"Black and Blue" Anna Quindlen #2

I'm on page 110. Robert is the son and so far he's just a young boy that loves both of his parents and was aware of what was going on in his fathers household, but didn't think it could really happened and almost didn't believe it was happening even though it was. When his mother Fran or "Beth" left she got help from a outsider named Patty, they arrived in Florida to a little crummy apartment, where they are going to stay awhile. "Beth" is always worried that Bobby her husband will come after them and also that she's going to run out of money that, she only was provided with a certain amount and its starting to run low. They arrive there 3 weeks before school starts for Robert and "Beth" enrolls Robert into school and she is surprised that they already have his school transcripts and they know to look out or are aware of a man named Bobby that asks for a kid named Robert. On Robert's first day of school he takes the bus to school and then "Beth" goes to the school separately to check the route and everything out. When she gets there it's hard for them both, because they aren't used to the change yet. She starts talking to a woman and they seem to kinda of click when they first start talking. Robert and "Beth" have evolved and become selfless and even though it is and will be hard it was the best decision in the long run of both of them. My prediction, for Bobby, who is the perpetrator is that he will come around in the next few pages of the book and will find "Beth" and will beat her and then take the son, Robert and threaten to kill him, if she doesn't come back. Then someone else will get involved and Bobby will " accidentally" kill that person and have to try to cover it up while trying to force "Beth" to come live with him again or he will kill there son. That's just what I think is going to happen. I feel so bad for the victims, Robert and "Beth" they have to run and rearrange there lives because there father/husband is crazy and abuse to his spouse. I think that in the end "Beth" will kill Bobby and they will have to move somewhere else or move back to there original home and restart there.

"Black and Blue" Anna Quindlen blog # 1

I got my wallet stolen at the gym and then a couple months later, my phone got stolen. Those are the only two times I can think of right now that I've been involved with and had to report a crime. The story that I'm reading is " Black and Blue"  and its about a mother and son that are running away and hiding from her husband and his dad. The father is a cop and was very good to his wife in the first part of his marriage, but soon after that ended and he turned out to be very jealous, possessive, controlling and also very abusive. He never hurt his son but he would beat on his wife a ton and she loved him so she would hide it and after he beat on her he would make, blame her and make her feel guilty like she did something to deserve it. After a long time of abuse she had, had it and wanted out. Her being a nurse she got a hold of a woman that could help her get away and that's what she did. I just got to the part of the book where the mother and her son just got off the train and are set up with their new identities and the place that there going to be until the father tries to come after yhem

"Kite Runner"blog # 2 11/16 Nicholas Nowell - Mrs. Owens

I just recently finished the book and it was excellent! In the last fifty pages I almost cried, which was a huge surprise to me and meant that I got more into the book than I originally thought. The last hundred pages were the best part of the book, because you found out all the extra details and secrets that that movie never displayed and it broke the whole story down and made sure the reader really got the full picture of the book/ story. My favorite part of this book is when Amir finally stands up for not only himself, but his nephew Sohrab, Hassan’s son and gets him out of the bad situation that he was in and takes him under his wing as his own child and then even when more tragedy happens Amir sticks it out and doesn’t give up and keep his head up and keeps moving forward. For this I think Amir deserves to feel content with his life at that point and can finally feel at rest with himself. Also I think that he’s in a truly happy place in his life when they end the read and that it will only get better from there! My favorite character in the book is Amir and in some aspects I can relate a little bit to him, but I also can relate to some of Hassan earlier life traits, but for my project im going to use Amir, because he's there throughout the book and the can be a lot said about Amir, and you can see the growth and his progress over a long period of time.

"Kite Runner"blog # 1 11/2 Nicholas Nowell - Mrs. Owens

I’m 175 pages Into the book and it was a very good book, even though I know what some parts would be like since I had already seen the movie, the book tells you a lot of the back story and uses a lot more descriptive details and explains things in a better way than the movie could. This book is very sad and a rough read, because so many different things happen in this book that are horrible things and should never happen to anyone. From Hassan getting raped to Amir and Baba going to American where they have to start from ground zero, when Baba was already a very successful man in his native Kabul homeland. Another sad aspect to this wild story is the way that people are treated, because they are from a different group of religious people, whether or not they are the same religion and pray at the same 5 times every day they treat Hassan type very less and act like they are a dirty animal some examples of this are that Ali and Hassan live in a mud hut in the back of Baba and Amir’s house and they have to work for Baba and Amir like they are slaves even though they get paid small wages they are just treated differently in that society and even the other neighborhood kids make fun of their Hazara and sonni Muslim background. They get called Flat noses, dirty bloods, several animal names and some very other extremely disrespectful names. All in all I’ve gotten through this book so far just reading in classes and it’s pretty addicting I find that I have to stop at a chapter end, because I don’t want to have to re-read the last few pages and still not get it.

final blog of 1st quarter 10/23 Nicholas Nowell - Mrs. Owens

i had a very rough work quarter, and started out on the wrong foot, so the rest of the quarter has been a keep- up game. what i think i did well, when i turned something in it was the best that i could have done at that point and time. what i think i didn't do so well was staying caught up with the work and getting the requirements done when they were supposed to be done. i think that after the first quarter once i get my act together  and not being as stressed as i was with football, i will be able to get things in on time and they will seem more quality and seem like i spent more time on them. my goals for the second quarter are to get everything turned on time for the classes that i have and if i'm aware of a project that's due, do it to the best of my abilities and get an early start on it, so that i'm not rushing and hurrying to get something done the night before. i also think that i struggled with asking the questions that i needed help with, because i was asking questions they just weren't the right ones that needed to be asked to make sense in my head.

2nd quarter goals

-turn assignments in on time

- make sure there quality and to the best of my ability

- ask questions; to get better and learn which questions i need to ask to understand things more

-get 3.0 or higher

-get a job

- start projects when you get them and finish them before the due date

"the things they carried" nicholas nowell 10/15/12 post #2

i am almost finished with the book and have loved it. one character that i seem to relate to a lot is Norman Bowker, which is was a real person but in previous books was covered using a different name, but because of some events that took place the author got permission to finally use his real name and tell the story that really happened, without the extra "storyline" b.s he told it how it really was this time and in other books that the author wrote he may have borrowed bits and pieces and then made the rest up but this is the real and true story of what happen. i enjoy the way that Tim O'brien writes and i under it well and it seems to get through to me. my favorite chapter of this book is "Speaking of Courage" its a extremely deep chapter and its real life, it shows that things don't always turn out the way you want them to and sometimes shit happens and it doesn't go your way.the reason i liked this chapter so much is because of the way the author descirbes and goes about telling the story of Norman Bowker. and up to this point you only know little things about the characters and its really all a mytstry until you get to that next chapter in the book and then you start to put the pieces togather and understand it all.

"the things they carried" nicholas nowell 10/8/12 post #1

after reading 50 pages of this book, i have liked it and can relate to a lot of the feeling that tim O'brien is expressing. i am having a hard time in life finding a purpose and point to things. i've done a lot and been very spoiled up to this point in my life and now that its time to start doing things on my own, i cant find the motovation to get up and do things. they have always been done for me and im scared to even try to do them. this drives me crazy inside and it has created a little prison in my head and how i think about any subject and just daily life. i saw a post on facebook early today and it was "you can live life, or you can exist" and at this point in time i was to just exist because i feel that i dont have a purpose. and having all this self pity makes me seem like a weak person and that is probly., very to to a certain degree but i just cant get out of my ways of thinking and even though that i am venting on here its just not enough and dont know what else to do besides drive my self crazy worrying about stuff that cant be changed and a bunch of things i filled my head with for a long time and now am starting to believe it and second guess and question things. once again i am sorry for having to post about my "stupid" little problems, but there big in my head and i wont be okay til i get past them.