Shooting War

Reading Shooting War in one quick swoop, turned out to be more of a plummet. I figured a comic book with a different picture to every page would go rather fast. Although, it took longer than expected I did enjoy reading the politic comic. I found it more gratifying in the change of scenery provided by action packed cartoons. Jimmy Burns, a new generation blogger providing live footage of terrorism (in the year 2011) got more than he signed up for. Traveling, sometimes unwillingly, he would run live feed of first hand terrorism showing the world what was becoming. Starting off as a stud blogger who would receive personal emails of naked women, he would soon find himself without a job as his feed would lessen/worsen. Making friends of the "enemies" he would provide favors, and broadcast their political debates/massacres. He claimed he would simply just find himself at the right place when someones about to die, which is how he got into this mess, within the 'belly of the beast"

War on Terrorism

As we all know, our country, the United States of America is on a slump, and it doesn't look like we'll be in good shape anytime soon. With the upcoming presidential election taking up most of the head lines, and the well known tax increase creeping up, there is a lot of questioning to whether or not this war in Iraq was such a good idea. Bush, leaving his second term should have had this war on terrorism taken care of almost five years ago. Now, left with new candidates, we are not all that confident that a new great depression is uprising, and when the people aren't happy, the country only gets worse and in a sense "selfish". Now leaving us pretty much like the country we're fighting, who's taken a big lean towards the reason of our downfall and most of all, debt. Maybe going around for the last six and a half years, bombing other countries and primarily interfering with other peoples business wasn't the right away to go.

The Road to Success

Everyone, for the most part, goes to college to be all they can be. Having dreams and aspiration to receive a degree is what you go to college for. Being all you can be, however, may be achieved through another means of discipline and self management. The marines, similar to the college life, also requires a self discipline where you need to grow up and get tough. Not always just mentally, but physically as well, for the marines at least. Going on my second year of college, and moving into the big city life, I quickly adjusted myself and realized, I had to get tough, or go home. Being amongst hundreds of people everyday, can get rather irritating. You can feel a sense of privacy through the unfriendly sort of personal space everyone gives off towards one another in public areas, and so in the class room, or the training filed. So you learn to sort of keep to yourself in a new surrounding. You need to understand your training yourself to become a weapon in the marines, and weapons aren't necessarily "nice". You need to adjust yourself in order to be "all you can be", and make it easier as to follow the proper attitude of conduct. Your teachers, just like drill instructors, can be illiberal, and sometimes try and get a scare out of you, sometimes taking it too far, but proper adjustment and direction will get you over the edge towards making it to the next level. In the end you should feel a sense of gratitude, and realize that you've become a better person for it.

The Last Stand

Finally, the end of the war has come, and all that is left to do is venture around, securing areas, and embracing the sweet feel of victory... right? Apparently not, according to Mr. Swofford. When all is done, and the marines return home, some are left with this feel of vacancy. As if all their effort and emotional anguish was all for nothing. Evidently, if you hadn't killed a man in war, you are a liar, a cheat. Simply, just came along for the ride. Those men who came home, telling war stories, talking about "good news", disgrace the reputation of themselves, their family, and their country.

After reading the end of Jarhead, and listening to Anthony Swofford speak in the present tense of his venture and outlooks upon it, I simply thought of an old depressed man wanting to complain about his life. I thought of my grandfather, and how he suffers from this neurosis. I feel that at the time of war he was proud to represent his country, and glad of his decision to sign his life to the marines. Now, lonely and a little older, he may not have much going for him right now in life, and so... Jarhead, by Anthony Swofford.

Jarhead: Part 2

Reading well into the second half of the novel, Swofford finally gets into speaking about his experience in combat. Digging holes, sleepless nights, and old love stories of whoever and wherever, pretty much sums up his "combat experience" at war. Being bored all hours of the night, the men ritually would talk about past experiences before they joined the Marine Corps, primarily of past relationships. During the day, they would prepare for possibilities, spending hours digging protective man holes. Meanwhile we see a slightly different, more sensitive side of Swofford. Each day theres more questioning why he joined the Marines, complaining about his decision. Jumping in and out of time periods more and more, you can sense that he has many meaningful memories flowing through his jar-head. One having to do with his father, and how he didn't want his son to follow in his footsteps. One instance he speaks of, is when his father insisted on driving his to San Diego, moments before their good bye's. His father making a slight detour to where Tony was born, and that maybe he felt that it helped reflect upon his family, and "reacquaint" himself with his own lost youth, asking his son not to go off a get himself killed.

Anthony Swofford / Peter Liota

After catching up on some major sleep Tuesday night I continued into Jarhead. I came to the realization that Swofford and I share this connection. Being, we both are in a time in our lives were we need to adapt and overcome. Anthony on one hand has a slightly more drastic change, in that he has just joined the marine corps, and needs to get completely broken down as an individual to be a "success". I on the other, have to get a feel for a more up tempo life style living in down town Brooklyn. Having to take a major step in life which requires moving away from home, can be rough and lonely. Originally from North Carolina, living in between huge buildings that go above ten floors is not to common, not to mention living three blocks from the promenade is pretty cool. Opening yourself to new living conditions and roommates is quite an experience when living in a completely different area, plus I can only imagine how it feels to have an irrational drill sergeant call you names on top of it. Then having rationality or rules go beyond the limits, for instance when Swofford was asked to draw what a footlocker should like, and apparently drew it poorly, he was beaten, having his head tossed into a blackboard. Where illegally crossing the street (J walking) is accepted as "legal" or allowed even with police enforcement standing at every corner. Although, I do like living in the big city of New York and would recommend it to anyone considered in the city college life.

Just one of those days...

Exhausted after getting out of the shower, I found myself reflecting what I actually did today... Waking at 7:30, I got up, brushed my teeth, grabbed a pop tart and headed for my 8am biology class. After getting out of class at 9, I make my way back to my building to get changed, and head over to the gym. After 30 minutes of cardio, and an hour of lifting, I walk back to my building to shower, and get changed. Left with 15 minutes before my 11:15 history class, I grab a yogurt on the go. Getting out of class at 12:20, I make my way down to the pool, where I get in just over a half mile of freestyle swimming, not including the repetitious drills and stretching before and after the workout itself. Left with 30minutes before music class, I grab some lunch. Music gets out at 4:20, I then proceed to the training room for 2 hours of physical therapy treatment.

I get back to my building around 6:30. Tired of the usual microwavable burrito or hot pocket, I unwillingly force myself up to the third floor with a pot, and some pasta. Using an electric stove, I had to wait around for 45 minutes, listening to these two girls complaining on "why guys are so difficult". After getting back to my room I simply add butter to the pot and dug in. After quickly jumping in the shower, now just about 8:30, I find myself mentally and physically fatigued. I soon realize that my day is still not over, and there is still history and biology reading to be done. Overwhelmed, I sit on my bed, grab my laptop, and feel the need to write about my day, and what better way than on a blog, letting the whole world know why I'm tired.

Jarhead

Reading Jarhead by Anthony Sworrord, has so far been a quick read for me through the first half of the book. I've enjoyed reading this book I guess due to the vivid random careless thoughts of Swofford. Giving explicit detail in certain ranging instances between his childhood, having an ill sister go through rehab for overdose on drugs, trying to kill herself, and also explaining his own cases of suicide attempts. Swofford has no problem maintaining the same psychotic mind set in every dramatic situation, but at the same time expresses a side of a multiple personality disorder. You can see this when he holds his weapon in his mouth, talking about killing himself. Still calm and by himself he talks to himself and thinks about things such as, how the bullet will travel through his skull, and probably rick ache throughout his body, and would be interesting to know if the bullet would make it down to his foot. Yet, as soon as someone enters the barracks to see him in this fragile position, he acts as if it were just a joke, and plays it off saying "yea, I knew you were about to come in".

Another instance of his insanity, taking it to another level when he is left with a friend of his (Dettmann), after playing a little game to see who can assemble their weapon faster, Swofford takes it to a completely different level. After winning by a few seconds, he realizes this is his thirtieth time in a row beating him, and instantly puts the M16 against Dettmann's temple. This puts Dettmann in an extremely uncomfortable situation, not only the fact that their is a weapon against his head, but also because several days early Dettmann embarrassed Swofford as a leader of his men, and was punished for leaving Dettmann unattended for to long assuming he could simply stay awake. Shutting tight his tearing eyes, Dettmann tries to talk sense into Swofford, and says how he would not pull the trigger on a fellow marine. After several minutes Swofford pushes the magazine release button, still showing no emotion, and acts "casual", casual in his sense at least.

Aquaphobia?

So my first week as a swimmer started off kind of slow, but I'm starting to get the gist of it. Monday and and Tuesday were basically drills and techniques to get my form in place, provided by the blog I had found several days ago. Though, to be honest those were the harder days. Even though it was tedious repetitions on how to use my arms, legs, and keeping my torso in check, I had found out that I don't float. My friend who was on the swim team was finishing his own pool workout, and decided to help me out, being that it was my first day. The second he jumped in the water, he came straight up and started swimming around to loosen up some more. Following him, I jumped in the pool and got to see all thirteen feet of the pool, sinking straight to the bottom. This was my first time in a pool over 4 feet, and became one of the scariest moments of my life, especially getting a feel for what thousands of gallons of water pressure above you feels like. I don't know why yet, but in order for me to to stay afloat I needed a flotation just to stay water level.

The first two days of drills and technical issues were easy, being that in track we do similar stuff to maintain our form also. On Wednesday however, I started to freestyle swim the length of the pool , and was advised to do this without a flotation device. This meant that I couldn't just swim casually back and forth the length of the pool because I had to move fast to keep my self afloat. So I could only do this in small increments. This is were my expertise in track training came in. I wrote out a workouts for myself so I could get in the same amount of distance with more rest but at a faster pace. So initially getting in the same workout but in a different style. Swimming has so far had a positive influence on me, and I'm enjoying it respectively... past Tuesday that is at least.

This is a link that helped me getting started as a beginner swimmer...
http://swimming.about.com/od/sampleswimworkouts/a/8_week_plan.htm

My First Blog Experience

Ironically, for the first time in my life, I found a blog that was profitable. Usually finding links to blogs about non sense opinions and ideas, today held a different impact. As an athlete competing for my school, I have responsibilities and obligations to better myself, in performance, and for my team in general. Competing in track and field, I specialize in the middle distance events. Over this past summer however, I've been out of commission due to shin splints. So for the last few months I've been looking for all sorts of ways to strengthen that area of my leg.

Now, after 3 months of rehabilitation, I turn to swimming. Apparently swimming is like running without the constant pounding on your legs, which now makes swimming my new best friend. See, shin splints is due to running on hard surfaces (the streets of Brooklyn), which makes for consistent pounding on the ground, thus causing muscles in the shin to wear and tear. Well being that I have no idea what to do for pool workouts, I turned to Google.

After searching for a few minutes I found a link to Track Shark, a blog site that athletes in track and field use to post there workouts for their specific discipline/event. The link that I found was by an athlete who competed in the distance events and cross country, but didn't talk about himself and what he thinks about the sport. However, he talks about cross training, and different ways to better oneself as an athlete, swimming being the number one way to maintain or even better your fitness level. In conclusion, I now have a set workout for the week to start my pre season training.

The Mercy Seat

Ben a middle aged man in his thirties is reacting to the disaster unlike most New Yorkers that day. Soon after the planes hit, Ben finds himself in the apartment of his boss, and secret lover, Abby. Abby, a little older than Ben by just about ten years, talks to Ben about his plan.. this "opportunity".

Throughout the play, Ben is left quiet in the living room, with a ringing cell phone, and a single question; can he do it? With Abby being his care taker, and decision maker Ben finds himself taking part in the womanly role of the relationship. Sitting in the room for hours on end, Ben and Abby talk about the situation in a derisive manner. While pressing valuable points upon their decision for this "opportunity", they both share this unique sarcasm to their argumentation. Infrequently finishing each others sentences, they go at each other, "as if there was no tomorrow".

Literature in the 21st Century

Yesterday was my first college level literature class, "Literature in the 21st century". I'm not that big on grabbing hold of a book for recreational purposes. I didn't have much choice being that it's both required by my school, and also part of the requirements for my major. However, the first day didn't seem all that bad. I came in, sat down... the professor asked the the class as a whole, what is literature? After 10 minutes, the only words we each had individually agreed on were, written- words. We were wrong. He then drew a single line on the board asking if this was literature? I said to myself that there was no way a single, two foot long, 180 degree line, could be literature. I was wrong.

As we moved further into the three hour night class I started to realize that there was more to reading that met my eye. Different authors using separate settings to help you visualize the situation. Using different styles of writing, even breaking the "rules" of grammar to get more of a feel for the novel, poem, etc. As I read one of the readings given in class, "The Mercy Seat" by Niel LaBute, I get a feel of the dry sarcastic attitude between Abby and Ben. The date is September 12, 2001, just one day passed the tragic terrorist attack on 9/11, and Ben rather showing his emotion in this time of despair, holds it inside. This abhorrent Ben agitates Abby, not because of his loss for feeling, but because he sees this tragedy as an opportunity...