#4 post

QUOTE: pf 149"We left him sitting against the wall, blood coming out of his mouth, and didn't' think much about him after that. Mourning the dead wasn't part of the business of killing and trying to stay alive." This quote shows Ismael's life in his home country by showing that he has grown from the cowardly boy into a survivor that would kill to stay alive until the war ended. At some points he found refuge in new villages and even run-down shacks to stay alive. A way I connect to this quote is because when I was younger I would do anything just to not get bullied at my old school. I would try doing things that would entertain the bullies around me and I would do the same thing for my friends by helping them. It was all about survival.

QUESTION: What would you do to stay alive if a war came to America?

QUOTE: pg 190 "I hadn't told my uncle that whenever I went to the bush with my cousins to fetch firewood, my mind would begin to wander to things I had seen and done in the past. Standing next to a tree with red frozen sap on its bark would bring back flashbacks of the many time we executed prisoners." This show Ismael's hardships have not ended because he is still remembering what has happened to him in Sierra Leone. I think it still effects him because he is in a new country where the war hasn't reached its shores but when he entered New York he can still remember all the times he was running from soldiers, hiding in different places, thinking about people he has lost and all the times he has taken a life.

QUESTION: If anything that has happened to Ismael during the war happened to you and you came to a new country, how would you try to forget the past and move on?

1st Post V.2

Conversation between Ismael and peer at school. Page 3. "Why did you leave Sierra Leone?" "Because there was war?" "Did you witness some of the fighting?" "Everyone in the country did" "You mean you saw people running around with guns shooting each other?" "Yes all the time." "Cool"
Significance: This quote shows that Ishmael tried to cover up his life by only telling small pieces of his past meaning that he doesn't want to remember and be labeled as an outcast for being part of the war. Another quote is significant is because it shows why Ishmael left Sierra Leone because a huge was was raging through the country and in the book he witnessed the war and saw people who ran from it and people who fought in it and people that died in it. He also left his country for America was to escape all the fighting, shouting, and fear of being shot by an AK-47 or decimated by an RPG.
Personal Connection: I think this quote relates to me because usually I was a really big fan of guns and warfare but since I started reading this book I have changed my opinion of war because I thought it was simply infiltrate, kill the enemy, and done. Now I see the sadness in the war zone and when people perish in the war zone, others are scarred emotionally and mentally by the sight of the killing. Through what I have read so far, this book causes you to visualize the scenes through the ink and examine the see the action and witness what is happening.
Question:Did this book change your opinion of warfare or do you have the same opinion of war as you used to have?

Conversation between a man with his family and Ishmael. Page 48
"Where are you from, where are you going?" He was Mende and he understood Krio very well. "I am from Jattru Jong and I have no idea where I am going."

Significance: Ishmael has no clue where he is or where he is going and ti shows he is running anywhere that there are no significant sound of gunshots, burnt pastures, blood stains in the soil, or the smell of corpses. I think this quote tells how Ishmael's journey to America was hard because he has no clue where he is going and it is a sign he is completely lost. He is going places that seem safe but one of the places he was going to turned out to be where a village guarded by soldiers who that he was a rebel. So far his journey has been filled with sadness, pain, and agony.

Personal Connection: I can connect to this quote because when I am lost in a new town or a new street I will keep looking for an area that I can find refuge in and keep safe for a while. A time this happened was when I was in Los Moches, Mexico over Christmas Break and I got lost in the streets at night when I told my family I was going for a walk while at my aunt's house. I didn't keep track of the street names so I kept walking until I found something familiar or safe.

Question: Have you every experienced being lost in a place that you never been before and have you looked a sanctuary in that situation?

The 3rd & Final Post

Name: Joshua Avila
Date: Feb 12, 2010
Pages: 358
Pages Read: 131-358

Question #1: How did what you read make you feel? Why?

Response: The end of the book made me feel a little sad because at the end Ignatio Delgado sacrificed his own life to save the Rubble Space Station from the Jackals. He blew up the Jackals attack carrier by attaching a detonator to the engine of the ship while he was still inside because the detonator was malfunctioning, but in the process, he was able to stop the Jackals from taking over the Rubble. The reason it made me sad because it made me feel that he wasn't the only person to sacrifice his own life. People in our world also sacrifice their lives to save others lives and the country they protect. Another thing that made me feel different about my life form this book was when Capt Keys took down the Brute Chieftain and kept him taking over the Midsummer Night and finding the location of Earth. It actually made me feel that people can be great heroes even in times when all hope is lost. I felt excited and exhilarated when Keys took down the Chieftain.

Question #2: What surprised you in the book? Why?

Response: The one thing that really really surprised me at the end of the book was inside the Covenant's Holy City, High Charity, during a very important council meeting, the three prophets, Regret, Doubt, and Truth, where discussing what happened during the Midsummer Night and that before the Chieftain died he sent a location to the prophets and they discussed what they would do with the location. When they realized that the planet was very important to the war they sent 7 destroyers and 3 battle carriers to the location. The reason this surprised me was because the location was in the Rim the Outer Colonies and the planet was named Reach. It was surprising because they were mainly trying to reach Earth and where humans were born to destroy it but instead they found something even worse than Earth, they found the human race's military construction planet and where all the battle vehicles were made and O.D.S.T. soldiers were trained. The worst part of the Covenant finding Reach, was that they also found the mainframe for the Spartan 2 and 3 project and if they destroyed the project, along with all the Spartans with it, the war would end up in the Covenant's favor.

1st Post of Questions

Title: Cole Protocol
Date: Feb 1, 2010
Time Hours: 4-5 Hours
Pages: 358
Pages Read: 1-88

Question: What do you think of a particular Character's actions

Response: I think that the actions of Ignatio Delgado in the Prologue was a little irrational because during the fight between him and the Jackals in the cargo bay ship he told his partner Melko to grab a disk that contained the ships nav data and go through the airlock and take it to the other ship called the Disstancia and I think it was a little too irrational because he forced his friend to go into the middle of the firefight between bullets and plasma for him make him reach an airlock into a vacuumed hanger bay, full of ships, and had limited air supply left. He could have met a Jackal hiding outside the and would fallen into a trap. Instead I would have gone with him and made sure he was safe and possibly pretended to be shot or make the Jackals think we where shot so could have snuck around them and activated the self destruct then gone outside the airlock and then tried reaching the closest ship that didn't have to be a battle ship.

Question: How does the author create suspense in the book

Response: The author creates suspense by describing scenery, actions of the characters, and also their feelings. He describes the noises of the battlefield and a strong description of the character's condition. An example is when a character is in the middle of a firefight between squadron of Elites and Jackals. He is being shot at with carbines and plasma pistols and he only has a BR and 7 clips. When the author writes about this battle he made it completely intense by described the buildings, the floor, and how the character looked with fear, hatred, and the will to live in his eye. There was lots of sounds of explosions, and gun fire, and plasma grenades bursting into oblivion. The author also does a trick where he speeds up then slows down the scene, an example of this trick is when a soldier is running down a hall looking for an exit then he is running so fast that he doesn't have time to look for enemies or allies but in one final moment everything slows down and he can see a gravity hammer blade that barely misses his face and he has just the time to duck under it and shoot the wielder of the lethal weapon in the face.

2nd Post of Questions

Title: The Cole Protocol

Total Hours: 3 Hours

Pages: 358

Pages This Week: 88-130

Question: Do you think you would read another book by this author? Why or why not?

Response: I think I would read another book by this author because this book so far has been an extraordinary book full of action and suspense and has been very explanatory about what is happening in the character’s minds. For example he makes it feel like you are the character and the scenery you are around is a real war zone. He also describes the feelings of the characters by showing the readers what the characters are seeing through their eyes and what is going on through their head and seeing all the surroundings. The one thing I don’t like about the authors writing in some parts where there isn’t enough description of the scenery. In Chapter 12 he didn’t give a good description about the hallway that Captain Keys and the Commander of the Midsummer Night were walking and discussing through about their next destination. He just gave a description of a hallway not the actual hallway.

Question: What does this book make you wonder about? Why?

Response: This book makes me wonder about how this world would be if there was no war. It gives good examples of battles raging throughout the galaxy destroying millions of lives and planets in its conquest. It also makes me wonder about if there is other life forms in our galaxy and if they are brutal, vicious and genocidal like the Brutes, Jackals, and Elites how in the book. Also it makes me wonder about the risks that people in our wars are taking and if they feel remorse or sadness for the lives they have taken and for all the loss. Also what their families are thinking and how they are worried about their relatives and if they worry about losing people during the war.

Why did I Choose

The reason why I chose the Cole Protocol as the book to read for the independent reading project, was because it is based on my favorite video game series, HALO. The author's name of the Cole Protocol is Tobias S. Buckell. One of the other reasons I chose this book was because I usually intend on reading stories that are mainly based on wars, earth bound or interstellar, guns, and strange creatures that are quite intelligent, but can reveal a deadly rage.The book is about an interstellar war that it is mainly based on the stories of Ignatio Delgado, and Lieutenant Jacob Keyes, they are both soldiers for the U.N.S.C.(United Nations Space Command) and both do their part in stopping a series of genocidal aliens that are called the covenant, and their plan to destroy the galaxy, and finding earth, What the two soldiers don't know is that they're both protecting the same thing from getting into the hands of the covenant, The U.N.S.C. Navigation Data.