zaeems-blog

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Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

People should read Bel Canto written by Ann Patchett if they like anything with opera and very flowerly/ lyrical style writing. Bel Canto was written in a very different way with a style and technique that is usually not used. You should read this if you love reading anything that is romantic, musical and has lyrical style writing. The main character falls in love with opera and a singer that he listens to all the time. Much happens when the both of them go to a special occasion. They and many other people end up spending around 4 months in a building together when terrorists crash the party and keep the people hostige. Due to the writing style, this book is very slow moving and drawn out. Certain readers do not like a very slow moving story line with a very descriptive writing style. If you are one of those you will not enjoy this book. You will definitely enjoy it if you love music and romance.

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Permission

Zaeem has permission to try and fail at things without having to worry about what other people think.

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Finally uploaded my video. Any like comments or reblogs would be appreciated! :)

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I understand where you are coming from, however like you mentioned how Keisha said that she laughs them off or jokes around about the stereotypes put on herself, is it actually degrating? Or is it more of a coping method because with personal experience I also sometimes joke around about the stereotypes that are put on myself because I have no other way of dealing with them. I don't know what else to do instead of joking or laughing them off. It's an easy way for me to show people that that's not who I am. Why do you think that laughing it off or trying to not taking them seriously is bad?

When we first started talking about stereotypes I thought about middle school, and how almost all of us were all awful human beings during that time, that was the time that stands out to me where stereotypes and racism became something that we use and see constantly in daily life whether we mean to or not. Stereotypes at that time became ingrained in our behavior and language and even humor which I think is why stereotypes are so easily perpetuated and spread, because now I hear all this bad things which I know now are bad, but in middle school being awful I probably would have laughed as awful as that is. When we were all in the large group we kinda learned about other injustices others face and how we deal with it and Keisha said something about how she jokes about the stereotypes put on her with her friends and actually uses them herself as like a joke to herself. She laughed off stereotypes, and I learned that a lot of people take them as jokes and things that aren’t really serious, which sometimes they don’t pose any real danger but sometimes they do. Now I’m thinking about how stereotypes are really ingrained in our senses of humor. Many of the stereotypes that we hear every day are in the form of a joke or something intended to make someone laugh. Even in the media, this is seen as movies and comedians joke about stereotypes all of the time. Racism is often joked about in comedy. But is it really a laughing matter? The fact that we take stereotypes so lightly I think is slightly dangerous, because we joke about it but stereotypes are still things that are very ingrained in our minds. And even jokes can have an influence on the person being stereotyped. A lot of times when the squad is roasting you, u laugh it off but sometimes there’s something that really hits a sensitive spot and legitimately hurts. Stereotypes may seem funny when we use them in a no serious way such as this, but it can still make someone feel less valued or insecure about themselves. The exposure of this is also unconsciously damaging to an individual who is constantly exposed to these kinds of jokes, they start to joke about it as well more often and then the stereotype is spread, and unconsciously they are putting down themselves with this stereotype. It’s just weird when u think about it that we rely so much on racism and stereotypes in humor whether it’s personal or in the media. Humor can actually be very damaging in this way.

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Stereotypes

Before having the conversation in AP Lang I always uses to think that brown people and/or Muslims are always the ones that are stereotyped. I’ve been a victim of stereotypes and seen other people being stereotyped due to their skin color or how they look. It is something thant affects me a lot when I am in a new environment with new people because they do not know who I really am so, I used to think that I am the only one who is stereotyped or people of my race and ethnicity because I saw it happening to my people all the time and not others. During our conversation we uncovered that all types of people are stereotyped. We talked about me being stereotyped and how people are just judged before they get to know them. We also talked about other people who get stereotyped. Mostly on how white man and women are stereotyped. Women being the ones who have to do the girly stuff and can't play sports. Men are always stereotyped to be mean and rude, and if they have good grades means that they are a nerd. After talking to my other pears in class I know that a lot of people are stereotyped and it's not just people of my race. It's now not everyone is judging a specific group or just me, other people are also stereotyped and I'm not alone. Men, women, and all races are stereotyped.

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"Once I found the strength to be myself, I had no need to act myself"

So this quote is mostly about to be vs to act. In a society like today's, it is hard to be who you want to be. Sometimes it's hard to be yourself without being judges. People are always worried about people judging and not accepting who you really are. You have to find great strength in order to truly be yourself and not care about being judged. After one finds the strength to be oneself they can let loose and stop pretending or acting. You no longer have to hide and be someone who you are not.

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Unmarked vs marked

In the Reading it is said that there is no such thing as an unmarked women, women are always marked. While men can choose to be marked or unmarked. Women are always marked for their clothing and their make up. We see it everywhere. On the red carpet, women are asked about their clothing selection and make up choice. Men are unseen except for when they want to be seen or marked for what they wear. Men have the choice while women do not.

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My Mask

Woow this is a deep subject to talk about since for me this topic goes back to middle school. More specifically 7th grade and a bit of 8th grade. I moved to Avondale in 7th grade and I was the new kid that year. During that entire year, people didn’t want to get to know me, they would just put a mask or label on me. People would just look at me and put a mask on me. They would just look at me and think I’m some nerd just because I am brown and wears glasses. People would also find out that I’m Muslim and then call me a terrorist and make terrorist jokes to me. People would just put these masks on me and believe that is the true me. And I actually ended up fitting in those masks placed by people or at least some of them. I ended up becoming a quiet person who didn't really talk to many people and didn't have many friends to talk to. I hide myself from everyone and I flew under the radars for the most part. But that was me before high school and now I am the true me.

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So this is technically my third prototype from my original two. I'm still going with the whole snowglobe idea however, im changing what will be inside the snowglobe. I will have a small globe of the Earth inside the snowglobe. The Earth will have wires from specific countries going out to the glass. On the glass from the inside there will be social media posts and pictures of alienation of gender from that specific country.

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My First Prototype: I initially made 2 prototypes cause I came up with 2 ideas for what the display inside the snowglobe will be. The first prototype is there is America in the center and there will be 3-D models of schools and work place and both men and women going to both. Around will be other countries and all men will be going to work and school and the women are being blocked out of school and being held back. The other prototype on the bottom is pictures of social media posts inside the globe about alienation of gender (both supporters and non supporters) and pictures of women banging on the glass and struggling to get out because they are stuck in the glass bubble or glass ceiling.

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My claim: In order to have have an equal society, where men are not superior or better than women, equality in education and society needs to be reached. I hade a fun time with the whole process and with the group I had. We all came up with great ideas and kept building off each other. We came up with many original ideas. The idea I decide to do was a snow globe/crystal ball display. It will be a display inside of a snow globe or a fish bowl. I may end up combining the social media idea to this in some way but I will have to think about it.

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Work And Play

How do the values of work and sports affect the way we see ourselves and the way we live our lives?

I believe that sports is a combo of work and play. Sports is an obvious example of play, it is something people do for fun, to spend time with friends, to get your mind off of something that’s been bothering you. One obviously has to practice hard in order to play for a sport, which is considered work. But also how much they enjoy there work can also be considered play. If you work at a place where you truly enjoy going, something that you could consider your passion, then it could be considered play. 

Lets take my life as an example... I have been a part of the robotics team  since freshmen year, this is my third year and counting. I joined the robotics team because I love to design and build things. Figuring out how a mechanism works and building it from scratch, learning how to assemble a drive train and putting together gear boxes is what I enjoy doing, It is work because within a month and a half we need to have a completely built, fully functional robot that will be able to compete in competitions. We work for a good 20 hours a week for this. There is a lot of blood and hard work out into this. It can also be considered play because it is something that I love to do. 

There is really a thin line between work and play, because even though I’m working, it is considered play for me.   

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I Am Malala Part 3

Malala’s father owned a school when the Taliban toke over the region she lived. The Taliban had there eyes on shutting his school down because they saw the girls going to school. They wanted girls to stay home. The Taliban went to their house and told them how it was haram or prohibited in Islam. They believed it was prohibited for women to go to school and work along with men. They said how no women were mentioned in the Quran for a reason.  Malala’s dad refused and said how in the Quran it says nothing like that and how it did talk about women in the Quran. They agreed on girls entering the school from a different entrance. However, the Taliban still wanted to shut down the school. The Taliban kept visiting the school every once in a while to get the school shut down. Malala’s dad, Ziauddin did not give up and kept the school going.

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I Am Malala Part 2

This is when the Taliban first appear in parts of Pakistan where Malala lived. Many people started to like the Taliban because  the leader of the Taliban, Maulana Fazlullah started his own illegal radio station. At first, he started saying things about the Quran and how people should act and bad habits we should stop. He seemed very wise because of the stuff he said. But when he gained much of the support he needed, he unmasked his true self, the real Taliban. He started burning t.v’s and cd’s of music. He then started to talk about how girls place is at home, how they should not leave the house and only work in home. This is when Malala started to think about how nothing in the Quran talks about how only men can go and work while the women can only stay at home.

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I Am Malala Primary 1

So I'm reading I Am Malala, the book starts off by telling us what happened the day she got shot in the face. After the shooting happens she goes back to before the Taliban took over. Her mother did not have a proper education, and her father’s family was poor but still received an education. He is the reason why Malala received an education. Her father believed that no matter the gender, everyone should have a right to an education.   

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This one really hit me since I have strong connections to Pakistan. I remember when the Taliban attacked an army school in Peshawar, Pakistan. The same group who attacked Malala attacked a school on December 16, 2014. Kids who went to school to receive an education never came home. It shocks me the lengths the Taliban goes to in order to stop education and get what they want. Many kids and teachers feared going to school and being killed for it. The Taliban tried to stop Malala however they just made her stronger. She still continues her campaign inside and outside of Pakistan.