monthly review

    Along Way Gone is a touching autobiography written by Ishmael Beah that tells a story of the memories of a boy soldier in Sierra Leone during their civil war. the kids were forced to kill people with AK-47s and forced to take drug mixed with gun powder just to stay awake and on duty. They showed them war movies to make the kids violent. He escapes Sierra Leone and manages to get educated enough to the story of his experience with great detail. This real life tale involves the life of Ishmael who lived a fairly happy life in Sierra Leone until civil war breaks out. Then he is forced to run for his life, becoming separated from his family and later losing them to murder by the rebels. He later finds a way to be rehabilitated and regain his childhood, and then once again learns how to love and forget the hatred and killing of his past. 

    

Ishmael Beah's purpose of this book was to tell his life story of when he was in Sierra Leone as a boy soldier and how he was mistreated by the rebels that turn children into the heartless and mindless killers that they were. He wanted to show the world the world that not only men fight wars but even little kids that not barely even 10 year old yet. It gives us American's, being one of the super powers, a greater reason to intervene in other country's problems so that other children don't experience what he had to go through. He also wanted to show the world the reality of warfare and how crazy people can get when they are determine to reach a goal and become blinded with their ambition that they don't care who they are hurting but themselves.

    

    This book is intended for everyone out there so that we can learn from other people's mistakes so that we don't repeat the same thing. It is kind of obvious to whom this book was intended for because he is doing a whole ton of work on child protecting during war and this book was to get peoples attention will a true story about what could end up happening anytime during war.

    Ishmael Beah was born in Sierra Leone in November 23, 1980. He then  had moved over to the United States in 1998 and and continued to finish his last two years of high school at the United Nations International School located New York. He graduated from Oberlin College in 2004 with a degree in Politics. He is currently member of the Human Rights Watch Children’s Rights Division Advisory Committee and has talked to the Council on Foreign Relations, the Center for Emerging Threats and Opportunities (CETO) at the Marine Corps War fighting Laboratory, and many other NGO panels on children that are being affected by war world wide. He has also spoken before the United Nations on several different times. His work has appeared in Vespertine Press and LIT magazine. He is committed to all of this work and protect of children because of the heart breaking experience he explain in the book along way gone.  

    This real life tale involves the life of Ishmael who lived a fairly happy life in Sierra Leone until civil war breaks out. Then he is forced to run for his life, becoming separated from his family and later losing them to murder by the rebels. He later finds a way to be rehabilitated and regain his childhood, and then once again learns how to love and forget the hatred and killing of his past. 

 

LC#3

    Hey reading buddies Along Way Gone is a very touching book in my opinion since he was so young and innocent when he went through this painful experience without his parents by his side while being force to kill. It is basic on a true story of when Ishmeal Beah was child solider back in Africa. The reason I enjoyed reading this book was because it opens the eyes of the world and shows us what is really going on with the conflicts around the world. Reading this makes me wonder why the super powers like the United States had not done all they could to stop this conflict especially when they were using kids to kill people and putting them on drugs just to stay awake and alert. It also shows us that all around the world childern are being abuse and being used in unhuman ways that are so violent that only a person that has experience the pain could explain it to the rest of the world to know.
    This is a great story to have heard about because it could change your thoughts on war entirely. This should be one of the books that high school students have to read during their English classes instead of the boring Shakespeare that we are forced to read each year. Reading this book would keep that students on task and reading the book instead of going on spark notes or either not even bothering to open the book in the first place.
    I am glad that he was able to escape that place he was in and was educated enough that he was able to write about his story and share it with the world in great detail and show the world what was really going on in Africa.

yugioh regionals

Over spring break i went to San Jose for the Yu-Gi-Oh Regionals. It is basically a huge tournament with hundreds of people competing for the top 32 and get an invite to the National tournament. There was lots of Machina decks being used this format because they were cheap and apparently really good. It was weird because most of the deck came from a starter deck. The deck was 3 starters decking the main cards out and a couple staple cards and you get a winning deck. Other deck were money decks with expensive cards and they didn't do so well. I was 5 and 4 which is pretty good for my first time. I could have been the top 32 but the first guy I played stacked me, which means giving himself all the card he needs to win on the first turn while just giving me a hand of useless cards.
It was crazy at regionals because stuff was getting jacked left and right. Some guy's binder got jacked in the first 2 rounds and he had Dark Armed Dragon which is worth about 70-80 bucks and a couple Judgment Dragons that were 60-70 a piece. Thankfully I didn't get anything jacked since I was watchful of my stuff. I had my backpack on me the whole time. While I was dueling my backpack was in my lap and while I was not dueling it was on my back with a clip closing the zipper so no one could really open it without me noticing it.
It was a great experience to be around so many people with determination to reach the same goal, which is an invite to nationals. The top 4 duelist would get a binder worth about 30 bucks or higher since it a one of a kind, a dueling mat which is about 20 bucks since it is also a one of a kind thing, a booster box which had 24 packs in it and would cost about 80-90 a box in a store and they also get an invite to nationals which is only for the ones who have an invite. The top 8 get 12 packs, a mat, and a invite which is not so bad since your getting it for free.
I am looking forward to the next regionals in June because I will get another shot at making it to nationals and be able to sell hella card that I don't need to make money. The only bad part about this is that is is in San Jose and starts at like 10 so i never to leave early and get there before the lines gets long and stuff. To make it on time we had to wake up a 7 and get ready, leave at 8 and get there at 9 and sign all the papers and fill out your deck list and all this other crap but in the end it was worth the trouble since i came up like 80 bucks from the stuff I got.