Translation - Life is too short for the wrong job

Sum: forty tales form the afterlives - David Eagleman (60-110)

     Sum once again ceases to amaze me in its creativity. I guess I should say that Eagleman never ceases to amaze me with his creativity. I will summarize the last story I remember reading. Eagleman starts by saying there is no after life so this story isnt about the afterlife but what actually happens on earth. See earth is part of a computing system, controlled by astronomical beings. Humans being the nodes that pass the information from one to another. But our subconscious controls the process not our conscious mind. A twitch from the left eye as you converse with your interlocutor means nothing to your conscious but means information to your subconscious. That twitch causes your subconscious to make your left leg bounce which passes on information to the passerby, and so on and so forth. The flaw in the system was the conscious which gave birth to free will, emotion, and reproduction of nodes.

     I love this book. So much creativity all wrapped up into a short samples that always leave you craving for that next piece.

Sum: forty tales form the afterlives - David Eagleman (1-60)

     Sum is one of those books that you pick up every now and then but you can't put it down when you do. Sum  is a compilation of 40 short stories that highlight the main theme of death. This style of writing about a theme (compilation of short stories surrounding a general theme) is my favorite style of writing. I like things that are short, to the point. and make you think like quotes or poems even. For this reason it was hard for me to put down the book the first night because at the end of each short story I wanted more of it.

     Its hard to summarize a bunch of short stories. So i guess what i can do is simply state that all the stories revolve around some form of afterlife. Some put the deceased in a waiting room waiting for their name on earth to be last spoken so that their "time" on earth is both physically and mentally dead. Once this is achieved the dead can go to a heaven of sorts. Another idea stated that you would have to relive every experience except in a row with out a break.. So you showered for a grand total of 2 months 18 days on earth, so now in purgatory you must shower for a consecutive 2 months 18 days, sit a stop light for 7 days straight, think about what you could be doing better with your time for 9 days. Read a book for a year straight and so on and so forth. Another a fantastic journey of bravery and courage through the heavens, down the yellow brick road, just to find at the end that God isn't real hes just a projected face controlled by an old man. .

...

I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day. - E.B. White

Action LIst 3.May.2011

     Osama bin Laden dead after nearly 10 years of searching. These headlines, despite the fact that 5 had to be killed in order for me to see the headline, gave me a great inner sensation of relief knowing that the man who has caused me to only see my dad 5 of the last 10 years is gone. It truly was a remarkable thing looking upon how it all played out. This would be my first real major historical conflict that I witnessed start, develop and finish. And the fact that this particular historical event hit so close to home made it all the more surreal. This article did contain some information that was new to me. According to NY Times 70 men and 4 helicopters descended on the compound, not 25 men and 2 helicopters as I was previously aware. As well as the reference to the pakistani cia workers. 

Tiger? Lion? Liger?

Senior Interview

     Looking at all the senior's interviews, I have related the most with the architects vision. I also wish to become an architect as an adult and feel as if him and I share a lot of the intangible, "senioritis", feelings towards high school and how badly both of us wish to just get out of all the drama and start worrying about what is actually important in life. I had some issues with the neonatal nurse's interview. She seemed to just not know what she was getting into and sorta just gave out an answer for the interview. Confidence seemed to lack with her interview.


     Where do I see myself in 10 years? Well being 27 i will hope to have a job as an architect by that point. Something that is really important to me is family so I hope to at least be married at this point maybe with a kid or two. I also just hope that everything that I have in my 10 year plan right now works out. With ball state as my college of choice and the 5 year architecture program being my catalyst to a great career as a prospering architect. Weather I work in a corporate firm or my own firm.

.........

working on sunday is a drag.......

Action List: 3.15.2011 #2

 

Harold and the purple crayon has always been one of my favorites due to Harold's distinct creativity

Frankenstein - Mary Shelley (78-102)

     This section of the book his littered with the monsters thoughts. The first time we see the monsters inner self is at the beginning of chapter 9. The monster is at a lack of common sense in the beginning. We come to him in the woods and he is baffled by the moon. He is awe inspired really. Not to mention the fire that he came across while strolling in the woods. He noticed that the fire needed wood in order to keep a lit and he found this very interesting.. He burned his hand upon trying to grasp the hot charcoal. Pretty much, Frankenstein highlights just about every Romantic trait of the day. Celebration of the Ordinary, beauty of nature, the primitive, and the exotic all summed up into this one character. The creature came to a village where everyone but one family ran in fear. The family invited the creature to live at their farm. The creature slept in this lean-to like structure that leaned up against the house. Here is where the monster tries to understand and learn the customs of the humans, which he so desperately wishes to be.

     Shelley's representation of the monster Frankenstein is one of intelligence and wittiness,   

Frankenstein - Mary Shelley (16-77)

     Victor Frankenstein begins to spill his life into the lap of Walton. He starts with his times in Geneva, the hometown of his family. His adopted sister, Elizabeth, was adopted with the intention of a set up wife for Victor. Frankenstein comes across his friend Henry Clerval and decides to go to school with him. This is where Victor Frankenstein learns the knowledge necessary to artificially create life. After a couple years of study and a few years of complete loneliness from the loss of his mother. He wished he could some day bring his mother back from the grave. He test with a body he acquires. The body came to life and Victor was horridly discgusted by it and was not happy with the outcome of his creature at all. He, in a torrent, stormed out of the lab. He came back hours later to find the creature missing. He was terrified and spent the night in the security of the court yard. A week later, Victor learns of a death that he feels guilty about because he thinks it could of been the monster.

     I like this Frankenstein much better than the Hollywood Frankenstein.

Wisdom at a Glance

Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish.
Albert Einstein

Read more:http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/albert_einstein.html#ixzz1GpMHi1Lg

Frankenstein - Mary Shelley (1-16)

     Frankenstein starts with a series of letters written by Robert Walton, the captain of a north pole bound vessel, to his sister back in england documenting the the dangerous expedition. Walton's vessel is stopped do to a sea of ice ahead of him. His ship is like a stranded island among all this ice. Walton is stuck for a few days and on one of those days a dog sledder comes up to the ship. The driver horribly weak, Walton takes care of him. The drivers name, Victor Frankenstein. Walton was lonely on his vessel and longed for a companion so he gladly nursed and helped Frankenstein return to health. Walton and Frankenstein become pals and Walton decided he would like to document Victor Frankenstein's life, and so the story goes.

     Shelley is an interesting writer and uses good use of her vocabulary skills to highlight the scene and paint a picture of the plot. Although I am curious to see how Shelley introduces the image of Frankenstein.

Oh when you find that tall striped man

Sorry, my spy instincts took over.

Timeline- Micheal Crichton (274-298)

      This part of the book is the kick start to all the "epic" traits of the story. Many, close-call, situations and romantic hints here and there. This section of Timeline specifically takes the reader through the process of how Chris comes to find himself standing in front of Lady Claire. Lady Claire, as her name implies, is of noble blood and carries her head high as she uses her beauty to manipulate all the noble men in Castleguard. Chris is a character that Crichton uses for comic relief, Chris is always separated from Kate and Marek and is always finding ways to goof up.  In these pages Chris manages to trip-up and get away from Kate and Marek While in Castleguard. Chris finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time, three of the castles "security guards" jump Chris and take him to the keep under claims that Chris is a spy because of his foreign tongue. At the keep the King thoroughly examines Chris and was close to calling him a spy himself when Lady Claire walks in and says release him at once. Lady Claire did this just because she could. Lady Claire claims hes a  man of the North and the king releases him and Chris and Lady Claire talk for a bit. Lady Claire after deciding Chris a good man but not worth her time chucks Chris to the way side. Chris, now feeling good about himself, meets back up with Marek and Kate in Castle Guard.

    

Timeline- Michael Crichton (221-273)

     Marek, Kate, and Chris now stood alone in a foreign land. In fact a foreign universe. There one and only goal now was to find Professor Johnson and get out of there. Come to find out they carried these clay tiles that spawned a jumping portal. And it allowed them to communicate with the people back at ITC. ITC told the crew that they would have to wait 39 hours before the jumping room would be reconstructed because of the grenade the marine dropped earlier. So they figured they better start looking for the professor and so they did. Marek, Kate, and Chris came across a knight tourney. Marek, being the sexy stud role, knew many of the customs required to compete in the tourney so he made it his goal to try and get into one of the jousting tournaments. He strutted around the tents that housed the true knights and by some miracle he was accepted and suited by one of the tents. He made his way to the jousting arena. He got on a horse and was handed a joust. He stared down his opponent. They sprinted full bore at one another. Marek struck the man broad in the chest and to the ground. The opponent got up in a fury and challenged Marek to a sword fight. Marek agreed and jumped off his horse and made his way towards his opponent. They fought feriously for many minutes. Marek eventually knocked his opponent to the ground. When Marek did this the helment of his foe tipped back revealing his face. It was the face of Castleguards prince. He acted out as if he was to slice the throat of his opponent but then proceeded to lift the prince to his feet. Marek had made a hero of himself. For the next couple hours in the book Crichton takes us through Castleguard and its many features.

      Crichton is an exciting writer. Writing of many action scenes which i enjoy dearly.

Timeline- Michael Crichton (181-220)

      These next pages are probably some of the most exciting pages in the book. Crichton really knows how to gain your attention. Marek, Kate, and Chris finally get to "jump" back 600 years ago. Although they were pretty excited to find their professor, the crew was not happy to find that they were required to jump with too of the ITC employees: Gomez and Baretto. Gomez, a techy female required for the destination planning along the trip. Baretto, a retired marine hired by ITC as security for the treks. When the five made their jump they arrived in the woods, half way in between the french castle, La Roque and the English castle, castlegaurd. Being inbetween them they found they were in a hostile territory. Knights from La Roque were riding along the trail that the jumpers jumped near. Chris ran to the forest, as Kate and Marek followed. Gomez, jumping at the wrong time, arrived right next to a La Roque knight and the knight decapitated Gomez. She fell to the ground with a thump. Baretto jumped in just to see Gomez' head severed. Baretto was punctured with 3 arrows just like that. He pulled a grenade out of his vest, pulled the pin and then accidentally jumped back to ITC, grenade still live. ITC jump room was destroyed by the grenade. Chris, Marek, and Kate made it out of the forest.

       Crichton starts the adventure like this. I was captivated the first time I read this.

Timeline- Michael Crichton (150-180)

      Since the main premise of this book is based off the idea of parallel universes, Crichton takes his time to elaborate on how he proposes his idea of a parallel universe. Now I could sit here and boringly plot how Crichton goes about explaining this, or I could just explain Crichton's view. Crichton proposes his parallel universes not as space between spaces but space beyond spaces. Now, Crichton does explain how spaces between spaces could exist through the vacuum photon test. But he doesn't use this thought to explain the existence of his parallel world, he uses this thought to explain how the "jumpers" reach the parallel world. Now to accredit his own making of a parallel world, Crichton uses the idea of space beyond space. Now everyone knows the accepted view of how the universe was created was by some miraculous big bang. The big bang theory supports the idea that the universe is forever growing, starting with a bang at the center expanding out to the edge of the universe at light speed. Now in order to understand the space beyond space theory you have to accept the idea of anti matter. Which anti matter is just basically nothing. A void between other universes that were started by a big bang themselves. So if you took a piece of paper and drew random circles on that  paper and marked the area within the circles as universes all starting with a bang at the epicenter and marked the area with in the circles as anti matter and imagine that piece of paper never ending you have the proposed space beyond spaces parallel universe theory. Now if you have a never ending paper than then you have thousands upon millions upon trillions of universes. Earth just residing in one of those universes. With millions upon millions of universes, which we can't see do to the speed of light, it is not hard for one to say that there is "copies" of earths somewhere out there with another Colten and Mr. Hill in the a 4th period etymology class somewhere out there. Henceforth you have the proposed parallel universe Crichton proposes, he uses the idea of space between spaces as a mode of transportation to arrive in the other universes.

Big idea, little space to expand on thoughts.

Timeline- Micheal Crichton (103-149)

      For about the next 15 pages Crichton continues his boring character foundation. But this all changes when Kate comes across something in the dig that frightens her. Kate had just found a new church that had been buried. She went down in and found a piece of parchment papers and a surprisingly modern lens from modern glasses. On the piece of parchment paper was, written in professor Johnson's handwriting, the word HELP dated 1361. Now, how could this be they thought. So obviously there original thought is that Johnson had left this as a joke. They used carbon-14 half-lives to date the ink and came to found out that it was exactly in the range that the professor had wrote it. They called back to ITC for the next 3 days and every time they received the answer, sorry Professor Johnson is not available right now. By the 4th day they had already packed and left for ITC. When they arrived they were immediately escorted to Donniger. Donniger sent them to there scientist. The scientist began. Imagine not just studying history but living it. They continued, now because time just IS, it is constant and matter always changes and it is impossible to "time" travel we could not have possibly sent him back to France right? Wrong?.... Test have been completed. Scientist can now prove the existence of parallel universes. How! your asking. In a room where absolute zero was achieved, scientist shot one photon across the room onto a bullseye. Now in absolute zero is should hit the same spot every time. Well in countless test the photon has bounced off some invisible matter and hit randomly every time. This invisible matter is the light photons of parallel universes we as humans cannot see..... and blah blah blah. Long story short, because this is a book, they can time travel, well, universe jump. 

This concludes this section. This is the build up to such an exciting spot that I shall reserve for next blog. 

Timeline- Micheal Crichton (42-102)

     With Prof. Johnson gone, the rest of the crew (main charachters are Chris, Kate, Marek, and David) got back to work. Just for the record, this is my least favorite section of the book. Like if we had to rate this in excitement using dragons, it would be like a mere 5 dragons. Crichton just uses this as character foundation time, describing all the main characters at the dig. He goes into Chris's lust mind. Stating how Chris would always chase the sporty Kate at the horse barns and would always ask to ride with her. Kate didn't appreciate it that much and always opted out to go mountain climbing (her favorite activity). Marek is the sexy stud of the bunch. He study's intensley in the dead languages of the dark ages and practices the "martial arts" of the time extensively. Basically you could imagine Russel Crow in the movie Gladiator, or Mel Gibson in the movie the Patriot. Both, if I do say so myself, looked pretty dang good in those movies and they both played the hardened warrior but their characters themselves were very witty and intelligent. And david is the geek. Thats about it.

Timeline- Michael Crichton (1-41)

Having read this book already I must state that the start to this book is rather confusing. It starts with some add in named Dan Baker and his wife Liz Baker streaming down a highway in the middle of the Arizona dessert. They hit a pot hole and stop to see if any damage was done. They got a flat tire. In a search for cell phone signal, Dan Baker comes across a delirious old, white bearded, man with a white lab coat on. Now, where the Baker's received there flat was 50 miles from the nearest anything. All they found on the man was a small clay triangle in his pocket. The old man couldn't speak. The bakers changed their wheel and took the old man with them. After an hour or so the Bakers took the old man to the hospital. The old man died 24 hrs later from internal bleeding. No doctor could explain this phenomenon. The old man was identified randomly by a big corporate company called ITC led by a cranky old man named Bob Donniger. The old man was swiftly cremated and wiped from existence by his only known colleagues at ITC. After all this, Crichton takes the reader half way around the world to a archeological dig site in France. They were digging and restoring the remains of two adjacent castles. Kramer, Donnigers right hand woman was on a business survey of the dig. See, ITC, a technology company, was funding an archeological dig. As crazy as this seems it will all make sense in a bit. Kramer lands and talks to the guys and specifically urges professor johnson, the leading archeologist, to come back to ITC for a "look around". This is the start of a journey.

      I absolutely love this book. And just a heads up, when I don't have a new book to read. I will be re reading this in the overlap time. 

A Long Way Gone- Ishmael Beah (pg 200-218)

The climax to this story is great, leaving the reader with an interesting note. After Ishmael finishes his "recovery", he finally is allowed the chance to leave for America. He receives his passport and leaves for the airport. When he finally lands in JFK airport he is relieved he has made it. When he landed he was required to go through customs and when the officer had him raise his hands for a pat down, Ishmael's pants fell to the ground. After a few giggles from on lookers, Ishmael picked up his pants and was on his way to a brand new life. Ishmael ends his story with himself and his new high school friends surrounding a camp fire. They all tell stories about certain things. Yet Ishmael just sits and remains quiet.

       What a fantastic book! I would recommend this to all. This book really highlights the raw savageness that humans create, yet underlines the importance of one's own personal world in many ways. Any person could pick this book and come from it with a better understanding of how they should conduct themselves as a human.

A Long Way Gone- Ishmael Beah (pg 153-200)

     After the UN peace keepers arrived, Ishmael and his close friend Alhaji left the government base for the newly established war refugee camp. Upon arrival the boys, along with 7 other government fighters, came in contact with a group of rebel boys. The two groups looked at each other and knew that they were about to fight.  One knife pulled led to all the knives pulled. After about 15 min. of fighting Ishmael pulled out a grenade, pulled the pin and threw into the middle of the group of boys. 4 were left dead for the rebels and only 2 for the government boys. All were wounded. After this incidence the two rival groups were separated and set apart through the use of two separate camps. The boys were living through withdrawal symptoms. And do to this, the boys attacked everything they saw. In the first couple months at their new home the boys attacked people on their way to get water and attacked their nurses, teachers and handlers. Amazingly these people would stand up and say "its not your fault". These UN workers were overwhelmingly passionate towards the boys, never showing their frustration. After a couple months Ishmael found his withdrawal symptoms subsiding and is now on his way to achieving conformity.

     This part of the book showed me that savage children could exist.

A Long Way Gone- Ishmael Beah (pg 121-153)

     Correction to my last post. Ishmael did not reside with the rebels but the government army, which was arguably the worser of the two opponents in terms of savage acts.

     The first month or so was a breeze for the boys. Ishmael even stated that he didn't mind the situation he was in. He had food and shelter daily. He woke up early and did his chores, which included gathering water, wood, and hauling farmers crops in from the fields. After a month or so in this oasis of a place, everything changed. The boys started noticing that the soldiers were coming back frequently for ammo, covered in blood. The boys heard gunshots at night. After a week the Luteniant called all the fighting capable men and boys to the town square. They were ordered that in order to stay in the town they had to fight. Obviously the boys figured that they would just guard the town limits and run security. Oh were they wrong! These boys turned to full pledged soldiers over night. For the week following the town square meeting the boys trained in the training yard, preparing for war. The boys wore there new crapes (tennis shoes) and uniforms while they held there shiny new Ak-47's. Ishmael notes the youngness of the platoon, stating that two of the boys were shorter than their Ak's were long. A week from the start of training the boys were informed that they were to ship out for an ambush the next day. Ishmael did not sleep that night. The boys geared up and learned how to pack their backpacks by watching the older soldiers. The older soldiers gave the boys "little white pills", Ishmael never tells us what they are but he says that they gave him tremendous amounts of energy. Probably ecstasy or something of that sort. They walked through the forest for a couple hours until the Commander order them all to stop and set up positions along a creek. They waited for the order, they all started firing at once. Well all but Ishmael, he sat in shock. He looked to his left, his friends was covered in blood, dead. He looked to his right and saw his friend get up for just a split second. In that split second a RPG exploded underneath him. Ishmael witnessed his friends corpse fly threw the air only to land on a nearby stump. Ishmael got up and walked to his friend. He couldn't believe what he was witnessing. After the fighting had resided they headed back to the village. That night Ishmael tried, for the first time, marijuana. The next night cocaine, and the night after that "brown-brown" a mix between cocaine and gun powder. This became his addiction through the next two years of fighting with the Army unit.

      Ismael skips right ahead to the moment he found the UN standing in front of him. My guess would be that he doesn't remember that much of what happened in those two years, or that he remembers too much. This story gets more compelling by the page. Cannot wait to see how this one plays out.

A Long Way Gone- Ishmael Beah (pg 100-121)

      After Saidu's death, the six boys traveled through the night in order to make it to the village. This village,  they had been told, was home to the families of the six boys and they were all really excited to get there. Upon arrival in the outskirts of town, the boys ran into an old friend of Ishmael's named Gasemu. Gasemu was harvesting bananas at the time and asked the boys for help. Ishmael and Gasemu had and instant reconnection moment with a nod and a pat on the back. Gasemu reassured Ishmael's desires by telling him that Ishmael's family was, in fact, residing in the village they were taking the bananas back too. They had a long walk still yet ahead. Ishmael with his newly learned knowledge was eager to get back to the village and urged his friends to hurry quickly along. With one more daunting hill to face, the boys raced up the hill. When they got to the top, turmoil.

     Gasemu and the boys peered down the large hill only to look upon utter chaos. Gunshots, screaming, and the ignition of gasoline soaked huts littered the audio of the air. I must admit, at this part I almost cried. Imagine reading 100 pages of chaos, wanting to see the reunification of this guys family only to be 500 meters away and then boom the chance is gone, forever. After the fighting had resided and the rebels had left, the group left the hill and went down into the village. The verisimilitude (like that word usage?) of Ishmael's writing in this upcoming section is absolutely gut wrenching. Ishmael walks down into a "hell on earth" image. The village was completely on fire and he watched a mother and son run out of there hut on fire, screaming. The too ran around hitting practically anything that was in there linear path only to fall to the ground in the fetal position and die before Ismael, or anyone else, could do anything. Ismael was horrified by this scene. Gasemu waved Ismael over to where he was standing, what he came to see was absolutely horrifying. A line of freshly bleeding villagers. Lined up one after the other, all were executed. There were maybe 20 or so people and it seemed every one Gasemu flipped over, some body new. Gasemu eventually pointed Ismael to the hut of his family. Ismael looked once and fell to his knees and covered his head in absolute panic mode. What Ismael saw was a hut burning to the ground, doors locked. Ishmael in a rush of adrenaline broke into the house and found no bodies. He, in and outrage of anger, started punching and kicking the hut to the ground, he felt nothing for his nerves had burnt off his appendages. He raced out of the hut, frothing at the mouth, and jumped on Gasemu and tried to choke him to death. Gasemu threw Ishmael off of him and Ishmael came back with a pestle, which he picked up on his way down, and threw it at Gasemu's face breaking his nose. According to Ishmael it was Gasemu's fault that he didn't get to see his family. All this fighting soon ended when they heard voices at the edge of the village. The rebels had returned, 10 of them to be precise. The pack of boys hid in the cassava fields so close that they could hear the conversation of the rebels. The rebels celebrated the fact that they had let no villagers escape. There command to execute all was accomplished in its entirety. After a couple hours the boys tried to move, this set of the rebels. They all got up and ran for the forest, bullets flew behind them. Ishmael claims he ran for hours into the night, until the moon was shining and the bullets were glowing red as they flew past him. 

     By day break the boys had found refuge. They heard screams, it was Gasemu behind a hut, he was rolling on the ground in pain. To bullets had penetrated him, one in his right leg and the other in his side. By night fall Gasemu had passed and the remaining six boys kept walking. Ishmael doesn't remember how but somewhere along the walking two young rebels ambushed the boys and held them at gun point and made them walk back to the village Yele, the head quarters of the rebel operations. There they were safe ironically. This was probably Ishmael best living he had had up till that point. He did chores till noon and the rest of the day he relaxed. 

     This was the end of my reading. Ishmael safely residing in the home of the people who put him through so much turmoil. The people who killed his family and murdered his friend. I still find my self in shock every time i   pick up this book to read it. The things Ishmael describes and depicts I can not even begin to imagine, let alone comprehend. Absolutely captivating is this book, every word makes me cherish my life as it is. 

The Ministry of Silly Walks

Sorry to be late sir, my walk has become rather silly lately.

A Long Way Gone- Ishmael Beah

Completely captivating is this book. Great read!

A Long Way Gone- Ishmael Beah (pg 69-100)

     In continuance to the previous post. The benevolent man who took care of the 7 boys accidentally lets out the rumor of him taking care of the boys. The neighboring village in an outrage confronts the boys at the fishing hut. They tied them up and and stripped them naked and placed them, once again, in front of a chief and council. Once again Ishmael saved his own and his friends skin because the chief saw the Run DMC tape. I never thought that a cassette tape could save someones life literally, this one did twice. The chief did order Ishmael to dance to the cassette tape, naked in the sand, to prove his ownership. What a pervert, I thought. The chief had the boys cut free, they were given back their clothes and set on their way. Also, maybe a sorry of sorts, the chief gave the boys a gallon of water and some smoked meat to take on their journey.

      The boys started walking again. For whatever reason, maybe their 2 weeks in the hut, the boys became closer and shared stories with one another. One story told was the Mende (a tribe in the Sierra Leone) version of why the spider was so skinny at the waist. The jokes all ended when one morning the boys awoke to find their meat stolen. Stolen by something. A dog in fact that the boys found feasting behind the hut. Alhaji chased off the dog but found no eatable meat. The boys continued somberly due to their imposing hunger. As they walked they saw a crow fall from the sky. The boys were split on whether or not to eat it, some thought it to be a curse others to be a blessing from God. In the end they all ate the bird. This though would come to be the end of one of the boys. As they walked through the night Saidu, only thirteen years old, dropped to the dirt as he fainted. He awoke hours later coughing. The next village they came too was very populous. They bedded in the veranda of a sleeping families home. When the awoke the owner of the house helped the boys out, they tried to wake Saidu but found he was stone dead. The held a funeral service and the remaining boys headed for the next village sobbing. The next village supposedly contained many families from Mattru Jong.

      Saidu's death came shockingly too me. I found myself puzzled. How could a 13 year old die just like that. This was the world Ishmael lived in. Something completely foreign to a pampered 16 year old American boy. I couldn't imagin living in this world.

A Long Way Gone- Ishmael Beah (pg 18-68)

     This bulk of Beah's A Long Way Gone goes through most of the struggles Ishmael faces before his time as a boy soldier. After reading chapter 2 (which is a page and a half) I had to put down my book and stop and think. Many questions came to me after reading this short section of the book. How lucky am I? Really! how lucky am I? The last sentence Ishmael leaves us, which post scripts a  brutal, vivid dream he has back in the states where he carries his own dead body to the grave, is "These days I live in three worlds: my dreams, and the experiences of my new my life, which trigger memories from the past.". After reading this I had to sit back and just wonder what this guy must have gone through and what is he leaving out of this short 226 page book. Well, the next bulk of the book gave me a short description of what he did go through, before becoming a boy soldier.

     Chapter 3 was, in many ways, the event that changed it all. In this section of the book Ishmael and his brother along with 4 other friends escape Mattru Jong after the rebels attacked the village unexpectingly. They ran through the village, through a swamp until they had to cross the last section of land before the forest. Whilst crossing this last patch of land, the boys were shot at with automatic weapons. This was just the first time that Ismael should have died, yet he and his friends made it to the forest without a scratch. After this the boys walked in a single file line through the forest, on a foot wide trail, for several days. They slept in abandoned villages and ate what they could find. In one instance they were so hungry that they jumped a 5 year old kid just for his two cobs of corn. People, at this time felt bad for the young boys, and the mother of the 5 year old even came and gave the boys all a cob of their own despite the thievery they committed. The next incident came when the 6 boys were running through a field. They themselves were jumped by two hiding  rebels. They were marched into a village and lined up with a dozen or more people who also had been captured. After the rebels toyed with their prisoners they finally selected the people they wanted which excluded Ishmael and 2 of the boys. His brother was selected and they were forced to stare each other in the eyes as they both new the destiny of Ishmael and the others not selected. They would be murdered as they were deemed useless by the hands of two 20 year old rebels. Had a fire fight not broke out in the neighboring village, which allowed the boys and the other dozen or so people to scatter in to the surrounding forest, Ishmael and the others would have in fact been murdered. The two rebels turned to shoot at Ishmael as he ran. I guess they weren't good shots, that or Ishmael was one lucky kid because this was the second time he had been shot at and he made it to the forest unscaved.

     This theme, Ishmael running with automatic rifles firing at his back, reoccurs many times in the next couple chapters. Until his lucky 3 months of safety. Ishmael and the six others found themselves in an oasis of sort at Kamator. While the boys were on the trail into Kamator they were jumped by three men with their hunting rifles who swore to protect the village in this time of war. You may wonder why they were jumped, this was because of the "boy soldier" who had become the hell hounds of the RUF, the rebel force. The RUF would drug groups of young boys, groups of about 6-20, the sole purpose of these dispatched boys was to loot the villages. As you could imagine, people don't like to be killed by 12 year olds and then have all their stuff taken. These groups of boys were literally drugged nuts, in one instance two different groups came across each other in the middle of a town and proceeded to shoot and kill one another. The wining group of these boys sat and ate their lunch atop the bleeding bodies of the defeated group. So when these 6 boys just decided to waltz right in to this village, it didn't go well. The boys were stripped naked, cuffed, and placed in front of the chief who would of killed them had it not been for another young boy of the village and a Run DMC cassette tape. Ishmael carried his favorite dance music in his front pocket and when his pants were searched the chief found the tape and was puzzled by it. A young boy from the surrounding crowd stepped forward to state that he knew the boys. He apparently attended school in the adjacent Mattru Jong. The boys were then released, re-clothed, fed, and given farmhand duty for the next three months. This was just one more of Ishmael's lucky incidents.

     Kamator couldn't escape the RUF's plan forever. The RUF came in one day, just like that, the boys had all been separated amidst the town when the first shots were fired. They ran to the forest as always. Only Kaloko and Ishmael made it to the forest together, Ishmael never saw any of them again, not even his brother. Kaloko hide in the forest for three weeks with an adopted family until one day Ishmael decided to go out on his own.

     "I walked for two days straight without sleeping. I stopped only at streams to drink water. I felt as if somebody was after me. Often, my shadow would scare me and cause me to run for miles" This is how Beah starts the 8th chapter. This is the first thing he stated after noting he was leaving Kaloko. I paused after reading this, I questioned what the heck he was thinking. Anyways it was all for the better. Ishmael came across another group of six boys after walking for a couple weeks alone. Like it was meant to be, he knew 3 or 4 of the boys. He came to be part of their group. They walked for weeks doing the abandoned village thing. Until they found themselves walking on the beach with the Atlantic Ocean to their west. They walked for a while and saw a cluster of huts. They raced each other towards them to find it was abandoned, they thought. A good number of men with machetes, fishing spears, and nets sprung from behind the huts. They grouped them up again. They questioned them all and for unknown reasons believed their plea as not being rebels. Instead of killing them they just took their crapes (tennis shoes) and chased them out of their village. Now note that these boys were on sand, without shoes or socks, with the hot African sun beating over head.  They walked all day until sunset and half of the next day until coming across a solitary fishing hut. The seven of them ran into it. They cried themselves to sleep as the bottom of their feet looked as Beah describes, like someone took a blade and cut the flesh from heel to toe. They awoke to find a young adult man standing in his fishing hut. I thought, NO, Ishmael has to escape somehow obviously! But to my surprise their is at least one good man in Sierra Leone. In fact this was an extremely benevolent man. He tended to them and took care of each one's feet for the next 2 weeks.

     This is where I stopped reading. This book has put me in a state of reflexion. Reflexion of myself, and our country. How lucky I am and how lucky we all  our to have a civilized, rather courtly nation. I couldn't imagine being separated from my lavish home and family running around the Indiana as an orphan having to watch my back at every turn because everybody thinks i'm going to kill them and steal their possessions. Heck, i hate being separated from my vehicle or phone for a week.

    

A Long Way Gone- Ishmael Beah (pg 1-17)

     The first chapter of this book has captured my attention. It starts with two young sons of a man who has divorced their birth mother and is now with a horrid step mother. The two young boys, for living in the Sierra Leone, are well set off; listening to american music and have possession of a large amount of western clothing. The younger son, Ismael Beah (the author), narrates a journey that the boys take through the Sierra Leone. The two boys, Ismael the younger, and Jounior the eldest, set off on a journey destination of Mattru Jong but stopping in their grandmothers village Kabati on the way. They depart and reach Kabati to rest and visit with their grandmother and then head out to Mattru Jong, doing all this in one day. Once arriving and spending the night at a friends house in Mattru Jong, the two boys hear news that the rebel uprising had reached their home village, Mogbwemo, on the previous day. The boys immediately decide to head back to Mogbbwemo to try and find their father and birth mother(who also lived their). On their way back they stopped back in Kabati only to find chaos. This is the part of the story that captured my attention.

     Upon arrival at Kabati, the two young boys find utter chaos. Witnesses to a world unknown in the western world. People fleeing into the jungle in every direction yelling "God save me!" and "Run they will be in Kabati next!". The boys ignored all this determined to reach their home town of Magbwemo. This thought changed when the boys were haunted when reaching their grandmothers house. No grandmother to be seen the boys sat and did not know what to do. As they sat they watched a VW van come flying over the hill into the town. They fled into their grandmother's hut. The person in the van was not a rebel but in fact the opposite. The injured man fell out of the driver side riddled with bullet holes but not dead, he vommited blood like a flood in the streets. Everyone fled except a young woman who comforted the wounded man and the two young brothers. The wounded man gestured to the sliding van door. The woman comforting him opened the door and the wounded mans wife dropped to the floor, hitting with a thump. Two others lay dead in the back seats. The van was filled with a family trying to escape Magbwemo. The rebels shot through the van hundreds of times as the fled the village. This was one of two scenes that haunted the young boys. The next was another woman who walked through Kabati with her baby strapped to her back, dead. The baby in a sense acted as a sort of body armor while she fled the scene at Magbwemo. She stopped in front of the two boys and took the baby and placed it in front of them, the baby was already starting to bloat. The young boys stood in awe of what they just saw. 

     This first chapter definitely opened my eyes to the world we live in today. The fact that these, western influenced, young boys all of a sudden had their lives flipped upside down makes me think what could happen to America if we were to rebel against our theoretical "dictoral" government. Also i liked that Ismael captures your attention and uses the nature around the villages to portray and make parallels with what was happening to him and his brother during his journey. I really enjoyed this about his writing style because he sets the setting while using the setting to parallel his journey. 

The Ministry of Silly Walks

Yes, I shall have you practice an Anglo-French City Walk!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b558kjihQQg