Spud: Learning to fly

This is the third book of the series and It describes the third year that John Milton in an elite school in South Africa. Alot has happened since the second book. John's emotionally unstable girlfriend is now very religious and has found a boyfriend that is almost twice her age. Both of them go to a youth church and thats how they met. John was deeply hurt by it and is very down, yet many great things happened in this story. It was the third year and every third year are pushing for prefect, yet John is the only one taking it easy. He has finally came to the fact that his deceased friend "gecko" is gone and never going to come back, yet John would learn from his carefree attitude towards pushing for prefect. John's arch enemy, Pike, is now a prefect and is torturing everyone in their house, so the crazy eight devise a plan to demote him. They caught his drinking and smoking in his room and report to their housemaster, "Viking". At the third term, John and many of his friends were successfully selected for the school play at a elite girls-only college and Would spend the whole term there. Two girls, Penny and Brenda, were the only girls allowed in the boys' house as they would be their guides. In the end, the play ended spectacularly and there were many praises from newspapers. Meanwhile back at school, only "Garlic" was left in the hostel and he was constantly watched by the disciplinary master and was caught on many occasions going nightswimming. Eventually, he was put on final warning. Simon left school for half a year to go to England to play for a prestige criket club and returned and lied to everyone that he had parent issues, eventually he told them about the truth and they believed him. Although John was not eager to be a prefect, he was able to be selected as a prefect for his helpful attitude and his all rounded achievements. His father has decided to open a pub with his best mate Frank and business is booming. He is able to afford a Mercedes Benz and now fits in to every parent to school. He has also cut his drinking and has made a positive turn in his life. His family is now happy as every and they are well. Sometimes, John misses the family's green station wagon and how deranged and dysfunctional his family used to be.

The story ends very abruptly as the last day of school was the last day John wrote on his diary. This book is better that the second book as it is more interesting and fascinating. The element of change is good and I am eagerly anticipating for the release of the fourth and final book.

Spud: the madness continues (sequel)

The story is about John Milton's second year at an elite boys only private school. He has the nickname of Spud as he is the only boy in his dorm not to hit puberty yet.John in general dislikes his life, because of the major embarrassment he gets from having slightly deranged parents, a senile grandmother and being part of one of the most notorious gangs in the school. The main story revolves around John and the crazy 8 gang doing crazy things in school. Henry Barker "Gecko" dies in the end of the first book and John is deeply hurt that one of his best friends is gone. The crazy 8 is thus left with 7 members and they came up with the final decision to accept Roger the cat into the crazy 8. John is very pessimistic about many aspects of his life, especially his Johnness and has a low self-esteem when confronting personal matters, such as his shaky relationship with his girlfriend, Mermaid. In the early part of the book, he breaks up with her and John could not get over it. He still misses her and often cycles to her house during the holidays to get a glimpse of her. He was horrified to see her with a blonde surfer and she picking up smoking. In the end, they get back together. There was also a girl Amanda, a student of St Catherine that had come to know John last year. John has a crush on her and describes her as Julia Roberts. They have an on and off relationship due to her having a boyfriend and she being 2 years older that John.

Compared to the previous book, this book lacks imagination and excitement. The previous book was about John’s crazy first year, and the second book seems to be less crazy and radical as the formal. However, there are some exciting parts such as the crazy 8 sneaking around school and bullying first year juniors. This book also taps into one’s heart as you tend to feel sad alongside John’s misfortunes. I felt that many of these things that are described are also around me and I get a sense of familiarity when reading it.

Overall, I would give this book a 9 out of 10 for it being a book that one can feel for, and for its vivid descriptions of characters.

WHO IS THE SPEAKER?

Author: Steve Carlsen

Steve Carlsen was born and lives in Dowagiac Michigan. He joined the US Army in October 2000 and went to Infantry Basic Training, and Airborne School in Ft. Benning Georgia. He then reported to D Company 1st battalion 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment. 82nd Airborne Division in Ft. Bragg North Carolina. He deployed to Kosovo in November 2001 as part of peace keeping operations. He Deployed to Afghanistan in of December 2002 where he participated in combat operations. He was honourably discharged from the Army in 2003. He currently attends South western Michigan College where his professor, Dr Michael Collins challenged him to write about his experiences.

His vast military experience allowed him to tell us the readers how harsh and cruel war can bring be it in small scale wars or large scale ones like World Wars. The main theme is that one would lose his innocence after being involved and scarred by war.

The atmosphere in this poem is very intense and there is suspense. The persona is probably a soldier fighting in the war. Based on the background information on him, he is probably describing about his experiences in the Afghan war. The voice is probably dramatised in order to show the harsh conditions that are in the wall. He offers a political viewpoint.

ANALYSIS: POINT OF VIEW & CHARACTERISATION

The poem is about a soldier and his comrades running and fighting for their lives. They are frightened and fearful and hence don't even take off their boots when sleeping, fearing that they might have to wake up any moment to continue fighting the war, they are anxious and high in adrenalin.

This poem is viewed through the eyes of the author through the usage of the pronouns “I”, “our”, “we”, and “my”. The abstract allows the poet to show how the war affects the soldiers, from the soldiers own point-of-view through the poem. Furthermore, this point-of-view will cause the reader to be better able to understand the feelings and emotions that the poet is trying to convey, for first-person narration gives the reader the opportunity to relate to and sympathise with the persona. ?

ANALYSIS: THE SITUATION & THE SETTING

The situation the persona is in is extremely bleak and terrifying, for he has to jump from his plane into enemy territory, and into a hail of gunfire. The persona, and indeed the poet, is a paratrooper who every day of his life has to risk everything for his country, jumping into enemy territory under a hail of gunfire. This situation could be the reason the persona was and is beginning to doubt the war and his chances at survival "The reason why I survived the day was divine". He has also developed a close relationship with his platoon mates, as can be seen by "They say that blood is thicker than water, well lead is thicker than blood. In near death or critical situations, bonds forged can remain for one's entire lifetime, and are held by some as higher than even their own family. The persona is also numbed to the situation by then - he "kept pulling the trigger and reloading and pulling some more", yet displays no sense of guilt for killing a fellow being.

ANALYSIS: THE THEME

The main thing is that war only brings harm to people. It is ironical how some view going to war as being heroic, but actually everyone loses their innocence when they carry guns and that is why war brings nothing but a living hell, further emphasizing that world peace is not as easy to attain as we thought it was.

Language & Diction

The command, "30 seconds they yelled, Lock N Load and grab your shit", among others, creates an overall fast paced effect, as if they were being rushed to fight the war, It builds up both tension and excitement in the poem. It gives the overall impression that the poet and his comrades are running and fighting for their lives. They were so afraid and unsettled, that they don't even dare to take off their boots when sleeping. This, being put as the title, further emphasizes the terror of war that the persona is experiencing.

The writer uses the line "baptized in fire" to show cruelty in a war. As we all know, baptism is a an act of being washed of sins and having hope for the future. However, in war, there is no water. It symbolizes that the poets sins of killing accumulated in war can never be washed and forgiven. This is further worsened through being baptized in fire as it fire and hell are closely liked and it is completely opposite of being baptized in water.

The repetition of the word "and" is also another feature of the poem: "I kept pulling the trigger and reloading and pulling some more ... Dirty and tired and hungry and scared". The constant use of "and", show how never-ending, dreary and tiring war is. The soldiers have to constantly do something in order to save their own lives. Personal Response to the Work

Personal Responce

Sometimes, war is inevitable. Even in this cases, war is a huge waste of resources. Huge amounts of materials are used to make tanks, guns and bullets. These are not the most important losses, the most important would be the loss of lives. Many soldiers have sacrificed their lives to keep their country alive, even those survivors would be scared in their hearts and brains. The memories of the war would always haunt them no matter how long it has passed. It might also leave a country in debt and would take a long time to rebuild.

However, war brings many goods as well, it is the prime time for development of war technologies as every country is pitted against oneself and they are constantly trying to outdo each other.

In conclusion, I think war brings more evil as the countless lives lost are not worth it.

Sources: http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/2010warpoetry.html#Slept

http://theintellectualmind.blogspot.com/2010/05/term-2-online-home-learning-poetry-we.html

Diary of a soldier in Baghbad

My light at the end of the tunnel is brighter than ever. My replacement is due tomorrow and i and my fellow American Soldiers are excited about finally returning home to our families. I just got back from another trip to Baghdad. The commanders and i attended a party help by some of our commanders. We are due to visit our camp for the last time tomorrow as we say our last goodbyes to our fellow soldiers. There is only 1 female soldier in our camp. Even though she is a girl, she fight as hard as any of us. She is a real special person and I was proud to see her being recognized for the outstanding job she has done here as commented by our commander.

Meanwhile about John and Jake( two fellow soldiers that came with me), they have recovered very well from their sickness due to heat stroke and not adapting well to Baghdad. Their contracts are renewed and they will stay in Baghdad for another 3 months. May god bless them and all our fellow soldiers in camp. May this war end as early as possible and peace return to his world.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8492000/8492777.stm

Look at this video, live the moment and fell their pain.

The war scene was horrible. Apart from the constant sounds of bullets, there were the frequent screams of men being shot. The atmosphere was tense, one could not predict who was being shot or shooting at, one could only pray it was not him. After bullet sounds come, one can predict that another men has died.Men on the battlefield were fighting their hearts out, for their country and its survival. In front of me was a man who lost his leg due to a mine. From his eyes, i could see the sorrow and pain in his eyes. He was desperately screaming and howling for help, yet someone like me could not do anything. A war scene is never a nice one, it brings sorrow to your life. When returning from every trip, i felt that i have grown much more. Experiencing it yourself is an incredible chance to increase you knowledge and wide your world.

Cooking Recipe!

Today, I am going to teach you how to make a cheesy melt breakfast sandwich.

What you will need: 2 bigger pieces of multigrain bread, ham/ sausages, cheese (preferably in squares slices), butter and a few pieces of cabbage.

First of all you will have to peel the plastic off your cheese and rinse your cabbage. If you eat a lot for breakfast, you could make 2 sandwiches, otherwise 1 sandwich will make you full.

Add some butter on your pan and heat it for 3 minutes, It will turn into a brownish liquid. Then place your bread directly on top of it. For about 20 second, the bread will sizzle. Then turn it around and fry the other side. The appearance of it will be brownish golden. Do the same for the second piece of bread

Then , add the piece of cheese on the slice of bread.

Heat it in your microwave of oven for about 1 minute at medium wattage (400w) while you are frying the other piece of bread.

Add the ham or sausage and the cabbage onto the sandwich and enclose it with the send piece of bread and……

You have your cheesy melt breakfast sandwich!

The bread will have an oily and crispy texture to it and it will be amazing! The smell is just as nice with the smell of cheese, butter and the toasted bread. If you are very health cautious, you could use none fat butter, you will get the same effect!

As long as you follow the steps above, your cheesy melt sandwich will sure taste amazing!

57 east coast way #10-15

Singapore 127919

30/3/2011

Dear Mr. Nick Jones,

I am Fan Yiheng from Singapore and studying in Hwa Chong Instituition. Today my teacher gave us an assignment about japan and I came across your article. I sympathies with you and the plague in Japan. From what I see on TV and the newspapers, the earthquakes and tsunami have don’t tremendous damage to Japan. I believe that Japan will be able to bounce back from this incident as how it did 70 years ago during the nuclear bombing. Your family must be terribly affected by the disasters and I hope your family will stay strong and live through this incident.

Your story has been amazing and it just shows how fortunate I am in Singapore with no natural disasters as we are shielded by, many courtries. You are also very fortunate as you and your family are safe and sound. We all over the world shall pray for you and others in Japan. I will try my best to help you all in Japan by donating money.

Many are dead and missing, and some of my close friend’s family are affected. I do feel your pain. The nuclear disaster is of great danger and I really hope that “Chernobyl” will not happen again. I really hope you can write more so that other people and me around the world will be able to be informed about how life is over at Japan as we will never be able to experience this firsthand.

My school has been actively collecting donations to help benefit the people in Japan. I would also like to donate more. Would it be possible for you to suggest an organization for us to direct funds to?

With all my gratification and condolence, I hope Japan will recover from this incident and be strong again.

Regards,

Fan Yiheng.