What should be said at graduation

If I were to give the commencement speech at my graduation this year, I would tell people that the most important things to remember, no matter where you go in life, is to find something or someone to care about, because that will make you a better person. And to live life the way you wish to. Whether that be living in the moment, drifting along to wherever the wind blows you or analyzing every scenario before you go through with something. Being able to care about someone other than yourself makes you able to have feelings that could not be felt any other way. Carpe Diem is one of the most overused latin phases but it makes a valid point. Living in the now allows you to experience life through different perspectives and makes you a more rounded individual, not afraid of new ideas.

Ind. Read Promt 1 (Last Lecture)

The main character in The Last Lecture is Randy Pausch. The whole book is circled around him finding out that he had developed pancreatic cancer and only ha so long to live. The book describes how he went about living his life once he knew death was just around the corner. What I have noticed most about him through what I have read so far is that he has really accepted the fact that he was going to die and he did not stay morbid over it. He attacked the life he had left and he wanted to leave his mark on the world that he was leaving behind. He also wanted to leave memories of him around so that his three children, all under the age of six, would know what their father was like. To me, I feel like this is a great inspirational story that is easy to read and true to the heart.

Atonement in Kite Runner

Atonement is amends or reparations for past wrong doings committed. I believe however that full atonement cannot happen unless you were to feel the same emotions as the person you affected before. That is something that is hard to achieve. Yet, by making mistakes we are able to learn and progress. No matter what you do, something has changed after that incident that will affect someone forever. You look at what happened with Hitler and after the Allied countries won the war, Germany had to pay reparations for the damages they caused. However, nothing can be done to bring those millions of people he killed back to life.

To me, I feel like Amir has many things to make up for. First off, I feel Amir needs to become more humble and less jealous of other people around him. Next, I it was completely wrong of him to read to Hassan but teaching him the wrong meaning of words was just flat out cruel. Then you have when Amir tries to frame Hassan for stealing money. Finally the most important is when he stood aside and allowed Assef to rape Hassan. To me, Amir was just a rich selfish brat that could not live up to his fathers expectations and could not find his niche in the world. I feel like he will never truly find atonement for his sins but it will, I feel become easier to live with, especially if Hassan were to forgive him.

Missing a goal

Ok, so just this past weekend I made a mistake during my soccer game. The score was 0-0 in about the 70th min. I got a pass in behind the defense which gave me a one on one with the goalie. I went far post with my shot but the goalie came up with the save. Then they were able to catch us off balance and go on a counter-attack which almost lead to a goal. The reason I chose this was because I have not scored a goal yet this season. However, I did make up for it because we scored a goal after I drew a corner kick and off the corner kick I volleyed the ball back into the middle where someone else on my team put it in.

The Last Lecture Book Preview

The author of The Last Lecture is Randy Pausch with the help of Jeffrey Zaslow. It is a story about an engineering professor from Carnegie Mellon who finds out that he has cancer and only so long to live. The book gives insight to is true beliefs and gives inspiration to people everyday. The last lecture he gave to his students was about living life to its fullest and making the most out of every moment you have. The book is broken down into six chapters each with interesting chapter titles. The story is a national bestseller and I am sure it will make me evaluate life and what I am making of it.

What's going on?

From the journal of Marc Tyler: The year 1969











It was the forth of July and I was heading back to the helicopter that was going to transport us back to base in Vietnam after a routine perimeter sweep, when all of a sudden, my party got ambushed by a pack of guerrilla fighters. They came at us from our right flank with the bank of a riverbed to the left of us. There was no place to take cover from the body piercing rounds being hailed down upon us. We got into formation and began to fire back at our assailants. Right away, we were down to three men of our five man convoy due to the surprise attack from the guerrilla fighters. Johnny was to my left and our team leader Scott was in front of me shouting orders to fall back. So I started moving down into the riverbed. As I turned around to make sure Johnny and Scott were doing the same, johnny dropped to his knees and it was over. I turned and looked at Scott, once again he yelled to me fall back. I was given the order and was not going to disobey him. When I got down the bank I here an explosion from above where Scott had been crouched and knew that I was the only soul left. I knew that down here I would be a sitting duck just waiting to be picked off from above. So I began high tailed it out of there. Bullets began to rain down all around me. Then I turned the corner and saw the helicopter. I was able to make it inside under the cover fire given by the soldiers in it. We were able to take to the air and get out of the jungle.

When Evil Prevails

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing."

I believe this quote in a lot of ways is true because if people stand by and let bad things go on around them, it is just as bad as the people who are performing the actions. I think it relates to Kiterunner through when the boy Assef discusses Hitler and his own philosophy for what Afghanistan should be like. The world allowed Hitler to parade around Europe and do what he wanted without anyone standing up to him. Well, Assef takes this and says how Afghanistan is the land of Pashtuns, and alludes to the fact that he feels the Hazaras should be abolished from the land.

Decisions

Many factors affect peoples decisions from day to day life to things that will happen far out into the future. Some of these factors include how you want to be viewed, whether or not you are willing to go against the crowd, or even making decisions based on your best interests. Decisions are constantly being made from the time we get up in the morning to the time we fall asleep every night. Should I eat breakfast, should I watch tv, should I do my homework, these decisions are made almost immediatly. But in some cases we have tougher decisions that might take you a lot more time to get a definitive answer. Should I go to the movies and have fun with my friends or stay home and spend some time with my parents whom I had not seen all week? Should I go to St. John's University of the University of Pitt? These sort of questions take more thought and you try to weigh the pros and cons to each. Some of these decisions will change your life and could take you in a totally different path then what you intended on taking. Nevertheless, these decisions make us who we are and allow us to be individuals.

Land of Afghans (Recipe)

1 piece of land about the size of Texas.
1 mountain range known as the Hindu Kush.
A dash of 33 and a half million people in the ratio 1.05/1 males to females.
6 cups of religion with the ratio of 80% Sunni Muslim and 20% Shia Muslim.
Add in a 3 decades of a recovering economy.
A spoon full of 23 billion in GDP.
40 liters of unemployment.
Sprinkle in 46 airports.
And add in some opium for flavor.
Let it soak in a crock pot overnight.

Spring Break

My spring break was fantastic. I honestly did not really do that much. I took in a lot of sleep, which was greatly needed. I played a lot of fifa on PS3, which I have not had time for in a while. I watched the entire Masters golf tournament, was a little disappointed how Tiger played but it can be expected for being out with a knee injury all last year and kind of jumping right back into the fire. Him and Phil put on a performance though in the forth round yesterday, which was great to see. Other than that, I helped my dad pick out a new car, an Acura RDX. It is a nice car, comfortable seats and a great ride. Easter was also very enjoyable, got to see relatives that I normally do not see very often, so it was good to catch up with them.

Valley-of-Waters-Under-the-Earth ch.17 promt #1

I absolutely love how throughout this whole book James Marshall gives you facts about the terrain and the animals that live there. I think it brings the book onto another level. He demonstrates this particularly when Mary and Peter reach the valley of waters under the earth. Here there was an abundance of life and prosperity. For example he discusses the Jesus Bird, " walking the water on their long, disproportionate toes (that use the fragile underwater lily leaves as stepping stones). Tidbits like that just make the reading that much more interesting.

Passivity Ch.7 promt #4

Throughout the story so far, Mary has been very reserved and just kind of going with whatever the bush boy and her brother do. However, you do catch a hint of jealousy from her toward the bush boy. This is due to Peter looking to him for comfort instead of his older sister. It even say on page 65, that, "Uncertain, unsure, she fell back on a woman's oldest line of action-- passivity. She'd simply wait and see." Right now, Mary is unsure about how much help the bush boy is giving them and whether or not he is leading them in the right direction. I find this a little odd, if I were in her shoes, I would be looking for all the help I could get, especially from someone who knows the land.

Death is upon us! ch. 14 prompt 7

Off of my earlier prediction that the aboriginal would die, it came to be true. But the method about it is a little suspect.  The bush boy had come down with a cold for the first time and he saw it as a sign of his death. Up to this point he had taught Mary and Pete many valuable lessons and helped them travel many miles toward their destination. But he saw it as his time to die and because of it he did. It was due to the cold, but do to the loss of willingness to live and push for. The irony of the situations was that the look Mary gave him was not her seeing the spirit of death in his eyes, but of dissaproval on not wearing any clothes, at least to cover of his private parts.

Common Ground Ch. 14 Prompt #14

In chapter 14, when the bush boy died, Mary finally saw him for what he was. "Before, she had seen only as through a glass darkly, but now she saw face to face. And in that moment of truth all her fears and inhibitions were sponged away, and she saw that the world which she had thought was split in two was one." (pg. 123). This symbolizes how even though they did not speak the same language, they were able to still communicate and understand each other. He made them able to live off the land and adapt to the new and unfamiliar environment.

The White Children's Society Ch. prompt #8

The deeper message I am getting from the book is that of the time period in which the story takes place and how different races are viewed. What I noticed was that they possessed a very southern ideology, particularly Mary. Mary was the older of the two so she has been around longer and knows more about how life is around their home during this time period. You could say that due to Pete's youth he was ignorant and naive to race. She though definitely looked down upon the aboriginal and saw him as an inferior. They mentioned that their home was in Charleston, which supports my claim. I think the book takes place sometime in the mid 1900's before the civil rights movement or during. It had to have been sometime around here because the first ever commercial plane flight occurred in 1945 and there plane went down in the middle of the Australian outback, long flight from Charleston. Also, at the end Mary was not as embarrassed about being naked in front of the Black Aboriginal as she would have been if the man were white.

The Spirit of Death Ch. 7 prompt #6

I am going to make a prediction that the Bush Boy is going to die soon and the two white children will have to fend for themselves. I make this assumption off of a line at the end of chapter seven, "For, to him, the girl's terror could have only one meaning: that she had seen in his eyes an image-- the image of the Spirits of Death." His tribe believes that when it is your time to die, it is your time to die. If the spirit of death wishes to take your soul, it will. 

Learning a new language Ch. 6 prompt #3

What stuck out most to me was how willing Peter was to interact with the aboriginal and learn from him. He was the one who made the first move. He was quick to learn and adapt to what the bush boy told him. And he also started to learn some key words from the aboriginals language to make communication a little smoother. "Larana" meant fire, "Arkooloola" was water, and food was "Yeemara". And most important, Peter, was the one who made sure they stayed with the bush boy which was key to their survival, cause without him they would have been dead within a few days.

What's a Walkabout anyway??? Ch. 6 Promt #18

The name Walkabout came from the bush boy's tribe. The Aboriginal that Mary and Peter came across helped them survive and be self reliant off the land. The reason that the young aboriginal was alone and not with his tribe was due to the Walkabout. In his tribe when a male gets to be fourteen, in order to become a man he must go off alone and survive by himself for six to eight months. He just happened to come across the two during his travels and noticed that they were different and not from the area. Seeing that they seemed helpless, he took it upon himself to insure they survive even though he is braking traditions of his culture by talking to them during his Walkabout. In a sense, that is what Mary and Peter were on. A journey where they must survive until rescued or until them make it back to civilization. If I had to change the name of the book, I might name it "Learning to Survive".  That is what they did with the help of the Aboriginal. They learned how to make a fire, find food, water, and identify clues in nature that helped them survive. 

Authors got Style Ch. 2 prompt #11

James Marshall I believe is a fantastic writer. He is able to right a story and make it seem like you are standing right next to the characters. He uses knowledge about the area to enhance his writing and allow you to understand everything that is going on quite easily. Marshall uses vivid language throughout to describe things that are important and meaningless to the progression of the story. But it makes the story seem more realistic, so that not every single line is focused on a character. One example of this would be, "As the light gained in intensity, the bush beyond the gully took on new colors; vivid colors: jade and emerald, white and green, crimson, scarlet and gold." I like how he used the words crimson and scarlet instead of an ordinary plain and simple red. To me, these small differences are what separates something ordinary and something that has over 500,000 copies in print. James Vance Marshall is actually a pseudonym for Donald Gordon Payne.

Elements of a WALKABOUT Ch. 1 Prompt #17

The story, the Walkabout, written by James Vance Marshall, takes place in the Australian outback. The main idea of the story is that there is a 13 year old female named Mary, and her 8 year old brother, Peter. Their plane went down in the middle of the australian outback and they are trying to survive in this unknown environment. They meet a native to the land but have trouble communicating with him due to difference in language. They are trying to make it to the city Adelaide where they have an uncle and back to civilization. But in order to do this, they must cross many miles in harsh terrain.

An Ancient World

The Incan Ruins high up in the mountains of Peru known as Machu Picchu is one of the worlds most historic sites. If you had the opportunity to visit a historic place of the world where would you go.

Che's Impact

Che Guevara had become somewhat of a different man as he grew up and came out of his journey across South America. His travels made him what he was in the end. I believe he started off young and naive, then as he trecked around South America he saw how different governments worked and operated. He also saw what different people were like and how they were treated by their government. His ideology was centered around a utopian society, where everyone is on an even playing field and nobody is better than anybody else. But when this could not come true he went to what he thought to be the next best thing. That was the communist regime of Fidel Castro. I believe Castro put a facade over what his ruling would be like and that is what Che saw. I believe that Che helped people out, gave them hope and opportunity, but when is comes down to it, he caused destruction to a lot of people. He was the one who carried out the deaths to thousands of people and saw it as his duty to perform this task. Because of these tasks I feel his legacy will be tarnished even though I do believe he started off on good intentions.

Chile in six words

Ribbon like country of Incan ancestry.

A stop in Chile

During Che's time in Chile, he was here during a presidential election. At the end of the section, Che discusses how the candidates come from different political fields. He feels that the front runner is Carlos Ibanez who is part of the socialist party. He favors the anti-United States view point. I think this is where Che first really discovers the differences in political systems and it is where he starts deciding for himself which he believes will work best. He sees how discrimination affects people, like how, "40,000 communists were being denied the right to vote" (p.88)

America in 6 words

Guardian of Democracy, the world's police.

Personal Idealogy

For me I value at the top of my list above all other things is Family. They are the most important thing to me. The love that comes out through close family ties is what get you through different situations. And being able to share experiences with them is what makes it memorable. Next, I feel like being a good person is my next most treasured value. I do feel like what goes around comes around, the idea of Karma, and if you try your hardest to put your best foot forward, you will be rewarded in some way, shape, or form. Thirdly, I feel like my principles on hard work and determination shine through. This is what makes or breaks your life I feel. You create your own luck. When you work hard good things happen. Always trying your best shows your character even when you do not particularly feel a passion towards something.

The U.S. in Pakistan

What is happening right now is the United States is working with Pakistani forces in order to rid there country and Afghanistan of Al Qaeda and Taliban forces. Special Forces soldiers are training a special group the paramilitary commando unit. They have captured or killed 60 insurgents since last fall. I feel like like situation sort of relates to Che because of their guerrilla-like combat styles. The difference here is that in Bolivia the wanted an uprising in there own country, not to take down another one. The United States is involved in both, but feel like Pakistan is a more important issue because terrorism is been brought to the home front. However, I believe Che and Osama Bin Laden are related because they were both different at one point. Che believed in a Utopia while Bin Laden was part of the Freedom fighters in the Middle East. Time makes things and people different, what was once good will not necessarily always be.

The voice of Che

“My tired eyes refused to sleep an in them a pair of green spots swirled, representing the world I had left for the dead behind me and mocking the so-called liberation I sought.”

This excerpt represent how he is feeling before he falls asleep, whether he made the right choice, whether it will work out, and what will he get out of his journey. There are many different roads to get to his endpoint and only he knows where that is. The imagery from Che leaving the world he knew behind shows how he wanted this freedom.

“I lay back, returning once again in my dreams to the caressing lap. And then, for the last time, I heard the ocean’s warning. Its vast and jarring rhythm hammered at the fortress within me and threatened its imposing serenity.”

This passage shows how when they got to the Atlantic Ocean, how that was only a part of their voyage. Realizing how the ocean can take him around the world to anywhere and everywhere. “Threatened its imposing serenity” I feel is his imagery of how the trip can be harsh yet calm all at once.

Che's Ideology

I believe that Che Guavera has a unique ideology, one that is held by a very few. He saw the world as one big community that should help each other out just because it was the right thing to do. He believed in a world where it was a pure Utopia, one of which everyone needed to be a part of. You can tell that his ideas strayed from that of Fidel Castro, but by that time the damage was done. I feel like Che was almost used by Castro for his like ability and passion. What I don't understand though is why he had sentenced so many people to death and why it seemed as though he felt no remorse in doing so. Che also had an unconditional love for children. I feel that this came about because children are pure in a sense and that is why he became so attached to his.

Our 35th President

If I was given the chance to make my own documentary, I would make it on the JFK Assassination. I feel like this is a good topic because of all the questions brought up when people try to decide where he was shot from, how many shooters there were, and whether Lee Harvey Oswald truly was his killer. Plus with technology we have available to us now, they can figure out by the trajectory of the bullet where the actual shot was taken from. I find some conspiracy theories extremely interesting, some of which are quite plausible. It could be just how they said it happened, or it could be a cover up. Considering how important JFK was during his presidency, during that time period, I feel like it should not be overlooked.

My Che Documentary

If I were the director of my own Che documentary, I would probably start out with his background, life growing up, and what events lead up to his journey. Then since the journey is most important, I would go through that and examine the key points and what each new experience lead to. I would ask to Begin the documentary, what main event during Che's travels made him the man grew up to be. I would focus on his experiences but also what he did. But by the end I do not want to project my opinions onto the viewers, rather let them come to their own conclusions.

Preview of Motorcycle Diaries

I have heard from people that the Motorcycle Diaries is a fantastic book. However, I do feel that the author was not a good person and we should not be endorsing him. It is a New York Times Best-Seller so it has to entertaining. From the back I get that the book is about him and his journey across South America. Each Chapter title seems to make me question what it will be about, whether or not it will be a bunch of entries or short stories, or will it all come together. I expect to see a young man finding his place in the world, even though we know it will not be good for the world around him.

Judging a Book

Before you read a book, you judge it in a few ways. First by the author, what other works he has written and what kind of novel you are looking to read. Then you look at the cover and back to get an idea of what the book is about and what critics thought of it. The color or design of the cover is also very important in order for the book to catch your eye. Then you might read the intro if it has one to see if it appeals to you. A particular book that got my attention and kept it throughout was the book Killing Pablo. Pablo Escobar was a Columbian drug lord and the book went through his life, how he came into power, and how US Navy Seals took him out. Mark Bowden who also wrote Black Hawk Down authored the book.

Che Guevara

I completely agree with Glen Beck's claims to how ridiculous it is having Che Guevara T-shirts and a movie in the works. He is being idolized right now through Hollywood and the media with people not knowing who he is or what he has done. The author Humberto Fontova was the guest on Glen Beck's show and he referred to Che as being worse than Hitler and Stalin. Beck compared wearing a shirt with Che's picture on it would be like wearing a shirt with a picture of Hitler on it. People just don't do that. Instead of him living in infamy, the Hollywood is almost glorifying his existence. Throughout the interview Beck speaks his mind on how he truly feels towards Che. He uses a sarcastic tone when describing how dumb the people that put him up on a pedestal without knowing the history behind him. I feel like the ignorant should be made knowledgeable for whom they are endorsing. Even though we cannot control speech, we can set guidelines and enforce them.

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