The Wave

The Wave is a book by Todd Strasser. It was about a teacher who wanted to teach his students how the Germans were ignorant towards their actions in WWII. Therefore, he started an experiment with his students and the Wave organization. The Wave organization started out in his classroom and the students had uniformed procedures to answer questions and acting within class. They answered with "Mr Ross" before every answer and question and they had to stand beside their desk. It became so successful because this procedure took so little time to go through their lessons. It somehow motivated them to become better in an organized group. The Wave soon spread throughout the school and used for so many other things other than within the classroom like at the football field. But, the school started to force others to join. They resorted to violence and isolation in order to recruit students. It evolved from a class experiment to a school wide fad. On the brink of when it was to spread to the public, Mr Ross showed the students how they were acting. They were acting as if the Nazis did. They recruited as much as possible and hurt those who didn't. By doing so, the students were appalled by their behaviors and wanted to never repeat this.
I thought this was a very interesting book. It shows how the human can't think other humans can possibly do that sort of harm. Humans turn a blind eye towards themselves and hold themselves in a higher position than they truly are. Yet, there are some humans who see this truth and want to enlighten others, such as Todd Strasser.

Journal Entry May 5, 2009

"Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart."
-Anne Frank

What is truly evil? I believe evil is all in the mind. Evil is but an option that not everybody shares. For example, Hitler was hated by everybody. He is believed to be evil but not everybody agrees. People in Germany think he was a "hero". Even the US thought so, too. He rescued Germany from depression. I''m nut saying how Hitler is good but evil is an opinion. Even the 9/11 hijackers. They were "evil" in some opinions but others may look upon them and see that they were nationalists. They've killed hundreds but only for what they believed in. or some they were heroes willing to make the biggest sacrifice. Again, I'm not saying they're good, in fact they're "evil" in my opinion but evil is all in the mind.
So if a bully is picking on you or you're fighting with someone, look into their point of view and see what they are fighting for or against. They may have a goal worth fighting for.

Never Again...

I wanted to help this family. I wanted with all my heart. I wanted to stop everyone from fighting. All the time. All the time Bo^/ yells at Ba?o. All of the time. Every time I see this, it tears my heart. I see them yell at each other. Ba?o tries acting so dramatic all of the time. He uses his emotions to shield himself while it ends up as his Achilles' Heel.

Well, I tried my best. I tried to keep the happy face for this family. I tried to stop them...but instead, I was a reason to fight. My positive example led as a goal they ignored and forgotten. So I concede. I accept that never again will this family be happy. Never again will we stop fighting with each other. Never again will we stop blaming each other. Never again...

A New Leader

Today, everyone watched a new leader take his place. Today, everyone watched him take his place in office. Today, everyone watched him give the speech. A speech that is the signature saying "I'm ready. I'm the new president."

Today, I watched the entire country travel to one city. To watch him. To be inspired by him. They all watched to watch a new era begin. They all came to know whether this era is to be change for the better or the worse. All we can do now is watch the answer come to us.

Kite Flying

Today I found out that not only do I long for a day to fly my kite but so does Bo^/. Maybe during the Spring time we can fly but summer is a definite choice. Anytime during these seasons I'll be watching for a windy, warm day. A day to finally fly.

Until then, maybe Bo^/ and I can build some kites to be ready for the right day. together we can build our own kite...the perfect kite.







I know it's short...

La Chevre

This movie I watched in French II was both funny and had a good story.

Ten years ago the daughter, Maire Bens, of a high corporate french man, Monsieur Bens, had terrible luck. Not all at once but through out her entire life she was unlucky. When she arrived in Mexico, two people snatched her purse and knocked her down. When she was knocked down, she hit her head and lost her memory. A man drove by, a criminal, took her in and on a plane ride to Costa Rica.

Ten years later, still trying to search for her, Monsieur Compana had no luck finding her. One day M. Bens advisory had an idea he offered the idea of having an equally unlucky person go on the case. The unlucky man was M. Purrin. All of his life he was also unlucky. When he was young, he almost died to a wasp sting, accidentaly burned his parent's house down, and many many more. Although, M. Purrin was appointed to be in charge on this investigation. M. Bens advisory's theory was that if the girl had been unlucky, then she would have led a path of unluckiness that M. Purrin would repeat. Once at the airport M. Purrin bumps into the automatic doors which didn't open for him. The infermery said that it never done that before. Due to being in the infermery, they miss their flight to Mexico so they take a transfer flight from Costa Rica to Mexico.

On the plane, M. Purrin keeps on saying how every time he's been on a plane, there's some sort of trouble that occurs like some engine trouble or that the flaps didn't open on time. Luckily, this time they did. When landing in Costa Rica, M. Purrin bumped himself on the automatic doors again which the authorities said happened to a girl some time ago, Marie Bens. Instead of going to Mexico, they stay at Costa Rica to find some clues. After being at a dead end M. Purrin gets robbed of $5000 which M. Compana has to help get back they find the robber at a poker club where they find Marie Bens kidnapper also. They interrogate him and find out that she's been nothing but trouble to him so he gave to another man at the poker club.

Once he finishes, a group of shooters shoots the kidnapper and the police thinks that M. Compana and Purrin killed him. Once let out of jail, they find out that Marie was sent on a plane to a rainforest island off of Costa Rica which crashed. Nobody knows where she is or if she's alive. The advisor has an idea to put M. Purrin on a plane and circle the island for it to crash where Marie may be close by. While on the plane, M. Purrin gets stung by a wasp and starts bloating up. Once at the hospital, they find a man who was tramatized after a girl, Marie, set his village on fire. They set off to where his village was and find the remains. No clues. Once they set off again, M. Purrin gets taken by a gorilla but then the vine it swings on breaks and then runs off. Monsieur Purrin and Compana then set off. While travleing, M. Purrin gets hurt and they went to find a nearby hospital. At the hospital, they find someone else there...Marie Bens.

The End

When My Name Was Keoko

I read this book some time ago and I wanted to share some of it with whoever reads my posts. It's called "When My Name Was Keoko". It's about sister and her brother named Sun-hee and Tae-yul. They are a Korean family living during the time when Japan took over Korea and many other Asian nations. It starts with Japan banning the Korean language and having Japanese being the official language of Korea. The two live through life having the Japanese being dominant people over the Koreans. Their father is the vice-principal and a Japanese man is the Principal. Every leader in a business or occupation is Japanese. Even the Korean runner has to represent Japan in the Olympics even though he's born in Korea, raised in Korea and lives in Korea.

As life goes on for them, the Japanese changes every name from Korean to Japanese. Sun-hee changes her name to Keoko and Tae-yul changes his name to Nobuo. Still, the name seems so distant to them. It is a name, but never imagined as their names.

Later on, they find out that their dear Uncle is part of the underground resistance against the Japanese. Sun-hee's friend, Tomo, tries to tell her a message that metal is about to be collected from all of the homes. Sun-hee fails in getting the message and instead she tells her Uncle that they are going to find him and then he goes into hiding. Now that a resident is missing, an investigation is set out to find out what happened to him. Japanese search the family for some time and keep a watchful eye on them.

Afterward, several rules and changes happen to Korea. The schooling changes from studying to drills and bayonet practicing. All of the men are recruited to making an air strip outside the city. All of these materials are taken solely for the army of Japan. Food. Metal. Wood. everything is taken from them. Even the national tree of Korea is to be chopped and burned and replaced with Cherry Blossoms, national tree of Japan.

After some time, life becomes so harsh that the son, Tae-yul signs up for the army. He's tired of living a terrible life and food will be sent to this family so he wants to make life better for everyone. As he's in training, he signs up for something just because the Japanese don't think the Koreans are brave enough for the job. It turns out what he signed up for was to be a kamikaze pilot or a suicide pilot.

Back at home, Sun-hee sees many of the girls at her school be taken to Japan to work in factories. Despite that, life is overall better for her as food comes in and clothing gets shipped to her family...except for that she's doesn't have her brother or uncle with her.

During the day of Tae-yul's mission, they set off to attack the American ships. But as they set off, the leader of the mission calls it off due to the weather. Lucky break for them! But due to not accomplishing their mission, they get thrown into jail.

Back at home, Sun-hee and her parents recieve a letter saying that Tae-yul set off on his mission. They don't know about what happened yet, only that he died.

One day, while Tae-yul is in jail, he gets word that the war is over. He sets off to go home. While he's coming, back in Korea life changes back to the way it was before Japan came in. The Korean trees can be planted, Japanese leave to go back to Japan, and Korean can be spoken again. And american rations are given to everyone. Finally, they see Tae-yul come home.

As peace comes back to Korea, the story ends with Sun-hee and Tae-yul both finally learning how to write in Korean.

It's a great story if not explainable in the way I typed it. Better read in a book than on a computor.