11/11/11

Ya no real reason for this post other than to say it's 11/11/11 so hopefully it's a lucky day.

A Post

Okay last time I was talking about the book Quite Strength and I still am.  Tony finished out his college career as one of the high up quarterback and when the draft came (it wasn't televised back then) he and a buddy were waiting bye the phone.  They waited....and waited.....and waited.....and waited.....and then the phone finally rang.  His buddy, Herm was taken in the 100 something round by the Redskins.  Tony was happy for his friend but no afraid for himself.  So he waited....and waited...but the call would never come.  He hand't been drafted and it wouldn't be until a few days later that he would get a call from the Steelers to pick him up as a free agent, as a DB.  He'd never played DB before never even considered it but that's apparently what god wanted for him so he went with it.  Later people would say that he wasn't drafted as a QB because of his height, or his weight, or his arm...and yet some would even say it was because of his color.  That seems like a laughable idea now with Michael Vick and Cam Newton playing football, but back then maybe it was true, maybe the NFL wasn't ready for a black pro quarterback.  That's something that we'll probably never know...and perhaps it's better that way.  Anyway he went to Pittsburgh for training camp and thought he;d never make it.  He has some of the greatest players at DB in front of him and they weren't even starting, but he figured that if he was going to be there he might as well work his ass off to make it.  So he studied film, he asked questions and those great DB's took him under their wing in a way and taught him the position, and lo and behold, he made the roster.  Those same players also helped him become a better Christian.  They were dedicated to their faith in a way that Tony admired and hoped to achieve.  They knew that football was a game, a great game, but still only a game.  And that it was not football that should define them but their faith and character as men.  Well that's all I got so until next time

Finally

Here at the end already, time sure flies.  Anyway I chose to answer question 2.  This semester i read books focused mainly around war or football with very little in between, and of those two genres i can honestly say war was probably the bigger one.  It really wasn't hard to find a book to read or to stick with because for the most part the war books are written very well with the goal of keeping you interested.  All but one book came from your in class library and the books I chose were chosen mainly because their title looked good.  I had little trouble meeting the page requirements each week because I honestly wanted to keep reading these books.  Also I would usually read in study hall daily, so there's 45min of reading so really the 100 or 150pgs wasn't that hard to reach.  And ya that's all I got for this so adios, peace out, hasta luego, see you on the filp side, cya, and good bye. 

Currently Once More

Quiet Strength: 276-301pgs
Dresden Files: 131-190pgs
Total Pages: 100pgs

Don't really have any favorite sentences but instead I have a lesson from Quiet Strength, Tony Dungy talks about football and how it's a great thing but how it's only a game.  Football cannot define who you are, it can only be a passing thing in life.  A Tony talks in great deal about how his faith defines him and last forever, while football is only a time in life.  Tony also uses football to help spread his belief in god.

Blogging Today

So I've been reading the book Quiet Strength by Tony Dungy.  I've heard football coaches talk about this book and what it means.  The book really is a great book that follows Tony Dungy through apart of his football life.  It starts out following Tony in the end of high school career and looking towards college.  He always dreamed of being a Spartan, for Western Michigan I believe.  There was a coach there that he had always wanted to play for (the name escapes me right now and the books far away so....ya) but he retired before Tony could go there so he ended up going to the University of Minnesota.  Tony played quarterback in college and he was good.  There was one instance, however, where he put himself before the rest of the team.  He was one TD pass away from setting a new school record and despite his coach telling him to run the ball he called a pass...and it was intercepted.  His coach said on the sideline "I'm so mad if I had a gun I'd shoot you."  Tony's team would go on to win said game and he would end up throwing that record setting TD but he learned something, you do whats best for all not for yourself.  Well that's all for today so I will talk to you all later, see you at the beginning....

Blogging

So I completely finished Joker One.  It was cool to see how the unit grew and developed throughout their time in Iraq.  One of the best parts was when Lieutenant Campbell was asking him men how they felt about leaving and they all gave pretty much the same response: "I'm excited to go home and see my family but I hate to leave when we're not done yet."  They're afraid that the unit that replaces them will come in and screw up everything they've been trying to accomplish.  The unit leave with less men than it came with, a sad fact of war, but the men that are still there have become a family of sorts that can only be made through the hell that is war.  The book goes on to tell a little about how hard it was for them to adjust back to civilian life.  Lieutenant Campbell talks about how it was hard to walk down a crowded street, how every time a door slammed or car exhaust shot off he flinched.  War changes people and to change back and explain it isn't an easy thing to do, sometimes it's impossible.  Lieutenant Campbell wrote Joker One as a tribute to his men and what they did over there and I think he did a great job with it.  It's give a small taste of what happened over there and what the men had to deal with.  So until the beginning.......

Close-Reading Bingo

1."They were the free standing kind: a pair of integral signs swooping upward between the two floors they served without struts or piers to bear any intermediate weight" and  he tells us that "On sunny days like this one, a temporary, steeper escalator of daylight, formed by intersections of the lobby's towering volumes of marble and glass, met the real escalators just above their middle point, spreading into a needly area of shine where it fell against their brushed-steel side-pannels, and adding long glossy highlights to each of the black rubber handrails" By using such imagery and specific details, one is able to clearly paint a picture of the lobby in their minds. Break up the quotation into a few sentences.
 http://theycallmefreshmoney.blogspot.com/
2. He describes the boy’s feelings towards his parents with a negative, abusive and defiant diction. He makes it clear with his word choice that the feelings of the boy are arrogant and bitter towards his parents.  Avoid the he says part
http://allison789.blogspot.com/
3. ...he Mezzanine, Baker’s literal tone, but relaxed voiced allows the reader to get inside the mind of the speaker... Avoid referring to the reader.audience.
http://notoriouslymofulla.blogspot.com/ 
4.  The Mezzanine, written by Nicholson Baker is elegant, elevated, and also scholarly in the verbs being used. This excerpt was not extremely musical. It was also literal in denotation, as while reading it. Throughout the excerpt Barker used excellent verbs and description to explain all of the sentences. Don't be so vague with supporting quotes.http://jess-jess1993.blogspot.com/

Best one I saw: The dignified formality of Nicholson Baker's The Mezzanine describes the unusual tolerance the narrator feels for escaltors in his work place. His strange admiration is expressed with metaphors like "the free-standing kind: a pair of integral signs swooping upward" and "a temporary, steeper escalator of daylight" which help make a mental picture of the escalators as well as give an appreciation for the escalators. Baker's scholarly yet straightforward lexicon holds the flowing simile "like the radians of black luster that ride the undulating outer edge" to convey the graceful energy the narrator feels toward escalators. http://thatgirl-abbie.blogspot.com/

Currently at This Moment

Quite Strength: 43 pages
Dresden Files: 79 pages
Total Pages: 122 pages

  In. By far the simplest of all, Walker Lamond's Rules for My Unborn Son has a no-nonsense and almost journalistic approach to writing.
http://academiczengerine.blogspot.com/

The characters speak in colloquial language, using words such as "silly," "darling chicken-flower," and "wop." The language is humble, but it is suggestive of the culture and personality of the characters.
http://estella-havisham.blogspot.com/

The connotation is figurative and lyrical while the sound melodious as it flows along, defying many grammatical laws.   http://mallorymills94.blogspot.com/

The excerpt from Stardust by Neil Gaiman expresses elevated, melodious straightforward diction.
http://morgan-happygolucky.blogspot.com/

The elevation is low. It seems like this is taking place in the south which is known for their slang and terse language. http://bakefacespace123.blogspot.com/

Style Mapping

The language in Joker One is lower and poetic.  The team leader is speaking about the love the men have for one another.  "And love was why Brooks walked backwards everyday, guarding our vulnerable rear as we moved."  The common language doesn't detract from the poetic melody of the sergeants thoughts.

Joker One again

Still with Joker One, I've finished the book and it's a good one.  Golf Company eventually gets deployed to Ramadi, Iraq with the war on terrorism.  Golf Company is taking over the city from the Army.  The Marines of Golf Company have been training themselves for combat but one they arrive they must act less militaristic and become more friendly because the overall goal is to win the hearts and minds of the people.  An insurgency cannot succeed if the insurgents don't have the people.  Well the Marines do this for awhile, waving and smiling, and handing out candy to all the children, basically trying to make life a little bit better for the people there.  Well it fails.  The insurgents and even the people view these acts as sings of weakness and mount a large attack against the Marines.  From that point on the Marines no longer smile or wave, and when the people see them they move because there's now  look to them that says "we're here to protect you and we will, but we're just looking for a fight now".  The book gives a view into the life of the soldiers in Iraq and the challenges that their leaders, like Lieutenant Campbell, must face.  Campbell see's his men transform for green recruits to hardened veterans through their tour in Iraq.  Campbell said in his afterword that he stays in contact with a lot of the men he led in Iraq.  He says in the beginning that he wrote the book for them, as a way of telling the soldiers families what happened over there when the soldiers themselves couldn't tell.  Anyway it's a pretty good book that I would definitely recommend.  So until the beginning.....

Quarterly 1 I suppouse

So it;s been 9 weeks already, man it flies by.  Well can't really say any of the reading has been to challenging for me just same old same old.  Did surprise myself a little bit with the amount of war related books I've read but other than that nothing really.  I'd have to say most of my reading is done is study hall, it's the only free time I've got.  Goal I'm going to set for next semester is mainly to blog more, apparently I've been slacking there so ya.  Well that's really all I've got for this so I guess until the beginning......

Joker One

Still reading Joker One and it is a pretty good book. Like I was saying last time, Campbell wanted something more so he joined the Marines.  He ended up going to Iraq for a year as a computer guy, not really fighting as he'd hoped.  He then got returned to the states and was told that he'd be in charge of a sniper recon platoon 2/4.  He originally joined the Marines to lead men into battle, to see if he could handle that kind of pressure.  Well he got to Camp Golf, where he would take over 2/4 snipers and was told that they didn't need an officer but they did need a good computer guy, so once again he found himself in a meaningless role.  Eventually someone of higher rank came to the camp and became the computer guy so Campbell was given his chance to lead; but he wasn't given a sniper command, no he was put in charge of a platoon of infantry.  He resented this at first but he would soon learn that to be in charge of an infantry platoon would truly be a test of his ability to command.  When he arrived to take command, none of his men were there yet so he just sat at his desk confused as to what he was supposed to be doing until the Ox came in.  The Ox is a higher ranking officer in command of a fire team, and he is also courageous and has no care for his own safety.......that being said he also has no common sense and is somewhat crazy. For example, on a training exercise they were told to assault a bunker, two of the three squads flanked the bunker and so on and so forth.  Not the Ox though, he decided to charge straight at the bunker, going through barbed wire and such, all the while the "enemy" is "shooting" at them.  Basically he killed the entire squad because he did the "brave thing".  Yes the Ox is a good leader in that he is brave, and he's a bad leader for that exact same reason. And ya guess I'll leave off there for no so, till the beginning..........

Currently Again

Joker One: 193pages
Total pages: 1401 pages

"It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishment the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul." The Warrior Elite

Smile at pretty girls." Rules for my Unborn Son


"Never fail a mission, never leave a teammate." The Warrior Elite

I like these sentences overall because they all have meaning.  The first one is just saying that no matter what life throws at you you are still in control of your own life.  The second one is, well, you see a pretty girl you you smile, that's just a fact of life.  The last one, well, you have a mission you stay and complete that mission until it's done, and you never leave a brother behind.  Like i said, all of the sentences just have some sort of meaning to me. 

Blogging again

Just started the book Joker One by: Donovan Campbell.  The book follows the story of a marine unit sent to Iraq and is written from/by the leader of the unit Lieutenant Donovan Campbell.  Campbell was a college student who joined the Marine Corps Officer program because he thought it'd look good on his resume.  He completed the program determined to never actually join the marines but then 9/11 happened at things changed.  Suddenly he could no longer live with a normal life, he craved something more..............ok the bells about to ring so I'll finish this later.  Till the beginning..................

Currently something

The Warrior Elite: 86 pages (completed)
Joker One: 50 pages
Total pages: 1208 pages

"It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishment the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul."

"GOOD LUCK, TWO-THREE-ONE--HIT THE SURF!"

"Never fail a mission, never leave a teammate."

All of these sentences are from the book The Warrior Elite.  The first two really just signify that the class made it through, at least a part, of hell.  The last is just the motto of the SEALs.  They are told what to do and they do it, and everyone comes home dead or alive.

Blogging once more

I read and finished the book The Warrior Elite and I have to say it's not only a great book but a true testament to the men willing to become navy SEALs.  The class 228 began hell week and wow it really did sound like hell.  All the things they were put through were of course done under "safe" conditions but still I was reading it and was just thinking "holy crap I'd be done in the first hour."  An example of this is that they have to do a thing called surf training or surf torture as some call it, it's where they go out into the ocean and do exercises for a set amount of time come on land warm up with conditioning and then go back in and start the whole thing over again.  What was really interesting is that of the 48 who would start hell week only 20 would survive it.  As one SEAL put it "the only easy day was yesterday."  The SEAL culture is that of an elite warrior who quite literally trains everyday to become better at his art. (If it sound)  What was really interesting about the book was that near the end after following class 228 through second and third phase (all three phases plus the two weeks of INDOC before add up to about 30 weeks if i remember correctly) the book seemed to take a more philosophical approach.  The author began to wonder what it is that drives one man to succeed while another of equal ability quits.  What makes one man give in and another push his body beyond all reasonable limits?  The only answer the author could offer is that each man must have a strong desire to win, not a will to just get through or not to lose but to succeed, and believe it when I say there is a difference between fighting to win and fighting not to lose.  The man that fights not to lose will fight only until he believes that he hasn't lost a certain way, in the end he loses.  The man that fights to win will either win or die trying because to him failure is not an option, the possibility of it doesn't exist.  All in all, this was a great book on all accounts.  This book really just exemplifies what it means to be willing to risk life and limb for a belief in freedom. There was a poem a SEAL wrote that seemed to say it all:

Out of the night that covers me,
black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever Gods may be
for my unconquerable soul

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeoning of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place or wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafriad

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishment the scroll
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Once again I'd highly recommend this book and until next time, ill see you at the beginning............

Sentences of the Month

 The Warrior Elite:192pgs
Total Pages: 1172pgs

 
"Smile at pretty girls." Rules for my Unborn Son

"If you get yourself arrested, call me. You get one free pass." Rules for my Unborn Son

"I ran away once....well, because I wanted to do something else." My Side of the Mountain

"Sir, maybe it's time we got the hell out of here." The Warrior Elite

My winning sentence would have to be "If you get yourself arrested, call me. You get one free pass."  The reason I like this sentence so much is because it shows the relationship between father and son.  The Dad's been in the son's shoes and gets that eventually he [the son] is going to screw up and the Dad will be there, at least once, to bail him out.

Claims of the Day

In Gene Kelly's "Good Morning" [an elegantly exquisite setting and excitingly exuberant style is] conveyed [through the delicate, and brisk attire and the frantic yet hysterical emotion of the actors.]

In this flash mob by Todrick Hall, the mischievous and adventurous expressions, jubilant sounds, and bustling moves, show the explosive creativity and confident energy of the dancers.

In the album art for United Paper People‘s Kisschasy, the foreboding colors, overwhelming space, and perilous actions reflect a sense of destructive loneliness and irrational wonder.

The hollow, church-like presentation of the sandcastle highlights the convincing superiority over typical sand creations.

 In Pride of Cincinnati's Summer of Love, the guard's vibrant, chaotic sound, complimentary choreography, and explosive, passionate expression create a scene of colorful eccentricity.


I'd have to say my favorite is the first one.  He did a good job of describing the scene and the action portrayed by Gene Kelly.

Cloes Reading

I'm doing the speech/video Last Play for my close read thing.

Observe:

Setting: Football locker room, football field, stadium

Sounds: Motivational, inspiring,

Actions: Tackles, hard runs, hard hits,

Atmosphere: Nervous anticipation, impassioned

The use of motivational and inspiring words with the combination of the brotherhood seen in the images of the football game help to infer a sense of dedication and commitment that can only truly be seen on the football field.

Time to Blog Again

The book I read this week was The Warrior Elite (I know BA title right?) by Dick Couch.  Basically this book is about the forging of SEAL class 228.  The author, a former Navy SEAL himself, follows the class through it's journey to become part of the elite that is the Navy Seals.  112 guys start off training at the beginning and only 48 are left by the end of the first week of phase one.  I'm only reading about the training and exercises these guys are voluntarily putting themselves through and to be honest it's intimidating as heck.  One of the critics wrote "What you can take away from this book....[is] a profound sense of awe at what the human mind and body can will itself to do."  Right now in the book class 228 is a week away from hell week which, from what I've gathered so far, is essentially the instructors putting the class through hell to see if they can take it.  Now as bad as that may sound you have to remember everyone of these guys volunteered for this and, in another perspective, if they[instructors] weren't hard on them now then maybe they[class 228] mess up in combat and get someone killed.  On a much smaller and more personal scale it's like football.  The coaches push us and are hard on us because they know we can take it and if practice is harder then the game then I have nothing to fear, as the saying goes "preparation breeds confidence." Anyway back on topic the book is pretty good and really shows the hell soldiers must endure to become a SEAL. 
Also I finished The Lincoln Lawyer and I have to say it was pretty good.  The ending is definitely a page turner, I literally could not put down the book for the last 30 or so pages.  The twist at the end also adds to the suspense.  I think I have to see the movie now just to see if they portrayed it as well as the book did.  Definitely recommend the book if you're looking for one.  Well that's all I've got right now, besides I have to finish up the close reading so until next time, I'll see you at the beginning.........

Poet of the Year

My poet of the year would have to be Wendell Berry and I chose to copy another of her poems which is

A Warning to My Readers:  
Do not think me gentle
because I speak in praise
of gentleness, or elegant
because I honor the grace
that keeps this world. I am
a man crude as any,
gross of speech, intolerant,
stubborn, angry, full
of fits and furies. That I
may have spoken well
at times, is not natural.
A wonder is what it is

Currently Week 4

The Lincoln Lawyer: 253pgs(plus 150 from last week which I forgot to do a currently for)
The Warrior Elite: 50pgs
Total pages: 980pgs

Favorite Sentences:
"Sir, maybe it's time we got the hell out of here."

"In order to get one good man, it's necessary to begin with five good men."

"If the marines are the Few-the Proud, then the SEAL survivors are the Courageous-the Driven."

All of these sentences are from The Warrior Elite; and I'd have to say my favorite sentence is the first one.  A group of SEALs are behind enemy line, in the middle of a firefight with Grenadian infantry, who by the way out number them 4:1, and this guys first comment to his officer is a sarcastic one.  I just find that funny.

A Lawyer

"Better that one hundred guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer"

The book I'm reading this week is the Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly.  It focuses around a defense attorney Michael Haller who works in L.A.  Now normally the word defense attorney brings up thoughts like jerk, con man, liar, cheater, scum, criminal, etc, and they're all possibly true.  Essentially Michael admits in the first few chapters that his job is to "exploit the cracks in the
prosecution’s arguments, guilty doesn't matter what matters is can they prove you're guilty."  Ya sounds like a great guy I know.  Now in fairness it's true that a person is innocent until proven guilty (at least in theory) but what he does isn't so much fight for the innocent (he even admits he's never had an innocent client and he's not sure if he'd recognize one if they came to him)  but fight for the guilty to become less guilty.  He exploits the flaws in the system to win the guilty freedom, again I know sounds like a great guy and I'll admit few chapters in my first thought was "I'm going to hate this guy."  But then I kept reading and began to see some things his way.  The prosecution has rules they must follow and if they or the cops break these rules then they must be held accountable, even if that means a guilty man goes free because if they're not held accountable then maybe an innocent man goes to jail for a crime he didn't commit and why? because the police cut corners? wheres the justice in that? and that's the truth and becomes a fact in the book.  A rich guy, Louis Ross Roulet, is accused of assault, battery, attempted rape, the works and he says he didn't do it.  Lemmie guess your first thought is ya and I'm the king of England.  Well Michael takes the case because the guys rich and that means big money.  He meets with Louis and asks what happened that night and Louis tells him that he was setup by a girl and the story sounds to strange to be true but at Michael digs deeper he discovers Louis may actually be telling the truth and it scares him.  It scares him because there is no client scarier than an innocent man, because then there's no plea bargain, no deal, the only thing that can pass is a not guilty and if a lawyer defending the guilty man doesn't get a not guilty and that man goes to jail for the rest of his life then that lawyer will forever know it's his fault he's in there.  And truly why I don't hate this Michael character yet. I mean ya he defends the guilty and uses loopholes to set them free but he understands that if a man is innocent then he has to do everything in his power to keep him from going to jail because that's how the system is suppose to work.  And that's all I've got for now so until next time see you at the beginning...................

Currently

My Side of the Mountain: 177pgs
Total pages: 527pgs

Favorite Sentences:
"I ran away once....well, because I wanted to do something else."

"Let's face it , Thoreau, you can't live in America today and be quietly different.  If you are going to be different, you are going to stand out, and people are going to hear about you; and in your case, if they hear about you, they will remove you to the city or move to you and you won't be different anymore."

"There is no such thing as a silent winter night."

I like these quotes, all from My Side of the Mountain, because they all convey they journey Sam went through.  Running away for no other reason then because he could, learning to live and interact with nature, and finally realizing that even different becomes normal after awhile, they all just explain the book.

Another Week Another Post

And here we our, week 3 of the school year..........wow it's going slow, I mean seriously feels like we've been here a month already.  Whats that? We have been here a month.........seriously?  Right..................so the book I read this week was My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George.  The book was about a boy named Sam Gribley who grew up in inner city New York.  His whole life his father had told him about his great grandfather who owned land in the Catskill Mountains and set everything up to be a farmer only to learn he wanted to be a sailor.  So one day Sam decides that he's going to go out to his great grandfathers and live off the land.  Now I should probably point out that Sam is of around 8th grade age so like 13 or 14 the book never actually says, and he's lived in the city his entire life............ya you can see where this is going.  He's got no idea of what he's doing out there and many times in the story he questions how he will survive out in the wilderness.  Eventually he develops some basic survival skills and is able to actually live off the land.  Then comes the next problem in, America if your different you stand out and people don't like different (a sad fact yes but beside the point) so people try to change different into normal.  Sam has to avoid being seen by people because they'll tell others who will make him go home.  This story is really about a boy who ran away from home not because his home was a bad place or anything, quite the opposite it seems, his father even comes and visits him a couple of times, but because he wanted something else.  This idea is relatable  to anyone because at one point or another all kids think about running away.  There are various reasons for this: boredom, desire to be some where else, to find a new beginning, to make people regret how they treated you, etc.  The point is all kids have thought of it some have done it, most either chicken out before they do it or during because we all fear change.  By running away Sam faced this fear and thrived on it.  The question to all of us is would we be willing to change everything about ourselves because we wanted something else or would we stick to the familiar because it's familiar?  Right well that looks like a good place to stop and let you think, until next time see you at the beginning.........

Friday

So I just took the personality test and have no idea what the score means.  Have to say some of the questions seemed to complex for a yes or no answer.  for instance there was one that asked if you easily understood new theoretical theories.  Well ya I can probably understand some but if you try to explain one about nuclear fission there's no way I'm going to understand it.  Lol anyway ya still not sure how to score it but I scored as an ESTJ whatever that means. Till the beginning...........

Currently

The Way We Played the Game: 141pgs
Rules for my Unborn Son: 209pgs 
Total pages: 350pgs


Favorite sentences: If you get yourself arrested, call me. You get one free pass.  I like this sentence from Rules my Unborn Son because it shows how Dad's understand that their sons are going to screw up at least once and it's nothing to hold against them because it happens.

Be like a duck. Remain calm on the surface and paddle like hell underneath.  I like this one just because it goes back to the idea that you remain calm under pressure even if you're panicking inside.

Smile at pretty girls.  This one is self explanatory.

Opening Chapter

What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.  So with that I will start at the end in the hopes of making it to the beginning.  First book I read this week was The Way We Played the Game by John Armstrong.  Something interesting about the book before even reading the first page of a chapter is that the the story was written in the early 70's and given to a local historical club to publish but was put in storage and forgotten until years later when the church it was stored in was struck by lightning.  Miraculously it and hundreds of other documents survived.  John Armstrong found the story and made some slight changes here and there to truly make it a story and the rest is history.  The book is really about how football was played in the 1900s focusing on a Benton Harbor football team that's out for revenge and also the dawning of football in America.  The story mainly follows a high school football player named Fletcher Van Horne.  He's a scrawny kid, weighing only about 115 and is only around 5'2".  He is selected to play quarterback because while not big and strong he's fast and more importantly smart enough to play it.  In the early days of football coaches weren't allowed to really coach during a game so it was up to the QB to decide what plays to run and when.  I personally can relate to Fletcher mainly because like him I'm undersized.  I know that whenever I step onto the field I'm going to be facing someone who probably outweighs me by 50lbs and can look over me without trouble.  Like Fletcher this doesn't bother me, as they say the smaller you are the easier it is to blindside someone.
Anyway back to the story, its a good football novel that really shows the brotherhood of the game especially back then.  It shows that hard work pays off in the end and it was truly a good book.  And with that I suppose it's time to end this beginning that is technically and end.