 2 Brazil, one might see why the situation is as such. After the second World War, the Unite States and Russia launched into an arms race which was followed by proxy war campaigns around the world. The United States was seeking to combat the spread of the Soviet Union’s influence of communism throughout the world while avoiding another all out world war. Having originally been governed by civilian rule, Brazil was overthrown by its own military in 1964, launching the country into oppression under a strict military dictatorship. This regime suspended the constitution of the country and used illegal Death Squads to reign terror across its lands. It then launched an industrial campaign with the country’s economy, cutting back on necessary established economy to attempt to boost appeal to foreign investors. This set of policies became a “Brazilian Solution” so to speak and other, similar programs, were then instituted across the rest of Latin America to help fight the approach of communism. Unfortunately, the dilemma that followed was that of the establishment of socialism under heavily military regimes.
Recovery from such events can take a country many years, those years made even longer if a country is ruled by an unjust or corrupt government. Will Brazil ever recover? Only time will tell.
Till Next Time,
-God Bless-
Acrid
Our first blog assignment related to the news. We were to take a look, over the course of a week, at the headline news stories featured on three of the top news sources in the world. The three sources specifically are the following: Al Jazeera, The Guardian, and FOX News.
After watching a couple stories progress over the course of a week, I decided to focus primarily the stories involving Israel’s blockade against Hamas in Gaza, as well as snippets mentioning the United States to get an idea of how we were viewed in each news source. I gained the following results about each news organization.
Al Jazeera – US shown in biased manner, however it was very subtle, and the negative bias seemed only to be concerned with our relationship to Iraq and Israel and current situations in both regions of the Middle East. Israel seems to be represented in a fair sense however most of the stories are focusing more on its actions being negative. The country of Iran, as well as regimes such as Hezbollah and Hamas, seemed to have been given more of a voice than other organizations. Most news not centered in Middle East revolved around regional events. Any mention of other nations seemed to be kept fairly neutral. Overall, Al Jazeera seemed to have an unbiased opinion of events.
The Guardian – A story on Iraq was written showing that the US was not to blame for the insurgency problems being faced, that even the British Prime Minister underestimated what would happen. The US was displayed in a neutral manner in this instance. In another story related to the Gaza situation, Israel is being presented neutrally as well, the article pointing out both what is being said and what fact shows backing up Israel’s responses to Hamas’ accusations. Out of the articles I read in depth, the viewpoint seemed to be kept fairly neutral. Many other stories on The Guardian had to do with US politics and different stories relating to Caucus/Primary results and candidates.
FOX News – Sticking mainly to the same story on the Gaza situation leads to different views on the whole situation. Much more of the situation is presented with a positive reflection on Israel, with the group Hamas being displayed in a negative light. The article on FOX also highlighted much of the bias towards Israel that is prevalent throughout the Middle Eastern region.
Till next time,
-God Bless-
Acrid
I have never truly introduced myself, and since I am required to do so for a blog entry for my class I decided it was the perfect time.
Name: Ryan
Location: Texas (and may God Bless it)
Occupation: Student majoring in Education
I am who I am. I am a Christian, my highest priority is following the guidance of God and maintaining a relationship with Him. I am currently in love with the woman I plan on marrying. She is truly a gift of God on my life and has been nothing but a blessing to me. I love books, mostly fiction, but I do enjoy nonfiction as well. One of my favorite authors is Stephen Lawhead, I find his writing fantastic and love his Celtic & Middle Age themes, as some of my favorite fiction is good ole’ Medieval settings. One of my life-long hobbies is video games, I have always played them and will probably continue to play them for many years. I am currently involved in a gaming community called the Hardcore Christian Gamer Association. I am also currently teaching myself to play acoustic guitar, and I know one day I will be a great guitarist, even if no fame comes of it, it is something I wish to do. I want to be a Special Education teacher. I absolutely love kids, and prefer being around them and teaching them as opposed to sitting on my butt crunching numbers, or sitting behind a computer day after day. I plan on having many children of my own and look forward to one day becoming a husband and father and having a family.
God has given me great hopes for the future I have. I do not know what all He has in store for me, all I know is the desires that have found their ways into my heart. One of the greatest of these was originally a single idea, and I must say that it was not originally something I came up with, but the idea of the woman I love. She has dreamed of one day opening a very large, Christian based orphanage in the northern parts of India. Ever since then, this dream of hers has grown into an even larger dream that we both share. Someday, we will not only have this orphanage opened in India, but we will have an entire chain of orphanages around the world, in locations such as Mexico, Israel, China, Russia, Africa, South America. It is our dream, and we have great faith that God will allow us to see this dream come true.
All in all, I would say that all that you have just read is a look at me, my hobbies, and my dreams.
Hope you have found something interesting about me and I hope you come back and read more sometime.
-God Bless-
Acrid
Filed under: Uncategorized
Ladies and Gentlemen,
a.k.a. the very few of you who have actually read any of my blog posts…..
I AM BACK.
After an absence caused by the pressures of semester finals and the vacation I refer to as Christmas, I have decided to return.
As you can see the blog has a new header design courtesy of a friend of mine from the Hardcore Christian Gamer Association Forums (www.christian-gaming.com Come and check it out).
Also I am going to be adding new stuff to my posting routine.
I am now planning on continuing the things I had originally bu also adding to it some video game reviews and news depending on what I think I want to talk about. Also to be added are some posts having to do with my World Civilizations class I am taking this semester. (How cool is that? We are ASSIGNED to do a blog as part of our regular work……amazing!!)
So anyway, glad to be back and hopefully from here things will be better than before.
Catch You Soon,
-God Bless-
Acrid
Filed under: Spiritual Matters | Tags: Bible, God, hope, Life, praise, pray, prayer, Scripture, Spiritual Matters
Prayer, a subject which every Christian knows intimately. I mean, it’s what we do, we know all the ins and outs of it all…….or do we?
What do you think of when you think of praying to God?
- Needing help with something?
- Asking for Him to give you something you want?
- Asking that your food be Blessed in all ways as you shovel it into your mouth?
Well here is the rub of it all, here is what many people don’t do or even think about.
Prayer
Prayer has two sides to it. Praise as well as Petition. Most people understand that, but prayer is not meant to be a one way conversation (a one way conversation isn’t even a conversation, it’s a monologue). There is nothing wrong with closing your eyes, bowing your head and folding your hands and giving God praise, thanking Him for how great life is, or thanking Him for the things you have. There is also nothing wrong with asking God to give you something, asking Him to help you figure out how to make through a particular hardship, or asking Him to deliver you from persecution, in fact the Bible tells us to do just that when we are in need.
So what about the other side of prayer. Prayer is meant to be a conversation between you and God, but how often to we stop petitioning or praising God ans wait for Him to speak to us? Well, when is the last time you were praying and just stopped and stayed silent and allowed God to just fill you with Himself, with His peace and comfort. The thing is not many people remember that they need to be quiet and listen for God, that is why we sometimes miss what He is trying to convey to us, we are to busy gabbing and not taking enough time to just shut our mouth and focus on His presence.
Remember, prayer is a CONVERSATION, not a MONOLOGUE. Stop and let God talk to you, or just stop and enjoy the fact that He is there and just let His presence speak to your Spirit.
Filed under: Uncategorized
I just wanted to take a day and plug some of my own personal favorite websites.
All About God – Want info about God? Debating whether or not He is even real? Check out this website, has great information for the curious who wonder about Christianity as well as information for Christians
Bible.com – Christian website containing online versions of pretty much any Bible you could want to read as well as many resources for Bible information, knowledge, and learning. Also check out Bible.net and Bible.org
Hardcore Christian Gamer Association – Forum and Website for the Hardcore Christian Gaming Association. Great Website for Christian talk, gaming talk, or just talk in general.
The Geek Media – Collaborated effort of podcasts, blogs, and websites for all things geek.
Christian Hardrock – Great radio station for great Christian artists in the Hard Rock and metal scene.
Christian Rock – Great radio station for great Christian artists in the Rock and alternative rock scene.
Christian Hip-Hop – Great radio station for great Christian artists in the hip-hop and rap scene.
Christian Power Praise – Great radio station for great Christian praise music.
MySpace – Social Networking, allows for complete customization of your profile using HTML as well as an in-site editing tool. Allows for an unlimited number of friends as well as having sections for books, movies, and music.
Facebook – Another Social Networking site. Allows for many features, not my favorite of the social networking things I do but it seems to be the favorite of many people over MySpace.
Xbox.com – Everything Xbox, All the time. Home page for the Microsoft Xbox 360 gaming console.
Major Nelson Blog – Larry Hryb’s blog. The face of XBOX community relations and customer service. His blog covers new releases on the Xbox 360 game console as well as the Xbox Marketplace.
Spartans, Covenants, & Sinners – Blog of one of my friends from the Hardcore Christian Gamer Association. Covers spritual issues, facts, as well as info on his Halo 3 Bible Study.
Achieve 360 Points – All the info an achievement addict could ever need for getting Xbox 360 achievements.
Addicting Games – Great website for flash games which will either distract you from life.
Game FAQs – One of the greatest websites on the internet for walkthroughs, tips, tricks, and cheats for games of any video game console/system.
Deviant Art – Great website for art of every shape and kind including writing and computer based art.
I Can Has Cheezburger – Hilarious website, words can’t describe what it is, enjoy.
Filed under: Spiritual Matters
The post I wanted to do today on the Armor of God, I need to do a little bit of double checking on, so today’s post is postponed till later this evening or tomorrow.
Sorry.
Acrid
Filed under: Applied Gaming
Today on the Real Life Application of Video Games, we will be taking a look at money and The World of Warcraft.
One of the key features of the Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (or MMORPG) known as The World of Warcraft, is a place known as The Auction House.
Located in various high profile cities throughout the world in the game, these place offer a front for the buying and selling of trade-items, from pieces of scrap to extremely rare pieces of treasure from around the game world.
The auction house itself is reminiscent of eBay, with very rare items sometimes going for extremely low prices or pieces of junk selling for exorbitantly bank-breaking amounts of gold. It offers bidders the ability to see the most current price the item is going for, what the buyout price is for that particular piece, as well as an indicator for how long the auction has left before it is all over. There is even a handy feature which alerts potential bidders as to when they have been outbid on an item they are attempting to win or even a notification letting them know they have won (this usually has with it the actual item they were purchasing).
On the bidder side, you are able to choose what it is you have that you are wanting to sell, how much you want the starting bid to be, as well as a price of buyout (which allows instant purchasing of your item).
The Catch: Unlike in real life, the economy in a virtual world can fluctuate on a day to day basis. This leads to insane inflation on the values of certain goods over short term time frames. To go along with this is the factor is multiple gaming servers. Each server has its on economy which runs completely independent of any of the other servers that are available to play the game on. So if a person has a character on one server, selling item X, item X may be worth Y amount of money. Now this same person has a character on another one of the dozens of available servers trying to sell that same item X. The problem is that the current value of item X on this other server is Z.
Results: An unrealistic view can be made upon the uneducated of how economy and auction type situations work.
First, the economy of the real world does not fluctuate as drastically as that of the virtual world. While the economy can still drastically fluctuate over the course of a single day. It does not do so every single day like the economy contained within the virtual world.
Second, auctions in the virtual world don’t work like eBay. Many times you can bid for an item on eBay, but you do not have the simple option to buy the item at a preset price. Next to that is the functioning of a real life auction. Very rarely do you see an auction (with auctioneer and all) which allows you to simply buy something that is in the process of being bid on, as is possible in the virtual world.
On a more positive note: this system has taught value to many, as one must decide if one would rather take the time bidding….risking losing the item they seek, or paying an exorbitant amount of money to have it right away, or even more still on whether or not they should go and spend the time themselves to see if they can obtain this item out of their own hard work.
Finally, I have just finished completely over analyzing a completely pointless thing.
For some reason I have had The World of Warcraft on my mind quite frequently over the past week or so and it has led me to doing this ludicrous post about fake economic systems and auctions.
Well I hope you enjoyed my completely pointless WoW analysis .
-Take Care, God Bless-
Acrid
