San Francisco is a pretty darn famous place. It has become a famous tourist attraction to travel to due to its Golden Gate Bridge. People might possibly even consider it to be the “New York of the West Coast.” Not only that, but apparently the steep hills and the skate spots have made it a pretty darn popular city to skateboard in. The place is full of numerous local skate shops and many amateur and professional skaters.
My friends and I traveled over to San Francisco this weekend for a little “skate trip.” They have been doing this for a while, but it was my first time there in the city (without any parents). Now, being from a different city, we did not know too much of the rules about where to and where not to skate. It was a shame. There were so many beautiful stair sets and ledges. Some were way too big for our skill level, so we skipped them. Others, we made good time with. The major problem is that we kept getting kicked out of these public areas over and over. Even when we were leaving to go find somewhere “appropriate” to go to, we were getting yelled at by police. We were not aware of the fact that we could not skate on the sidewalks (while going from place to place). That is just stupid. We saw people bicycling way faster than we were going down the sidewalk. They might as well just make skateboarding illegal in the whole city of San Francisco. But, that would be even more stupid. Making pieces of wood with wheels on illegal. The government should go and make more efficient laws. Maybe even some that involve keeping a closer eye on drunk drivers.
The skateboarders over there are so good. They range in skill level, age, and race. Over there, we visited the local skate shop DLXSF. My brother and my friends bought some parts and clothes over there. They use their "recycling system" by purchasing used parts for only five bucks. I was surprised to find out that some of the used stuff was still in pretty good condition. We met some people that ride for (sponsored by) another local shop called FTC (For the City). They were really good. We were lucky enough to have a session with them. One of them only had a small cruiser board with large wheels and was doing tre flips on it and frontsiding up the four stair. Even though they were all amazingly good, the best part was their attitudes. The guys were so good, but were impressed and cheered for one of my friends when he did a huge kickflip on the four stair and landed it bolts. They were all very positive and loved to joke around. It made me realize what skateboarding is all about. Just to have fun and be with friends. Even though people get really good at skating, it will always be the same. Another activity that brings people and friends together to have fun.
I know that the new form of the reading/lit. circle letters does not really encourage a letter form, and considering the fact that this is the first time that I am writing in the new format, please don't be surprised if you guys find this whole post awkward to read. This is the first letter I am writing about the new book that we picked, Unwind by Neal Shusterman. The quote that I choose to write about is:
"You Unwinds are all the same. You think that because no one loves you, then you can't love anyone. All right, then, if there's no one you love, then pick someone who needs to hear what you have to say. Say everything that's in your heart- don't hold back" (pg. 109).
I almost forgot to mention. You guys were right. I love the book. The first week of reading is nearly over and I have already finished half of the novel (it's not that impressive because I know you guys found the book so good that you have finished reading). It is something that every teenager in at least America can relate to in times of loneliness. Well, back to this fantastic quote. This is my choice because it is what Sonia says to Conner, and probably to about a hundred more Unwinds that she has taken into her safe house. Sonia has met so many Unwinds that she possibly has them all figured out. Unwinds are made up of two parts. The first half is a mystery containing the Unwind's personality and past. The other half is the fact that Unwinds feel that they are all alone in the world without any love to give or receive. This is the half that all Unwinds have in common and what Sonia sees in all of them. Sonia tells Conner and all the other Unwinds to write their own letters to someone in the world to let them know that they are not alone. But, Sonia had it all planned out. Conner learns of a second purpose of the letter after witting the letter to his parents. The importance of the letter is so that the Unwinds are not forgotten. Sonia is one of the very few people out in this ugly future that still has a respect for human life. She does not enjoy the fact that if people have problems, they just get rid of a child. So, if she is not able to save the child with the efforts of giving them food, shelter, and guiding them in the right path, she will still be able to save their story in a letter. The letter is what preserves the person even though they have vanished within the blink of an eye. The letter allows people to know the Unwind was not all that bad and most of all, they were human too.
The Hot Zone is a scientific non-fiction thriller written by Richard Preston. I would have to agree with the San Antonio Express-News because he really does deserve a lot of credit for his "...great skill in turning interviews and scientific data into a compelling human story (San Antonio Express-News)." The book that Richard Preston has written is about numerous deadly viruses that are scattered around the world, but seems to focus mainly upon the viruses of the Andromeda strain. This group includes Marburg, Ebola Sudan, Ebola Zaire, and Ebola Reston. The actual plot revolves around the scientists that work with these viruses on a daily base within the highly confined walls of USAMRIID (United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases). To me, the book appeared to have a character that showed up the most throughout the story. I feel that this could be the main character. But, while reading this book, I also wondered why the author had written it and what was he trying to tell his audience.
I am not sure if it was just me, but Nancy Jaax emerged quite a number of times throughout the book. This was a bit hard to come to a conclusion that she could be the main character (I will just call her that for now) because the book exposes nearly all of the scientists' thoughts when they are undergoing certain events. Towards the beginning, it briefly mentions Lieutenant Colonel Nancy Jaax (was just previously known as Nancy Jaax) being a veterinarian before starting her work at USAMRIID. She assisted in the dissecting of monkeys in a specific area after they had died of an Ebola virus. She found this task difficult to complete from time to time because of her background. But then, "as a scientist, she believed that it was her obligation to perform medical research that would help alleviate human suffering" (pg. 79). After only working in this Level 4 research area (an place consisting of terrible deadly viruses which is pretty much all of the Andromeda strain thus requiring scientists to where pressurized suits to keep extreme caution) for a few times with Ebola, she discovers a whole in her outer glove of her suit and finds herself face to face with the virus and nearly gets infected. This seemed to leave a huge impact on her life because, she thought about if the incident had gone wrong, what would she tell her family.
Nancy Jaax is married to Jerry Jaax. They have two children in the book (one a boy and the other a girl). Jerry Jaax is mentioned in the book as an employee of the army and a veterinarian as well. Approximately half-way through the book, it fast-forwards quite a few years. Nancy and Jerry both get promoted in their army ranks, their children get older, and sadly her father (who does not leave too big an effect on the story) dies. Nancy does not have to work with Ebola for a few years, but then all of a sudden, as a Lieutenant Colonel, she finds herself being called in by the army to work in an operation where a possible Ebola threat has found its way into a little town in America called Reston (I am going to stop right there so I do not give away too much of the story). When she arrives home, she talks to her husband about it and says, "It's killing me- I'll never get away from this bug" (pg. 234). The way that I had annotated the book was by centering it on the viruses of the Andromeda strain, their history, and the way how it affects people that get infected and people that work with it in laboratories. Because of this quote, not only I, but Nancy Jaax also admits that the Ebola virus plays a huge roll in her life. And because of this, I had a whole lot more annotations for her than any other character.
While reading the book I kept wondering what the author wanted to accomplish in having other people (such as myself) read it. The story was just so filled with information that I decided almost right away that Richard Preston was clearly trying to educate the public in what diseases lurk around all parts of the world. I thought that it was just going to be a story full of information on how people get sick from viruses, what they do to the victim's body, how scientists test them, and where they originate. As always with all of my predictions, I was wrong. Richard Preston ends the story and just decides to go on and give a little talk to the readers. In this, he states, "Nature has interesting ways in of balancing itself... The earth's immune system, so to speak, has recognized the presence of the human species and is starting to kick in. The earth is attempting to rid itself of an infection by the human parasite" (pg. 407). I have never thought about it this way in my whole life. I was astounded by reading this quote and thought right away, what if he is right. The earth is an ecosystem almost exactly like a human body. We are killing the earth by robbing it of all its natural resources and multiplying within it, just like how a virus kills a human. And now, the earth is fighting back by using viruses to kill humans so it can try to return back to its previous naturally balanced state. This leaves me wondering, what kind of virus is the human race. Are we one that can be fought off easily like the "common cold." Or, are we the incurable virus (a lot like Ebola) that offers no hope for its victim whatsoever. In the end, there will most likely be only one of us remaining, unless we can find a way to cooperate.
Richard Preston's scientific thriller titled The Hot Zone is written on events that he obtained from interviews and scientific research. The book seems to place Nancy Jaax and her family in the limelight the majority of the time (second to the viruses). This allowed me to come to the conclusion of her being a main character. The Ebola virus has played a large role in her life ever since she joined the team at USAMRIID (also known as the Institute) and helped in the dissection of Ebola infected monkeys. Even as Nancy nearly succeeds in finally ridding her life of the virus, the army calls her back for a mission to stop a possible Ebola outbreak in the United States from spreading all over the country. Richard Preston created such a great analogy between humans, viruses, and the world. In the end, humans and the earth may never find a way in co-existing and end up wiping one another out. All that I can say is, only time will tell of Richard Preston is correct or not.
Dear reading group members (followers of my blog are free to read this as well),
I have just recently finished reading the book titled The Hot Zone, written by Richard Preston. I was given strict instructions to not give out any "spoilers" due to reading members reading at separate paces. So I will try my best in not giving out too much information of the plot to come. The book started off very strong with the gruesome death of a character given the name Charles Monet (the author obviously wanted to protect this man's identity) to a "level 4 agent" (agent meaning disease) called Marburg. The book was able to keep me entertained all the way through. Especially during the Ebola Reston incident (I am going to stop right there before I give away too much). This all kept me entertained while reading for numerous hours (because I am quite the slow reader).
As I stated in my previous literature/reading circle letter, I said that I was annotating about the viruses and how they affect us humans. Richard Preston does an amazing job by tying off the story with a perspective of the human problem of overpopulation through the eyes of Nature. In a way, he might be right. I never really looked at the situation in that sort of way. I will try to post the quote after writing my book review. I want to hear everyone's opinions on the quote in the comments section. It is definitely worth taking a gander at. The Jaax family is probably the most centered around characters because they are mentioned in the beginning and are later called back into the story for the Reston mission. Hopefully all this annotating on the virus will pay off in the end. Well, good luck with your book reviews.
Hmm. Well. Another blog post about my vacation. I was looking forward to spending time with friends. I really needed to use this vacation with STAR testing coming right up around the corner. But, I did not get to spend time with friends. I will not bitch about it (because I feel that I bitch about my vacations way too much and it makes my dad sad). My family and I went on an RV trip for this spring break. My dad rented one at some place near Oakland. The RV was pretty nice. It had a toilet, a shower, a microwave, a stove, a ton of cabinets, and a few areas that could be used for sleeping. This one was not even worn down at all. It looked as if it were brand new. We used it for nearly the whole vacation. We got back in town on the second to last day (Saturday) right before my siblings and I would have to return back to school. A place that we love so dearly (SARCASM).
I am not going to lie, the first four days of the vacation were spent really well. It was the segment of the trip that we spent heading towards our destination. On the first day, I got out of school around lunch time. My parents had me excused from my last two classes so we could load up the RV and hit the road before traffic appeared. The first stop on the trip was a place called Tulare. We checked into the RV place first to get a space to stay. After that my family and I met up with my God Father. I was so happy when I saw him. I remember the last time we met I was only six pears old and my greatest passion in the world belonged to dinosaurs. We all went to a diner to eat and catch up with each other. After that, my God Father, my brother, and I went to go see Clash of the Titans. It was an alright movie. After that my God Father dropped my brother and I off at the RV park. That day was obviously the highlight of my trip.
The next three good days were spent in Las Vegas. My family and I went to meet with an uncle on my mom's side of the family. It has been a while since I saw him too. He moved to Nevada a few years ago with his family and they are doing quite well. I am going to try to just summarize up the majority of what occurred on these three days because a lot of the time was used on driving for long hours. We got to Las Vegas, checked into an Oasis RV park. It was pleasant area. The next day was Easter Sunday. We attended my uncle's church. I will say that this was quite a different religious experience for me. My mother said that they used the King James Bible rather than the New American Bible that my church back home uses. That was a small contribution to the different experience. My brother and I took a part in the highly successful youth group that they have. It was a while since we have gone to a CCD class, so we were prepared for nearly anything. To my surprise, we got to attend a small rock concert in the name of Jesus Christ. After that the youth group took us to talk about Jesus and why him rising from the grave was the key to sparking Christianity. The differences in the Bibles were not that great. But what I found interesting was the fact that they believed that Jesus was dragged down and tortured in Hell for three days after his death. On the third day, he took back the keys to life and death, and returned to the human world to tell his apostles. This was the only difference that I heard from the story that I was told as a small child.
The next good day was the last one. We drove to Zion (some sort of National Park a lot like Yosemite). I climbed a really tall mountain that only had chains on the sides to help people. There were a lot of huge (approximately 1,000ft.) drops. The view was fantastic, but I did not enjoy it much due to my fear of heights. After that day, we started the "homecoming" part. I hated it. The worse part was the fact that when we got back to Alameda, all the good weather that they supposedly had was gone. It rained on the last two days and I was pissed. Oh well.
This is my first literature/reading circle letter on the supposedly highly acclaimed book titled The Hot Zone by Richard Preston. My reading group members chose this book because it seemed to appeal to our style of reading. I personally enjoy reading books that involve a large amount of tension, but normally those books that I choose to read are fictional. The Hot Zone feels a bit different to me due to the fact that the story is true. So far I have the understanding that the book is about extremely deadly and contagious viruses that lurk around all the parts of the world. But, as I read further in the book, I learned that these viruses not only "live" (I put live in quotations because biologically, viruses do not show any signs of actually being alive compared to other microscopic organisms) in foreign countries. It turns out that a select few of the millions of Americans have the opportunity to work in government labs to better the understanding of these dangerous "agents." The scientists have a wide range of backgrounds ranging from hunters, to fishers, to your average American house-wife. The plot takes a while to develop. About half-way through the book, I'll just say that a virus may possibly place the safety of the United States in jeopardy (I am still not done reading, so I will just half to find out). I have to give Richard Preston a lot of credit for having the ability to change a compilation of interviews and research into such an intense story.
The book is written in a sort of third-person form accompanied by a ton of information about the viruses. This made it a bit difficult for me to adjust after reading the novel, Parable of Talents. To me, I do not believe that there is a main character. The book seems to jump from character to character revealing their thoughts at certain instances and their surroundings from their own points of view. This made it a bit more odd to annotate the pages because I had to find something to center my annotations on (it helps me annotate to find some sort of topic or center point to focus my notes on). So, instead of just letting myself sit their confused reading the book, I decided in my own mind that I will make the various viruses the "main character(s)." I have to admit, at first, this seemed quite bizarre for me, but then it started to make sense for me. I decide to mark and comment on pages that gave background history and information on the viruses, and how the viruses affected the lives of the people that it infected or the people that had to work with it. I might end up regretting this soon when I will have to write an essay reviewing this book, but it appears to be working for now.
Literature/reading group members, I apologize for reading so far ahead of you guys. I just wanted to stay on schedule. But, I hope that we all can eventually catch up to a certain point where we have all read up to a relatively equivalent spot. This would make it a whole lot more easily for us to discuss things in class just in case if any of us get confused. I am confident that you guys will catch up and probably even surpass me because you guys are obviously faster readers than I am. Oh well, I guess all that we can do is keep reading and allow the story to unfold before us.
Well. It is about that time of season again. To go back and to examine my past past works of writing and also to set up some new goals for my future articles of writing. Looking back, I would say that my writing has gotten more of a casual and almost inviting style to it. It has become more appealing in such a way that it pulls readers in at the beginning so that they will have a good chance at making it through the whole composition without getting sidetracked. I like this style of writing. I feel that it suites me well. But, there are some more components that I would like to factor into my blog. The primary object that my blog seems to be lacking is more exquisite vocabulary (notice how I tried really hard just to use some in this sentence). Hopefully, by using more complex words, people will feel that they are not reading from a blog of a "stupid kid," but rather from a well educated teenager that has a good understanding on how the world works. Another weakness that I currently have is the fact that I simply do not revise my writings before posting them (or turning them in). I still find some various typos and some awkwardly phrased sentences or even paragraphs from time to time. I try not to beat myself up for this, but the fact that it could have easily been prevented, makes me feel terrible.
My other goals that I have right now are mainly for my blog, and what I wish to do with it. I guess that it would be a blog owner's dream for their blog to become famous or just plainly well known throughout the nation and or world. This would be cool, but more likely overwhelming for me. I guess that I can try working my way into writing about more current and popular events such as recent occurrences that are mentioned in the daily news because people of the United States seem to find these the most "interesting." For these events, I will display my point of view as a student and/or teenager and how these events affect me. I will most likely try writing about more of my hobbies and other things that I enjoy doing (i.e. slot car racing at the local track). By undergoing these two improvements, I am keeping high hopes for an increase in "followers" by obtaining a bigger audience and plan on getting more comments and good/bad feedback. I hope that I am able to fulfill these goals that I have set up in this small writing reflection. If not, I think I will be okay. I will not be heart-broken, but I will live. I plan to keep blogging as I am doing so right now. It might even become a small hobby of mine. I do find it quite enjoyable. So, in conclusion, have fun reading my blog.
