Protest!

I took a short video of the Proposition 8 protest in San Francisco. The energy was palpable in the air...though it may not come through so well in the video.

RSS Feeders

I'm using Google Reader to gather the blogs I like all in one place. Actually, I thought that I had posted this alreadfy, but apparently I dreamed it :)

One of the drawbacks of using RSS is that I forget to check the reader, so I get behind on the blogs anyway! But it does help me find my favorite blogs faster than trolling through my bookmarks :-D

Social Media - Dogs Are Social, right?

Our discovery exrecise included surfing YouTube and finding a video we like to post to our blog. I know it has nothing to do with education per se, but I really liked this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG77nCxfzr0


And then we were to add voice to our blogs. I used vozMe and chose the female voice. Kinda freaky... (to hear it, click the link that says ((•))Hear just below this post.

Social Networking

Ha! I've got this one down pat. I've already got a Facebook page, so this module was a breeze. I love using Facebook to keep tabs on folks' lives. It's easier than email and the photos can be sent to multiple recipients so much faster because they're posted, not mailed.

Although I can see some use for professional instructors, right now I use it to communicate with my college-age son :-)

Social Bookmarking

Wow. I really had a tough time with this module. I understand the concept and it seems like it should be a useful tool for instruction (particularly in lesson-planning). However, I attempted the optional activity on del.i.cious and got all tangled up. I still haven't figured out how to cateorize my bookmarks correctly.

And then a funny thing happened...I realized that I do not WANT my bookmark list to be public. The more I perused my favorites list (and granted, a majority are work-related or on the internal network), the more I felt like it was a step that was just over the line of comfort for me.
Not sure what that says about me, but I did give up on Del.i.cious.

Catchy Phrase

The name of my blog is a play on words using my last name, of course. Today I see that the AKC has the same idea...only their pictures are WAY cuter :-)

http://www.holidaycardcenter.org/akc/product/1169/403

Web 2.0

I'm baaack! Taking a class on Web 2.0 and this session is about blogs. So I'm resurrecting this litany of random subjects to add to.

By the way, since I last posted I graduated (Master's Degree). Yee-haw! Now all my classes are for "personal growth"...

Other things I'm working on:
• Learning Flash (just the animation so far, not programming ActionScript 3.0 yet).
• Reading all the books I couldn't while in school
• Getting back into some creative endeavor away from the computer...although the Wacom tablet is pretty awesome!
• Possibly introducing my elderly parents (80s) to the computer/email

Discouraging Words

Chatted with Sanad tonight. I told him about the attack on me and he indicated that it has happened to him as well. At IslamOnline in SL. Three guys threatened him, so he went to another island. Another friend of mine told me about a guy she knows who also had three men try to shoot him when he was at IslamOnline.

Sanad's theory is, "they want to show muslim people that they hate them ... my thinking". He said," I think it is a big problem... in SL and RL, because it is a wrong idea."

So for all of the promise of this new medium, whether in education or business or just plain social networking, we're still faced with the global problems of xenophobia and discrimination.

The Usual Suspect

Did a little more in-world wandering. I've changed back into jeans & t-shirt. I went back to the Oldies dance club and guess what...? They talked to me as soon as I stepped into the dance area. Welcomed me, chatted a bit. I was still around the outside and didn't dance. But what a stark difference between my welcome today and the disregard I encountered when wearing the abaya.

On another note, I was showing SL to a businessperson last week. I was still dressed in the abaya & hajib. He commented: "You aren't wearing any explosives, are you?" I suppose it was an attempt at humor on his part. In context with these other experiences, I'm inclined to see it as a stereotypical generalization.

Of History and Horror II

So, what's with the title of these entries? Last post I described participating in a history lesson of sorts. This post, unfortunately, describes an attack in SL.

Still wearing my abaya, I was working on my building skills in the Edtech sandbox. It's an area that is open to the public for whatever activities they wish, typically building or practicing flying, etc. There are some restrictions like no weapons or violence. As I was building a pillar, another avatar started repeatedly running into me wearing a hockey goalie mask (that looked like the one from the movie Friday the 13th) and holding a meat cleaver. There was also loud chaotic music and it was obvious that he was attacking me. It took me a moment to realize what was happening. When I did figure it out, I moved away from him and he ran off, but still in my view. I went back to building and about 5 minutes later, he did it again.

Now, I know this sounds rather benign and in fact when I told other avatars what happened they just laughed it off. But as odd as it sounds, it alarmed me. Except for the lack of actual injury, it was almost as if it happened in real life. It was sudden, unprovoked and intentionally assaultive.

Of course, the bigger question is, why me? He didn't attack anyone else in the sandbox. Was it because I am a female? Was it because of my attire? Was I just unlucky? Hmmm.

Of History and Horror

Spent about three hours in world last Tuesday night. Again went to the dance club in the Netherlands (well, the DJs are from the Netherlands in RL). Again they were very welcoming and chatted with me. I wandered around a bit this time and watched from the balcony.

My friend from Qatar signed on & I invited him to join me. I'm not sure how he feels about being identified, so I'm going to give him the pseudonym Sanad since he is Bahraini. Sanad joined me for a few minutes and then we retreated to the deck on the treehouse on EdTech island where it was quieter and easier to talk.

Sanad indicated to me that it is not permissable for Muslims to dance (or at least it would not be appropriate for me to dance wearing an abaya & hajib). I had guessed as much, which is why I watched from the balcony.

I mentioned that I was finally able to enter the MuslimBrotherhood site in SL. Each time I had attempted before, SL crashed. I was beginning to get suspicious, but Sanad thought this was just a coincidence. He had not been there, so we went back.

The Muslim Brotherhood site has a bunch informational posters calling for the release of several political prisoners. Many of them are in Arabic, but there is a fair amount of English, too. Sanad and I began to discuss the history of the Muslim Brotherhood. I was curious about them because I'm reading The Looming Tower : Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright. In the book, Wright talks about how some of the early radicals split from the Brotherhood to form various groups of their own. Sanad described the present-day group as being very different from al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. Again, it was getting late for me and REALLY late for him, so we didn't get too far, but Sanad definitely knows his history.

After Midnight (My apologies to Eric Clapton)

Went back in world tonight dressed in my Middle Eastern outfit. At first I went to a couple of Islamic places, but no one was around. Then I went to Israel's site and still nobody. Finally, I ended up at a dance club that was rockin'. As opposed to my experience the other night, this time two people immediately said hello and welcomed me. Granted, they were the DJs, but at least they acknowledged me! We chatted for a moment but they informed me that the club was closing. Apparently they were from the Netherlands and it was 4 AM. So I didn't get a chance to really talk to them, but I noticed a big difference in their willingness to approach me.

Then I remembered something my friend from Qatar said: I wasn't meeting anyone in the Islamic sites because it was the middle of the night there! Duh.

And, just in case it's a gender thing, I also went to a dance club that had women in it. Well, women is a pretty general category. Most everyone had a tail. And they were doing pole dances. But hey, they were friendly and offered me several methods to make my av dance, even in my conservative outfit! I declined because I didn't want to disrespect the outfit's symbolism. But they had no problem accepting me into their group.

Here's my outfit:

Only the Lonely

Well, I spent a couple of hours in world tonight (SL). Part of the time I spent putting together my -hopefully more stylish- Middle Eastern outfit. It consists of a long skirt, a tunic and a hijab that covers my hair but leaves my face exposed. I also carried a duffle bag. Then I went searching for somewhere to chat with people.

I ended up at a dance club that was rated PG. The music was oldies and there were about 15 folks on the dance floor groovin', both men and women. The dancing was going on in the center park-like space. I was the only one dressed in an outfit from the East.

At first I wandered around the outside storefronts for awhile, but none of them were up & running yet. So, I went and sat on a park bench to watch. No one bothered me. No one came near me. So I went down to the dance floor and walked around the edges of the action. People were participating in a constant stream of chat all around me. No one spoke to me. Finally, I stood in the center of the floor right near a shirtless guy who was shakin' his booty. Nothing.

Not one single person said a word to me while I was there, which was about 30 minutes....

This Has Been A Test...

Yowser! What a couple of weeks I've had!

• Thursday: Elderly mom went to the E.R. (everything's fine)
• Friday & Saturday: I took my Comprehensive Exams for my Master's degree (PANIC MODE!)
• Thursday: Husband had outpatient surgery (that wasn't..ended up staying overnight)
• Friday: Had a snow storm and I couldn't get the car up the hill to get hubby back home
• Sunday: Trip to Mpls for Easter dinner & return son to college
• Monday-Thursday: Couldn't log into this blog...apparently I didn't exist for awhile...
• Saturday: Will be my first political County Convention - I'm a delegate!

Related stuff

Here are some links to other sites with related content...

Marketplace went to the Middle East: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/

http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/newvoice/index.shtml

Book - Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think http://blog.speakingoffaith.org/post/28034006

http://www.religionwriter.com/islam-in-america/islam/for-the-terrorist-cheering-section-its-about-policy-not-principles-qa-with-dalia-mogahed/

http://www.altmuslim.com/a/a/a/one_billion_muslim_voices/#When:23:00:00Z

What Not to Wear -addendum

Last night I spent about two hours chatting with a college student in Qatar. I was wearing jeans & a Hillary Clinton t-shirt. I met him while I was wandering around, exploring a site called Islamonline where you can perform the haj virtually (all the steps are given and the text, prayer rugs, etc.)



When I showed him my burqa, he indicated that it is the kind women wear in Afghanistan. In the Middle East they wear black ones that are in style . So, apparently I've already made a fashion error. He did offer to help me pick out a new one, so we'll go shopping for an abaya some other time.



Here's me at Hillary's (unofficial) site in SL:

What Not To Wear?

I'm in my last semester of a Master's program at Boise State and it's being delivered in Second Life (SL). For a class project, I'm trying to discern whether or not discrimination exists in SL. Specifically, do people react to me differently when I'm wearing a burqa versus when I'm wearing jeans & a t-shirt?

I chose this particular research question because of the heightened awareness of cultural differences in real life (RL), and to explore the perceptions and myths that surround both Western and Middle Eastern ways of life.

Because "react" is a pretty vague criteria, I've decided to standardize a bit by attempting to ask some of the same questions when I meet folks. Keep in mind that this is certainly NOT scientifically conducted research.

I'm open to discussing anything, but this being an American election year, I'm throwing a bit of politics into the mix. I hope to get the following questions into the conversations. Besides, politics should be a sure bet for a conversation starter!

1. Where are you from (or where are you in RL)?

2. What do you think Western people think of Middle Eastern people? (or vice versa)

3. What do YOU think of Western people? (or vice versa)

4. What is your opinion of America?

5. Who do you think will be the next President of the USA?

6. How old are you?

7. How long have you been on SL?