This podcast done by good pals josh and shawn is suppose to have a song playing in the background but you cant hear it.  Enjoy it.

http://www.gabcast.com/index.php?a=episodes&query=&b=play&id=8538&cast=73928&castPage=&autoplay=true

This podcast is my first ever.   I did it all by myself. 

http://itw101.blogspot.com/2008/04/blog-of-one-own-100.html#links

CHILD ARTIST DREAMS OF RETURN TO IRAQ

SYRIA

8/20/2007

http://aliveinbaghdad.org/2007/08/20/syria-child-artist-dreams-of-return-to-iraq

Praise be to Allah for this enchanting segment! This episode of Alive in Baghdad follows that of a young child art prodigy living in Syria with his artist father. The young boy expressed an extreme talent in arts and crafts his paintings are sexy at its absolute peak. His father talks about his son and how talented he is while the young art master himself discusses both his passion for art and his passion for Baghdad.  Much of what he paints reflects his culture and it truly means a lot to the little guy, you could call him an extreme family man of tradition and craftiness.  The child art sorcerer goes by the name of Muhammad Al-Rubailie and he’s got skill enough to paint bird crap on the side of a building and have an art exhibit built around it.  The kid seems very promising and his father (also an artist) has good faith that his son will be a successful artist one day, in fact he already is. Little Al-Rubailie isn’t as much of a child as you would think he’s more of a tweenager about to hit puberty.  His jet black hair slicks back like a rich eccentric playboy.   He wears a black shirt which seems to be made from the finest of qualities (so Al and his father must be doing well in Syria).   The scenery in this episode is a plain and simple art studio, the sounds of busy city dwellers on the mopeds and motorized transportation vehicles is buzzing in the background. This episode is different because it is about talent and children. The most memorable part of this video was when the young child artist stared into the camera and said “Baghdad is my soul.”  As a viewer of this webisode I learned that both God and Allah spread talent in all of there different regions that they own equally.   Although Al would have been talent no matter were he had been born, it is the beauty, culture and traditions of Baghdad Iraq that inspire his artwork, the dreams that one day he may return to Baghdad as the magical painting prince of a glorious tomorrow.

IRAQI TEENS WORK TO HELP THEIR FAMILIES

ALIVE IN BAGHDAD

10/15/2007

http://aliveinbaghdad.org/2007/10/15/iraqi-teens-work-to-help-their-families/

Hard times, death and war surround them and yet despite all of that they still cannot manage to escape the fait that awaits all teenagers…work.  These Young Iraqi men have jobs and risk there lives to support there families.  Two of the young gentleteens work a job of carpentry and furniture making with there father.  One of the young men claimed to be unemployed and said that he has made a habit of surfing the web all day (porn) which was kind of weird that they put him in the video because he kind of ruined it but whatever. The shining star of the husky bunch would have to be Hussein Kamal (15 years old) who works with furniture from home because it has become too dangerous to drive to work.  He loves his wood so much and sands it long and hard every day sometimes covering it with shiny slippery coats of gloss to increase the pleasure of the potential buyer.   Kamal is certainly no Calvin Kline or Tommy Hilfiger model, at the very most he is the cheap rip off version of the real brand model (and maybe not even that, he’s an ugly duck.)  But looks are not important it is his hard work determination that matter most.   One thing I learned from this episode is how much the Iraqi people want terrorists to leave the country, the young men each sent messages to neighboring countries to stop harboring terrorists. I found this touching, like perhaps America did help out in some way.  This video was different from other videos I’ve seen because it focuses more on the teen scene if you know what I mean.  The most memorable part of the video to me is when the kid that was unemployed said that he sat around on the computer all day (probably looking at porn) because it totally defeated the theme and purpose of the video and kind of ruined it.

Dear Riverbend,

First of all, many congratulations on what Publishers Weekly calls “Passionate, frusated, sarcastic and sometimes hopeful.” Secondly before I ask any friskily curious questions, I would like to comment on my favorite part of the book, see I always find this particular part of the book the most intriguing no matter what book it is and that is the cover.  I really think you did a swell job with picking colors, orange and yellow truly remind me of the middle east, it also reminds me of Utah but the explosions in the background took care of that right away.  Anyway, what struck me the most was the quote from Susan Sarandon, she is an actress as I am sure you know anyway, why is her opinion of the book important? Look also you need to know I am not trying to be a an “A word” I just want to understand why an actresses opinion is important, is Susan Sarandon involved with political ness like in influential way does she run for office or perhaps debate on news channels?  Third thing, what is your favorite holiday in the Middle East? Do you celebrate mardi gras? Do you know what mardi gras is? It involves lots of beads and intoxication sometimes sex and lawsuits (other than law suits its pretty fun).  Fourth question do you love the new Iraq sense it has been freedomfied?  I hope that something really good comes your way river bend I really do because you deserve it girl, for living in Iraq surviving, and writing a book.  I hope one day when they erect the very first walmart in Iraq that you get super bargain discounts with you’re Sam’s club discount card.  I hope that as you are shopping in the walmart that you come across a vast sum of money just laying in the center of the isle (someone may have dropped it and its yours for the taking) perhaps a twenty, fifty even a hundred.  And I hope you are able to use it to buy your groceries from the store and that you treat yourself.  Maybe purchase a nice pair of slacks or a fancy shampoo, perhaps some bengay for your feet.  The most important thing for you to know riverbend it is that I love you (not sexually like i dont want to have sex with you secretly I just love your book) we all love you and your book.  I hope you get an infinite amount of love and support from you country and that you love to eat cheese.  I can hallucinate your lovely face thousands a miles away and my heart goes out to you and Iraqi women every were who write books about blogging in iraq.  If things were different and our love was not forbidden  I could see the two of us raising children together and living happily in vermont. Just imagen beautifuly green summers, and cold winter nights once the chicklets were in bed we could drink hot coco together by the fire place and I could rub some bengay on your toasted feet. You had me at “This book is written by a young woman whom we only know by the name Riverbend.”   God Bless You, Jesus loves you ( but not sexually, he doesn’t want to secretly have you know what with you, I do, lol kidding! jk! jk! lola!) I love you Riverbend. You are amazing.  And although we are separated from a vast ocean and a trillion miles of sand I want you to know how special you are to me, I will never forget you, girl blog from Iraq.

P.S  I want to rub bengay on your feet  :)

I think it is extrodainary that a women living in Iraq was brave enough to write a blog in a time of war and opresssion. Let me describe it to you in the words of the Curlatron… simply stunning.  If I had been a women in iraq at this time, I would have kept my mouth shut allowing the dictators to dictate as I led a degrading life of home making and worshiping Allah (which is like the God of the middle east).  Iraq was a very crazy and scary place before the war broke out, so one can only imagen how it was when THE WAR WAS GOING ON, one word, YIKES.  Contrary to popular belief, this book is not a comedy or even a dramatity (which is like a mix between a comedy and a drama) it is a very serious true life story with lots of action and big budget pirotechnic wizardry.  War is not funny there is nothing funny about war or women blogging about it as bombs fly past her window.  This book brought a tear to my eye and I have enjoyed every second spent reading it which is a lot of seconds if you add it up its atleast like a thousand maybe five hundred seconds who knows, I dont keep track of my seconds, but i’ll tell you what after reading this book you’ll want seconds.  So yah great book, give it a read drama lovers.

According to Virginia Woolf (or “V-Wolf” as I call her) a room of one’s own is a place of solitude were one can escape the prejudices of society and freely think without being beaten by the sexist squad.  During V-Woolf’s time not every woman had a room of her own and missed out on developing there brains to the higher standards that they deserved.  Everyone needs a quiet place to escape from the world. Heck I know I do, whether it be to escape stress, relax, let out aggression and rage, dance in a tutu or even just sit and reflect. There are simply times that we as human beings need to say enough and stop what we are doing and just go to our quiet place and do our thing.  Everyone’s quiet place is different, perhaps an actual room such as a bedroom, perhaps in the cupboard below the kitchen sink, the toilet, a wooded glen, any were that one can escape from whatever is bothering them and think freely, be them selves and figure out what to do.    A space of one’s own is important because we become connected with our inner thoughts and ideas. We produce our greatest masterpieces when we are focused and unbothered by anything in the entire world, the only thing that matters is the specific thing we choose. We all need rooms of our own period (as in you can’t argue with that logic and if you do I won’t listen because it doesn’t count).

The British are at it again with another amazing feat, this time it’s a house made entirely out of freaken news papers!  Just leave it to the British to build something that you can read.  First the Harry Potter series and now this… if you ask me it’s a little too much to handle.   Anyway I found this article on Treehugger (naturally),  and it immediately caught my interest… actually the second I saw “house made of newspapers” the whole thing was in the bag for me… it was going to be my favorite blog post of the week and nothing was going to stop that… I mean it’s a house made of freaken newspapers.  After thoroughly examining the photo to insure it was not a hoax or ghastly prank the old red backs were trying to pull… the evidence became clear that the British had indeed made a house made entirely out of newspapers.  A local comedian was cracking jokes from inside the fantastical structure… “Jeez… the roof inside here is totally WORD UP!  One can definitely READ what going on inside the living room from section B which is in the kitchen… sexy things sexy things… have you guys seen the toilet? It’s made entirely out of obituaries.”  After the house was built people were allowed to gaze upon the rhetorical structure of awesome-ness. The spice girls I bet are totally proud of their country for such an amazing accomplishment in humanity. I mean it’s not every day that you see a house made out of newspapers… its every hobos paradise… and it’s doubly awesome because you can learn things by reading it. When you go to the bathroom you can read the wall… run out of toilet paper?  No problem.   The project was done to show the British how wasteful they are.  Instead of throwing away there newspapers they should build houses out of them.  The amazing newspaper house is now going on a tour around the globe… so if your lucky you might get in on some of the excitement.  Next step? Newspaper mansion… complete with fireplace and swimming pool.  The amazing newspaper house breaks the record for the last amazing house built (sponsored by tree hugger magazine) which was crafted entirely from tissues and dried up hand lotion.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/03/sumer_erkes_new.php

“Every day millions of online diarists, or “bloggers,” share their opinions with a global audience. Drawing upon the content of the international media and the World Wide Web, they weave together an elaborate network with agenda setting power on issues ranging from human rights in China to the U.S. occupation of Iraq.  What began as a hobby is evolving into a new medium that is changing the landscape for journalists and policymakers alike.”

[Web of Influence, Daniel W. Drenzer and Henry Farrell, Foreign Policy 2004, pg.84]

“With great power, comes great responsibility”

[Spider-man]

This extraordinary paragraph from “Web of Influence” (and no… that’s not the name of a Spider-man movie) shoots out an entire web of sexy details on international blogging. It is true that although blogging started as a mere hobby it has sense grown to become more epic and meaningful. The proportionality epic ness of blogging is comparative to that of a giant piece of fruit (like the one in James and the Giant Peach) in other words international blogging is kind of a big deal (it is also juicy and delicious).  In fact I like the analogy of a giant fruit, as well as the spider-man thing.  Let me explain you see blogging is like this giant piece of fruit and sense we’ve already mentioned it lets say this fruit is a giant peach.  This giant peach is as mentioned earlier extremely juicy and delicious so much in fact, that those who bite from it gain extraordinary knowledge and insight on global events and policies.  So now this is were the fun begins… the peach (knowledge) gets passed around from biter (blogger) to biter and eventually spider-man bites it and he decides to himself “gee this fruit (knowledge) is delicious (important) perhaps I should swing over to Europe and share this juicy peach with Europeans.”  This is were the analogy gets complicated and its actually best to leave spider-man out of it he doesn’t need to be in this story he makes it too confusing.  Anyway to make a long story short, this paragraph is correct in that blogging brings the world together in ways that were previously impossible… Americans and Canadians, Chinese and Japanese or any combo you could think of, they all come together for more knowledge.  The more knowledge they receive the hungrier they become… kind of like knowledge seeking werewolves.  People like journalists and policy makers now use blogs for diplomatic research and purposes, as a means of getting the views of people that would be impossible to reach or understand in any other way.  So lets all have some international fruit… its freaking delicious…

Let’s face the facts people, an election is coming and as much as I would love to tell you not to vote, that would be wrong.    You see, voting is a civic responsibility and even though it’s boring and frustrating and your vote doesn’t count for much, if you don’t vote than who will?  Your neighbors?  Robert Frost? Who? There is no way we can tell for sure, it truly is funny how such fantasias work.  What if a violent and horny terrorist snuck into our country stole your identity and voted for you?   Perhaps you would be sorry for not sticking to your patriotic duties, I know I would, I would probably feel really bad for letting my country down.   This is why we must vote, if we do not vote than WHO?  WHO? WHO? WHO? A member of the ku-klux-klan or the nazi party could become president, and that would be disgusting.  As far as my voting habits go, I am anxiously awaiting the next election.  I plan on throwing a little celebration on election night you will see me at my local town hall…. free coffee, cider and donut holes for everyone! All are welcome (except for terrorists and people who don’t vote).  That being said I am still unsure who I shall cast my vote for, it would be funny to vote for Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert but I would never dream of such a thing. Needless to say there are two websites that have been trying to persuade me lately.  They both want my vote and they are willing to do anything to get it.  The website Wonkette and the Liberal website Daily Kos are political blogs that want me inside them.  In other words, they want my vote and for me to join there little online throng community.   I shall never join sides (see HW#12) for I am an Independent individual.  However after viewing both sites thoroughly I have chosen a site that I believe to be worthy of my vote.  I’m not going to leave you hanging or tease you because it was a no brainer.  The blog Wonkette was far superior to the liberal site daily kos for numerous reasons.  I would have to say the biggest reason being how incredibly boring the Daily Kos was.  Wonkette’s posts seemed a lot more organized, creative funny and entertaining and as you know that’s what the Curlatron digs.  The daily Kos (and I’m sorry for saying this) the Daily Kos STINKING STUNK.   End of story.  Vote and remember… If not YOU… than WHO?  Illegal Mexican immigrants, horny terrorists and sexual predators are hungry to steal America’s votes, don’t let them.  Instead feed them a justice sandwich, get out there and vote!

Here’s the juicy bacon home skillet! One of my favorite blogs of all time ever: “SLUT MACHINE” just posted a fresh new sluty and machiney post entitled “Ellen Page’s SNL monoblog pokes fun at Diablo Cody”.    For those of you who did not watch last week’s SNL, it was hosted by actress Ellen Page (not to be confused with Ellen Degeneres).    Anyway this brief post addressed the beginning of the show in which the delightful Andy Samberg came out dressed as former stripper turned Oscar winner Diablo Cody and made fun of her by speaking only in puns.  Personally I found the skit to be absolutely hilarious as did millions nation wide.  Slut Machine admitted to chuckling at a few frisky one liners but was hurt and offended when Samberg left the stage saying “I was a stripper!”  This little comment by Samberg killed the comedy for Slut Machine causing her to go koo koo for coco-puffs,“Everyone needs to stop with that.  Not because stripping is shameful or embarrassing, but because the joke is just stupid and not funny.”  What the hell is she talking about? She broke the number friggen one rule in “The corporate weblog manifesto” and that is to tell the friggen truth!  There is a live video recording prooving that the joke was funny because an entire audience burst out in hilarious upchucking laughter when Samberg’s comment was made.  I myself roared in delightful whimsical chuckles and I am willing to bet that Diablo Cody herself found the joke just as gut bustingly funny as the rest of us.  If stripping is not shameful than who cares if the comment is made?  It would be just as funny if someone said “I was a dentist!”   People would laugh because dentists are not accustomed to writing academy award winning screen plays and nor are plumbers, strippers or pornographers. Hence, Slut Machine has broken a rule and has lied to us all thus she is not my favorite blog anymore and has lost my readership.  Andy Samberg is hilarious and if we can’t make harmless jokes about strippers and stuff on T.V with out getting angry backlashes from online feminist bloggers than what has this world come to?  I honestly cannot understand Slut Machines problem, to tell the truth I find her name very funny and laugh everytime I see it because I live in a society were the word “Slut” is not a very good thing to say to someone.  Slut Machine should change her name to something less offensive like “Fun Machine” or “Poop Machine” because it would bring her reader ship up a ton and even though changing your name is breaking a rule, it wouldn’t be the first time for old Slut Machine to do so… peace skillets!

http://jezebel.com/362766/ellen-pages-snl-monoblog-pokes-fun-at-diablo-cody