Reflection Journal 4: Avenged Sevenfold

Hello again everyone!

This time I'm writing you to introduce one of the my favourite bands ''Avenged Sevenfold''. Avenged Sevenfold (sometimes abbreviated as A7X) are an American rock band from Huntington Beach, California, formed in 1999. The band's members are lead vocalist M. Shadows, rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist Zacky Vengeance, lead guitarist and backing vocalist Synyster Gates, bass guitarist Johnny Christ, and drummer and percussionist Arin Ilejay.

They are known for their diverse rock sound and dramatic imagery in album covers and t-shirts. Avenged Sevenfold emerged with a metalcore sound on their debut Sounding the Seventh Trumpet but their style had evolved by their third album and first major label release, City of Evil into a hard rock/heavy metal sound. The band continued to explore new sounds with their self-titled release and enjoyed continued mainstream success before their drummer, James "The Rev" Sullivan, died in 2009. Despite his death, the band continued on with help of now-former Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy and released and toured in support of their fifth album Nightmare in 2010 which debuted on the top spot of the Billboard 200, their first number one debut.

To date, Avenged Sevenfold has released five studio albums, one live album/compilation/DVD, and eighteen singles and sold more than 8 million albums worldwide.

Now that we are familiar with Avenged Sevenfold, we can look over the album I like most from A7X, Dear God. Avenged Sevenfold is the last full-length studio album produced by the band before The Rev's death which occurred on December 28, 2009, just two weeks before the band was to commence recording their follow-up album Nightmare. His vocals are recorded in all of the songs on the album. Although critical reception to the album was mixed compared to previous releases,Avenged Sevenfold won the Kerrang! award for Best Album in 2008.

Media Entry 2: Everyday I'm Chapuling

This video shows us how Turkish people can protest in beautiful and humorous way. “Everyday I’m Çapuling!” reads the banners all over Gezi Parkl, having become the unofficial slogan of the uprising. Çapulcu is what Prime Minister Erdogan called the demonstrators, meaning ‘looters’, hooligans, slackers. Accepting the challenge, the people have embraced the word, adding it to signs, shirts, graffiti, barricades, masks, buses. Everyone tells us how funny the slogans are; one barricade is spray painted with “Look how beautiful this barricade is.” Erdogan recently suggested that all women should have at least three children to support the great Turkish nation. So one of the chants blasted during the rally responded with: Do you want three children like us? The humor catches everyone off guard, especially the government, who have amped up the repression in Ankara, Izmir and other poor parts of Istanbul. But the mocking, jokes, and satire doesn’t stop, creating a complex language of resistance mixed with self-reflection that elevates the critiques to a whole new level of vitriol.

Saturday was the day of the football hooligans, where one hundred thousand of Istanbul’s ultras united to take part in the mega-rally at Taksim, screaming anti-government chants at the top of their lungs mixed with each team’s call-and-response. “Drop your sticks, throw away the gas, come and get us!” everyone shouted at one point. “Blue” “Yellow” Blue” “Yellow” could be heard for miles as crowds bounced up and down waving team flags and pointing firecrackers in the sky. Every inch was packed and noone could move anywhere but together. The bitter enemies of Fenerbahce and Beşiktaş did the impossible and joined together to shoot off fireworks and drape banners over the towering AKM building surrounding the square, as another hundred thousand people looked on and celebrated their previously unthinkable peaceful co-existence. Not only the uniting of the football fans but the sheer heterogeneity of political groups sitting together has been the most shocking of all. Weeks ago it was unthinkable for nationalists and kurdish groups to share space in a rally, let alone the scores of leftist sects that hate each other, but now its already normal. Not everyone gets along, but everyone has a corner, and everyone has the freedom to give and take as they please.

Reflection Journal 3: Turkish Spring

On 31 May 2013, Turkish police surrounded protesters in Taksim Gezi park, the central square in Istanbul, blocked all exits and attacked them with chemical sprays and teargas.

An Occupy-style movement has taken off in Istanbul. The ostensible issue of conflict is modest. Protesters started gathering in the park on 27 May, to oppose its demolition as part of a redevelopment plan. But this is more than an environmental protest. It has become a lightning conductor for all the grievances accumulated against the government.

Police have waited until the early hours of each morning to attack, just as police in the US did when dealing with Occupy protesters. They set fire to the tents in which protesters were sleeping and showered them with pepper spray and teargas. A student had to undergo surgery after injuries to his genitals.

The occupiers adapted and started to wear homemade gas masks. More importantly, they called for solidarity. In response to yesterday's assault, thousands of protesters turned up, including opposition politicians. But this morning's attack allowed no defence or escape. The park, and the area around it, is still closed, and still under clouds of gas.

In April, a Justice and Development party (AKP) leader warned that the liberals who had supported them in the last decade would no longer do so. This was as good a sign as any that the repression would increase, as the neoliberal Islamist party forced through its modernisation agenda.

The AKP represents a peculiar type of conservative populism. Its bedrock, enriched immensely in the last decade, is the conservative Muslim bourgeoisie that first emerged as a result of Turgut Özal's economic policies in the 1980s. But, while denying it is a religious party, it has used the politics of piety to gain a popular base and to strengthen the urban rightwing.

In the meantime, the AKP has gradually consolidated its support within the state apparatus and media, and no longer needs its liberal backers. The Turkish military leadership has been compelled to accept the Islamists, having suffered a significant loss of power relative to other branches of the state such as the police and judiciary. While the erosion of the military's power should be a gain for democracy, journalists have also ended up in jail on charges of plotting coup d'etats.

Of course, there is a history of coup plotting. And the government charged 86 people with plotting to bring down the government in 2008, as part of its investigation into the Turkish "deep state". But it has been able to use this fear to conflate all opposition with anti-democratic instigation, and crush it ruthlessly. 

It has also demonstrated confidence in the way it has attempted to deal with the Kurdish question, and in its regional strategy. The government embarked on significant new negotiations with the Kurdish Workers party (PKK) in 2009, partly because it wants to forge a lucrative relationship with the Kurdish regional government in Iraq.

Under the AKP, Turkey has been increasing its relative autonomy from traditional supporters in the White House and Tel Aviv, forging close relations with Iran, Hezbollah and even – until recently – President Assad of Syria. This has been interpreted, hysterically, as "neo-Ottomanism". It is simply an assertion of Turkey's new power.

Thus strengthened, the government is on the offensive. It has never needed the left or the labour movement, which it has repressed. It no longer needs the liberals, as its attacks on women's reproductive rights, and its imposition of alcohol-free zones, show.

This is the context in which a struggle over a small park in a congested city centre has become an emergency for the regime, and the basis for a potential Turkish spring.

Article Reflection 2: Condemn the Crime not the Person

Writer of this passage tries to create awareness about difference between shame and guilt. The writer of the essay Condemn the Crime, Not the Person June Tangney stated in her essay, feelings of guilt which involve a focus on a specific behavior- the sense that I did a bad thing. There is a big difference between guilt and shame. Tangney says that feelings of guilt involve a sense of tension, remorse, and regret over the bad thing done.

 The main idea of the essay “Condemn the Crime, Not the Person” by Jane Tangney is about finding another way to punish someone rather than putting them in jail for life. Tangney argues that putting offenders in jail makes them feel shameful about themselves, and that they are a bad person and therefore you can’t do anything to change. Humiliation is associated with disapproval. Shame makes an already bad situation worse. It leads to defensive actions, not corrective behaviors, whereas guilt makes you feel bad, but it makes you want to change your behavior. Shame does not motivate you to be better; you are no less likely to stop your wrongful behaviors, or no more likely to make amends. Tangney believes that community service sentences that are tailored to the nature of the crime are much more effective than any other punishment. For instance, drunk drivers can be sentenced to help clear sites of road accidents and to assist with campaigns to reduce drunken driving. However, some critics have rejected the idea of community services as an alternative to imprisonment. The critics suggest that offenders that are sentenced to community service will not benefit them, and it cheapens and lowers the value of what is seen as an honorable volunteer activity.

“How can we foster negative constructive feelings of guilt among America’s offenders? Well, one way is to force offenders to focus on the negative consequence of their behavior, particularly on the painful negative consequences for others.” . I agree with this quote very strongly. Let’s say, for example somebody went into a jewelry store and stole a necklace.   They know fully well that what they are doing is wrong, but I don’t believe that they are aware of the negative consequences it can have on others. 

Media Entry 1: Cupcake

I want you to share a little repcipe of my favourite cupcake: Chocolate cupcake. It is easy to make and delicious thing. Try at home with your mothers and sisters. Recipe is here: This lovely Chocolate 

Cupcake is all about having your own little cake that you do not have to share. It has a mild chocolate flavor and moist texture that is topped with a rich and creamy chocolate butter frosting. The frosting can be either piped into lovely swirls or, for the kids, all you need is a quick swipe of frosting with a liberal dusting of colored sprinkles.

 Cupcakes may come in many flavors, but chocolate is still a real favorite. The Chocolate Cupcake gets its lovely favor from Dutch-processed cocoa powder that has been dissolved in hot water to bring out its full flavor. Dutch processed cocoa powder or Alkalized Unsweetened Cocoa Powder is cocoa that has been treated with an alkali to neutralize its acids. Because it is neutral and does not react with baking soda, it must be used in recipes calling for baking powder, unless there are other acidic ingredients in sufficient quantities used. Droste and Valrhona are two of my two favorites brands.

The chocolate butter frosting recipe is adapted from the cookbookChocolate Barby Matt Lewis and Alison Nelson who run a chocolate boutique that they call a "candy store for grown-ups" in New York. It is the type of chocolate frosting my mother always used to cover cakes. Made with butter, confectioners (icing or powdered) sugar, vanilla extract and unsweetened chocolate, it is perfect for piping. It uses unsweetened chocolate which is also known as baking, plain or bitter chocolate. This is chocolate in its rawest form. Chocolate liquor that has been refined and contains 50-55% cocoa butter. Since no sugar has been added to the chocolate it has a strong, bitter taste that is used in cooking and baking but is never eaten out of hand. When used in this frosting it imparts a deep chocolate flavor. Ghirardelli and Baker's unsweetened chocolate can be found on the baking isle of most grocery stores, or other brands I particularly like that can be found in specialty food stores or else on line are Dagoba, Guittard, or Scharffen Berger.

Reflection Journal 2: How to Make Cupcake

Five months ago one of my best friend took me to somewhere as a surprise. While we were walking I kept asking where we were going but he didn’t answer back. When our little trip to our surprise destination ended I found a little cupcake store in front of me named as Very Cupcake. It was very lovely and nice smelly place in Ankara, near the Kuğulu Park. Anyway, I am writing about cupcake now because it has been my favorite dessert since we went there.

I want to introduce you this little, delicious miracle: CUPCAKE! A cupcake is a small cake designed to serve one person, which may be baked in a small thin paper or aluminum cup. As with larger cakes, frosting and other cake decorations, such as sprinkles, are common on cupcakes. This cake also called fairy cake in England and patty cake in Australia.

Let’s look at history of this little thing. Do not underestimate; even little things have history as well. The first mention of the cupcake can be traced as far back as 1796, when a recipe notation of "a cake to be baked in small cups" was written in American Cookery by Amelia Simmons. The earliest documentation of the term cupcake was in “Seventy-five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats” in 1828 in Eliza Leslie's Receipts cookbook.

In the early 19th century, there were two different uses for the name cup cake or cupcake. In previous centuries, before muffin tins were widely available, the cakes were often baked in individual pottery cups, ramekins, or moulds and took their name from the cups they were baked in. This is the use of the name that has remained, and the name of "cupcake" is now given to any small cake that is about the size of a teacup. The name "fairy cake" is a fanciful description of its size, which wo

uld be appropriate for a party of diminutive fairies to share. While English fairy cakes vary in size more than American cupcakes, they are traditionally smaller and are rarely topped with elaborate icing.

The other kind of "cup cake" referred to a cake whose ingredients were measured by volume, using a standard-sized cup, instead of being weighed. Recipes whose ingredients were measured using a standard-sized cup could also be baked in cups; however, they were more commonly baked in tins as layers or loaves. In later years, when the use of volume measurements was firmly established in home kitchens, these recipes became known as 1234 cakes or quarter cakes, so called because they are made up of four ingredients: one cup of butter, two cups of sugar, three cups of flour, and four eggs They are plain yellow cakes, somewhat less rich and less expensive than pound cake, due to using about half as much butter and eggs compared to pound cake. The names of these two major classes of cakes were intended to signal the method to the baker; "cup cake" uses a volume measurement, and "pound cake" uses a weight measurement

Article Reflection 1: At Home with Mamma"

First of all I want to explain you why I chose this topic to write reflection. What I find interesting is despite the common belief in Turkey not every young adult in USA doesn't leave their parent's house. This process in USA goes similar to how it goes in Turkey according to the passage I read.

I somehow agree with the idea of staying with parents may be beneficial economically but it is beneficial just economically not psychologically or in some other aspects of life. The passage says that quite a few individuals staying with their parents are happy and doing this voluntarily. They are staying with their parent because they need extra money or they get divorced. When life gets hard the only thing seeming right and convenient is going to your mummy’s warm arms sometimes. However, according to my opinion it is not the right choice. The ones having hard times in their lives have to learn to deal with the troubles they have.

We always think that the things about leaving someone his or her parents’ home is different from the things in Turkey. However, the passage shows us the opposite. According to this passage most of the single people are living with their parents surprisingly. As I mentioned before there are more hazardous effects of staying with parents than positive effects.

 First of all, situation which forces you to staying with your parents affects your psychological condition. In addition to this hardship, add your parents’ behaviours limiting your freedom and demanding to live according to their thoughts.  I assume that this condition may lead someone more deeper psychological problem more than the hardship you came across before moving out your parents’ home.

Secondly, I want to mention further effects of living with parents on someone. In my opinion this situation makes cause to lose someone his or her self-confidence because this situation shows that you can’t make it on your own. Also if we think about it deep down it may even lead to depression.