Barnes & Noble

Barnes and Noble are liars. Their website said they had the graphic novel Shooting war in stock and that was not the case. Perhaps I shouldn't have waited until 6 oclock to walk over there to get it because since they didn't have it, and the bookstore at school closed at 6pm so I have no book now. Luckily, I have some friends in the class who have already read it. Judging by the looks of it, it doesn't seem to be a quick or easy read. I shall have to see for myself...

The part that stood out to me in the second half of Jarhead the most came at the bottom of page 183 when Swofford revealls what he later learned about the anti-chemical-warfare pills they had all been taking. He discovers that they were approved for a very strictly limited number of doses. He thinks that they took way in excess of the approved amount but explains the reasonning behind it. That if 21 pills will keep them from dying, then 42 is better, and 63 is golden. The side effects later on are unimportant because they just want to believe that they can actually do something that will keep them alive.
While this is just another example of how the government will lie to you and change the story as they see fit, it brings into understandable terms at what the pills were most likely approved for. It's probable that in the modern world of medicine that they did not know whether or not the pills would really prevent death or disease form chemical attacks but just that they would give soldiers hope and the belief that they would be okay if they fell under chemical attack; a sick sort of placebo effect.

The one prospering American Company

Google.

Most of us use it every day by searching for anything on the internet. Google has been one of, if not, the strongest technology companies for a few years now. While other companies seem to cut costs and fade away from the stronghold they've held on the tech market, Google has grown and expanded and continued to dominate almost everything. Well, now maybe everything is within their reach. Google's long anticipated smart phone software "Android" has finally materialized into this
T-mobile appears to be the first benefactors of Google's success and development. I predict and strongly hope that Android will crush the iPhone in every way. Mainly because I hate Apple and what they stand for; trying to be different just for the sake of being different. Im a very pro-PC guy.

Monday Night Football

Chances are that if you grew up in America you know what Monday night means. FOOTBALL! That's right, Monday Night Football!!! Even casual football fans go crazy when their team has the Monday night game. This week, the J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets take on the San Diego Chargers. Unlike most Jet fans, I have not been salivating at having Brett Farve at quarterback this year. He definitely is a step up over the previous noodle-armed quarterback whose name rhymes with schmedington. I'll be impressed with 8-8 and even then what's the point of that? I'd rather see them tank and get a great draft pick then finish middle of the league, not make the playoffs, and have like the 18th pick or something like that. Oh well, my Uncle tried to warn me against being a Jet fan; everyone else in my family are Giant fans.

I jumped the gun

I jumped the gun and watched the movie version after finishing the first half of Jarhead. I think it just proved my point in the previous post about how much I disagree with the lack of chronological order. A flashback is something that can be much more successful in a movie than in a book. In the movie, the plot is presented in more chronological order, but the few flashbacks that there are(if you can even call them that) are brief serve the purpose of setting up the rest of the plot rather than interrupting it like in the book. Perhaps I am a classic casualty of my generation that would rather watch a movie or television than read, but I think it's more about presenting the story in the most understandable and entertaining way possible.

Reading Jarhead

I usually find novels dragged out and filled with needless details seemingly designed as nothing more than page fillers. Authors get paid by the page, right? Jarhead is no different. Except Swofford is writing about actual events or at least what he can recollect. I really hate the fact that he jumps around in time so often. My reading comprehension is poor enough that I have trouble following the story, but when he goes from talking about a night he spends contemplating suicide and the indirect paths the bullets might take through his body to talking about Troy's death and his funeral and his time spent in Greenville and then right back to stories involving Troy. It seems to me like the book was published as he originally wrote it. In the order he remembered it rather than the sensible order of chronology. It's not that I don't like the book itself, what it's about, or the military subject matter, rather I think it would benefit from a little re-editing to suit more of a story than a collection of memories and past events. It's actually not a bad read when there are several pages that refer to a single memory, but when he jumps from story to story I lose interest and focus.

Being a Student-Athlete

Being a student athlete on any team in any school is a very difficult thing; take it from me. I have been on the Track and Field team at St. Francis College for the past two years, this will be my third. Over those two years I have learned a lot about managing time, making sacrifices, and basically having two jobs at the same time which are constantly getting in the way of each other.

That last part is the harshest reality of a student athletes life. Dealing with the fact that your day will go something like this... wake up early, breakfast, class, lift weights, lunch, drills, class, practice, dinner, homework, going to sleep early due to exhaustion, and repeat. Oh, and then there are the days where you have night class after practice. Those are the best days. Like wednesday night when I have this class. Dinner gets either postponed or eliminated depending on how I feel when I get home. Luckily, my weekends are relatively free until late January and February when the season starts and most of the weekend is spent in a different state or on the road to a different state. For now, aside from maybe a light practice on a saturday morning, weekends are mostly spent sleeping and recovering and getting ready for the next week.

Now thats all fine when your team is winning or when you are performing well at competitions, but imagine how frustrating it is when you lose, or when you are putting in all that work and not getting the results you feel you have earned!

All that said, I encourage everyone to support St. Francis College's athletic program and athletes. At least visit the official website and click around for a bit.