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Website link to my final portfolio works and midterm portfolio works.
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Final Thoughts on "The Forever War"

After finishing my book club novel, I am throroughly pleased with the book as a whole.  To be honest, it was as good as I expected it to be, and I truly loved reading it.  It did not really lag for me at any point, the only thing I noticed is that many of the stories seem to be along the same lines so it can feel a bit repetitive.  However, I feel that repition is needed in order to really drive home the point of what war and living is like in Iraq and Afghanistan.  As far as some of the criticisms of Filkins' work that my group found, I feel that they are sort of irrelevant.  One of these main criticisms is that Filkins really jumps around and does not follow a set time line.  While this is true, Filkins' use of a random timeline emphasizes to me how long we have been involved in the Middle East, and the calibur or his writing makes his jumping around very tolerable.  All of the stories are interesting, so who cares if they go in order?

Overall, I would highly reccomend anybody who is interested in geopolitics, or American foreign policy and our involvement in the Middle East to check out ''The Forever War''.  It is a breeze to read, and a great piece of Journalism.

Reading Blog for Monday Nov. 28th

The piece entitled "Serving in Florida" by Barbara Ehrenreich is a very interesting piece that covers a few different interesting areas.  One thing that it addresses is corporate greed, in a way.  While the article has more to do with the hardships that people like waitresses and waiters face when that is their full time job, this part struck me especially what has been going on with such things as Occupy Wall Street.  Although many of the protesters there were doing it for the wrong reasons and many of them truly had no clue why they were there/were there just to be there, there were some level headed young people there who knew what they were doing.  Although the purpose of Occupy Wall Street got a little bit misconstrued as a debate over the costs of college education, corporate greed was an issue there.  In a way, I wish Ehrehreich did talk a little more about this because it is a hot button topic that, hopefully, becomes more of a mainstream issue and the younger population begins to learn more about and begins to oppose.
Apart from this issue, there were some very surprising things that were brought up in this piece.  I do, however, think this piece would have been more effective if it was coming from someone who was actually living this life full time, not someone posing as such.  Ehrenreich always has a way out; she can stop the experiment any time she wishes.  For the rest of the people in this article. this is their real lives, and they do not have the option to just stop things and go to living another life.  But seeing firsthand how some people were living, and realizing how many people really are living this way (like living out of their car or a hotel to avoid rent) is eye opening, and it makes me have more respect for people like this.  In this way the article is effective, but it is still a bit tainted because Ehrenreich is not really living this life 24/365.

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Book Club Post

For today's meeting we read up to chapter 12.  At this point in the book, a lot of details about the opinions of native Iraqis are really starting to show.  The author does a great point of showing both sides of the story; he constantly moves back and forth between the Iraqi and American opinion.  One thing that is especially interesting is the idea presented by Filkins that the Iraqi mindset is like a double edged sword in that there is always the story that the Iraqi's tell to the Americans, and the life that they are living on their own and at home.  Filkins blames this on the language barrier between English and Arabic, but I think it has more to do with American ignorance.  If the idea keeps being perpetuated that we are helping the Iraqis by being there, then there will always be info passed behind our backs by the Iraqis.  It is interesting to read some of this information now that we are leaving Iraq, but the fact that we are still in Afghanistan does not really change anything at all.  As our group nears the end of the book, I'm curious to see how Filkins wraps up the story and the situation in Iraq and how the events unfolded in the current day.

Book Club Post 1: The Forever War

For my book club group, I chose to read The Forever War.  I have learned a lot about this subject and find it very interesting so I look forward to what the author has to say, especially because he has witnessed things first hand.  Often times this subject of forever war is one that is not readily acknowledged or brushed aside, so it will be very interesting to see a professional author discuss such matters.  I haven't got the book yet, but I will be looking forward to getting a jump on it, and I expect it to be a good read.