I like to building things....

So, on Friday night, at this Chinese restaurant in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, I received a message. This was no typical message though, it came from a small piece of paper inside a small cookie. I believe in China they call these cookies, Fortune Cookies. Now, within in this fortune cookie, there was a message I was found to be very interesting. Let me tell you this first off, I am a Rat in the world of Chinese signs. Believe it or not, the sign of the zodiac has a very similar description to who I am. With this, sometimes I believe in the printed little messages; I am a little superstitious. The one I received in my fortune cookie told me I had a way with words and I should write a book. Should I really write a book, devoting all my time and effort to dive into a quest which will surely lead me to madness?

Next subject.

I must say I am nervous about applying to graduate school. I typically b.s. my way through life and this is something I will be unable to do that in. I am nervous about this because I don't have a clue what else I would do in life. My parents basement seems like a likely place for me to end up with at this point.

I hate American Idol, but it cracks me up sometimes. Kelly Kolmos would purchase this random American Idol contestant's album based off 20 seconds of performing.

I am listening to American Idol on the television

Blogging...

I will now start blogging, just for David Schwartz. I will do my best to post daily, writing freely, mainly about sports, and bashing people, nothing beats bashing people.

I will also tell what music I am listening to.

I am currently listening to nothing.

The Things They Carried...

I have read Tim O'Brien's novel before and liked it then. Reading it again helped me relive those memories I had of The Things They Carried. The novel shows the life of a soldier in a war that everyone thought would end quickly. O'Brien has such great imagery of what things were like through his own eyes and the eyes of his other characters. What is important to realize is that O'Brien was in Vietnam but most of the Novel is historical fiction.
Some of the stories of soldiers deaths are so vivid, its scary. The Vietnam war books have very different feels to them because one is strictly fictional while O'Brien's has more reality to it. I felt more scared and ill while reading Fallen Angels, but O'Brien seems to have hit a more real soldier life. I don't know what else to say, my mind hurts from all the reading and work I've done the last few days.
This book is a great piece of literature though, I would recommend it to anybody who can comprehend the work.

Fallen Angels....

This book was an educational read and a fun one for me. War novels are a great way to understand parts of history which may have flown under the radar the first time we learned them. Fallen Angels seemed to be real. I felt the imagery of the novel. When I say I felt it, I mean I was there with this one. I envisioned myself being a part of their unit in each area. It helps to have seen numerous Vietnam War movies to see how things were. Each time Perry talked about boarding the choppers, I felt his uneasiness. If you have ever seen the movie "Apocalypse Now," you would be able to see his fear of boarding and leaving helicopters. A VC would have no problem losing his life to the greater good of their cause, running up to a helicopter with an explosive was not uncommon. The amount of death made me realize how hard it must have been to stay focused and stay alive. Perry was hit 2 times while in 'Nam and that was in a very short time span as far as the timeline of the war.

I also had a great connection for Peewee and Perry's relationship. I know what it is like to not want to lose a close bond. It isn't unheard of to see this type of relationship because war seems to bring people together. I can only imagine having a friend of mine so close to death all the time. It would be hard to care about others in a war you can't seem to win.

The night stories are what made this Novel really stand out. If you go back and read any of the passages, read the ones where Perry has inner thoughts about what is going on while he is sitting on guard. He can't see anything and all he can see is shadow and darkness, it's very eerie. Fallen Angels gave me a greater respect for those who have risked their lives protecting others.

This would be a great book to co-teach a unit with a History teacher. To have a book like this coincide with a war unit would be great. It would help students grasp the reality of what soldiers may have went through. There seem to be so many great ways to teach Fallen Angels. I recommend this book to all young adults and even adult readers looking for a quick read.

The Holocaust...

I grew up going to school with a large Jewish population. Lots of my friends to this day are Jewish. So, in History class, whenever we discussed the holocaust, it was a very tense subject. I was too naive back when we studied that in High School to completely understand how horrible it was. All the things Jewish people had to endure through during World War II was awful; I can only imagine what it must have been like. Like the Factories in Europe, there were camps in the islands surrounding Japan during WWII. My grandfather passed away about 2 years ago and was a POW in Japanese camps for over 3 years. He described how torturous the conditions were while he was a prisoner and how other marines and troopers were dying all around him. While I was reading these two books, I thought of how similar these depictions are of my grandfather's experience. He never described the eerie smoke stacks and the haze they created because he never said if there were stacks where they incinerated humans. The vivid description throughout the book is sickening at times. What happened in that time was repulsive, Yolen and Wiesel bring it back to life with beautiful writing for such a horrid time. The Devil's Arithmetic and Night are great books which I would recommend to any high schooler willing to read about The Holocaust.

Code Talkers and Tonto...

I loved Code Talkers for the soul purpose of being able to teach a unit with a social studies class. The novel has so many great things you could teach, but nothing seems to have touched me as much as the history surrounded by the book. Bruchac wrote a powerful book with the history of the Navajo and how they were put through years of hateful discrimination. They overcame this negativity and were the missing puzzle piece to winning World war II. The book touched ground on things people may not have normally thought of while thinking of American Indians. Navajo's were put through so much, even though they were here before white people. I think this book not only could be used in a World War II aspect, but even a racial discrimination lesson.
In 463, we have discussions with small group and can have the option to be a travel tracer or even look up information about the author. I have never felt so strongly about applying those concepts in a classroom until I read this book because of the issues surrounding the novel. To be able to make a map of all the places Ned has been and the experiences he has had. The book would do wonders in either a English or History class.

I didn't like the Alexie book because of the tense changes and narrative style. It bothered me throughout the novel enough to where I could hardly finish the book. It was bothersome because the stories seemed to jump around. There was no rhythm. A couple of the stories within the novel were good, but others dragged on FOREVER. For the longest while I thought Victor was the main character, I guess he was for awhile. Didn't like the book. Nothing more about it to say.

Always Running...

I chose Question 2 because I feel the gang aspect was very intriguing to Luis. He started his first gang because he wanted acceptance and to have a certain belonging. While young, kids realize the easy way out of being introduced to gangs. You will have your members backing you up no matter what dumb thing you do. I also feel there is a certain manhood that children adopt when joining a gang. The gang aspect especially appeals to those who have little or no money because it is easy to steal with a gang. If everyone in the gang is stealing things, wouldn't that compel a kid to join because of all the "freebie" they can receive. Society, at the time, was very apprehensive to accept other races as one of their own. It was hard for people to conform to America's standards because of monetary reasons. White people were reluctant to trust other races, which seemed to drive away Latinos and Blacks. Luis stole what he couldn't buy. Gangs also were an easy access to drugs and alcohol. Luis talked about the many times he would just get stoned and drunk. A lot of these things, such as substance abuse, led to the gang fighting.
If you noticed, as Luis got older, he realized what his mistakes were in life. He didn't want to go with all his 'homies' to shoot up a rival gangs house or the biker gangs house. He wanted no part because his qualms weren't with those groups of people. He broke away because he knew in the end, all the trouble he caused was for nothing.