Is it time for poetry out loud already?

The poems were a joy to read, especially with my Katie Han (poetry-reciter extraordinaire)and my table. The best part of reding poems is the attempt to read them in a solemn tone and the subsequent giggles that follow soon after. Now to the serious stuff. These poems have some similar themes. One of the themes that are similar is the moon, which is referred to in both the tang and the song era poems. A difference between them is that the tang poems refer to drinking and being drunk, while the song poems don't. Maybe the song poets just liked to party, and honestly I can't blame them for enjoying a(some) nice glass(es) of wine and then writing some awesome poetry about how drunk they were. Totally makes for a good poem. The song poetry also seems more concise, but that may just be because these guys weren't drinking copious amounts of booze. I don't necessarily think that the poems reflect society, I think that the poems represent the ideas and thoughts of the poet, which is a more introspective idea. Following that idea, I believe that poems can not be used to adequetly represent a society. Poems are formed partially baed on the bias of a poet, and it is not balanced by the other ideas of people from that society. For example, if a certain poet loved turkey sandwiches, and only wrote poems about them, that doesn't mean that that poets society is in love with turkey sandwiches (are you as hungry as I am?).

Spread of Islam

I know that we were supposed to link a Showme, but I have a banquet to go to and showme refuses to cooperate, so a screen shot will have to suffice. My apologies in advance.

Conversions of Constantine and Vladimir

I believe that the conversions of Constantine and Vladimir are very different in nature. To me, Constantine's conversion was much more spiritual than Vladimir's. Constantine claimed that he saw a vision that demonstrated the power of the Christian god, and this helped him claim victory in battle. After rising the position of empire, Constantine believed that it was God that helped him get to where he was. Vladimir, on the other hand, was already in a position of power when he converted to Christianity. Also, Vladimir sent out envoys to different places in the world to study other religions. He rejected the religion of Islam, because it meant making too many sacrifices. He also rejected the religion of Judaism because he believed that they had lost their god. His choice of Christianity also benefited him economically. So one could say that Vladimir's choice of religion was influenced by his desire to not give anything up and his want of economic gain, while the influence for Constantine's conversion was much more spiritual in nature and he had less to gain from it.

class work 11/8/11

- It seems that most Bizantine art and architecture has a strong focus towards religion.The extension of the buildings into the sky reflects an idea of reaching and touching god in the sky. The large domes that are included on many buildings give the feelings of openness, and as the extend high, they give the sense of heavenliness. Although many of the buildings have extravagant features, many of these features are also functional.  There may have been a belief among the worshippers that the art made a connection between them and their lord. 
- A vast majority of the paintings are religious in origin, and crosses are widely used within the art. 
- Many of the flamboyant colors used in the art and architecture may have been associated with wealth and high social class in that period of time, as it was difficult to acquire a large mass of these colors to be used within art.- There is a reflection of Byzantine architecture within America today. The major extent of it is restricted to churches and other places of worship, however. 

Class work 11/7/11

Doc 1.
To: King Manuel, or anyone desiring the basic geography of Constantinople
By: Benjamin of Tudela
For: The description of the city of Constantinople and to add to the glory of Constantinople

Seems like a very factual description of Constantinople.

Doc 2.
To: To an outsider of the city
By: Robert of Clari
For: attracting people into the city of Constantinople

Seems like an exaggerated description of the city and it's wealth

Doc 3.
To: to an outsider
By: Nicetas Choniates
For: attempts To sway people away from a certain culture

Demonizes Latin in an exaggerated way so it probably biased.

Doc 4.
To: someone who is thinking about joining the culture
By: A painter
For: swaying people to join the city of Constantinople

Seems biased because it shows Constantinople as much larger than its neighboring state.

Doc 5.
To: show the splendor of the culture
By: a modern photographer
For: modern day historians

Doc 6.
To: try and convert the nonreligious
By: George acropolis ex
For: the nonreligious

It's straightforward, but still a little biased because it is trying to convert people

Doc 7.
To: tell the venetians what they get for helping the city of constantiple
By: Chrysobull
For: the venetians

This article seems very factual and not biased.


The most reliable document is document 1. The reason that I believe this is because it seems as though it is a very straightforward and simple description of constantiple.

You wanted a post....but baby I don't do posts

This will be less of a post and more of a list 
Excuse my reference to angsty teen music (you wanted a hit by LCD sound system)

Three things that went well:
1. Coordination, i.e. who does which parts
2. "Divide and conquer" strategy (nerdy I know) for doing the work
3. Proof reading the paper (spell check misses a surprising amount)

Three things that did not go well:
1. The choice of goods was constantly changing which created confusion
2. The "waiting until the last moment" strategy, which actually works well with the "drink more coffee" strategy
3. Uhh...Uhhh.... the map might have been made better I guess (<---- filler answer)

What was hard:
1. Map is physical so we have to meet physically to collaborate on it. Come on, meeting for projects is so 2005, this is the Google Docs age! I shouldn't have to move from my chair to do my project!
2. The scale seemed more like busy work than something that was important to our knowledge of the Silk Road

Collaboration!
It was good, my partner was very affable, and I believe that the work was evenly distributed and that both my partner and I produced a better quality of work because it was split between the two of us.

What I would do better, i.e. what would I do if I had a time machine
1. Save the President (which president you ask? ALL OF THEM)
2. Try to finish the map while we were together in school
3. Made sure that the products we chose were easily re-searchable
4. 1.21 Gigawatts!!