Finally

When I started this class I almost never read anything other than texts or small articles here and there. I've always been a slow reader so my inspiration for reading gets drowned out by things that I'm more productive and quick at. I was extremely independent and I always have been and probably always will be. I would much rather work alone than with another person, no offense to the other person, but its just who I am. Like I said before I really wouldn't read much if at all and when I did it was small things such as texts and articles. Most of the time when I see words I just turn away from whatever it is and find something I can do without reading. I will never read on my own, its just how I work. I can't say I enjoy reading, not one bit and I doubt that will change anytime soon. The only reason I would ever read on my own would be because my mother wanted me to or I was so bored I was ready to gouge my eyes out with a rusty nail. Reading is not my forte and I'll leave it at that.

Response

Over the course of the semester I have read several books that I really enjoy. I've read "Voices from Chernobyl", "Tom Clany's Rainbow Six", and "Dragon Rider". Each of these books appealed to me in its own way. Now I've never been much for reading but these books really seemed to keep me interested. I've always struggled to find a book that can hold my attention for more than three sentences and these books did so I was truly impressed. "Voices from Chernobyl" gave insight into the pain and agony that the people of Chernobyl had to suffer through. It provided the most tragic stories I've ever heard or read about. It created the feeling of hopelessness and despair as you read it, making it harder to read but also making it interesting. "Rainbow Six" is the complete opposite of the Chernobyl. It gives you the real action filled scenarios and all the live word action that readers want. It gives you the feel as if you are there helping John Clark in his attempts to save the world over and over again. "Dragon Rider", one of my favorite books, although old and somewhat for younger kids, I enjoy it. Its an amazing book that takes you as a reader into a vast and nearly endless world of imagination. As you read of flying over the seas you feel the cool wind blow through your hair and when you enter the Himalayas you can feel the cold winter air nip your skin. As you read of riding on dragons you can feel the smooth scales beneath your butt and legs. When you read of the extreme battles between many mythical creatures such as Sand Nymphs, elves, and giant golden dragons you feel as though you are there, fighting along side the boy and his dragon companions. That is why I enjoy those books.

Response

So today I picked up the book "Flags of our Fathers" and started to read it after the vocab test. It starts with the son of one of the six men who raised the flag that day during the battle on Iwo Jima. He tells of his life growing up unknowing of the heroic deeds in which his father had done. As he tells of his childhood he describes how his father never wanted to speak of that day during the war. His father would always quickly change the subject if someone tried to bring it up. There were never-ending reporters trying to barge down their door to hear the story of the father. Man years later after the boys father had passed he gathered his brother, his mother, and his sister and the made a journey to Iwo Jima. The island now again controlled by Japan and somewhat by the U.S. the family must gain special access to venture to the island. A well renowned general of the U.S. Marine Corp. personally flew them to the island in his plane and when they landed they were greeted by the Japanese prime minister, a red carpet, and a wall of Japanese soldiers to the right and Marines to the left. They ventured around the island seeing the once decimated place of war in which their father and husband had risked his life to win. His son found the very spot in which the flag had been raised and then he began to realize how tragic it all really was. The son tells of how they searched for their fathers will in his house but instead of finding the will they found three large boxes full of their fathers past in the military. They learned that their beloved father and husband was a decorated hero of war. He saved a young boys life by pulling him out of the line of fire after being shot. He was the first of all the troops to arrive at the top of the volcano and claim it as theirs. The son always wondered what had happened to the five other soldiers that helped his father raise the flag. He finally found the answers when he opened the boxes. Three of the soldiers went on to die in the very same battle. The other two went on to die in a battle later in the war. His father was the only survivor of the men who raised the flag. As he ventured across the island he looked across the rough terrain and picked up what he thought to be a rock but after a closer look he realized it to be shrapnel from the battles on Iwo Jima. His father had taken some of the very same shrapnel to the grave with him. The son walked through a bunker where a Japanese soldier sprayed bullets at incoming American soldiers only to be burned alive by a lone marine with a flamethrower. The gun was still mounted to the wall and the barrel was melted down the wall. 

Currently

Books: Dragon Rider
Total Pages: 163

Sentences of the week:

1.) "Through the vast nothingness of the tall dark tower of the golden one."

2.) "Me!? A fool!? I think not!"

3.) "Nevertheless we ventured through the forgotten land of the sand pygmies only to find ourselves surrounded by endless hills of sand."

I like these sentences because they use pretty good description and because I say the quote from #2 all the time. The book Dragon Rider is full of great descriptions of the magical places they travel and the great battles they endure.

Close-Reading Bingo

Weakness #4. The writer refers to "the readers" thus making it a weakness #4.
1.) The description of the building and the escalators creates a mood of apprehension for the readers. 
 Weakness #9. The writer uses this w/o a noun before or after it.
2.) This is basically the idea that time cannot be changed, it is as set-in-stone as a mountain range is. To the Tralfamadorians, time is one big line, made up of various moments.
 Weakness #2. The writer uses an extraordinarily long quote.
3.) "They were the free standing kind: a pair of integral signs swooping upward between the two floors they served without struts or piers to bear any intermediate weight" and  he tells us that "On sunny days like this one, a temporary, steeper escalator of daylight, formed by intersections of the lobby's towering volumes of marble and glass, met the real escalators just above their middle point, spreading into a needly area of shine where it fell against their brushed-steel side-pannels, and adding long glossy highlights to each of the black rubber handrails"
 Weakness #3. The description is somewhat vague.
4.) His connotation diction is picturesque and suggestive of the lobby's highlighs and what he views as he walks through the building. 

Currently

Book: Dragon Rider
Pages: 163


Style Mapping Stuff:
The speaker describes the houses of Wall with casual, blunt language such as "square" and "old."
Finally, the diction of the first page in John Steinbeck's The Winter of Our Discontent is in the fourth quadrant. The characters speak in colloquial language, using words such as "silly," "darling chicken-flower," and "wop." 
This is also the same with the connotation because it is higher than journalistic, yet less than lyrical, making it almost invisible to the reader.
For example, "there is one road from Wall, a winding track rising sharply  up from the forest, where it is lined with rocks and small stones," conveys precise description that can easily be pictured.
This diction can be seen in phrases such as, “The house of Wall are square and old, built of grey stone, with dark slate roofs and high chimney.” 

These sentences were some of the best I looked at, thus I have placed them upon my post. 

Quarterly

Over the past quarter I have read three entire books. In all honesty that's more than I've read in the past ten years of my life. Reading in it self is a challenge but I have found that usually the sci-fi or fiction are harder to read. So far the most pleasurable reading would have to be Voices of Chernobyl which although depressing, it is a very good read. I typically find myself reading during the early evening and late afternoon and I usually am either in study session for football or out on my porch chillin with my pooch. A challenge or goal I would set for myself would be to read more often and have a wider variety of books.

Currently for the Quarter

Books: Voices of Chernobyl, Dragon Rider
Pages: 157

Sentences of the Quarter:
1.) "You only live once," "If we're going to die, let's do it to music."
2.) "The world has been split in two: there's us, the Chernobylites, and then there's you, the others."
3.) "The enemy is invisible, and he's everywhere. This is evil in a new guise."
These sentences have warry emotions to them which is why I like them. They seem to speak of sorrow and joy although sorrow more abundant. The people that speak these words are torn and crushed by the disaster and the book as a whole really get to a person. Voices of Chernobyl...saddening past.

Another story of a world unknown

Through my continuous reading of Voices of Chernobyl I have come across another heart breaking story. A story of loss and despair comes forth through the voice of a young women and her mother. They are torn. their lives have been shattered. The daughter i pregnant...with a ball of radiation. She cries constantly at the thought of how everyone was left unaware of the true disaster that was occuring. Her baby. She mourns for her baby and cries at the thought of what she might look like. Her mother cries at the loss of her husband and the pain he went through. She knows that her fate is soon to be the same and she doesn't care. They live in the woods on the outskirts of the Zone but still within the radiation. The aren't allowed to leave. The soldiers keep them in. They have tried to sneak out multiple times but the guards have set up boarders all around the area. Those who make it out are already dead.

Voices of the Past

Another week has gone as I continue to read Voices of Chernobyl, and it only seems to get more and more depressing. Each day I read about another persons' experience through the Chernobyl accident. Each one more saddening. One that really stood out to me was a monologue of a group of hunters who were forced back into the Zone (Chernobyl) to kill all of the household pets and any livestock that was left alive. These hunters questioned why they were the ones that had to do it and the government simply told them it was because they had been there once before and they weren't going to send irradiated people into the Zone. The hunters told separate smaller stories of experiences in the Zone. One of the stories a hunter continued to come back to was when he had to walk into an abandoned home to find a mother dog nursing her young. He ended up shooting all of them. One of the dogs which he stated to be a black poodle managed to survive. They threw all the dead animals into a dumpster and burred them all in a giant hole. That black poodle attempted to climb out of the hole and not a single hunter had a bullet to end its pain. 30 hunters not 1 bullet. The dog got burred alive... 

Currently

Books: Voices of Chernobyl, Rainbow Six
Pages: 165


Sentences of the Week:

1.) "The enemy is invisible, and he's everywhere. This is evil in a new guise."
2.) "The world has been split in two: there's us, the Chernobylites, and then there's you, the others."
3.) "You only live once," "If we're going to die, let's do it to music."

All three of these sentences are from Voices of Chernobyl, and I like these sentences because in their own way each and everyone of them has a sad story behind them. These sentences along with the rest of the book are extremely heart-breaking to read and think about. All the pain and suffering of those innocent people that live in Chernobyl. Their whole lives stripped from them within moments.

Chernobylites

So I've been reading Voices from Chernobyl and let me just say its quite depressing. When I began reading the book I thought I was in the first chapter when in fact I was only in the prologue. As I read the prologue it was so saddening and depressing that I nearly dropped the book right then and there. The prologue was from one of the survivors of the Chernobyl accident and she talked of her husband and what happened that night and the 14 days after. It all started when her husband got called to the reactor thinking it was only just a fire. Her husband and several other fireman all went on the call. None of them took protective gear as they thought it would be just an ordinary fire. When they arrived at the reactor they had already started to soak up radiation. They were there for hours trying to put the fire out. 400 levels of radiation is lethal to a human being. Her husband came out of the reactor with 1600 rads. He came out a living reactor. All of the men who were at the reactor were taken to a hospital where they were kept from anyone and everyone to try and contain the large amount of radiation they had absorbed. The wives of all these men were going chaotic in worry as the military would not allow them to see their husbands. The men were taken to Moscow where they were contained in a hospital of their own. She went to Moscow to find her husband. When she finally found him after asking a guard who was shocked to see that she knew about the radiation patients she found that her husband's skin was all puffed up and he looked like a balloon. He warned her to keep her distance as did the nurses. The doctors would not allow her to stay with him for the night so she went and spent the day with his parents. She came back the next day and saw that his skin had shrunk back to somewhat normal. He looked as though we was a burn victim. The warden questioned her before she was allowed to see him. "Do you have any children?" She had to say yes, but she had to say she had more than one or they wouldn't let her see him. "Yes a boy and a girl," she replied. The warden allows her to visit her husband. The doctors say that when a patient has absorbed this many rads  they have a maximum of 14 days to live. She spends those days at his side as much as possible. She watches as her husband's skin slowly decays before her very eyes. His skin begins to soften to the point where she must cut her nails down until she bleeds so she doesn't cut him. His skin begins to tear and bleed from simple things such as the folds in the bed sheets. She holds his hand while he sleeps and when he releases his hand there is skin left on her hand that doesn't belong to her. Her husband goes through excruciating pain as he deteriorates more and more everyday. He screams her name every time she is not there. She lacks so much sleep that her legs turn blue and she can barely walk. When she finally thinks she has a break she goes to her room and lays down on the floor because its too painful to lay on the bed. After only moments a nurse comes in and beckons her to go to him as he calls her name vigorously. The other fireman that are family friends of  her and her husband are slowly dying as well and when the wives of those firemen ask her to attend the funeral she agrees. She comes back from the funeral and asks the nurse how hes doing and she replies "He died fifteen minutes ago." She bursts into tears and his last words were him calling her name. They bury him in a lead coffin and deeper in the ground than normal. She was pregnant all the entire time she was with him. While she visits his grave one afternoon she goes into labor. The baby arrives right there at his grave. Due to the large amount of radiation the baby absorbed it dies 2 hours later. She blames herself for killing the child. She was saved because the baby took all the radiation. Only after 6 years could she allow herself to remarry and have a healthy child. The child now attends school and gets good grades. She is happy but forever sad.

Claims of the day

1.) The Average Life of a Teenage bookworm: In this flash mob by Todrick Hall, the mischievous and adventurous expressions, jubilant sounds, and bustling moves, show the explosive creativity and confident energy of the dancers.
2.) Keep it Classy: In the "So Long, Farewell" musical number of the Sound of Music, the Von Trapp children's bright  facial expressions, poised choreography, and cooing, melodic music develops the sense of lighthearted pleasure and soothing amusement.
3.)

Gene Kelly's Good Morning

Setting: elegant, exquisite, beautiful, navy
Style: extraordinary, exciting, exuberant, explosive
Attire: Delicate, Succeeding, brisk, original
Emotion: friendly, excitement, frantic, hysterical

In Gene Kelly's "Good Morning" [an elegantly exquisite setting and excitingly exuberant style is] conveyed [through the delicate, and brisk attire and the frantic yet hysterical emotion of the actors.]

Currently

Rainbow Six: 154


Sentences of the week
1. "I know, he was pointing a gun at you and that's why he got himself killed."
This sentence came right after Sergent Chavez killed someone and he then had to suffer the anxiety of such an action. He had to continuously remind himself that he had no choice but to pull the trigger or lose his own life.

2. "Bear, this is Five," Stanley's voice came back to Malloy's surprise. "Lift off and orbit the local hospital that is the site of the incident."
This sentence was the leader into the event of Mrs. Clark (Johns wife) and Mrs. Chavez being held hostage. Everything became frantic when the soldiers heard that the wives of two of the best operatives had been taken hostage. All that could possibly be running through the soldiers heads is "All hell is about to break loose."

That Friday

I have taken the personality test and scored as a ESTJ which seemed accurate enough. Not sure as to what I was supposed to find out about myself from the test but hey now I know im a ESTJ right?

Currently

Rainbow Six: 117 pages
Rules for my Unborn Son: 73
Total Pages: 658

Sentences of the week: "Courage is not the lack of fear, it is acting in spite of it."
"Never be the last one in the pool."

These sentences are a few that I like because I have been told for years now to face your fears and drive yourself farther with the adrenaline and power you gain from the sensation of facing a challenge. Being last in the pool in my opinion is my job and mine alone...all who are out of the pool...you better get back in.

Back to the war...

I found Rainbow Six in my room the other night and started to read it again. I began to recall that John Clark had just dealt with the whole hijacking situation and thought him and his wife were off to vacation. As I read I learned that John's hopes of being off duty for a while were all but real. Not long after John and his wife were safely in London on vacation John was summoned to work once again. He was faced with a crisis occurring in the northern region of South Korea. Sadly his wife would have to worry of his safety once again and as always, wonder if he will return to her on his feet. Within the next day he was flown out of London to South Korea. On the plane he ran into his good friend and former partner Alistair. John found that Alistair had been assigned to the  same mission and they would once again be working together. When they arrived in Korea they were immediately debriefed on the situation between a small North Korean rebellion group and a conflicting South Korean village. The village was under almost nightly raids by the group of rebellions and they were now calling for assistance with the problem. The military requested a small task force to make the problem end quickly and quietly and thus John and Alistair were now in Korea. Alistair and John had just began their journey through Korea to find a place to counter the rebels when I was rudely interrupted by my mother and had to drop the book.

Currently

Rules of my Unborn Son: 159
Total Pages: 468

Sentences of the week: "Make a Rock and Roll Pilgrimage." - I so want to do this when I'm older
                                    "Always meet your date at the door." - shows good quality in a man which is hard to find these days.

Rules for my Unborn Son

I have thus found another rule that I believe should be followed by all men of quality. The rule is "Offer to carry a woman's bags. Especially your mother's." I have noticed that in this day and age men and women of all sorts have lowered their standards from what they used to be to compensate for the lack of quality seeping from both genders. Personally I believe that we should all return to the old days where all men and women have high standards and always show excellent quality.

Rules for my Unborn Son

I have continued to read the rules written on the pages of Rules for my Unborn Son and I have found another that I believe, for me at least, to be something I would like to pursue in the future. The rule just so happens to be "Live in New York." Conveniently I have been to New York the summer before last and will be going again this Christmas break to visit friends. The climate of New York is perfect for me I mean 4 feet of snow? Sounds pathetic to me.

Rules for my Unborn Son

Through the continued reading of Rules for my Unborn Son I have come across a quote that I may just begin to base my life of off. The quote is "Choose your corner, pick away at it carefully, intensely, and to the best of your ability, and that way you might change the world." - Charles Eames

When I read that quote I sat and read it over and over until I could figure out what Corner I had chosen. I believe this quote is exceptional in meaning and should be followed by all those who wish to achieve their life goals. Believe in yourself and all is possible.

Rules for my Unborn Son

Although I was very into Rainbow Six I forgot to bring my book one of the days this week and I ended up picking up Rules for my Unborn Son. A lot of the suggestion it gives as rules are quite interesting. For instance the rule "Stand up for the Little Guy" is something I can relate to in my own life. One of my good friends didn't exactly get the tall genes so I try to stick up for him when I can, although he really doesn't need any help with that.

Reading Update

Books read: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six
Pages read: 306, 156 pages last week

Sentence of the week: "These guys are'nt only amateurs, they are complete idiots."
I got a laugh out of this for some reason.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six

    The novel Rainbow Six written by Tom Clancy has so far been one of the best books I have read. The story starts off with John (the main character) on a plane with his wife calm as can be, and then instantly they throw you into a crisis where terrorists are hijacking the plane and searching for the President of Czechoslovakia who happens to have missed the flight while his wife made it on the plane. The description of the situation is so in depth it makes you feel as though you are seeing it through John's eyes. There is an old friend of John's on the plane with him with the name of Alistair, a British agent that has worked with John countless times, who is questioned several times. Both John and Alistair have guns in their bags but their bags are in the overhead shelf which is unreachable because of the two terrorists patrolling the isles. The first time Alistair is questioned about his identity he offers to get his passport which is in his bag but he gets denied. The second time the terrorist agrees and Alistair then has his gun in his lap. John and Alistair are constantly making eye contact and using signals to communicate. John then goes on to tell that the terrorists don't realize that the plane not only has him and Alistair aboard but also has several more agents and fully trained cops that have already warned the military and law enforcement.