The Book of Time

Well, so far and in general the book is about well, a book of time and. As well as a special stone. Whatever. So the boy , Sam, in the book is some 13 years old. His father hasn't been home for ten days so far. He said he'd be home in a few days from his business trip. He does this all the time so Sam isn't worried, but it's still a lot longer than normal. He decides to kill some time that day and ends up in his fathers old book store and looks around at the things and memories of his early childhood. He finds a secret cellar room downstairs and ducks through the whole into it. A stone is what he sees, and he begins his adventure in search of his dad through time.
I'd imagine it would be very difficult finding one person through time when you don't even know what year, but as far as I am in the book right now Sam's in medieval age right now runnin' around and getting stuff done.
In other things, Sam as a person to me is both a brave and cowardly boy. The reason I say this is because him being a martial arts student goes to tournaments he's generally scared of a boy named Monk. Much bigger than him, and last tournament he was crushed by him....literally. I say he's brave because I mean he went on a deathly adventure through time just to find his dad. So that's what I got about Sam from the book.

The Boy Who Dared

Well I just finished a great book, The Boy Who Dared, and to say the least, it's pretty good. Never mind, the reason I'm writing this  is to say what the book is about and all that blah blah blah. Getting right to it the main character is a boy named Helmuth Hübener, in Nazi Germany, but the thing that I really love about the book is it switches between the past and present and the past being his memories. So normal text is just his memories and his life, then when it switches to italicized text you know that what you are reading is present time for him. Of course there are side characters like his friend Rudi and Karl then his brothers Gerhard and Hanz. Nonetheless the story and plot are just great. Even though it being an easy read doesn't mean it isn't a good one, so in the end it's an all around great book.

Holocaust Blog

I'd say the reason for the people of Nazi Germany to be the bystanders was because the Germans had a very powerful and effective weapon, fear and intimidation. With the German public soon realizing what was going on there were a brave few that stood up, but for the mass of the public being bystanders they were influenced by the fear and decided to stay in there place and not go out of line with the Nazi. They were also being reasonable as far as most humans would consider reasonable. They would rather have their family and themselves alive and not punished rather than being like the unlucky Jews, Gypsies Gays, and up-standers, etc. Human nature kicked in and it was a fight or flight time, either you fight and risk dying for a cause or you can try and fly below the radar and stay safe and for the most part sound with their families.

As far as my opinion on being a bystander or up-stander, I for a fact would be a bystander I'm not one to back away from fear as well as I am one to be susceptible to intimidation. I'd first think I'm obligated to do something about it, but as time would go on I would think about it and realize there would be no way I'd be doing it for the same reason that the real German public (mass of German's) didn't stand up against the Third Reich's rule over Germany, Poland, France, and much of Europe.

Then again for the up-standers they would need to have a lot courage to be able to stand up against such a powerful force with such a small force of rebellion. Even with a large force it would be a massive challenge for them as they would need time, lots of it, to be able to go against the Nazis and make a large notable difference. Although the changes the rebels did make may not have been significant but it did give them hope, hope that in turn could have inspired more and more up-standers to stand up for a change against a super power such as the Nazis.

Coca-Cola and death squads?

"Coca-Cola Accused of Using Death Squads to Target Union Leaders"

 Coca-Cola was accused of using death squads to hunt down and kill workers who decided to speak up against the terrible conditions they faced working in a Coca-Cola bottle plant in Columbia. I was a little surprised at the fact that Coca-Cola would use death squads and have horrid conditions within the factories they owned, but most people would be. We all don't really think about things like that because our mind sets are really and mainly set to worry about ourselves so we just don't think and wonder about that kind of stuff because we have other things to do. Yet in reality the victims of the squads were kidnapped beaten and killed just because they knew they weren't in any way, shape, or form in an okay work position. That's not even the part that made me a little bit frustrated. No, the part that did wasn't that they were getting killed because people die everyday but the fact that there really isn't a way to stop it, that's what got me. Out of all that I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that it was a wrong doing.

 "Simone Weil: The Year of Factory Work (1934-1935)"

 As for a poem I read about the subject of sweatshops and factories, the message or idea i got out of this poem was that the the whole thing of working in a sweatshop or factories in bad conditions was that it just never seems to end. That it is just an endless viscous cycle. Personally I cant connect except for a way less extreme example of having a bad school/work week because it just keeps happening and happening like an endless cycle, not viscous, but just seems endless. Now most people can not connect at all or barely, just barely, can like I can. The poem in my opinion is better than the article because the article is jut facts being thrown into your brain, the poem on the other hand is more hard hitting I think, it's not just facts being thrown at you like i said but it's more of something that you can just let sink in. Which in my opinion is just better.







 

Summary and Conflicts

Let's start off with some of the main problems, well more problem rather than problems. Never mind that. Main problem? One word, highschool. Although this problem may be self explanatory to some, for the others that find that little hard to understand. Charlie is like any average student, which means hes gotta worry about things in highschool, relations whether it be friends or more than friends*nudge nudge*....never mind. As I was saying drugs, sex, alcohol and worst of all, grades. So that being said he has come to terms with the fact that it will definitely become very difficult to juggle not only the stress of all those topics as well as grades, he knows there is no real way to keep sanity.(Which he doesn't have very much of to being with)......Now, to the actual story. As the year starts to wind down for all three of the friends Charlie, Patrick, and Sam, Sam tells Charlie that she is going away to college, also telling her other friends as well as Charlie or at least the ones that she knows. Okay now skip ahead a bit of to the last night Sam will be there till she has break, they are all really just sitting in a room and just looking back at all the fun/stupidly fun times they've had as friends. Eventually friends leave and Patrick goes up to bed. Sam nicely asks if Charlie can help her finish packing, he says yes, but that just leads to her having a serious discussion with him. Basically just talking about, tearing up while doing this, she tells him that he needs to start thinking about himself for once, he has his own wants and needs so he should stop every so often and worry about himself and not trying to fulfill other peoples needs and wants for once. Now this completely obviously leads her fulfilling his "wants" if you know what I mean...you do, but uhhhhhhh "*kissy kissy* *touchy touchy*" He then decides he isn't ready for that, she respects that. He later just passes out on her couch. Well that's actually pretty much the whole book right there. Final part at least.  

POV and Summary

"The Perks of Being a Wallflower", is a first person book as it often says "I" and "My", things that indicate that it is a first person point of view. Other than that I don't really know how to describe how it's a first person point of view. Those are the only real reasons, but nonetheless as far as the book goes drugs are introduced to Charlie, specifically LSD, he does not do to well with it and has a "bad trip". After waking up in the middle of someones yard and puking a bit he realizes he's starting to see things move around him. Not just things meant to move though. He is a little intimidated and scared by this, but Sam eventually clears it up and says hes had a "bad trip"and that it just takes time and it'll all go away. Oh, and almost forgot to mention that when Charlie gets back home everybody is quiet and seeming like Charlie is crazy and his sister out of no where starts fixing his hair and he's confused and wonders "Why? Whats wrong with my hair." just after that he looks in the mirror he is pained to find that several parts of his hair have been choppily cut off....so yeah that happened. In other words he has declared he's never EVER doing LSD again. Sooo.....don't do drugs I guess?

2nd Artice blog

The article I chose to read and write about was named, "Is it time for cursive to die?". The author made some great points some for cursive to stay, but the majority went to the funeral of cursive, strengthening my opinion to get rid of cursive. Probably my favorite reason that it is not only on a lower list of priorities, "Algebra? Vital. Reading non-fiction? Vital. Writing cursive? Eh--maybe not." As well as saying that cursive may(hopefully) be like playing an instrument, an art and skill, but not mandatory or frankly even useful. Especially with the amount of tech this day and age has, sending a postcard, writing a letter, all things f the past really. The convenience of having the ability to text, call, tweet, Facebook, instagraming....all giving way to a simpler living.

Summary of "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" and CA so far

The book is basically about a teenager, who prefers to be anonymous and calls himself Charlie, who is going into high school and is telling his stories to who is known as "Dear friend". He tells of his and the experiences of high school but mainly focuses on him. Covering things from awkward dates, family drama, sex/drugs, and really anything in between that you'd expect from a four year trip of dread and some happy moments. Really just about growing up.
       As far as "Charlie" as a character, he is more of an awkward and odd/confused boy. He's more of a person to keep to themselves and try and fly under the radar, with his brother as a college football star and his sister, well they don't really say much so far, but none the less he has a lot to work up to and he's really just an average kid getting a taste of life. Little off the subject but in order to really know him you have to know what hes up against. Academically, he isn't the best at math but, when it comes to reading he is a little bit of an expert as he is in an advanced class. He loves reading is all that needs to be said. Other than all that so far he isn't described very much, maybe further on he'll get more of a personality as a character.