Last blog

Before this class I was not much of a reader and I actually took this class to get myself to read more. Before I would probably read only one or two books a year. At the beginning of the semester I found it really easy to get the reading quota in and I enjoyed all of the reading. I found many books that interested me and I could not put them down. The month though was difficult for me to find time to read and get all of the blogs in on time. Golf reason rolled around and I lost all of my focus on that and and trying to get stuff done for other classes. During the summer I intend to keep reading and find more books that intrest me.

A Long Way Gone, reading log

This section opens with Ishmael once again fighting a dream. This time, it isn’t something his mind imagines, but an actual memory mixed up with his imagination. He is pushing a wheelbarrow with a dead body in it, and there are other bodies bleeding and dying all around him. He doesn’t know why he is taking this particular body to the cemetery, but he pushes on, oblivious to the cries of the dying. The body is wrapped in a white bed sheet and after Ishmael pulls it to the ground, he begins to unwrap it, noting that there are bullets all the way from his feet to his neck. He lifts the cloth and sees his own face. When he forces himself awake, he realizes he is in New York City where he is starting his new life. However, he can’t keep his waking mind from drifting back to Sierra Leone where he remembers carrying an AK-47 and walking with a squad of many boys and a few adults. They were on their way to attack a small town that had ammunition and food. They engage an enemy squad in a firefight and kill them all. This squad had consisted of young boys like them, but they didn’t care. They gave each other high fives and took the ammunition from the bodies. Then, they sat down on the bodies and ate their food while fresh blood leaked out all around them.

A Long Way Gone, pg 1-50

Ishmael and his family and friends have very little connection to the war that is taking place in their homeland until refugees begin passing through. The first time that he actually begins to experience the war. He and some of his friends go to participate in a talent show. They all rap together. On the morning they left for Mattru Jong, they loaded their backpacks with their cassettes and lyrics they are working on as well as several layers of clothes on their bodies for the days they would be gone. Unfortunatly they heard the rebels had attacked Ishmael’s village of Mogbwemo.

The book is pretty interesting and from hearing from my friends I know that this book will only get better. I am interested to see how he is affected by the war.

It's Kind of a Funny Story, pgs 1-30

So far this story is about a teenager named Craig who does not seem satisfied with his life and is confused. He is always depressed but he really is not sure why he feels that way. Craig feels guilt for spend putting his family through what he feels and having them pay for a psychiatrist. Most of the beginning of the book is Craig talking to his doctor. We find out that Craig is a little odd, for example he finds comfort in peeing. It is relaxing for him and is a time to think. Craig talks with his psychiatrist about what he wanted to be when he grew up back when he was a younger, when he was happy. He wanted to be a mapmaker. He found comfort in creating his own cities. Once he got to the age nine though he started to find comfort in video games. Even enjoyed watching other people play video games.

The book is okay so far and I have not read enough  to know if I will like it. It is a really easy read and I will soon find out if it is worth reading the rest of the book. Craig is a very interesting person and seems like he is very lost. He wants to succeed but has many things in his life that are holding him back. Hopefully he is able to figure out whats wrong with him and can become a more happier person.

Anthology Poems

Theme: Weather
1. "April Rain Song" by Langston Hughes
2. "Storm Ending" by Jean Toomer
3. "Veil" by Todd Davis
4. "April Snow" by Matthew Zapruder
5. "The Rain" by Robert Creeley
6. "Wind on the Hill" by A. A. Milne

Video: "The Rain"

Osama is dead!

I have read the entire article over the death of Osama bin laden and I found it to be very interesting. First of all I think that it is crazy that he was able to avoid capture for so many years and now it is finally over. I am not sure how much this will interrupt the operations of al queda considering they probably will be able to continue without Osama. One thing for sure is that it will boost the confidence of he united states against the war on terror. I also believe the troops will rally with he this successful mission and be even more determined to change the middle east. Some things hat I found interesting in the article were that Osama was able to hide so close to other people and that he was living with so many other people. He had many children in he complex and most of his family. Also it is odd that the neighbors never were suspicious about who was living in such a house with such attention to security. I am positive that several people I'm Pakistan knew that Osama was hiding in that house but they were too scares for their lives to tell anyone. I am relives that he is dead. It would have been extremely interesting if we were able to capture him alive and what we would have done to him. We will soon find out if they are going to release pictures that were taken during the raid and I would be very curious to see them because I would be interested in the specifics of the operation. I am glad that the worry is over about this terrible man but the war is not over yet.

hole in my life, pgs 170-200 (end of the book)

Finally finished the end of the book! Jack is about to go to the parole board where he will find out how long he will have to stay in prison. He spends days working on his facial expressions so he could win sympathy support from the board. Unfortunately he failed to make a good first impression with the board considering the seriousness of Jack's crime. A few weeks later Jack received a letter telling him that he has a 2 year sentence. He was heartbroken. In prison Jack become more intense with writing. The main reason was because there were no distractions to take him away from writing such as going to the bar. Jack was desperate to get out of prison and he thought of a great way that would allow him to get out early. He decided that he would apply for college and hopefully that would convince the parole board that he was ready to leave the prison. Jack applied to a small college in New York and he was accepted. Soon after the parole board decided that he would be allowed to leave with special conditions. When Jack was leaving the prison he lost one of his most important writings of his life. The book in which he wrote all of his thoughts and journals was apart of the prison library and he was not allowed to keep it. Jack needed to have a place to live and a job. With the help from his father Jack found a women to stay with in little Italy where he would have to rent. Jack also got a holiday job of selling and delivering Christmas trees to people. Eventually he started college and got a job as a security guard for the college. As Jack's writings began to develop, he found that his childhood was full of things to write about he wrote some children's books. Now in the real world Jack is enjoying what he has always wanted to do. Writing.

I loved reading this story mostly because it is a true story. It is great to know what this man had to go through in his life but still came out to be a successful human being. He stuck to what he wanted to do eventually in life and it turned out well for him. To me it seems that he would not have been a such a great writer if it was not for him going to prison. I say this because prison allowed him to actually realize that he had stuff to write about and it was good. This story is fairly short but shows that people make mistakes and can turn out to be good.