Black Hawk Down

I am done with Black Hawk Down, I am planning on getting a new book soon. After the second helicopter crashes it creates more craziness. With two helicopters down the military has to send reinforcements or relief in to rescue and transport the dead and wounded back to the camp. When the reinforcements get there, their is a big battle and the Americans win. The one thing I don't like about this book and especially the movie is that, they make it sound like the Americans won, but we really didn't win. Operation Irene was a failed mission. We pretty much got our butts whooped by the Somalian terrorists. I think that we should have stayed there and whooped their butts. I think that if we would of stayed there it would of also showed more strength in America, instead we wimped out and pulled out of Somalia with our tail between our legs. I think that if you start something you must finish it. You cannot just go into a country and liberate it and then leave, you have to have stability and rebuild the government. One thing that I seriously cannot believe is that Minnesota more so the Twin Cities has the largest population of Somalie's than anyother place in the world besides their own country. I think that its great we can help out Somalie refugees, but when they open the floodgates and let everyone slide into Minnesota it's not good at all.

Black Hawk Down

I am reading the book "Black Hawk Down." Black Hawk down takes place in Somalia, when the United States come on a mission of the name Irene. The mission is to kill or capture terrorists, the mission is supposed to be in and out but when a helicopter gets shot down everything changes. The soldiers have to quickly and safely get to the crash site, secure it, and wait for more troops to come and pick them up. Under heavy enemy fire from all directions of the crash site, they see another chopper get shot down. This creates even more kiosk. So far this book seems to be almost as good as the movie. I find it interesting to read about history and wars because most times history repeats itself. Wars are one of the most important aspects when looking at history, especially in the ancient times, there was no better way to solve a problem than with knives and arrows. This was an important book to write because people can't just look the other way when things like this happen. People need to be educated on whats happening in the world so they are aware whats going on so they can be prepared for it. I think its a terrible thing when the United States saw what those Somali people did to those American bodies after we left Somalia, seeing dead American corpse being dragged behind vehicles through the streets of Somalia. This is a great book so far.

The Road

The book "The Road" seems to be a well written novel. This book reminds me of the two movies "World At War" and "I Am Legend." In both of these spectacular movies the world is taken over by some unthinkable force or aliens. In the book "The Road" there seems to be a meteoroid or something else that produces large amounts of ash. So far so good reading "The Road." I like this book much more than the "Odyssey" because I can actually understand it and it sounds like it takes place within the last century or earlier. It is more fun to read books that could actually happen in my lifetime, unlike the "Odyssey." "The Road" is fun to read cause I am imagining in my head what I would do if the world became mostly extinct. The world would be so quite and empty, I would have fun for about the first month or two doing everything I've ever dreamed of doing. After that I would become lonely and search for a companion, either a pet or another striving human. Mean while I would find a reliable car and customize it with a single bed, interior lights, curtains, and large spotlights on the top of it and different color lights and sirens for more visibility at night and so other striving humans can see me. This vehicle would increase my chances of finding someone else by a lot. Overall, the I think I will enjoy reading this book.

MN Wild

The Minnesota Wild are currently 8th best in the league and 3rd in the conference. Their current record is 14-7-1 which to me is decent. I still think they should be in the top 5 bracket of teams in the NHL, considering the Xcel Energy Center has over 300 consecutive sellout games. Someone is getting to much money(Wild Owner), the fans are getting ripped off, they deserve more than a 14-7-1 record. I definitely think that the Wild will emerge out of this slump that they're in. During the last 5 straight home game in a row the Wild only managed to win two of them. Although the Wild played the Nashville Preditors last night they did pullout a 6-2 blowout with backup goalie Josh Harding in for Nicklas Backstrom. The Wild host the Colorado Avalanche at the Xcel tomorrow. The Avalanche are currently 21st in the league and 12th the conference. The Wild will hopefully come out with a win tomorrow. Thinking back to the previous games and previous seasons against the Avalanche, the Wild have always had trouble pulling out a win, they always work hard and grind goals. Then the Avalanche come back on a break away and score. I hope the Wild win tomorrow night, and I have a feeling they will. The game tomorrow is definitley going to be a rough one, I think the Wild and the Avalanche are rivals. After last seasons last game of the regular season Gaborik and Laperriere dropped the gloves, then the two teams played each other in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Avalanche one the series.

The Odyssey

My thoughts on the Odyssey: I personally don't like the majority of the books in the Odyssey. A few books that I do have find interest in are books five and nine. I liked book five because I found it amazing that Odysseus built a raft in four days. I also found it crazy that he actually built a raft with no instructions and not pre-molded materials but raw materials such as trees he had to hand chop and form to his liking. Could you do that? I know I could't do that. That is very impressive that Odysseus built this raft in a split of time.
I found book nine to be interesting because it is crazy that Odysseus stabbed Polyphemus in his one and only eye. I find it crazy that Odysseus had the courage to stab a monster two to three times the size of himself in his eye. Odysseus is flat out a beast, from building a raft in four days to stabbing a one eyed monster, Odysseus has done it all. Odysseus has overcome his biggest fears and odds, he worked hard to get home, and in the end he finally arrived back to Ithaca to find his son and wife. With Odysseuss' hard work he prevailed. I think this is one of the themes of the Odyssey and also a life lesson.

The Odyssey

In my opinion, the Odyssey was an OK book, I'm sure I would appreciate the book much more if I were a different type of person but I personally don't like this kind of book because it is kind of long and hard to comprehend oh and it repeats itself. A few things that I did like about this book were, I liked the characters especially Odysseus because he has a cool life and it amazes me to know that he built a raft in four days and also swam for two full days. That is Michael Phelps times at least three. Another thing I seemed to have some interest in when reading it was the landscape, I appreciated the landscape because I think the landscape is a very important part of the Odyssey. A few thing I did not like about the Odyssey were, I did not like when the book would repeat itself. I didn't like this because to me it's a waste of time, well not entirely... Another thing I didn't like was the language. The language was very hard to read let alone comprehend, personally I don't like to read 15 pages if hard language and then not understand it entirely.

Ghost Soldiers

For my outside reading book I read a book called "Ghost Soldiers". Ghost Soldiers is a great book, although it starts out a little slow, it is worth it to keep on. Summary: In World War II, a group of U.S. Army Rangers stationed in the Philippines are sent on a mission to liberate and rescue American POW before they are massacred by the Japenese. With about 200 hand selected U.S. Rangers and another 100 Filipino Guirellas, they have to endure a 30 mile plus walk through mountainous terrain in highly patrolled Japenese territory. The 30 mile walk seems to go ok. When they get in sight range of the POW camp they see that there are no trees or other natural barriers for them to hide themselves. There was nothing but wide open rice pattie fields for about a quarter mile all around the POW camp. This posed as a major problem for them because their was guard towers in the camp with pillboxes, so at first sight of an enemy they could potentially peper them with mounted fully auto high powered machine guns. The intial liberation of the camp was called off for 24 hours because of several armored cars and Japenese foot soldiers. 24 hours later they approached they POW camp at dusk, so they would be less likely to be spotted. The soldiers surrounded the Camp on the edges of the woods and the fields. They crawled slowly but undectected because of a U.S. Army Black Widow Airplane that flew over the camp teasing the guards and getting their attention to the sky, and not the ground, so the rangers could now move at a faster rate. At about 100 to 200 yards the Rangers carefully set up there .30 cailber machine guns, and waited for the go to. The several gunners mowed the camp pillboxes down to nothing, schredding the Japenese guards to pieces. The other rangers then aproached the gate and entered. First they went to the Japenese barracks and destroyed them and then they went to the American POW barracks to rescue them, saying "Its a jail break run for the gate". The Rangers and POW's were able to get back to American lines safely. The End

Buying a Computer

When buying a computer in todays market a person should understand a computers components to be able to get the best components for the least of their dollar. There are many things to consider when you buy a computer, here are some of the main components to think on. First thing is the computers processer, a central processing unit(cpu) main purpose is to run your computer. The better the processor the faster you can do stuff on your computer. The next thing is an operating system, in most cases you would want the newest operating system. Another crucial component is a computers memory, memory is called RAM in computer. RAM stands for random acess memory, this means that the more RAM your computer has the more progams you can run and the faster you can run them. RAM is measured in Giga Bites, their are roughly 1000 mega bites per one giga bite, and a progam takes up a given amount of mega bites and the more progams you have running the slower your computer can run, depending on the amount of RAM it has. Ram also determines how fast you can open and close a progam. A good amount of memory would be about 4 giga bites (gb). One of the most important components is probably Hard Drive, the hard drive stores all of the programs and saved files on it. Hard drive is also measured in giga bites, depending on the amont of files you have and how much mega bites or giga bites they contain, a safe amount of hard drive would be about 250gb to 350gb. If you want some kind of an idea to scale how much hard drive memory would be logical, one song that is about 2-3 minutes equals about 3 mega bites.

Mn Wild

The Minnesota Wild have once again started there season undefeated. They are now 4-0.
There seems to be a new hotshot in town on the team despite Marion Gaborik, Antti Miettinen already has five goals this season in four games. The Minnesota Wild management and the fans have been waiting for a player of this cailber for a while. The Wild are a very good team, but they have always needed another man to answer besides Marian Gaborik. Antti Miettinen has hopefully filled that empty postition for the Wild. Miettinen has sure shown signs of a great year, hopefully he can continue to score consistintly, which is what the Wild defenitly need to have a chance at there first Stanely Cup Championship. Miettinen is among the top three skaters so far this season, 1-Miko Koivu with 1 goal and 8 assists 2-Antti Mienttinen with 5 goals and 2 assists
3-Andrew Burnette with 2 goals and 3 assists. Marion Gaborik seems to me to be in a rutt, with only 1 goal and 0 assists. Their will definetly be high expectations for Gaborik this season after 42 goals scored last season. I have no worries for the rest of the season for Gaborik, I am sure he will do great as he did last year.

McCain Obama taxing

It has been nothing but grinding and grinding for every point, for the Presidential Candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain. I think that John McCain would be the best choice for America. I have several reasons for this choice. One of my biggest concerns is taxes, taxes are tearing middle class families apart. Poor, Middle, and Wealthy are the three main social statuses. Obvisously, someone is poor for a reason, whether it's because of loss of job or laziness, laziness seems to be the problem for most poor people. That is only half of the problem, most of these people sit around all day and collect welfare, while their neighbor is out working two jobs, and can barely make ends meat and there tax money is paying for their neighbor to sit on their butt all day and stair at the sky. If one person can work two or three jobs than how can a person not find one job. Maybe if they didn't give so many free lunches away, the liberals wouldn't have to tax us so much. I think that it is great that we have a government were we can help families out, but seriously, welfare was not meant for people to milk off there whole life it was meant to help families struggling and welfare could be used temprorarly. Not to mention, if a person living off government funding has a medical problem and calls the ambulance and ends up in the emergency room, the whole trip is paid for by the tax payers in that city and the person is not charged a dime. While a self employed remodeler hurts himself on a job and needs surgery he is charged the bill. Obama, as we all know a liberal, that is one of the reasons why we don't need a liberal president. Obama says hes gonna cut taxes, yet his tax plan says he would raise the tax on dividend checks from 15% to 39%. If that were to happen there would be no such thing as a stock market, cause who wants to pay the government almost half of there earnings off the stock market, to pay for the rising number of people on welfare, and other programs. On the other hand McCain would keep the current percentage tax the same.

McCain or Obama

MN Wild

The Minnesota Wild have started off there preseason 2-1, with a game tonight against Chicago at the Xcel hoping to snag another win. Last season they started out undefeated for about first 8 or 9 games, ending the year with about 44 wins, winning their division for the first time in Wild Franchise history. I am ready for them to do it again this year, with there first game on October 11th against Boston. Last years playoffs the Wild lost in first round against the Colorado Avalanche. It seemed to me that every goal that the Wild scored should of equaled 2 goals because they worked incredibly hard but unfortunately were unable to overcome the Avalanche's goalie Jose Theodore, who was having a great start to the playoffs, but Colorado lost in the 2nd round of the playoffs to the Penguins. I hope the Wild can have a very productive season this year, considering we lost a couple of great skaters: Marian Gaboriks main man Pavalo Demitra and Brian Rolston. I am excited to see what the new Wild players will bring to the team. I believe that there is no reason for the Wild not in the playoffs every year, and if we don't, it is not the teams falt, it is the owners falt for not giving back to the fans. With 300 consecutive sellouts at the Xcel Energy Center there is absolutely we no reason why we shouldn't be in the playoffs every year. GO WILD!!!

M

Its time to go

Around 12 on Sunday I sat down to watch the Vikings play the Panthers, after an 0-2 start to there season I was beginning to loose faith in the Vikings. (nothing new of course) When I heard that starting quarterback for the Vikes Tavaris Jackson was benched for the remainder of the season, I wasn't quite sure what to think. Until they brought in a 15 year veteran of the NFL Gus Frerotte 37, who started against the Panthers on Sunday. The game started out slow, at half time the Panthers had us 10 to 3, but not for long, quarterback Gus Frerotte threw a touchdown pass tieing it at 10 in the third period. After, cornerback Antonie Winfield sacked the Panthers quarterback and recovered the fumble, Winfield ran in for the touchdown leading the Panthers 17 to 10, the vikings ended up winning 20 to 10. I think that move by head coach Brad Childress putting Tavaris Jackson down to second string was a good decision, infact many people are asking themselves was the decision a couple of weeks late after 2 losses in a row. Gus Frerotte had 204 passing yards, he did a great job of staying in the pocket and not panaking when under pressure, unlike Tavaris. Gus through a couple of nice bombs, but there is no doubt that the Vikings are a running team. Gus completed the most important throws, the ones that were only 5-10 yards, but got the team a first down. I hope Gus can continue doing this and hopefully lead the Vikings to more wins throughout the season.

Green Bays- Aaron Rodgers

Aaron Rodgers has continued his career with Green Bay, but this year is different from the others as the starting quarter back. He has had a sensational start to his season, with a passer rating of 117.8, leading previous quarterback Brett Farve with a passer rating of 104.1. Brett Farve is arugably one of the best if not the best quarterback of all time. Just because Rodgers is leading Farve, doesn't mean that Farve isnt doing good, cause he is, but there is not doubt in my mind that Aaron Rodgers is haveing a great start to a new season. After being the back of quarterback for Brett Farve in Green Bay since 2005, he is now starting. It can't be easy playing infront of the fans in Green Bay, because Brett Farve spoiled the fans previously. Comeing into the opening game in Green Bay Rodgers had high expectations of not only himself but from the fans. In my opinion he did a great job fulfilling those expectations and maybe plus some. If Rodgers keeps this up he could possibly lead his team to the Super Bowl and win it all!

A Journey I Intend to Take

A journey that I had I intend to take in my lifetime, is going to Europe. I think that going to Europe would be a blast because their are so many sights to see and ancient ruins from a long time ago. It would amaze me that I would be standing on or near a land mark, where thousands of years ago, other stood for different reasons.

Blog Expectations

My name is Matt Johnson. This is my super cool blog, which i will personalize and make my own. I will always use appropriate language on my school blog and follow the conventions of the English language. The expectation for this assignment lis that I post on my blog once a week for the remainder of the school year. I am expected to comment on texts that I am viewing in the world around me. These might include, but are not limited to: books, magazines, movies, internet articles, television show trips to museums, etc.
Each post should be at least 200 words. Each weekly post is due by 8am on that Wednesday. therefore, Q1 due dates are: 9/17, 8/24, 10/1, 10/8, 10/15, 10/22, and 10/29. That makes for a total of 7 posts this first quarter. I understand that blogs are worth 100 points per quarter and are graded holistically. I also understand that blogging is a signifcant compenent of my quarter grade. By the way, what i have just typed is only 196 words! Now it is 100!