You wanna know what I learned?

THIRD ENTRY
The Taliban is a terrorist group made up of many different Pashtun tribes. It was initially thought of a group of saviors, because they brought an end to the Alliance, but the Taliban proved to be much worse. Persecuting Hazara's, much like Hitler and his persecution of the Jews. The once peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan is now a modern warzone, or, as Rahim Khan put it, a regular hell on earth.

More Kite Runner

THIRD ENTRY
Continuing from my last blog; Amir and his wife, Soraya, are unable to have children and while Soraya is devastated by this fact, Amir thinks it's a punishment, from a higher power, for what he did to Hassan. Amir's life after Baba's death is pretty successful; he has a nice house, loveable in-laws, and a few published books. One day, Rahim Khan, an old friend of Baba's, calls up Amir and asks him to visit. While in Afghanistan, for the first time since he and Baba fled, Amir learns, from Rahim Khan, that Hassan was married, and had a son, but died at the hands of unjust Taliban soldiers. Hassan's son, Sohrab, is sent to an orphanage in Kabul where Rahim Khan asks Amir to get him. One intersting twist in the story was the fact that Hassan is actually Baba's son, not Ali's. Thinking back to his childhood, Amir now "connects the dots" as to why Baba never forgot Hassan's birthday, got him an operation for his harelip, always treated him as part of the family and cried so hard when Ali took him away. The one good thing out of all this was that Amir doesn't feel as bad about the way he treated Hassan because his father, in Amir's mind, did much worse. So, Amir, along with Farid, his driver, head to the orphanage to find Sohrab. Incidentally, the man-hunt for Sohrab leads Amir to Assef, his childhood nemesis, who bought Sohrab from the orphange he previously lived in. Sohrab, who looks just like Hassan, was ridiculed by Assef. Though it was not said exactly, it can be inferred that Assef raped Sohrab, as he did to his father many years before. Amir is challenged to a fight for Sohrab and, ultimately, gets demolished but, thanks to Sohrab and his handy dandy slingshot skills, Amir and saved and Assef loses an eye, as was promised by Hassan years before. The rest of the book is just a custody battle over Sohrab, between Amir and the Afghan government. Sohrab attempts suicide, after learning that he may have to go back to an orphanage, but is adopted by Amir in the end. After his suicide attempt, Sohrab remains silent for a year, and only breaks into a smile after kite fighting with Amir, who became Sohrab's kite runner. One word to describe this book: wow. This novel is like a rollercoaster, not in the emotional sense, but in the interest level sense. One minute the reader is completely bored, wondering when the torture, and the next minute the reader finds her/himself sucked into this original story. The only query I have about this book is the inspiration, was it an autobiography? The details seemed eerily descriptive, as if Hosseini (sorry if I spelled it wrong), while writing the book, was going over every little detail of his life up until that point. All in all, the book was actually more interesting than I once gave it credit for. One part of the book that really stuck out to me was the twist: Baba was Hassan's father. The only thing I regret about the book is that they didn't delve deeper into Baba's sordid past, it was the most scandalous part of the book and yet Hosseini didn't have much more description than the fact that men couldn't resist Sanaubar and Baba's extreme devotion to Hassan. In the beginning of the book, I always wondered why Baba treated Hassan so well, as far as Hazara slaves go, and why he cried so hard when Ali took Hassan away. Anyway, really good read, something I just may want to read again, in the future.

Summariiieeeessss!!! (pronounced like a flamboyant gay guy with a lisp)

WARNING!!!!: The rest of this particular blog will be from the perspective of Randy a flamboyant, gay guy that I just made up in my mind because I'm a little loopy. I do not mean to offend any homosexuals with this blog, it's a grade for a class, not a spoof :).

OK, so The Kite Runner is a such a delicious book, I mean a very scrumptious read. It revolves around Amir, a rich boy, and Hassan, his servant boy toy. The relationship between Amir and Hassan is described as unbreakable and rare, although Amir completely dismisses Hassan when other rich kids are around. This relationship reminds me of the time I dated this older man, John. We would have such a yummy time together, but we would only meet late at night. He was sooo whiny about his job, mother, wife and kids...well...anyway, I can relate to poor Hassan. One interesting things I learned about Afghans, other than their delicious taste in rugs, is that they don't have school during the winter months, sort of the equivalent to summer vacation here in the U.S. of A. Another enjoyable sport the children take part in is kite running, the name of the book *jumps around wildly while clapping hands together*! So here's the rundown on the kite running race thing: Amir wins and is glad his father finally accepts him, I can relate to Amir too! Who needs fathers anyway!? Who needs someone saying: "I just don't understand why he doesn't like sports" or "Why can't he fly a kite" or "Why does he like to play with dolls" or "Why can't he play baseball instead of doing ballet". Well you know what? We...I mean..Amir doesn't need a father anyway! Sorry about that, some wounds were reopened, but anyway, Amir won the race and got his fathers' acceptance, but he needed to run the runner ups kite to make it an even better win, so he tells Hassan, who is so amazing at kite running, to get the kite for him. Unfortunately, Hassan runs into the neighborhood bully and unwillingly plays find the squirrel. Amir is such a little boob and makes me so mad when he doesn't help his "friend" out. Hassan is such a little angel that all he does is cry and refuses to talk about it. No one says a word about the little incident and Amir, rightfully feeling just awful that he's such a horrible person, tries to avoid him. But, true to that jerky (HA I said jerky) nature, tries to get rid of Hassan. Fearing for his poor sons life, Ali takes Hassan away to live with their cousin. Fast forward a few years...Amir and Baba flee the country because of the war between and Afghanistan and Russia. They get to America and have to adjust to the big change from their small, trusting village, to the large humble and bumble of California!! Personally, I prefer San Francisco, but that's my opinion, we're all entitled to one. Anyway, shortly after Amir graduates high school and enrolls in college, Baba gets cancer. Baba, being the strong-willed person he is, won't receive chemo and Amir is devastated at the thought of being an orphan. HOW SELFISH! He's not so sad about his father being dead, but being alone. Anyway he meets this fugly girl who is described as being "beautiful" with a uni brow and a crooked nose! I don't know how things are done in Afghanistan, but she sounds more like a beast than a beauty. Amir proposes to her, in the Afghan way, and they are set to be married. Hooray, Hooray ( in a VERY sarcastic tone). Well, ta-ta for now darlings!

Check it Out..Where my vocab at?

Remember when I said I was continuing a blog for Senior Project (hence the title of my blog)? Well for today's batch of edumacation [education] I'm going to write 10, count 'em, 10 interesting "vocab words" I found while reading The Kite Runner, an assigned book for the class which isn't bad at all.

Congenital: having by nature a specified character

Unscrupulous: unprincipled

Sallow: of a sickly, yellowish color

Assailant: a person who attacks

Intricate: complex

Imbecile: a dunce; blockhead; dolt

Squall: a sudden disturbance or commotion

Aficionados: an ardent devotee; fan, enthusiast

Impeccable: faultless; flawless; irreproachable

Vehemently: characterized by rancor or anger; violent

More later people

MACBETH (dun dun duunnnnn)

In my Senior Project/ English 12 class, we're reading, or were reading, Macbeth. Personally, I enjoyed Hamlet and Romeo & Juliet much better, but I got to follow the curriculum right? So, as many of you may know, the story centers around this grown cry-baby, Macbeth, and his crazily wild ride to become King. Riding in the passenger seat, as well as taking the wheels from time to time, is his insane wife Lady Macbeth (maybe it's a "lady" thing cause that Lady Gaga is a weirdo too). From the very first scene she was in I knew she was a loon, I mean a real nutcase. Not only that, but she's somewhat of a...a.._itch. (I'm being graded on this, can't have naughty words ;D) When she first appears on the scene, she complains what a limp noodle Macbeth is, and how things could be different and blah, blah, blah. Actually, she kind of reminds me of my mom, but that's a story for another time. So the book/play is pretty much summed up like this: Crazy Lady tells The Incredible Whipped Boy, Macbeth, that he needs to kill Duncan so they can be top dog. He says yes (wuh-chhh, wuh-chhh) and, after the bloody deed, becomes King of Scotland. Things go peachy keen for awhile until the witches meddle some more and Macbeth kills his buddy, Duncan. I think the O'Jays had Macbeth in mind when they wrote Backstabbers. Anyway, the whole time this nonsense is going on Macduff, who was against Macbeth's reign from the beginning, starts up a rebellion of sorts to put Malcolm, the true heir, back on the radar. Lady Crazy does what most crazies do and kills herself and Macbeth is ultimately beheaded by Macduff. As I've said before, I didn't really like this story. There was just too much going on to really keep me interested, but I'm not a critic and Shakespeare is dead so my opinion doesn't matter much now does it?