As a matter of fact, I did forget that this assignment existed.

First off, after years of being bored to tears with poetry units in English class, I did not enjoy this poetry, simply because to me it seemed to ramble and I had trouble following it through my boredom. The two styles of poetry, between the Song and the Tang, seemed similar in the fact that the poems seemed to deal primarily with nature, or factors of nature. For example, many mentioned rivers. The Tang style of poetry, however, was made up of lines of 5-7 characters and each had 8-12ish lines. Many ended up as haikus - whereas the Song poetry seemed more of a free for all. In addition, I noticed that many of the Tang poems dealt with relationships between people - relationships severed by death, desired relationships, friendships, etc. The Song poetry was also noted as being sung, rather than only recited. The poetry of these societies may also reflect the societies themselves. For example, the natural focus of the Tang poetry may be related to the society itself due to the society's care of nature - for example,the equal field system was enacted in order to distribute land, thus promoting farming and such. In terms of both societies, agricultural developments were made, such as the creation of fast-ripening rice. This again reflects on the natural nature of these poems. I do believe that poetry and other forms of art may tell a lot about society. When art is creates, most of the time it reflects the beliefs and opinions of the creator. In this way, art would automatically stand for the views of th society of the creator.

Listening to the Pirates of the Caribbean Soundtrack Makes Me Feel Intense.

http://www.showme.com/sh/?i=92103

4 Day Weekends = My Savior

The conversions of both Constantine and Prince Vladimir to Christianity prove rather different in comparison. Constantine's conversion has been rumored to have been brought about by the "nagging" of his wife. Nevertheless, he established the Edict of Milan, which allowed his subjects to practice their faith in Christianity freely as they pleased. In terms of Vladimir's conversion, his turning to the religion seems to be of his own choice. However, he did not prove to be quite the role model for the religion - he was a heavy drinker and pretty promiscuous. He also demanded thatbhis subjects follow his lead and convert to Christianity as well. Comparing these two men, one may derive that Constantine was more fair about his belief. He converted and established a means for Christians to worship freely, however, he did not shove his belief down the throats of others. Vladimir, on the other hand, went right on to shove his beliefs down the throats of his subjects. By this comparison, perhaps the transition of Constantine and his empire to Christianity was far smoother and more easily accepted by the people - his subjects were provided with a freedom of religious choice, and by the time it got around to Theodosius introducing the idea of establishing the religion, one may infer that perhaps much of the empire was already practicing the religion. On the hand of Vladimir, one may also assume that perhaps the transition to this religion was not so smooth, as it was forced upon the people.

"I had one simple request. AND THAT IS TO HAVE SHARKS WITH FRICKIN LASER BEAMS ATTACHED TO THEIR HEADS."

Though Dr. Evil's problems are not very related to Byzantine architecture, the specified building technique may be described as simple. There seem to be trends in colors used in buildings and in paintings. In buildings, there was heavy use of browns and light reds. In reference to paintings, rich, golden colors were used. Many brick buildings have been noted, and I also noticed a great deal of domed ceilings on the public buildings pictured. It also seemed noticeable that though the exterior to these buildings were plain, the interiors were well decorated with art and bright color. Though not very distinctive, Byzantine architecture seems to serve primarily for function. There was not anything seeming to be too decorative about it. I did not note many connections to American architecture, however, I did notice connections due to the fact that we too have brick buildings and domed ceilings, and most of our buildings are colored plainly and indistinctly.

"So, so you think you can tell heaven from hell?" - Pink Floyd

The first document featured in the reading pertains to discussing random aspects of the city of Constantinople. Its content may be perceived as a review of the city. For this reason, I believe that the document was written by a traveler, directed towards outside people who have never traveled to Constantinople. The information included talks about the city in general, so one would assume that perhaps the document was written in order to educate others, in this case outsiders who have never traveled to the city, of people and places outside of their realm. The second document talks about the city in an almost awe inspired way, discussing pilgrims and their reactions to the city. For this reason, I believe that the document was perhaps written by a pilgrim to the city, for its discussion of religious elements and its reverence of the city. It is arguable for this reason that the document was written towards others of a similar religious faith as the writer, in order to serve as a story to tell. The third document discusses an attack of barbarians, who "did not appreciate beauty," upon the city. Its disapproving nature of this attack and clear anger in reference to it makes me infer that this document was written by an inhabitant of the city, who witnessed the attacks. Because of this, if this inference is somewhat true I believe that the document was written for later citizens of the city, in order to educate them on their past and history. Document four is a painting of a map of Constantinople. I believe that it was probably created by an artist of the city, for its detail and the fact that it seems like a decent map, so it must have been created by someone familiar with the place. It must have been created for merchants or other travelers, to aid their movement. It also probably served as an efficient history preserver. Document five is a picture of the interior of the church Saint Sophia. I believe the picture was probably taken by a recent modern age photographer. Because of this, it was probably meant for people outside of the area of Constantinople, in order to educate others on culture in the city. Document six revolves around the emperor of Constantinople. Because it is so centered on this man, I believe the document to be written by a servant or worker for the emperor, intended to portray him in a very positive light. It was probably directed at the citizens of the city, in order to make them happy with the emperor and to encourage approval of him. Document seven talks about privileges granted to the citizens of Venice. It seems very biased, leading me to believe that the writer of the document was an inhabitant of Constantinople, who felt their exemptions to be unfair. It was probably directed to the other inhabitants of the city, who felt similar ways, intended to bring attention to the matter. Of all these documents, I feel that the first is the most reliable, due to the fact that it simply provides an overview of the city and lacks an opinion. It merely summarizes what a traveler witnessed, and had no reason to be biased.

Mappity Map Map Maps

For an artistically non-inclined student such as myself, there was great room for error in a project such as this. However, a few things did follow a preferred route for us. For one, deciding the method of passage for each of our traded items was fairly easy. Once we had done our research and had a basis of understanding for the trade, it was not very hard at all to think of how they would be transported. On another hand, a second thing that went well was locating natural obstructions to our trade routes. As we placed these geographic formations last, they we easy to locate. Lastly, a third thing to go well was our actual drawing of routes. Conveniently, we managed to pick items that had fairly simple routes to document. In terms of what went wrong...I wish I would not have to talk about it. However, Im going to have to in order to get my check plus on this homework assignment. First of all, the presence of a scale was absolutely infuriating. I get really uptight about having things right and not out of place...so having to follow a scale with a hand drawn map was a really panic-inducing feat for me. The pressure freaked me out, Mr. Whitten. Secondly, I am an awful artist. Because of this, I feel that our map was not quite so neat as it could have been. Cue stress. Thirdly, it was really difficult to relate the big map to a map about a sixth of its size. To be honest, this project was pretty difficult. The paper portion was fine, but the map...that's a different story. I had a very hard time with it...drawing the map over on to an absolutely prehistorically obsese MAMMOTH poster board was very difficult for me (I'm not an artist AT ALL). In complete honesty, if it weren't for the savior paper portion of this project, I would have truly hated it. Thankfully it is all over now, however. In terms of collaboration, it went well. I was very glad to have my partner, Melissa, working on the map with me. She is a good artist, and it was very helpful to have her there. Plus, without a partner, I think I would have absolutely drowned in the work that went into the map. I was very thankful to be able to have a partner. If I were presented with this project again, I would first cry myself to sleep a little bit to eliminate stress off the bat. Maybe I wouldn't cry myself to sleep. But I'd do something close to that. However, I would allot myself more time on the map portion by taking it home and working on it at night to make sure I could have it as accurate and neat as possible.