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.........