Nearing the end

Jake and I are nearing the end of our project.  This past week as been a grind.  I have finished my three movie reviews and my book.  Now I just have to write an analysis of my book.  Jake and I also have to write our final paper which is a comparison of the things we noticed in the films to our books and the things we learned from our interviews. 

Jake and I also watched the documentary "Restrepo" this week.  It was filmed by the same man who wrote the book I read, Sebastian Junger.  In the film, I was able to see many of the things that Junger described in his book and it further advanced my understanding of what actually was going on in the Koregial Vally in Iraq.  "Restrepo" will be used as another piece of real evidance in our final paper.  It was an extremely cool film and I was able to actually put a face on many of the men that Junger described in his book.  I got to see actual firefights and, unfortunatly, see actual deaths and the reactions by the men to those deaths. 

Good luck everyone come check out the one acts!!!!!

Change of Plans

           Looks like I'm not on schedule like I previously believed.  In fact I'm pretty far behind.  As it was discovered today in class, Jake will not be here for the second half of next week because of other commitments that he has to fufil.  So, instead of my deadline being May, 17th for having my book read with a summary of it and three completed film reviews, my deadline is now Monday.  Five less days than previously expected.  It's crunch time to say the least.  This weekend will be loaded with two baseball games and seemingly endless one act rehersals, as well as spending caulity time with my wonderful mother on mother's day.  Getting all my work done will be a serious challenge but I am confident in my abilities to get it done.  I have about 2 hours left of reading and I have to complete 2 more film reviews.  Nothing impossible, but a lot to say the least. 

           However, this has been a very interesting week.  Jake and I were able to listen in to our guest speaker on Monday who is part of the Naval inteligence.  Her stories and experiances were facinating to hear about and it was very cool to have the oppertunity to listen to someone who was actually in Iraq working for peace and anti-terrorism in that part of the word.

         See y'all in class,

         Your Friend,
       
          Steve

Everyone,

I have been using the time given to us in class to read my book.  i get through about 20 pages in our 50 minute blocks.  Everything is going well and I certainly see a difference between the media and reality in war.  I'm starting to notice that the films about more modern warefare like "Zero Dark Thirty" and "Act of Valor" are much more realistic opposed to the films about World War II like "Band of Brothers" and "Saving Private Ryan".  This could be because War tatics have changed in modern fighting and maybe more drama came out of the tatics used in WWII.  It's an interesting thought to consider. 

Jake and I are also looking for another component to add to our project for the speaking portion.  Right now we only have us giving interviews for speaking.  Any suggestions on what we could do!?!?!  See y'all in class.

-Steve

CRISIS!

Last night after I went on a cinematic adventure (Watched Black Hawk Down), I picked up my book and started reading.  I was on a role going through a very intense firefight between the platoon the author is following and Al Queda fighters when I spilled my protein shake all over my book.  What a waste of a protein shake.  Extremely disappointed in myself for that.  Anywho, I was begining to think that the media was under playing the amount of drama in war movies in my previous posts, but after last night I'm back to my original thoughts that the media is way to over dramatic.  In the book the men are so trained on what to do that they just do it.  The movies show hesitation, extreme fear, and sometimes cowardness from the soldiers.  They do this to build a plot and create drama.  However, in the book I am reading, "War", Junger says how robotic the soldiers are and how quickly they are to react to firefights.  They do not hesitate becasue they know that if they do they will likely die.  Of course the men are scared in the book, but Junger says that they are more scared of making a mistake that will kill their men.  They all care about keeping eachother alive more so then keeping themselves alive. 

Progress

This weekend I did not meet my goal of reading to page 75 but I came very close.  Jake and I are making progress on our presentation and I hope that everyone will find an interest in our project just like we have.  Also, I failed to get a fourth blog post up by 5 o'clock last night.  Does that make this post my fourth post for last weeek?  Or my first post for this week?  I'm making it my goal to not fall behind with another thing with the rest of this project. 

Re-writting and Blogging

Today's task have been simple.  I have been reading everyone's blogs (which is more fun than I expected) and re-wrtting my project proposal.  Tonight I will also do more reading and my goal is to have at least 75 pages read by the time we come to class on Monday.  I'm begging to see how everyone's projects will come together and I'm excited for the end of the term to see all of the finished products.  Buenos suerte todos!

Movies and Reading

Over the last couple of days I have watched the very well known war movie "Saving Private Ryan" and a couple of episodes in the series "Band of Brothers".  Both of these flims are extremely violent and dramatic.  Watching them made me think that the media is over playing the violance of war because there is no way that it could be so gruesome.  However, I am now reconsidering my first thoughts.  I have plowed through a whopping 30 pages of the book, "War" by Sebastian Junger.  Junger is an author who actually traveled with special forces troops in Iraq and Afghanastan.  He saw first hand what war is truely like and he wrote of his experiances.  They are eye opening.  I'm begining to think that the media cannot fully capture the brutality of war.  The descriptions of fire fights in the first 30 pages of Junger's book leave you with disturbing images.  I'm interested to read more and see if the media over plays the amount of drama in war at all. 

First Post

Hey.  Last night was my first night reading the book "War" by Sebastian Junger.  I got through about 15 pages.  It's already been very violant and i can't wait to read more.