Kitty On A Bomb

Humanitarians,

Today we discussed the changing way war is fought thanks to industrialization. WWI is the first fully industrialized war, which means everything Europeans think they know about how to fight and win a war is, uh, wrong. This leads to massive loss of life from ALL countries plus a stalemate, which is why this war, which most thought would end in a few weeks maybe months, takes 4 years to resolve.

Also, it leaves Russia supa salty, which explains so much of what will happen next....

TOMORROW, YOUR TFA PROJECT IS DUE, NOOOOOOOO EXCEPTIONS!

Also, you have a humanities reading due on Thursday as well. :WINK:

This day in history?!?!?

• 1763: Treaty of Paris signed, ending the French and Indian War...and setting the stage in many ways for the American Revolution.



too damn many

• 1837: Russian poet and novelist Alexander Pushkin was killed in a dual. 
• 



God bless, Russia + Gilmore Girls, my life is complete

• 1967: The 25th Amendment was ratified, establishing presidential succession.
• 1996: IBM's computer, Deep Blue, beat the world chess champion, Gerry Kasparov, in the first game of their match. 

• 2005: Pulitzer prize winning playwright Arthur Miller died. You will read/watch on of his plays, The Crucible in 11th grade! Also, he was married to Marilyn Monroe for a hot minute.

And our Civil Rights Activist for the day, as part of Black History month, is....

Stokely Carmichael, or Kwame Ture, a Trinidadian-American revolutionary active in the Civil Rights Movement and in the global Pan-African movement. He was first a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), a leader of the Black Panther Party (a revolutionary black nationalist and socialist organization from the 60s-80s. Its core practice was arming citizens to monitor the behavior of police and challenge police brutality in Oakland. It also opened several community social programs, such as Free Breakfast for Children and community health clinics), and a leader of the All-African People's Revolutionary Party.

While Stokely Carmichael faced criticism from the nonviolent Civil Rights movment after his transition to the Black Panthers and criticism calling him misogynistic for comments he made about African American women in the movement, overall, he and the Black Panthers were extremely influential in the 60s-the mid 1980s.

And finally, social media for the day... a little social commentary with a giggle today...  @manwhohasitall on twitter. This parody account makes fun of some of what women go through in the "quest to have it all" i.e. a career and family, poking fun at some of the ridiculous advice from women's magazines and social media, by turning it on it's head and targeting men/dads instead. Pretty good satire, I think. Check it....(WARNING! some of the tweets make fun of women's magizines like Cosmo, so mentioning of male genitalia). 

READY FOR YOUR PROJECTS TOMORROW!!!

- cbg

You get a war, you get a war, EVERYBODY gets a war

Humanitarians,

How has your February been? Full of love and football? AS IT SHOULD BE!

Monday wasn't particularly exciting; we finished up our TFA timelines and then took a little Things Fall Apart Quizlette. We are almost finished TFA-ing, the last step is YOUR PROJECT, which is due, in all its awesome-ness on Thursday! If you will be out for either band or orchestra or whatever other random thing you do, IT IS STILL DUE, so get it to us!

Today in class, we looked at some sweet WWI propaganda. Some important points to remember about propaganda:
1. It has to be tailored to whomever you are trying to reach. Think poster for British India vs. the British mainland.
2. It appeals to the emotional NOT the rational side of a person/people.
3. It's needed SO badly in WWI because many nations don't understand why they are involved in the war! Why is Britain involved in a war that should be about Serbia and Austria? WHY is the US?

Tomorrow, we will enter the trenches. Literally. Bring a shovel.

This day in HISSSSSSSSSSSSSTORY....

• 1861: Jefferson Davis was chosen as the president of the Confederate States of America. 



why is this a thing, internet?! 

• 1950: Senator Joseph McCarthy claimed he had evidence there were card-carrying members of the Communist party in the State Department, ushering in a series of hearings.
• 

The beginning of the end for McCarthy

• 1964: The Beatles made their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show

• 2001: A US nuclear submarine struck the Ehime Maru, a Japanese fishing boat. Whoops.
• 

Next, I love Virdin's highlights of black Americans for Black History Month, so I'd like to add a few this week. I'm also going to highlight some of the less known Civil Rights Activists, since the announcements is bringing a dose of MLK. 

First, then is Malcolm X. Possibly second to MLK in his importance in the civil rights movement, Malcolm X (nee Malcolm Little) converted to the Nation of Islam while in prison and he and the nation pushed for complete African American independence from white Americans (black businesses, schools, cities, etc) and was not a proponent of MLK's non-violence, saying instead that there instances where violence was necessary, and was unhappy with mainstream Civil Rights' emphasis on integration.

I would argue that it was Malcolm X as an alternative to MLK that made much of white America concede to MLK and his less drastic demands. By  1964, Malcolm X had grown disillusioned with the Nation of Islam and its leader Elijah Muhammad and embraced Sunni Islam instead. Towards the end of his life, he disavowed some of his early sepratist ideas, but continued to emphasize black self-determination and black self-defense. Malcolm X was assassinated as some of his ideas about complete African-selected-segregation were changing. Watch his speech below. Also read The Autobiography of Malcolm X.   It's great and is one of the most influential books of the 20th century.

And finally, the social media to follow today is the twitter account of Han Solo Dad Jokes at twitter.com/dadjokehansolo . It's hilarious Dad Jokes about Star Wars, what more could you ask for. 

Happy Tuesday!

- cbg

Never assassinate Archduke Ferdinand

Ah, World War I. A snowball of events leading into a big hot mess, a major war that doesn't really fix the issues when it's over. Today we simulated the events that led to WWI, beginning with the assassination of the Austrian Archduke by Serbian terrorists.  After a steamrolling of events, the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottomans) are pitted against the Allied Powers (Britain, France, Russia, Italy, and out of nowhere, Japan!). We'll see the US join the battle over time, but we'll get to them later. WWI is going to result in an abhorrent level of destruction and slaughter, especially because of trench warfare and modern technology such as machine guns and tanks. You'll read more about this in Chapter 33 (which is due on Tuesday!).

Is this the Kaiser...or a guy you saw at Urban Outfitters?

If you enjoy studying WWI or are a visual learner like myself, here's an interesting WWI infographic from the History Channel's website. It gives details of the conflict by the numbers...did you know 1.2 MILLION men died in just ONE of WWI's skirmishes, the Battle of the Somme? The statistics are horrifying.

THIS WEEKEND IS THE SUPERBOWL!!!! (all caps so it sounds like I care about football!). What I really love about the SuperBowl is an excuse to hang out with my friends and eat (and root for the superior football player...)

And last but not least, for the photo of the day, I wanted to share one of my favorite photos from history in honor of Black History Month. You may have seen this picture before; it's from the much protested integration of nine African American students into Little Rock Central High School in 1957. This photo blew up, and the nine high schoolers have become forever memorialized as the Little Rock Nine. I have always found this photo stunningly powerful, and if you look at this or any other photos from that day, the Nine all embodied grace and dignity.

Friends, I hope you have the BEST weekend. You all rock. Stay classy. 

-Virdin out. 

"A man who does not finish his timeline is like one who has extra homework"

Happy Thursday friends!

Yesterday, we were in Japan; today we soared back over to Africa to finish our study of Things Fall Apart before your quiz on Monday (remember, it's a quiz in the DAILY grade category, weighed 3X). Today you worked with your posse/people/homeskillets to come up with a timeline over the most significant plot points in TFA. Those will be due on Monday, after about 10 extra minutes of worktime in class, so if you need to work on it over the weekend or during block lunch, think that through! We really do hope you've enjoyed reading the novel; it's one that you will probably see again and is on countless lists of influential books throughout history.

Why does Okonkwo have a moustache,,,and other inaccuracies?

If Achebe's writing resonated with you, there's a pretty interesting obituary for him on Huffington Post. Add this to the list of things I wish we could read and discuss in class, but never have enough time for!

As you probably know (because we make "old people" or annoyingly obscure music references frequently), your HugeManatees teachers LOVE us some music, so here's a Buzzfeed quiz over which fictional character shares your music taste. Are you a Tom from Parks and Rec or Rory from Gilmore Girls? The world needs to know.

And just to wrap up your day and push you through to the weekend, here's a bunch of adorable squishy babies singing our favorite song from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. It may or may not be life-changing, and Peter Griffin supervises the entire performance.

Enjoy your day...one more day till the weekend! And remember, GPA isn't everything.

U-kiyo-excited for Japanese art!

Today in the HugeManatees world we ventured into Japan, particularly through the study of Japanese art! Noh, Kabuki, Bunraku, all the good stuff. Woodblocking was one of the popular visual art forms in Japan, especially the work of artist Katsushika Hokusai (try saying that three times fast). As Samurai influence began to wane, their armor also became its own art form in a sense, so much so that Darth Vader picked up on it.

Darth should have replaced Tom Cruise. 

We see Western artists take an interest in Asian art, and traces of this influence can be found in their art...Van Gogh for example LOVED Hokusai and Hiroshige's works and can be quoted as saying "all my work is founded on Japanese art".

He should work at Urban Outfitters with that hair. 

Valentine's day is coming up, and in case anyone needs a date idea...

Hot date.

The Plano Symphony Orchestra (and the Dallas, I believe) is having a Valentine Gala on February 13, so take a date, or a friend, or your mom, and go catch the performance for a local Humanities Experience. If your date then thinks you're really cool and cultured...you're welcome. 

Last but not least, my inspiring figure for today is Mae Jemison. I remember when I was a little Virdin (well, about the same size I am now) and Mae Jemison had gone into space...she made me want to be an astronaut. As an adult, I think she's even cooler as the first African-American female astronaut, as a science mission specialist. That means she is in charge of conducting science experiments on the space shuttle...brilliant AND a babe. Girl crush. 

Squad goals. 

Tomorrow we'll wrap up TFA (*tear), so make sure you bring your copy of the book to class! Have a sunshine-filled day!
-Virdin out.

The Wild Beasts

Hola amigos!

Wrapping up our study of Post Impressionism, Fauvism, and Expressionist art today allowed us to further explore the differences between the movements; remember, the main difference between Fauvism and Expressionism is the goal/heart behind the art. Fauvism is a lot lighter than our dark, moody, tortured Expressionists. All of these are a total change in the world of art, however, a "stick it to the man", if you will. We've officially moved into Modern Art, people, and it's going to get really weird. Technically talented artists like Van Gogh will make the specific choice to paint "weirdly" to convey a message or express themselves and all their feelz. They don't paint like a kindergartener because they aren't talented; in fact, they're more talented than all of us put together (although a lot of you guys are amazing artists that I'm jealous of, so maybe not).

Also, there are SO MANY parodies of Munch's The Scream out there in the world. Here are a couple of my favorites!

Joker: the guy that also had a lot of feelz. Why so serious?

Why would you EVER run from bisquits?

I haz painting

Also over in CE land, we covered the Iowa caucus results, keeping up with election news. Sometimes it's hard to know which candidate you actually agree with, so here's a website that lets you put in all of your views and then calculates which candidate matches your political ideals. Pretty fun! Mine was very accurate, but I can't guarantee. Either way, election world is about to get more exciting soon!

In honor of February being Black History Month, I also wanted to highlight some influential African American men and women who made waves and rocked the boat, who can inspire us to make changes through their actions and not just their words. So today's photo of the day will be one of the late Jane Bolin.

Classy.

Jane Bolin sadly passed away in 2007, but during her lifetime she was incredibly inspiring. She was the first African American woman to become a judge in the US and the first African American woman to earn a law degree from Yale. She worked to end segregation among child placement facilities...can you tell why I love her?

Love you guys lots. Keep on keepin on and have a FABULOUS Tuesday!

It's starting to get weird up in here!

Friends! Was this weekend not glorious or what?! I apologize in advance for what will probably be a high amount of Virdin sunshine over the next day or two; I'm still basking in the afterglow of this weekend's weather.

Texas weather...amiright?

Today in class we got back to the art world by exploring three important movements in the modern art world, Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, and Expressionism. Here are some of the fundamental differences to help you keep the three movements straight (based on what we discussed in class):

I know y'all have probably seen this in the big HugeManatees room, but just in case...it's brilliant. 

• Post-Impressionism: Post-Impressionism's only unifying characteristic is that literally the major artists (Cezanne, Seurat, Gauguin, van Gogh) were painting at the same time historically. Otherwise, their styles are about as different as Garafola and I. 
• Fauvism: "art for arts' sake", bold colors, originating and centering in France, Matisse!
• Expressionism: way more moody, sullen, and gloomy (think Munch's The Scream), lots of Germans, tension-filled, and concerned with the impact that the painting would have on the person viewing it. 

WHY IS CHRISTMAS OVER?!

Tomorrow we'll wrap up our art PPT (or not, cause you know how we roll) and dive more in detail into these different movements. Make sure you're reading TFA for Thursday, and Current Eventing for tomorrow!

For my photo of the day this week, I thought it would be cool to see how people celebrate Valentine's Day around the world (even though you should show people you love them EVERY day of the year), so today's photo comes from Thailand. It's been a recent trend in one of the Thai mountain provinces for couples to rappel down a mountain as their Valentine's wedding ceremony. Get on their level, literally.  

Have a lovely day friends! Enjoy the sunshine.