the somalians are starting to figure out the Americans weakness. they have found that the Americans never leave a man behinde and that if the can shoot down a black hawk then all the soldiers will go to it and be like sitting ducks. they also know that if they can bring down a chopper then the Americans will be scared and think that it is hopeless. the somalians fight like they dont care if they live or die and the Americans fight to survive. the somalians are willing to die in large numbers just to kill one American. The Americans are a strong force because they work together like when one gets shot in both legs and the driver of the humvee is temporarily blinded they help each other get throught the streets. one is the eyes and one is the legs.

the soldiers have began to see battle and they realize that its not as glorious as they had hoped. the d-boys have been trained to think on there own and that the mission is what is the most important thing and the rangers are trained to work as a team and that surviving is the most important thing. the rangers look up to the d-boys much like a little boy would look up to his brother of father. the first casualty is a d-boy. when the d-boy died the rangers basically decided that they were screwed they lost all hope they thought that if a seasoned veteran who had seen combat before was the first to die then they had no chance of survival. 

the book is starting to get very interesting, the battle is heating up and many people are dying. the book is becoming very sad too, American soldiers have lost their lives and two Blackhwaks have gone down. we have found out many things about the soldiers like what they were before the war and what they want to do after it.

Black Hawk down

what to say i have read the book before but every time i read it gets better. the views on the book in my group are varied some think its more brutal than A Long Way Gone some dont, i think that it is a different view on the horrors of war and killing with out thinking about doing it. thats what our soldiers are trained to do i know first hand that veterans are different in some way from civies i feel that the reason that it is a different kind of brutal is that in LWG its a child doing the killing and there are some serious drugs involved, but in this book there are no drugs and its adults well sort of most of the soldiers that see battle these days are kids not juvinials but still boys. the book is good so far it is a little repetitive with the way the chapters start but over all i think that it is a good reminder of what our soldiers have to go through just so i can read a book, or write a blog let alone on a computer that i own.

Chapter 21

this was very heart breaking to read after being away from the war and being "normal" for so long the war finally got back to ishmeal. the soldiers started fighting in the city and it reminded me of the beginning of the book where it was all running and being afraid. the worst part was that ishmeal knew that if he didnt get out of the country that he would be killed or join the army again. and during all of this ishmeals uncle got very sick and died which was also very sad because it was just another person on the list of people that ishmeal had lost because of the war. so while all this was happening he decided he had to get out so he took a night bus out of the country and finally made it to new york once again.

Chapters 19-20

in these chapters beah was back to being a child. he experienced many things in the city. he and his uncle became very close as well as with his cousins. and then he went to new york which was a very new world to him. it was a great experience i chuckled to my self a few times while reading about how he was afraid of an elevator and how he tried to catch snow and how he thought it was weird that it got dark so early.

ch 16-17 lwg

in these chapters ishmeal was taken to rehab and out of the war by unicef. he hates it he gets into a fight on the first day and he and other boys kill rebels. he goes through withdraw he has a terrible time. he refuses to do what he is told and only wants to eat. he says that he longs for his gun and some drugs. he daydreams about his squad the drugs that they are taking and the war movies that they are watching. he dreams of fighting and being in war. and begins to become normal again. but not very much only a little.

THE OUTSIDERS

I think this would be a good book because i hate to read the same book twice and i read this book front to back like 6 times in a week. the book describes the lives of a gang of misfit teenagers that live in a bad neighborhood constantly having to deal with their rivals the socs. the two youngest boys end up killing a socs and then have to go into hiding. and then one two of them die. its tight read it.

THE POWER OF ONE

This book follows the life of a white boy living in South Africa during the 40's and follows his whole life. His ambition is to become the welter weight champion of the world. He goes through many trials and ends up loosing the person that means the most to him. you follow his life all the way through college and see his life progress as he follows his dream.

THE LORDS OF DISCIPLINE

this book is about a college student attending a military college. during his senior year you see his friendship with all of his best friends ripped apart. his group of friends finds out that there is a secret organization in the school. the organization was formed to scar away any students that they viewed as unsatisfactory to the school. the boys discover it and are trying to bring it down but realize that there is no way that they can do anything because the organization is nationwide because of alumni and they realize that no matter what they want to do the organization will interfere of stop them.

BLACK HAWK DOWN

this book is a biography written by one of the soldiers involved in operation Irene in Somalia. the book takes you through the whole conflict with a great amount of detail. the way that it is all described makes you feel like you are in the middle of all the action. this book is very sad though and is also very gory but not as bad as things fall apart.

for these chapters i felt that ishmeal changed more in these three years then he had in his whole time before. he killed he helped kill and he watched his friends be killed. he used many drugs and became very sick there isnt alot that i can say about this chapter because my mind is horrified and i cant really think about what i have read. but the way that i feel about this chapter is horrified that a human could do these things to another human especially a child to other children.

before the white men come to the african tribes to take them over the tribes people do not believe that white people actually exist and they would never have the nerve to go against their religion or there laws. they british people view the tribes people as not being people they do not think that they actually count as people. they look down on them but still manage to get a few of them to follow their ways and become a "part" of their society. the british people treat the african village people that do not convert to christianity as lesser people they beat them and mock them and look down on them. the british think that the africans are lesser and their culture andare fake and incorrect. belifs 

the way that okonowo shows that he doesn't care about people by beating his family, threatening them, and making fun of them. like his son he doesn't like or care about because he is "weak" so okonowo views him as looking like his father. okon0w0 also beats his wife when she went to get her hair done and forgot to prepare dinner for him. he didn't even ask where she was he just beat her senseless because his tummy was empty. in some ways he does show that he cares but in a way he was showing that he only cared about the strong. when his daughter was taken he followed but only because he thinks she would have made a good man because she is strong and smart.

my oppinion is that Okonowo is a bad guy but he has good intentions in what he is doing. but all that he wants to do is propmote himself and that is not right like when he beats his wifes to make him self feel strong or when he kills his "son" to make the men think that he is strong.

I feel that it was a fair punishment and a fair outcome. It was wrong of P.S. to cheat but he didn't cheat for a wrong reason he cheated so as not to disappoint his father not to ace the test or seem smart. He also realized that he made a mistake and wanted to correct that mistake but chose not to which i do feel was wrong. However he was reprimanded for his cheating by being turned in by his trusted "in class" friend Jumbo. The moral of the story is not that cheating is wrong even though it is that if sometimes you do the wrong thing for a good reason that you can be forgiven and things will all turnout to go the way they need to turn out. Like in this story P.S. was not afraid of getting a bad grade or even failing he was afraid that if he did one of these two things that he would disappoint his father. And in not wanting to disappoint his father i feel that he did something even more regrettable in the long run but the more regrettable thing is what fix his relationship with his father "not like he had a relationship with his father to begin with" but cheating is what formed a relationship with his father other than the prior "sir, son" relationship that they had. So the cheating was wrong, broke a family tradition, and formed a relationship that soled the problem.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 14, 2008
Friday Fill-Ins #85
Those of you with multiple blogs or private blogs...if you could add your link to the Fill-Ins, that would be GREAT!

Here we go:

1. The last meal I had at a restaurant was __chicken cesar sallad________.

2. _drama_________ is something I intensely dislike.

3. The full moon _is pretty_________.

4. _whats up freak_________ is one of my favorite local expressions.

5. Sometimes it's best to _just forget_________.

6. _across the universe_________ is the best movie I've seen so far this year!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to _partying____, tomorrow my plans include _nothing____ and Sunday, I want to sleep_____!
Posted by Janet at 8:52 PM

i am drew

whats up peoples write something and make me feel special.