And That's the Rrrrrrrrrest of the Story.

The last post. The last day of school. The last day of pre-high school freedom. I would usually want to go out with a bang but forget that, this is only for honors. Jane Pittman overall was an okay book. I still think Shane and The Call of the Wild were better. That is pretty much all I have to say. Now this blog will waste away on some hardrive at some unknown location for the rest of mankinds time on this planet. That's the first deep thought i've had since that pitcher hit me in the head with that ball. I must be getting better. Well that's it. Fini. See you all next year. This is buske signing off. ;)

Ignorance is Bliss

It's almost funny how Jane thinks she can walk all the way to Ohio from "Luzana". People keep tying to tell her she never make the thousand mile jouney on foot but she keeps going. I don't see why all these ex-slaves keep going back to the plantations after they're freed. This book in general confuses me. That's mostly because of how they talk though. I read so much of Across Five Aprils and ... Jane Pittman I can't pronounce anything right anymore. My spelling isn't good either but it was bad to start with. This is going to be a short post because all my others are way over 100 words and tomarrow is Eagle Day so do the math. On second thought don't do the math, schools just about over who cares about math?

2nd Semester Essay

The books we have read have given me that extra insight that what we learn in class does not give us. Instead of learning about the people from unknown narrators we learn about the people from the people themselves. The books Shane, The Call of the Wild, and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman provided a lot of raw emotion. So much more can be learned from this point of view. This way we can feel what the person is feeling and thinking not just what they did. This way of learning also isn’t as boring as class.

The first book we read this semester was Shane. This book taught me about the life of people living on the frontier. I learned a lot about the daily life of settlers on the plains. In history class we learned little about the life of the settlers living on the frontier. All we learned was how they got there and a little about how they restarted their lives. We learned next to nothing about their lives after the first year of settling. In Shane we were transported into their lives. It felt like we were there with them. In certain parts of the book we were also taught about some of the weapons and techniques used by outlaws in those times. The book did not go exactly along with what we were learning in class, but we still learned a great deal about lives of settlers.

The Call of the Wild did not really correlate to what we learned in class either, but we still learned many new things. Alaskan dog sledding was not taught to us in class. That was a little too far North for us. Before I read The Call of the Wild I did not know that sled dogs changed masters so often. I thought they were stuck with their masters for life or maybe sold once or twice in their lifetimes. Buck and his pals were sold many times in a matter of months. We also learned a lesson about believing in our team from that book.

The last book we read this year was The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. We read this book at about the same time we were learning more about slavery in class. This helped us understand the brutality of slavery even more. Like I said in my first semester essay, it is always a good idea to learn about a topic from several sources and points of view. Before I read this book I thought former slaves lived on their own on their own property. I did not know that a lot of the freed slaves stayed on the plantations for many years after their freedom. For many of them it was like their lives never changed.

Reading these books for honors has actually helped me in class. It was almost like a study period instead of an extra challenge. I am glad that I decided to do honors humanities. It was not only fun to do, but also very educational. What more could you ask for in a class?

This Brings New Meaning to the Word Stubborn

This little kid refuses everything she is told to do or is offered! It's annoying how rude and direspectful this kid is. Most kids her age are a little stubborn or rude but Jane brings new meaning to the word. The book is kind of slow to start off with. Until the Secesh killed the traveling band of ex-slaves everything was real dull. Then after that point it was still dull. The way the book is written is even worse than the speech in Across Five Aprils. So many grammatical and spelling erorrs. I spelled erorrs wrong didn't I? That's ironic. I am glad that I only have to make three posts on this book since I went to that book meeting thing. Yes I know I am way behind but that's nothing new to me. Only 10 days of school left!

I Knew It Was Going to End in a Depressing Way!

It's been a week or two since I finished the book so don't be surprised if my memory is a little fuzzy. The moose hunting part was preety cool. It made Buck look like the blood thirsty hunter that is inside of all large dogs. I say large dogs because your not going to get those kind of hunting skills and tactics from a yorkie or a dachsun. Then things took a turn for the absolute worsed. Buck comes back from the big kill and finds total destruction and death. Unfortunatley for the indians, that killed his friends and destroyed everything he knew, they decided to party after the slaughter. Bad move. The detail that the author followed with would make any World War II veteran sick and scared. The rampage that Buck unleahed is unlike anything that I have ever read, heard, or seen. I won't repeat any thing that was written for those of you with weak stomachs. Then Buck finds a pack of wolves while he is still in killing mode so he shreds a couple of them, too. Then after they stop fighting he joins the pack and lives on in the blood of the wolves and in the not so happy Indian tales of the Evil Spirit. And that's the rest of the story.

The Worlds Strongest Dog Competition

Thats one strong puppy. Buck pulling a 1000 pound sled is like us pulling a small SUV. At first I couldn't believe that Thornton was going to have Buck pull that much weight. Especially when he didn't have enough money to mach the bet. There is a fine line between being brave/confident and being stupid. I'm not sure which side of that line Thornton was on at the time. I thought just to stick with the theme of the story (sad, depressing, bloody, etc.) Buck was going to break all his legs or get going to fast and get run down by the sled. The out look was not good. Then Buck managed to break the sled out of the ice which seems nearly impossible to me. Then he towed it the whole distance and won the bet?????? Up until this point the only thing in the book that had seemed unreal was how depressing the book was but now things are getting a little farfetched. I don't know why the author didn't make that moment incredibly depressing just like the rest of the book. It was the perfect oppertunity to throw in some broken bones, dead friends, and utter destruction. For the first time in the entire book things are going really well for Buck and his friends and I am really confused as to why.

3 Posts in One Night

I am sooooo far behind that I had to do this post and my last two all in one night. AND I STILL HAVE 2 MORE TO GO!!! Back to the book now. Buck is really gettin' all sorts of tradgedies thrown in his direction. First he was starving, then one of his friends died, and then ALL his pals died at the same time. This book is like a Ben Stiller movie. Things go from ok to bad, to really bad, to worst day ever bad, to scuicidal bad, to end of the world bad, to there's no more french fries bad. And then keeping with the Ben Stiller theme somthing good happens. After absolutley every thing that can go wrong goes wrong Buck is happy again after like 2 years. Can you say Murphy's law? It's kind of funny how Buck looks so happy on the cover of the book but the book is so utterly depressing.

Ding Dong Spitz Dead!

I said it before and I'll say it again, wow. Jack London is taking the fights a little to far. He is talking about jugulars gettin' ripped out, eyes being poked out of their sockets, bones crunching, etc. I thought the violence started out bed but it's getting really bad even for me. I had to reread a couple of parts to make sure that London had actually put some things in the book. How the heck is this thing a childrens book? Any one younger than us would have nightmares for days if they read this stuff. At least all the bloody fights with Spitz are over. That was one baaaad puppy. Kind of ironic though how he treated all his sled mates so bad and the ended up eating him. That's what it sounded like any ways. And now thay have been bought by some stupid rednecks it sounds like.

And I Thought This Story Was Going to be Happy

Wow. This is one gory book. It started off so nice with Buck and his pals having a good time but then super bloody and painful. At first Buck couldn't have been happier but now hes freezing his butt off in Alaska pulling sleds. Thats like being kidnapped and sent to Siberia to make railroads. Not too fun. The author of this book apparently semi-famous for his blood and guts storys. Personally I think he is mentally desturbed. Maybe he had a really horrific childhood or something. The only thing I don't like about this book so far is that I can not under stand anything these Eskimo guys are saying. Sorry if I'm politically incorrect with the word "Eskimo". These guys talk like they got a mouth full of marbles and dentures that are 10 sizes too big. "Dat der dug make ged fiter." Translation please?

Brought Down in a Hail of Gunfire!

And then there was one... Finally the characters in the book figure out that those things in thier holsters can hurt people. Shane turned back into the lone ranger murderer he was in the beginning of the book and it was COOL! He took out Wilson and Fletcher. All the while he only got shot once in the stomach. Only one thing I don't get. Shots to the stomach like that back then were usually fatal. And with the way Shane comes and goes he's probabley been shot many many times. If you listen carfully you can probabley hear the bulletes rattle in him. Sounds painful huh? The book overall was probabley the best book we have read so far. I'd give it a 7.5 out of 10. It wasn't great but it was good. The author ended the book very well with Shane riding off into the night. And he was Shane.

Shane 2 Fletcher 0

These fight scenes are really cool. There's lots of blood, broken bones, and all that good stuff. Like Joe said the author uses good imagery. You think Morgan and all his goons would be smart enough to just whip out a gun and put a few bullets in Shane rather than getting their butts kicked in hand-to-hand combat with him. That wouldn't be a very good book though. All the fights so far in the book are all the same. There good but all the same. Big guy tries to use brute force to hurt Shane. Shane dodges big guy. Shane beats the crud out of him etc. Nobody commented on my last blog and I thought it was really funny. That's depressing. :(