Lit Circle Letter 2

In this second section of the book, the tide starts to turn in favor of the human's (the live ones). Throughout this section there are tales of heartache, the limits of human endurance, the return of faith in humanity, and other corny crap, no pun intended. Films are created to raise spirits, communities are built, companies are constructed, and the new military is resupplied. The world finally goes back on the attack at the end of this section.

"The man didn't shout, didn't try to restore order. He just kept going in that calm, firm tone that I don't think any world leader has since been able to duplicate. He even thanked his "fellow delegates' for their 'valued opinions' and admitted that, from a purely military perspective, there was no reason to 'push our luck.' We'd fought the living dead to a stalemate and, eventually, future generations might be able to reinhabit the planet with little or no physical danger. Yes, our defensive strategies had saved the human race, but what about the human spirit?... We had to prove to ourselves that we could do it, and leave that proof as this war's greatest monument. The long, hard road back to humanity, or the regressive ennui of Earth's once-proud primates. That was the choice, and it had to be made now"

This was the president speaking in front of the remaining world leaders and I feel, it very well exemplifies what would have to be done to really save the human race. Not just save it, but return it to it's original splendor.I think the authors point in this passage is the great epidemics may not kill all of us, but if we have lost faith in our own species, we might as well be dead.

This section was definitely my favorite section of the book, there was the most action, the most plot. Juicier characters and stories. This first part of the book was basically just how it started, a lot of chaos; people running through the streets with the undead, and specific isolated incidents. But in the second section, more unravels on the toll this war has taken on the world. It's even noticeable in the air, the ashes of people and cities. and it's way better than the end, which is just a bunch of really short stories about life after the zombies (spoiler alert).

There are longer stories in this section, with more emotion in them. Emotion drawn out from watching the hopelessness of people just trying to survive. And then there's the other side; new practical weapons being created, little communities surviving sieges of undead without a scratch, and the overall, somewhat improved spirit in the surviving humans. It's all very enthralling, and it's all very good.

The Rules of Love

1. What rules dictate relationships today?

I don't think there are any set rules, rules can vary drastically depending on where you are. And even if there were rules here, they would be broken quite often. And the rules I believe in are obviously invalid, so I'm not sure if I can answer this question well. But I will say what I think the general rules are for my culture.

* Thou shalt have only one partner
* Thou shalt have sex before leaving high school
* Thou shalt have to make the person interested in you work to be in a relationship
* And if you are not interested in a person anymore, but they're still into you, thou shalt take six more months and a really shitty relationship to end it.


2. Name a situation in which the rules have clearly been violated. In other words, what are things "nice girls" just don't do? What are things "nice guys" just don't do?

* When A girl/guy has two or more people "sharing them", that's a violation, and gross, Christina (cough cough)

That's the only serious situation I can think of.

3.What are the possible consequences for breaking these rules?

* If you have more than one partner, thou shalt be labeled a slut or "fucked up"
* If you are still a virgin, you're bad with girls
* If you don't make them work, the consequences will be, thou shalt have a clingy bf/gf
* And if you're not interested in a person and you break it off immediately, absolutely nothing bad will happen.


4. Where do these rules come from? Who "invented" them and who enforces them?

We probably get it from the last generation, not necessarily our parents but the people that control the media. I know that probably has the biggest impact on our rules. Dating shows, music, anything on MTv, I guess that's where we get it from. And the "enforcers", they're the people the rules apply to.

Skating 3

Last week I said that beating the crap out of yourself in order to land a trick was worth it. It is worth it if you can actually land the trick after beating the shit out of yourself. Unfortunately if you land wrong, roll your ankle, and because of it, you get a second degree sprain, I don't think it is at all worth it. First of all because you can't possibly land the trick. Secondly, it causes you 2 to 4 weeks of pain. Thirdly, walking around on crutches sucks. On another note it is the reason why this blog post is late and also the reason why my lit circle letter will be late.
The only positive outcome of this unfortunate event is that I can get an elevator key and I don't have to deal with all the retarded people that stand in the middle of the halls. Other than that this sucks. I can't go out, can't skate, can't do very much at all except sit. Which, as you probably know, is really boring. Luckily it doesn't hurt as much as it did Thursday and Friday night, the pain could be almost unbearable when I didn't have ice on it and pain killers in my system. But that's the kind of stuff you have to deal with if you want to skateboard, after a high ankle sprain, a fractured wrist, a broken and dislocated elbow, and now this second degree ankle sprain, I'm starting to wonder if it's all worth it.
I know it might seem odd that I'm just now starting to wonder, but I think about it every time I seriously injure myself, and I always end up skating again. Because it's fun, a lot of my friends do it, and it's challenging. You're always relentlessly trying to improve your abilities when you skate and most of the time you get a lot of fun and good times out of it. It's only the worst case scenarios that put a drag on things, like right now. My legs cramping from me having to elevate it. And I'm typing an English assignment in the middle of a beautiful Saturday, when I could be skating or playing music, or just chillin' with my friends. But no, I'm stuck here, and I have to look after my dying cat. Which also sucks! My cat is dying to put a cherry on top of this disgusting, deformed cake.
It's kinda cool having room service and not having to clean up after myself much, but I still do a lot of stuff myself, which is never very easy, especially trying to get things from downstairs into my room. But I have a pretty sweet setup, I have "elevation stations", as I like to call them, in all then places I normally sit or lay down. Still, I'd rather not have to go through all this, but as I said, it's the price I have to pay for skating.

Lit Circle Letter 1: World War Z

The book I'm reading this month is called World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, written by Max Brooks, the author of The Zombie Survival Guide. But the only factor these two books have in common is zombies. World War Z is definitely not as funny, but it's not trying to be, it's a serious book. I like the way it was written, it's like a bunch of interviews with people who survived the war.
The only problem with this is a lot of the characters sound the same, if it weren't for this, I think it would be very easy to mistake this for a non-fictional book, however scary that may be. Other than the characters I enjoy this book a lot, there's some humor but it can be pretty depressing, and it'll keep you up past any normal hour, it can be pretty scary.

"None of us were set up for this, we weren't trained for it, weren't equipped... Where was the riot gear they promised us, the shields, the armor, where was the water cannon? our orders were to 'process' all evacuees... But where were the goddamn sniffer dogs? How are you supposed to check for infection without dogs?"

This goes to show the disorganization and despair everybody faced in this book, and all of it seems exactly how a government would act. They wouldn't give people that weren't major assets any resources, they wouldn't inform the public until it was too late, they would lie and bicker with other nations and within their own, all of this occurring while humans fight their extinction. And that's exactly what Brooks writes about.
So far this has been a pretty good book, it gets the adrenaline pumping, accurately represents politics, and makes you sleep with your light on. Other than the small variations in the character's persona's, I would say this is a good, solid book. Definitely one of the best in the zombie business.

Skating, Number 2!!!!!!!!

I know, its been a long time since I did a skating post but I think it is finally time. This post has been brought on by a revelation I just had after a hard day of skating. I have a fairly large squishy bruise on both sides of both my knee's, my shins are an entirely different color from all the bruises, and as I'm typing this, my hand hurts from yet another bruise. On top of that, my board is pretty beat up. I have razor tail that could slice diamonds, a few layers on my nose got smashed pretty good, and my griptape looks like a piece of swiss cheese.
Why is this do you ask? So I could heel-flip a five stair. Now if that doesn't sound like an amazing accomplishment, you would be correct, it isn't. I'm probably not even the first person to have heel-flipped that particular five stair. But you know what, it was totally worth it. There isn't anything else I can think of, where the only two outcomes are pain, or success. And I embrace the pain, I used it as a motivator. After what was probably my fiftieth try, after I had stuck the landing but still fallen, I said to myself, "you have to land this, otherwise all this pain and damage will have been for nothing, visualize it, kick hard, keep your weight centered and don't be a pussy." Low and behold, the next few moments consisted of pop, catch, land, and thank gawd, I rolled away.
The satisfaction combined with the adrenaline rush of still being in one piece is not a feeling easily encompassed and it can't be beat. After you've torn holes in your jeans (and knees), after destroying your shoes, board, and health, there is no better feeling than rolling away from your hardest task of the day. And that my friends is the epitome of skateboarding.
P.S. I know this isn't exactly 500 words but I don't have much else to say, except why do cops still hate skaters so much? Seriously, get over it.

Monthly Review 2

The Forever War is a gripping science fiction novel that masks strong themes of the Vietnam War. In this novel a man named William Mandella is the protagonist. He is drafted into the army for his intelligence and shipped into space to fight an unknown enemy, and because they go through time when they go really fast through space the universe ages much faster than they do. And when he returns the world is no longer as it once was. So he reenlists. He goes through several more battles with his girlfriend and they go to a planet that is not as hostile as earth but they have to go back into the army but are separated and because of the time differences his girlfriend will be dead long before he returns, if he even returns. But all in all this is a great book.

1. What was the author's purpose(s) in writing this book, and how can you tell? How well was this purpose achieved?
I believe that the authors purpose in writing this book was to spread knowledge about a subject that everyone was scared to talk about, Vietnam. In fact I'm positive, he said so himself in the intro to the book. But nevertheless, that was his purpose and the fact that that message still gets through to my generation 30 years later, is pretty impressive.
One way I can tell this is his purpose is he said so himself, but ignoring that fact, there are themes throughout the book. First of all, the title The Forever War is representative of the Vietnam War since that was the U.S.'s longest war. And in the beginning, not knowing what the enemy looked like, or even if you could kill them in the same ways. In their first engagement the humans slaughter the enemy because they didn't know what to do.
The main character Mandela has the author's name, Haldeman, in it if you get rid of the H and turn alde into "dela" and then swap that and "man", and Haldeman is a Vietnam vet. When he returned to his home, the world seemed alien to him, the economy was a lot worse, the speech had changed, it was much more dangerous, it was one third homosexual. Drastic changes like these are changes that veterans would experience when they returned home. With this and the overall treatment of the soldiers, you can't help but see the similarities to the Vietnam War.

2. For what audience(s) is this book intended, and how can you tell? (In other words, for whom would you recommend this book?)
This book was probably intended for the Veterans of the Vietnam war, because it definitely wasn't for any other people during that time, because no one wanted to talk about it. Hardly anyone would even publish the book because it was so controversial. But writing such a timeless novel as this, he probably knew that younger generations would like this book as well. It stays current, if I had no idea that this book was written in the 70s, I would've thought it was a brand new book. It just has that feel to it.
As I said in the last letter, anyone who is old enough to read this (maturity-wise probably like 14 or 15) should definitely read this book. It's pretty awesome. Also anyone who has read Brave New World might like this book as there are similar themes and the author even writes "O brave new world" and uses words like "conditioning" to describe human behavioral modification. And there is an lot of sex in this book, as is in Brave New World, hence the recommended maturity age. But, yeah, otherwise it's good, so read this book, fer sherrrrrrrr.

5. Find out about the author. How did they end up writing this particular book? Is the author's true life reflected in the book in any way(s)?
The author is a winner of the Hugo and Nebula awards, basically this book is the more modern day Great Gatsby of science fiction, or really any genre for that matter. Seriously, it's hella good. Haldeman is a veteran of the Vietnam war, which explains the underlying themes and purpose of writing this book. And he has written a great sci fi book every other year since his first book (this book), The Forever War. He was, or maybe still is, I'm not sure yet, a creative writing professor at MIT, and has taught some of todays greats in the science fiction genre.
The authors life is reflected in many ways throughout the book, starting with the main characters name. As I said earlier, it's the same as the authors, if you switch the letters around and get rid of the "H". Also, the main characters girlfriend's name is Margay Potter. Haldeman's wife's name is Mary Gay and her maiden name is Potter. Plus, Haldeman is as I said, a Vietnam vet, and this book is basically the Vietnam War with science fiction slapped on top of it, so this book is basically his experience in the war. Much like F. Scott Fitzgerald relating his life in the Great Gatsby. Which makes it seem like the modern day Great Gatsby. Like I may have mentioned before. Basically, this authors life is reflected in the book, but subtly as any good author does.

As I said. This is an amazing book, I wouldn't hyave changed it if I could, except for the physics, because it is more or less perfect. Haldeman did a really superb job of writing this book. A romantic subplot, an impactful war, and a universe that is changing around the main character. It really doesn't get any better than this.

lit cirlce letter 3

Now that I have read this book all the way through, I have to say this is now my favorite book ever. The way it is written alone just makes it such a good book. The descriptions are pretty good, and he writes with a great flow. The themes he uses also kick ass because this can either be interpreted as a science fiction novel or a synopsis of the Vietnam War.
The plot of the book is great as well. There is so much darkness and unhappiness throughout the book but it still manages to have an upbringing and awesome ending. This is probably the only novel I would consider reading again. I'm really glad I bought it. Its just such an amazing book.
It has the perfect amount of maturity in it too. It isn't too gory most of the time and it isn't overly sexual like brave new world, although Haldmen does use a lot of themes from that book. Such as saying o brave new world, using conditioning to describe behavior modification, and the clone society at the end. But I digress... this novel is completely awesome and EVERYONE should read it at some point.