During the exercise with IChart I could not find any information that would have been of use to me from the Census so i decided to make up my own for practice. The chart I made compared the Black population to the Asian population from 1960-1990 in Washington D.C.. I learned that the Asian population was significantly lower than the black population and the black population increased from the 60’s to the 70’s, but then declined back to almost near the same population as the 60’s in the 90’s. I can imagine the initial increase in population might be as a result of the migration from the South to the North. This system was a little tricky for me, but after playing around I got the hang of it and imagine I might be able to use it again in the future. 

Personally, text-mining tools are not valuable to me unless I needed a huge document consolidated into an overview of phrases that are included in the document to provide me with general idea what it is about. While this is a unique and fun tool to use, especially to see if I were to use a particular word too much in a paper I still prefer to try and read everything in documents to avoid missing anything that could be of importance to me.

This week I have made some progress with the written part of my project, which is a little more than half way done and I anticipate finishing it in the next day or two. Also, I have found a few more primary sources, which includes a speech by President Warren G. Harding at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier discussing the very importance of remembering the unidentifiable service members. This will be a major key to my topic. The rest of the week and this weekend I plan on finishing the written portion and getting more work done in Omeka. The only challenging part thus far has been finding something than answers my research topic, which the primary source I noted above does just that for me. Also, navigating myself through Omeka was difficult at first, but after last class and having played around in it some more I feel much more comfortable.

http://bit.ly/1h8vRsV

While creating my map I found it rather easy once I became comfortable with navigating myself through Google Maps. At first I ran into a problem due to operator error because I forgot to put the – symbol before the Longitude coordinates, but once I corrected that problem everything seemed to fall in place. While creating my map it was difficult for me to come up with 4 data points on the first layer because my topic is fairly specific, which is The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier located at Arlington National Cemetery. The orgins of this go over to France which obviously does not fall under the D.C. geographic spectrum so I had to explore other points relating to Tomb of the Unknowns, which confined my data points to be located all within the same proximity of each other at Arlington National Cemetery. The only point outside Arlington National Cemetery that is directly related is the Capitol Building because Congress is who passed legislation to begin burying unidentified service members at Arlington. With that said, I don’t feel their was something that didn’t work, but rather learned my research will be confined to events that have gone on at Arlington National Cemetery in honoring the Tomb of the Unknown.

While creating my own historic narrative I did gain additional insights to my research topic that will be useful to me. For example, prior to creating my map I did not know the amphitheater was located right next to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and that it had a vault when it was built that has copies of the Declaration of Independence, the Bible, the Constitution, and other various items from the time it was built.

My name is Benjamin Walsh. I usually prefer Ben for short but it doesn’t really matter. I am a sophomore here at George Mason and am in “Pre-Business” status until I finish a couple pre-requisites before I can apply for the School of Management. I live in Falls Church but, I am originally from upstate New York (Binghamton), but to some in New York that could be “down state”. Before coming to George Mason I spent four years in the Marine Corps where I was stationed out of Jacksonville, NC. When I got out of the Marine Corps the Washington D.C. area seemed like an ideal location to try and go to school given the endless opportunities both professionally and recreationally. During my free time I really just like to relax and take break from homework but as I am knew to the area I also like going out and trying all the great restaurants this area as to offer or going to the movies.

Since I and I’m sure most people in this class fall into the “Millennial” era, I am fortunate enough to have had access to the Web since I was a child. When I was younger I would use the web for various things such as downloading music, movies, or just to surf different websites. Now, I use the web to aide in my research for school projects or papers, search “how to” videos on Youtube, or download music legally through iTunes. Also, I use the web to utilize social media sites such as Facebook or Instragram although I don’t use these sites as often as I use to. Now, I will log on every once in a while just to stay in touch with my friends from the Marine Corps or friends from back home in New York.

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