Stafford Book

As I was reading, I came across a nice line that I would like to elaborate.  The sentence goes, "Literature is not a picture of life, but is a separate experience with its own kind of flow and enhancement."  I believe that so much.  Before last semester, I did not read much, nor did I really care for it.  I am glad I chose the English path because of the different literature I have read in my British and American Literature classes.  All of the experiences that I did not even knew existed.  

Every piece is its own experience worth adventuring through.  The pieces of literature that stick out to me so far: 1984, Animal Farm, Paradise Lost, The Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, and many more.  I mean the list goes on.  Every piece brings a different perspective and experience.  I have different emotions towards some but not others.  I interpret these writings in completely different ways than others as well, which is the beauty of literature.  One perceives these works in different ways because of their background and experiences.  

I truly believe that every single person needs to read literature because it is just so fascinating and wonderful.  The deeper meanings behind each piece can be so surprising at times.  For example, in the Rocking Horse Winner by D. H. Lawrence was interesting, but after hearing the sexual ties in it, the story threw me for a loop.  I did not see the sexual experiences in it at all, but I suppose I should have expected it from the sexual deviant Lawrence was.

Review of the George Orwell novel 1984

Let me start off by saying that George Orwell, in my opinion, is in the top 3 for best writer ever.  Now, with that being said, I have not read as many books as many of you guys have, but let me tell you, if you have not read any of his books, you seriously are missing out on some amazing writing.  The way he links his works to the social issues of the time is absolutely brilliant.  He is definitely before his time, much like Twain was.



Now, let me talk about the book before I start going off on a tangent about Orwell.  The book explains what life will be like in the year 1984.  How the government will control its people, how the government forces the people to worship them, or they are either tortured until they believe or they die from being tortured.

Orwell uses devices called telescreens which over looks everything a person is doing.  Every house has one, and people cannot escape from it.  If a person so much as bad mouths the government (Big Brother), they will be taken for committing a Thought Crime.  It is actually pretty funny how accurate he was.  Maybe not in 1984, but nowadays, anyone can track someone using their phones.  The government can use photo-radar cameras at the intersections to catch people doing serious crimes.  It blows my mind how someone back in the World War 2 decade can predict so much about the future.

Orwell was a great writer who did not feed into the same crap that 99% of the common folk did.  He was a rebel in many ways, and I tip my imaginary hat to him for being so courageous and writing works that people did not want to hear.

Review on Gears of War: Judgement

I was skeptical about picking up the latest addition to the Gears of War saga.  I have played the Gears of War series sense the first one and I have to say, it is my favorite series except for Final Fantasy of course.  Anyone who is a game nerd knows how legendary the Final Fantasy series is.

Anyways, I was a bit disappointed with the new installment of Gears of War.  After the launch of GOW3, this one is in many ways completely different.  They brought back to the game the one thing that I hated the most from GOW 1 and 2 which was two piecing.  Two piecing is where they melee the person which automatically puts the player in the center of the screen and then they shoot which instantly kills them.  It was annoying then, and it most certainly is now.  Nothing frustrates me more than shotgun battling an enemy while they are being cheep and meleeing.  Not only has is become extremely annoying, but when they took it out in GOW3, everyone enjoyed it much more.  This part of the game definitely is a turn off for many gamers.

Next, the story is excessively shallow.  The first three Gears games were known for the multiplayer, but the story was so fun, interesting, and really brought the game together.  With the love of the characters like: Tai, Dom, Marcus, Baird, and the always dying Carmine brothers; Epic Games really made this series a huge hit for XBOX which I believe in many cases, is what got XBOX on the map.  

Overall, though I believe the game lacks in many areas that the previous Gears of War games did not, it is still a fun and addicting game.  I am finally getting the hang of it after a couple months of getting use to the new controls and strategies to go about killing other gamers.

49ers Draft Day

Although I did not watch the draft, I believe the 49ers did a great job getting the positions filled that they needed.  For the first round they traded up thirteen spaces with the Cowboys to snag Eric Reid,a safety they desperately needed after Dashon Goldson went to the Buccaneers.  Free Safety was their most need spot filled and I believe they picked up a very talented and humble young safety.  He joins a defense that was ranked 3rd overall last year and has a new deep secondary.  The loss of Goldson does hurt, but I believe Reid will fill in quite nicely, and with more experience will become a great safety for an already great defense.


Eric Reid

Next, in the second round, the 49ers drafted Cornellius Carradine, a defensive end who will most likely play outside lineback in their 3-4 defensive scheme for now.  He is a pass rusher with tremendous speed off the snap.  I believe when the Man-Beast known as Justin Smith finally retires or goes to another team, he will fill in.  The depth at defensive end was shallow last year.  Justin Smith went out the last few games with a torn tricep and the defense just was not the same without him.  Aldon Smith did not record a sack when he got a hurt after going 19 1/2 sacks in 12 games (which by the way is pretty damn impressive).  With Cornellius it not only adds depth, but also another pass rusher to an already great pass rushing defense.


Cornellius Carradine

The last person I will talk about because it would take me all day to write about all 11 players they drafted is Vance McDonald.  When the 49ers lost Delaine Walker to the Titans, they needed another tightend to fill his big shoes.  He was the back up to Vernon Davis, but he is agile, fast, creates mismatches, can catch the ball extremely well, and above all can block in the running game better than any tightend I have seen.  But, I believe the 49ers drafted a great young prospect in McDonald.  He is a terrific run blocker (maybe not better than Walker, but he will learn), he has great hands and can catch any ball thrown his way, and probably the best attribute about him, he is a whistle-to-whistle player.  He does not give up until the ref calls the play over, which is exactly what the 49ers are all about.


Vance McDonald

All in all, the 49ers may not have gotten the best picks, or the best players in the draft; but they sure as hell filled the spaces they needed with good quality players that are humble, work hard, and are team players.  What more could you ask for.

Revising for Dummies

When this class started, I did not have a good way of revising essays.  But, I can officially say now that I do.  We have learned various ways of editing papers, and for me, they are new.

I remember the first revision workshop.  Our group was the only one who did it wrong.  Instead of individually reading it and critiquing them on it, we all read ours and then revised.  It worked, but not as well as the assigned way.  We were not able to finish in the fifty minutes we were allotted, and most of us did not remember most of each others essays at that point either.

So, then the second workshop came and we knew what to do.  We read the papers one by one and gave tips to the writer, and I might add, it went smoothly.  This part is actually my favorite of the revising because we each would read our own stories out loud and catch all the little mistakes that came about.  Then, if we missed our own mistakes, classmates would catch the majority of them and let us know.  Although, there were lots of mistakes on my paper; I did not get down about it.  The classmates would tell me what they thought was great about the story while telling me what needs more description.

Later in the semester, we got this punctuation sheet which is absolutely amazing.  It helped us understand punctuation like I personally have never learned before.  The detail and rules were all on one page.  At first, the paper was confusing, but once the teacher started going over it, punctuation started becoming extremely easy.  Yes I am not an expert with it, but I do understand punctuation much better than before.

All in all, I enjoyed the revising techniques Professor Mathes taught us not because it was easy, or took up all class period.  But, the revising techniques actually work.

A Place To Stand Review

Dr. Baca's story, A Place To Stand is very inspirational.  I enjoyed reading it from cover to cover.  It just shows no matter how hard a person's life is, they can always turn it around with the right mind set and ambition.

Jimmy Santiago Baca was in and out of jail since he was a teenager (13, I believe it was).  He had a rough childhood, one many people do not bounce back from.  In prison, he brutally beat a guy up with an angle iron.  He felt so bad that everyday after, he asked the guards if the man was okay.  The guards were such assholes and kept telling him, "That's for me to know, and you to find out" (Baca, 124).  This part was my favorite.  Not only did it have violence (I love violence), but he also showed humility and regret afterwards.  The only reason he did that was because the other inmate was going to use a metal pipe to do the same.  I was in the Marine Corps and the motto is, "Kill, or be killed."  I totally understand his reasoning for doing what he did, and would have reacted in the same exact way.

Being illiterate his whole life, and learning how to read and write while in prison is impressive.  That part is what stuck out to me most.  Then to come out of prison, earn a GED, bachelors degree, doctorate, and become an accomplished poet/novelist really puts perspective on what kind of character Dr. Baca has.

Jimmy today is doing quite a bit to give back to the community.  He conducts writing workshops in prisons, libraries, and many more.  In 2005, he created the non-profit organization Cedar Tree Inc. which gives people the opportunity to become more educated and improve their life.  I love reading about people who are more fortunate, give back to communities that are not.

His story is remarkable and I recommend this book to anyone.  This book will really open a person's eyes as to how hard their life really isn't; or if it is this hard, how anyone can overcome the obstacles that life throws their way.

The "Not So Beautiful" Iraq

Iraq is home to many people, most of which who do not know what a computer is.  The people do not have anywhere near the technology we have in the United States.  They are lucky to even have air conditioning, most of the houses do not and they stay cool by swimming in the rivers they also go to the bathroom in.  The summers get extremely hot; when I was there the hottest was 143 degrees Fahrenheit, want to talk about sweating profusely.  The electricity is scarce and does not work the majority of the time. 

It is all desert terrain and farm lands.  The crops do not grow very well, but they still try.  They live mostly on meat from any animal they can get ahold of.  Their houses are made out of mud, cow pies, and branches.  They do not have plumbing, some build an outhouse with a hole in the ground, but most of them just go in the river. 

The people for the most part are friendly.  They have invited us in their houses and given us what little food and drink they have.  They also thank us for being there and keeping the Al Qaida away because they are terrified of them.  The children can be friendly, but most of them are pretty hostile (at least towards us).  The people wear the same dresses and sandals on a daily basis.  They do not have the luxury of a washer and dryer like we do in America.  It is really sad how these people live. 

Iraq does not even have grocery stores, gas stations, or fast food joints.  To gas up their cars, they pull up to a guy on the side of the road who has jugs full of fuel, and he fills them up.  For groceries, they go too little stores in sheds to pick up things.  As for fast food places, you can forget about it.  The electricity is not on all day so they would not be able to function at all.

Overall, being to Iraq has made me humble and thankful for the things I do have and luxuries we all take for granted here in America.