Go Ask Alice Blog 5

These pages (146-213) were so intense. So many things happened in that section.First off, she has a new boy toy, his name is Joel. He is such agreat guy and really cares about the author, it is so cute how hes always concerend! Unfortunetly after her granpa died her grandma died. Seroiusly after everyting you can consider the author to be mentally crazy. She always has nightmares about maggots eating her grandpas body and hers as well. One time she is having a hallucination and ends up on her floor naked? Strange I know. In school everyone is giving her trouble. Jan freaking always is so mean ot her it makes me sad. Onet ime when Jan was supposed to babysit she was late so the author took her place and Jan showed up HIGHH!!! Then to the worst part - One day when the author is babysitting a baby she unknownigly took acid. She goes insane. She was locked ina closet,scratching herself, screaming, pulling her hair out, reading it was so intense. Shw woke up and dint know where she was , which was a mental institute. There she befirends a younger girl named Babbie. Now Babbies story, thats sad. She was a freaking baby prostitue, disgusting I know, but at the same time all you can think is poor girl! When theauthor gets out of the hospital her life really is gooing really good. She made friends with clean kids at her school , one is even the class president! Also a straight boy asks her out but she says no because of joel (:. At her birthdy her surprise was Joel! Then it ended. I realllllllllllyyyy enjoyed this book. It made more aware of drugs, not the way DARE class does, but the way it can take over and affect your life. I would recommend this book to anyone who wanted a recommendation (:

Go Ask Alice Blog 4

In these pages (101-146) the author is at the worst point in her life. She is SO addicted she is even popping in class. One time she was really messed up and just decided to walk out of her house and go away. She ended up in Denver somehow. There she met a girl named Doris. Its seriously pathetic, she acts like her life sucks until she finds out that Doris found this big can of pot. Then shes all Oh it is so amazing diary! I seriously was like ew what is her problem. One day she got smart, she went to a church adn htey called her parents, but after that she went on the streets agian. Her and doris later go to california for a convention. Its obviously a drug fest. When the author says that one day she looked over and there was a pregnant girl I was done. I seroiusly could not handle her doing all this crazyy shit. I was so glad when she wised up and finally went back home. When she finally start back school it really made me bad that people treated her so horribly and started all these rumor about her just because she didnt do drugs. Though she was really strong, she heldher head high and didnt let them get trhough to her. Then finally shes meets a great guyy!!! JOEL! He is a college student at her dads university. He is so good for her. I was really excited to see how there relationship develops (:

Go Ask Alice Blog 3

I personally thought these pages were really intense. ( pages 51-101). I was right, things did get out of hand. So her and Chris decide to move to California and get away from all the drugs and their reputation. They went to Cali with no money. Im really happy though when I learn that they both get jobs though to pay for their apartment. Chris at a cute boutique, and the author at a jewelry store. It made me happy when the owner of the jewwelry store treated the author like she was one of his daughters, I thinkthe author really needed that. The two girls even opened up theire own store by a university. THings were really going great for them.Unfortunetly though when things are great that means they are all about to fall apart, which indeed happens. Chrises boss invites her and the author over to her apartment which is REALLY nice for a party. They loved that they were partying with mature adults. One party though the boss and her boyfriend trick them into doing heroin. They both later take turns raping the girls and beating them furoisicly. AFter that the girls decided to go home. Of course their parents were ecstatic when the girls came home for Christmas! They never went back to Cali. The author and Chris were doing really well, they were loving life and had a great relationshop with their parents. At school Alice was now an outkast because she wasnt doing drugs. Then she met Lane, Lane opened her up to new drugs, so she ofcourse became in again. When Lane gets caught by the police they later show up to Chrises house where the authoer and her were getting high, they lied and said it was there first time doing drugs and were just trying it out. The cops believed them, after that Chris left town. Now the author had no friends again. Im anxious to see what else can happen now!

Go Ask Alice Blog 2

During pages 21-50 you start to see the effects that drugs have on the author. All she thinks about now is drugs, sex, alcohol, and more drugs. One day she meets Chris, who is able to get her a job at a little boutique she works at. With Chris she tries marijuana for the first time which she had wanted to for awhile. Once she tries it she becomes literally obsessed. Also her and Chris meet there new "college" boyfriends in these pages. Ofcourse they do drugs as well, they even push drugs and because of her boyfriend " Richie" she starts pushing (selling) drugs to everyone at school. Alice now is the most popular girl at school because of her drug ways. She truley is happy. I know that now things are going to get even worst then they already were.

Go Ask Alice Blog 1

So far I really like this book. I cant put it down. Ive already read half of the book. I was really surprised at the beginning when I learned that Alice was a loser and had no friends. But i guess because of that it turned her on to drugs. When she goes back to stay with her grandma I would have never guessed that that was when she first tried drugs. The way she did it the first time is sickening. She was given drugs without even knowing, and of all drugs LSD which seriously messes you up. The sickest thing is that she enjoyed it. I would never enjoy something like that. THat made me think really low of her. But when her grandpa got sick I thought high thoughts of her when she would do anything and everything for her grandparents for awhile while they needed her help. When she returned home I knew some bad things were going to go down. She didnt do hard core drugs she became a pill popper. I know that now a days if you want pills as strong as tranquiliazers you must undergo many tests, but I guess back then they were very easy to get ahold of because she just called up her doctor and simply asked for them and she got the prescripition.When I read all this I felt really bad for her but then I realized she enjoys all this so it made me kinda mad at her. I am really interested to see how her life goes now that she uses.

BOOK BLOGS

1. GO ASK ALICE
2. THE BOY IN STIPED PAJAMAS
3. BLACK HAWK DOWN ( id rather perfer not too)
4. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD(realllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyy dont want too)

Last Chapter (:

Out of all the chapters this was so intense. I couldn't put my book down without finishing the chapter. It starts of really nice, his family adopted his friend Mohamad and they return to the school they went to as a child. They really enjoy school. Although I was mad to hear that the all the kids mistreated them because they were soilders. Just when everything was going good all hell broke loose. A war breaks out in Freetown . Ishmael was seriously in fear of his life because he thought he might see one of his friends and then they relize that he is a civilian now so they would kill him. I thought that one point Ishmael had a relapse and wished htat he could be a part of the war but then he realizied that he is now  a civilan for good. It was so sad when they had to resort to getting food in an undergroud market, and then ofcourse he gets trapped in between a war. He just barely misses getting shot. Then his Uncle gets sick and dies. He took it very hard. I remember thinking wow look how much he has changed, he actually cried when his Uncle passed. At that point he felt that everything he loved was gone forever now, and it was. Then he knew he had to get out of Sierra Leone. So he calls up Laura and asks if he could live with her and she said ofcourse. I seirously didnt think Beah was going to make it to Guinea, the peaceful neighboring country. He almost gave up to when during like the 3rd part of the journey he discovered he didnt have enough money. But im glad he didnt. I seriously cant wait to go hear him talk in Janurary. By reading this book it really touched me so im sure going to hear him speak will too. (:

Chapters 19-20

These chapters were so cute! I was so happy that Beah went to NYC. I just knew he would get chosen to go there. You can really see that he is not that well educated. I mean he didnt know what an elevator was, he was actually scared when the "box" started moving. I thought that was really funny. But by going to New York I knew great things would come from it. I think that a healing strategy for him is talking about all his experiences. What he said to the UN really touched them because Laura grew very fond of him. She even took him to the airport and later on they would write to each other often. It was so cute how he was descrbing the city. And when he got off the plane! He didnt even know what snow was. I feel like if he didnt go to New York he wouldn't be who he was today , because I know that was a big part to his full recovory.

chapters 17-18

It made me real happy to read these chapters. In these chapters Ishmael begins to understand what its like to be a civilian again. Also I think its really funny how Esther tries to bribe Ishmael to come to the hospital and talk to her with coca cola. I think it was a big turning point when Beah got to go to the town and Leslie bought him a Bob Marley cd. I kinda thought that that was what sparked his memories as a child. But the only way he could listen to it is if he went to the hospital and visited Esther. This was a good strategy because it made him go and eventually he started talking to Esther. I think that talking to Esther about everything was one of the big aprts of him recovering. Chapter 18 made me feel so happy. At first Beah thought he had no family but then he realized he had an uncle, but when he realized this he gave up hope in Leslie finding him. But he did and it touched me when his Uncle first came to visit Beah and what he said to him . I was really glad that Beah now got to be apart of a family again.

chapters 15-16

In these two chapters I kinda lost my respect for Beah. But then I again I know he can't help himself. They way the boys treat the staff and nurses and guards is horrible! It really shows how mentally disturbed they are from the war. All they think, and want is violence. Especaially when at first the boys were put with RUF kids, they all got in fights and evenually a couple people got killed. Also in these chapters you seriuosly how the drugs messed the kids up. For example Beah faints, and throws up green. They are so obsessed with drugs that he even searches his pockets for crumbs of drugs. In these chapters you can really see how they boys crave violence, and how they wish to  go back to war. For example they all move there matresses outside. Theyre trying to do anything they can to get the feeling that they are still in power. They even resort to beating up suppy person just because they know they can . Also in these chapters Beah is first introduced to Esther. Although he doesnt like her yet, she tries to have a relationship with him. I knew that when she was first introduced that they would have a relationship and she would be his backbone. Overall these 2 chapters made me realize how traumitizing the war was.

book choices!

GOSSIP GIRL - CECILY VON ZIEGESAR- These are my favorite books, I know guys aren't going to want to read them but I know girls will.

TEARS OF A TIGER - SHARRON M. DRAPER- I read this book last year, once I started it I had to finish it the same day. Its so good and really teaches you about life

chapters13-14

These two chapters, were the most powerful but yet disturbing pages I have ever read. I had to stop reading at a couple points because I couldnt handle what was happening. These chapters were about war. How the soliders that Beah is with fight the rebels. It starts out with the boys about to go to war and someone comes and gives everyone white pills, which the boys take without blinking. That already bothered me. Then the boys go out and start to fight the rebels, Ishmael at first was reluctant, but then he sees the blood coming out from his dead two friends and he snaps. He kills the first person without feeling any emotion, and from there on out kills people without even blinking.  These were most definetly the most intense chapters yet. You see that Ishmael has turned to the bad side, and from what it looks like at this point isn't going back . I wanted to kill the commander when he made those 5 kids play the game where whoever kills they're  prisionr and they die first gets a prize. But ofcourse Ishmael was asked to play that game and of course he won. He seriously doesnt care about anything anymore, he does drugs almost 24/7 and kills people whenever. He is brainwashed to think its good and htat hes killing rebels, but in fact he is just doing what they are doing. I was really sad from reading these chapters.

chapters 11-12

In chapter 11 and 12 I was sort of confused. I knew Beah and his friends were in a safe place, but yet at the same time I was confused whether the soilders were good or bad. They did the same thing rebels did, smoked, did drugs, captures towns and civilians. What took place over these two chapters though was interesting. Its all about the boys getting trained to fight the rebels who wre just outside there town. I didnt want Ishmael to participate because I knew he would turn bad but he did train. In these chapters you can really see how it leads up to Ishmael snapping in the next chapters. I remember while reading these chapters I just wanted to keep on reading to see what happens to Ishmael, which unfortunetly turned out badly.

chapter 10

Chapter 10 was very long and very emotional. It starts off by the boys going to a village and the village is very accepting towards them , by letting them stay there and feeding them as well. At night their friend Musa would tell stories about this spider and how it came to be what it looks like now. They boys though eventually have to leave the village. While they are walking a bird fell out of the sky and Saidu decided to eat because the poor boy is starving. While walking later that night the boys thought they heard Rebels and then Saidu passes out. The boys carry Saidu to the next village where they are allowed to sleep for the night. Later that night Saidu died. The villagers were nice enough to allow him to buried there. This must have been really hard on Beah. Seriously all i want to do is give him a hug because I fell so bad for him. Im curious to see what happens next.

chapter8-9

I though chapter 8 was pretty cool. I liked how he kept having flashbacks, but I guess that would be sad for him. I this chapter you see how Beah becomes responsible for himself. I mean he sleeps in in trees. And gets his own fruit. Thats pretty hard to do , especially when the group of 6 always had trouble finding food. Chapter 9 really like impacted me. Its awesome to see a complete stranger take the boys in like that. He had no idea if they would harm him or not but the man still let them in . Somehow people in the village found out the man did this, and they were very angry so they went out and captured the boys. They were brought in front of the chief who thought they were rebels. Then he foundthe rap tape and learned that they were just lost boys. Can you even believe that RAP MUSIC can save Beah's life not once, not twice, but three times ? Its amazing. Obviously this is happeneing because he is supposed to live. So far I thought chapter 9 was the best.

chapter 6-7

I though chapter 6 was pretty intense. Especially when all the boys get captured. Its amazing to see that is the rap music in Beahs pocket that saves them. Its pretty ironic though, because it was the rap music that saved them in the first place when their village was orginally attacked.After they were captured and set free it seemed like things were different. All the boys are quiet now and they always have a look of sadness on their faces. Later on when the boys go to the Kamator they get jobs being farmers. I thought that was really good and it was distracting. Its funny to see though that it took them 3 days to clear out the field and only 3 hours for the uncle to do that. Sadly though after 3 monthes the rebels eventually came. And he never saw his older brother again. I dont know what i would do if that were me. I can not belleive how strong of a kid Beah was. In chapter 7 when the boys are seperated Ishmael finds Kaloko, they go village to village to find their friends by they never end up finding them. Ishmael becomes frustated and decides to go off on his own. He goes away and it takes him 6 days to even have any human contact. YOu start to relize that Beah really is truly alone in this chapter. Its really sad to think about that ,I cant believe though that he went off on hiw own. I could NEVER do that.

chapter 3-5

In chapter 3 of the book things start going down hill. First off messengers are sent to the village to tell them that the rebels are coming. The meaning behind this is to warn them about the RUF power. Also in chapter 3 we learn that the RUF carve RUF into their soilders skin. They do this because if someone tried to runaway a soilder would see the marking and kill the runaway. Mainly they try to recruit young, healthy boys into there army. In chapter 3 we see how Ishmael starts to become less caring. For example in the swamp he just passes people instead of helping them. In chapter 4 the boys become internally displaced and the rebels find them. They try to run away but one of the boys is too slow because he is carrying a bag so he gets shot. In chapter 5 Junior gets recruited for the RUF, but Ishmael and Khailou do not. This couple of chapters shows how everyone is slowly turning on each other and how its now all one man for himeself. Im interested to see what happens now.

chapter 1 +2

The first couple chapters to Along Way Gone really got me hooked to the book. In the first chapter it is  just introducing you to what is going on in the book and the main characters. Right away we learn that Ishmael and his friends are really in to rap. Him  and his friends make  a little rap group and make dances together. Then the boys go 16 miles out of their village to comptete in a rap show. They learn that while they are gone that there village was attaccked. They go back and go to the wharfs to see if theyre families are there but they are not. So they go back to Kabati which was destroyed. What the boys is very disturbing. There is blood everywhere and everyone is fleeing for their lives. Chapter 1 ends by telling memories what happened before the war. Chapter 2 is very confusing , it is all a dream and i about 3 pages long. He has a nightmare and in the nightmare he is pushing a wheel barrow with someone in it. When he unwraps the body its himself with bullets all in it. It sybolized that he is not innocent anymore and is starting to turn into the monster that he later becomes. 

Things Fall Apart

At first when the white man came the Ibo people were scared. They had heard what happened to the Abame village and no one wanted that to happen to their village. Then the people felt like the missionaries were crazy. Especially since they believe in on god. People also were very confused by them for example letting osu's into the church. At first no one wanted the white men around. Then eventually over time everybody converted and so Christianity took over the Ibo people. The white men come into this with an attitude of power. I feel like they knew they would be able to take over the Ibo peoples religion , so they came in with an arrogant attitude. Basically they treat the native people like they own them. For example putting Okonkwo and the other men in jail and not letting them out without 200 cowries. Basically the white men just want more power, that is why they came to the Ibo people. They saw that they could take over, so they did. And now they run all the villages. Everyone listens to them, and is actually afraid of them. Ibo people said how they would go to war with them, but that is a lie. When Okonkwo kills one of the messengers everyone just sits there and asked why he did that. The missionaries accomplished what they came there to do, convert everyone to Christianity.

Things Fall Apart

Ever since Okonkwo came to Mbanta he's basically given up on everything. His value for work has changed drastically. Because he has been exiled from Umofia he has very little motivation for everything.  Okonkwo also doesn't believe in his Chi anymore. He blames everything on his Chi so he doesn't try to make life better. Because of all this his uncle Uchendu who adopted him into his family tries to make Oknonkwo look on the bright side of things. Uchendu tells Oknonkwo about the Ibo proverb of " Mother is Supreme." It says the the mother supreme is the protector and when something goes bad in life you return to your motherland. Okonknwo chooses to ignore this proverb. So Oknonkwo thinks he is basically that he suffers the worst out of everyone in the world. Which is not true at all. But because he thinks this his life is a mess now. That is also why he doesnt try to work at all anymore. Basically Okonkwo is full of self-pity. Uchendu told Okonkwo that he has had to bury 22 children. But even after that Okonkwo is still selfish and thinks he has the worst problems out of everyone. I personally think that Okonkwo is dumb and should listen to Uchendu. 

So Much Unfairness of Things

            In terms of PS’s punishment, I felt that it was fair. He had been going to that school for two years, so he definitely knew the honor code by then. It doesn’t really matter how or why you break the honor code, the code is what it is. He knew what the punishment would be expulsion, but he still cheated. What the dean said is correct. What would the Honor Code be if people done abide by it? I also thought that his friends treated them the way the should have. Charlie didn’t act any different towards PS. I felt the staff was very fair though.  They actually tried to listen to why PS cheated and also tried to understand where he was coming from. We all know if we were in PS’s position that we would want the staff to act like that, and not even listen to what actually happened. Although I was surprised I was glad PS’s dad acted the way he did. No one expected him to be so understanding and kind. Even though he was disappointed in PS I felt like he did a good job in the whole situation. The great thing about all this is it wasn’t a bad expulsion. PS didn’t leave that school being hated. He left being more loved than ever.

FRIDAY FILL INS #85

1. The last meal I had at a restaurant was Chicken Parmesean.

2. Waking up is something I intensely dislike.

3. The full moon is the best time of the month.
4. Aye girllll is one of my favorite local expressions.

5. Sometimes it's best to SHUT YOUR MOUTH.

6. The Dark Knight is the best movie I've seen so far this year!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to going to the Lucas Oil Stadium with all of my friends for the Fishers game, tomorrow my plans include chilling by my pool and Sunday, I want to sleep!

"Not Waving But Drowning " Response

In the world there are these things called stereotypes. For example someone who wears glasses and gets straight A's must be a nerd. Or if you play an instrument you must be a band geek. Well because stereotypes like that exist people most likely get the wrong first impression. I used to be a cheerleader and the stereotype that follows that is cheerleaders are fake, two faced preppy mean girls. I know that because thats what a friend told me someone said about my friends and I. Yeah i might fall into the category "preppy" but I am not fake. I am not two faced and I am not mean. I went up to this person and was like are you serious? How can you say that about me and you don't even know me.  Well the reason she said that was because she got a bad first impression of me. After that incident we started talking, and this girl apologized for what she had said. She had changed her opinion. I wont lie my feelings were hurt at first. I can't stand people who do things like that. Its one thing to say things about a person after they got a bad impression on them because they know them, but to do it when you don't even know the person? Thats wrong. I try to talk to a person before I make my first impression about them. I wish everyone could try do that as well.

Response to Article

Brooke Bluestein
Lit p.6
8-14-08
Readers Response

While reading “Monitoring sites with a Hawkeye” I discovered that I agreed with some of the things it had to say, and disagreed with some things it said.
Over all I have to disagree though with what the University of Iowa is doing. Honestly if someone is using facebook or myspace it has nothing to do with school. They are using it at home and it is their personal life. For schools to get involved in that is wrong. Yeah these kids are they’re students but you don’t see them getting involved in teachers personal lives. For example two LSU swimmers were removed from the team after making bad remarks about their coaches. I think that is wrong. They are entitled to their own opinion. Just like everyone else in the world is. Although I do agree that the Colorado football players were given harassment tickets. It doesn’t matter if it’s in person or on the Internet your still breaking the law by harassing. I just think that what kids put on the Internet has nothing to do with school. And if they make the choice to post bad things its their fault. But its not a reason to get kicked off a sports team. There is also a rule that if other athletes see something bad on the Internet they must report it. I don’t think that’s rights. Kids shouldn’t have to get in the middle of what some other kid posted on the internet. Overall I disagree with this law.