Friday, February 18, 2011

World war 2 story

`When my grandfather first told me that he served in World War 2, I was very young, and didn’t know what to think. Now that I am older I understand what he was telling me about, and how he flew P51 mustang in the fight against Hitler in Germany. He told me about stories how when he had an enemy Messerschmitt, a German air plane with high firepower, but known for being slow. The US air force was taught if they were to have a Messerschmitt on their tail, they would fly into the sun, because The P51 mustang’s engine was the fastest and most powerful at the time. He told me that one time when he was low on gas, he was forced to drop his entire arsenal of bombs because it weighed too much. He said for fun, he would drop his bombs on the cows of France, in the pastures. My grandfather was a first lieutenant in the united states air force, his story not only changed how I felt about war, but gave me an insight at an early age on how messed up war can be. He was often in dogfights with enemy pilots; he explained that he and his co-pilot would have to use their lock on missiles to defeat the planes. This story gave me a new respect for what he did, as well as a awe as to how weird and unpredictable war could be.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Vocabulary

1. Grotesque(noun)-odd or unnatural in shape, appearance, or character; fantastically ugly or absurd.
-"It can be argued, for instance, that war is grotesque.
-Context clue that i used was own logic, because they were talking about war, and i recognize the word from use in books.
-The womans wounds were so grotesque that i couldn't stomach the sight of blood.

2. Surreal(Adjective)-having the disorienting, hallucinatory quality of a dream; unreal; fantastic.
-"And then afterward, when you go to tell about it, there is always that surreal seemingess, which makes the story seem untrue, but which in fact represents the hard and exact truth that it seemed.
-The context clue that I used was my own logic, the sentence suggests that it makes you feel unreal.
-Going to the doctor for the first time was a surreal experience.

3. Credibility)Adjective)-capable of being believed; believable.
-"Its a question of credibility"
-Context clue i used was reading the sentence before and the sentence after, also i have seen the word used in everyday language so i knew what it ment.
-The man has lied to me in the past, i question his credibility.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Calendar



"To do"- Finish SQ3R paragraph essay, study chapter 9 again, find out my work schedule

Vocabulary

1. Stash (Noun)- to put by or away as for safekeeping or future use, usually in a secret place.
-"Courage, i seemed to think, comes to us in infinite quantites, like an inheritance, and by being frugal and stashing away and letting it earn intrest, we steadily increase our moral, capital in preperation for the day when the account must be drawn down."
-My stash has many goodies in it.
-I used my own logic due to past eperience

2. Dispense(verb)-to deal out; distribute: to dispense wisdom.
-"it dispenesed with all those bothersome little acts of daily courage; it offered hope and grace to the repetitive coward; it justifited the past while amortizing the future.
-The atm dispensed my money
-I used my own logic, i learned dispensed from it being used in various every day situations.

3. Aggression-any offensive action, attack, or procedure; an inroad or encroachment.
-"A war of national liberation or simple aggression."
- When i found out i lost the basketball game i felt a lot of aggression
-National liberation is an act of relieving forced actions, therefore it was an antonym.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Vocabulary

-Shrapnel (Noun) A hollow projectile containing bullets or other metal designed to explode and spread on impact.
-"...Often useless because of the shrapnel in the earth, but they carried it anyway, partly for saftey, partly for the illustion of saftey."- The Things They Carried.
-I found the example of shrapnel using my own logic due to the use of the word in video games. The shrapnel landed in the mans leg, wounding him.

The Things I Left

            I carry the shame of leaving everything I knew for 16 years to start a new life. I wanted fresh start, a new city, with no friends, no goals. I carry the guilt of failing my dad’s expectations in school. I carry the disappointment of playing basketball for 15 years and then sitting on the bench even though I had the skills to play. I carry 3 items on me; my wallet, cell phone, and car keys. More important then the tangible things are the intangible things, my past, my goals, and my thoughts of what to do next. As I reflect on past events I can only think of the type of kid I was. Suborn, annoying, immature, but still intelligent. These attributes shaped how I live today, as I grew older and looked back on the way I acted at my old school, I can only admit that I had some of the bullying and abuse coming. The constant teasing, my dad’s new girlfriend that despised me, my old traditions that my father and I held, all of this was shattered. For 15 years my father and I lived together, did everything…ate, played sports, slept, we were each others support. When my dad wanted a women in his life, my childhood brain thought, “Why not mom?” For the next 7 years I would try my absolute hardest to get this woman out of my house. The outright defiance I had for authority and everything that it represented effected me in school, and in my social life.