Band of Brothers ACE

Band of brothers is a 10-part television miniseries that centers on the experiences of Easy Company of the 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment assigned to the 101st Airborne Division of the United States Army. It depicts handsome, earnest young men who face challenges and bravely achieve great victories.

I feel that Band of Brothers, however, does romanticizes the story of Easy Company. The scenes shown in Band of Brothers were highly exaggerated and most were not even logical. For example, in Episode 7: "Breaking Point", Joe Toye was portrayed to have lost his leg together with his comrade, Bill, during the artillery shelling near Foy. An explosion that close to Joe should result in direct death but he only lost a leg, which was not really realistic and only brings about pity form the viewers of the show instead of showing the true reality. Thus, it is actually romanticizing the story of Easy Company.

However, I feel that Band of Brothers does not romanticizes World War 2 and war in general. In Band of Brothers, they show many scenes of physical and mental traumas that were actually very close to actual reality. Many scenes show the emotional trauma that soldiers encounter when they go to war. For example, there was the case where a private was trying to dig a fox hole with his bare hands in Episode 7 after the shelling near Foy. The scene of Buck Compton breaking down from emotional trauma after his best friends were hit also could appear in real life during a war. These examples are realy

It is extremely significant that The History Channel's on-air broadcast of Band of Brothers was sponsored by the US Army. This shows that the US Army actually wants the public to realise the devastation of war and to understand that war is not just about people shooting other people but instead, is an emotional trauma that requires a huge amount of moral courage to overcome it. It lets the people realise the importance of abstaining from war and to show people the truth of war.

Back!

Hey world! I'm back!!

This time I'm reviving this blog for English, so watch out for my future posts!

Signing off! :D

Task 2

Following up with Rainbow Death by Hubert Wilson...

1. Point of view:
This poem was from the point of view of Hubert Wilson, who was a Vietnamese War veteran who served in the USAF Security Service.
"Now thinking twice? Toll on the innocent and unborn."
This was a message that Hubert Wilson was conveying to the Americans, showing that it was from his point of view.

2. Situation and Setting:
This poem talks about the spraying of a herbicide and defoliant contaminated with TCDD, Agent Orange and the innocent deaths that follows from the poisoning.
"Generations untold WILL pay -Execrable effects of agent orange spray!"
This shows that the poem is talking about the innocent generation of children that will pay for what the Americans have done, which is the agent orange spray.

3. Language/Diction:
The poet was angry at the Americans.
"America did not foresee green, pink, purple and other colors death potpourri!"
The poet was angry that the Americans did not see that the "Rainbow Herbicides" could cause death .

4. Personal Response:
This poem talks about the lethality of chemical warfare and how it affects the victims of it. It shows that in a modern war, death does not occur during it, but also after it, which is very saddening as generations of innocent people are poisoned due to the selfishness of their past generations.

Task 1

Rainbow Death

America did not foresee
Green, pink, purple and other colors death potpourri!
Expecting others to pay a high price.
Now thinking twice?
Toll on the innocent and unborn.

Omnipotent and disregarding who will mourn.
Reflective about all the illness, birth defects and prematurely dead.
All the deceit continues to spread.
Nefariously America led astray -
Generations untold WILL pay -
Execrable effects of agent orange spray!

Hubert Wilson



Hubert Wilson was a Vietnam War veteran who served in the USAF Security Service along with a dozen or so intelligence school graduates who prepared for about 14 months at Kelly AFB in San Antonio, Texas, before anticipating being sent to Vietnam or elsewhere in Southeast Asia in 1970. He was assigned to Shemya Island, Alaska, with the 6984th Security Squadron, while the other half ended up in Da Nang (an Agent Orange hotspot) in the 6924th Security Squadron. Shemya Island eventually was a more contaminated environment than Da Nang.

Hubert Wilson's health problems started approximately 15 years ago with unexplained headaches and limb pains. Four years ago, his central nervous system radically deteriorated with Parkinsonian type tremors, severe headaches, progressive limb pains, etc. No physician has ever diagnosed the specific illness. Hubert Wilson guessed that it was because of the heavily contaminated drinking water at Shemya during his year there as an intelligence analyst. Organo-phosphate toxins may not run their toxic course until 20 to 30 years after initial exposure.

Since Hubert Wilson's brain can still function moderately well, he turned to writing just like his late Father.

This small poem speaks of a modern day ingredient of warfare that has caused appalling death and suffering to the Vietnamese people and also the service personnel that used or even just came into contact with “Agent Orange”. Agent Orange is the code name for a herbicide and defoliant—contaminated with TCDD—used by the U.S. military in its Herbicidal Warfare program during the Vietnam War. 4.8 million Vietnamese people were exposed to Agent Orange, resulting in 400,000 deaths and disabilities, and 500,000 children born with birth defects.

Hubert Wilson wrote this poem to remind people that the horrors of war does not just happen during it, but also after it.

Recources: http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/2010warpoetry.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange

Musical

Poem on Tom Robinson's Trial

Accused of raping,
with no evidence of crime.
He was found guilty,
but he committed no crime!

The trial was anything
but a fair prosecution.
It was nothing but
cruel discrimination.

Tom Robinson could never
win this cruel trial,
for the assumption that
all black people are vile.

Naturalist

Mockingbirds

The Northern Mockingbird (Mimus Polyglottos) can be found in most of the continental United States from southern Oregon through northern Utah to Newfoundland and south to Mexico. It lives in open country with thickets, farmland and desert brush. The northern mockingbird eats ants, beetles, grasshoppers, seeds and berries.

Most likely, Maycomb is a rural county, with many thickets, farmland and desert brush. Maycomb would also have many insects and berry trees.

The Northern Mockingbird lives in Maycomb most likely is because Maycomb provides a natural habitat for them, with thickets, brushes and farmland. Maycomb also has their choice of food, which is insects and berries, which will attract the mockingbirds to come and live in Maycomb.

My learning profile

As you can see from my learning profile, I am mostly musical smart and almost equal for the rest. I have a thing for music, is body smart, likes the nature and have good visuals. However, I am not very linguistic and logical. I also do not know myself and others well.

This learning profile shows my strength in music, body, nature and visuals. It also shows my weakness in:
Linguistic, which explains why my Language Arts is so bad.
Logic, which explains why I am illogical.
Interpersonal, which explains why I sometimes don't get myself.
Intrapersonal, which explains why I can't seem to understand someone.

In all, this learning profile can show a person's strength and weaknesses, allowing them to improve on themselves.

Facebook

Facebook is a social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. Since September 2006, anyone over the age of 13 with have a valid e-mail address can become a Facebook user. Users can add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. Additionally, users can join networks organized by cities, workplaces and schools or colleges.

Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook with his college roommates and fellow computer science students Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes while he was a student at Harvard University. The website's membership was initially limited by the founders to Harvard students, but was expanded to other colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and Stanford University. It later expanded further to include any university student, then high school students, and, finally, to anyone aged 13 and over. The website currently has more than 400 million active users worldwide.

MMORPG

As technology becomes more and more advanced, more and more games are created. Most of these games are MMORPG games, also known as Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game. This type of games allow you to take the role of a character, which you can control. These games can be played world-wide through the use of Internet and allows you to interact with other players. It is very addicting as it lets you create your own character, upgrade it and change its avatar. Players will have the feeling that the character is them themselves, in a fantasy world with monsters and special skills.

Also, since you can interact with other players, people who play it usually have friends to play along with it. The most important reason why such games are so successful is because players want to beat their friends in the game, so they play all day long, trying to "level up" their character as fast as they can. This makes them addicted to it.

Some examples of such games are:
-Maple Story
-Cabal Online
-Gunz

New topic

This year, I'll be talking about games and social networking tools. I'll also be posting about Language Arts occasionally. I'll be posting new posts regularly so be sure to check it out! Remember to comment and follow my blog! :D