Summer Reading Entry 4

      I chose to read Ship Breaker just because of how interesting it looked and how many reviewers recommended reading it. I usually like to read books that are set in dystopian societies because they are different from many of the other books and could be set in something that you might not be familiar with. Like what if the ice caps melted? Or if it was a different story, what if it was set in a nuclear war? I’ve read many novels in the past whether you were required to read them or just chose to. They’re something I’d prefer to read. I don’t really like to read that many love stories if there are any on the list because many can have the same ending.

      I’d recommend this book to young adults or adults because it contains a plot that younger people might not understand like why the polar caps might melt and why specific things in the book would happen. For example, why would they form scavenging crews and why do they call it scavenging crews? Personally, I thought the book was good. It had a good setting, they weren’t always on the oil rig/ship scavenging, they would walk and talk about what life used to be and background on certain characters. It’s not a book where you reach boring parts and would want to stop reading, it would make you want to read more.

Summer Reading Entry 3

       During this section of Ship Breaker, a storm known as ‘Orleans Surge’ is happening and going to flood the hut that they are staying at. During this time, because of the way Nailer’s father is, there’s so much drugs in his system from last night that he can’t move. So now Nailer has the difficult task to move his father to higher ground before their hut becomes flooded. Nailer was never able to see his dad get up to the rock shelter that Sadna, Pima’s mother recommended. You only get to read that Pima and Nailer safely made it up. You never knew if Sadna and Nailer’s father made it.

                

      This section of the book might hook readers because this section is not really about whether they can survive the storm, but shows how different Nailer and his father are and how their differences will get in the way and possibly get them killed. Leading up to this point in the book, his father’s aggressiveness has already got in the way and has caused trouble. He already kind of mad at Nailer for bringing Nina to them and maybe to relieve himself and remind himself of what life used to be before he joined a scavenging crew and everything was normal. Whether he lived or died is for readers to read.

Summer Reading Entry 2

During the events of Ship Breaker, Nailer always seems to be in a dilemma. He always needs to choose between two things that he’d rather not. For example, he took this girl from one oil tanker named Nita who apparently is part of another scavenging crew. Nailer’s father lectured him about this and not to do this. Nailer’s father acts a lot more differently than Nailer himself. He’s very violent towards his crew, just not to Nailer. The only thing he may want is to just survive in the different world they’re all living in.

One theme that may be developing in the book is loyalty. When Nailer took Nita from the tanker, this caused so many tensions that weren’t needed. So now, everyone is beginning to question who is with whom so everyone feels uneasy towards each other, and I don’t know who is trustworthy. Now they have to make decisions so there are no costly consequences from the wrong decisions. At first when the book started, it revolved around the main characters and getting to know them. Then it filled in the blanks by telling us what is ahead for the characters and some background information on what happened in the rest of the world. So now, all that happens really just ties towards the end of the structured plot, which is what’s ahead for them to encounter.

Summer Reading Entry 1

      In the book, Ship Breaker, every character is different in its own unique way. At first, when you start reading, you don’t see much because it is all focused in on Nailer, the main character. He’s with his father as part of a ‘crew’ which is a word used to classify a group of people scavenging from crashed oil tankers. Many of the main characters are part of the crew that goes on these scavenging runs. The crew goes on many runs to get a certain material which I’m not even quite sure what it is so they can survive.

     Specifically, they’re on the Gulf Coast when it all happened. Apparently, New Orleans sank to the bottom of the Ocean because the world heated up. This kind of reminds me of Hurricane Katrina when it hit New Orleans. Even though it didn’t completely get destroyed and we rebuilt most of it, it reminded me of past catastrophic events in New Orleans. But I’m not sure if any more of these events has happened so I wonder, have more of these events happened elsewhere in the world? Are the scavengers going to run into something that will cause tension? I’m not sure what will happen, but I think the survivors will clash or fight with another group of survivors.

What I Have Learned From Navy Seal Dogs

I have learned many things from Navy Seal Dogs. I have learned what you may think I have learned, and that is correct. But one thing that you may not have expected is the writing style Mike used. He doesn't write in a journalistic manner, he kind of only did that in the beginning. No, at some points, he was talking through the dog's perspective and then suddenly switch back to his perspective, which is odd but interesting. And also, he wrote just in a funky order, because some events we written in a different period, and were most likely done this way for a purpose. Another thing I learned from the book is some tactics Mike used in his training. Dogs, like us, have a consistent pattern when it comes to certain things. When you continue to train a dog, it will have a desire to continue with what it's doing, and I didn't know that's something dogs will also do. And, also, when dogs didn't cooperate at first, Mike used words of attention so the dog could follow what he says, ans one word he used was 'treat'.

Why did the Author write Navy Seal Dogs?

The author, Mike Ritland, wrote Navy Seal Dogs to show his personal experiences. I know that this is very broad, but his book is a primary source and can be used for any sort of purpose. We have books and stories written on the American Civil War, World War I, and World War II, and now we are going to have stories written in the past decade about troops in the Middle East. Another reason for him writing Navy Seal Dogs is to show the purpose and faults for us moving into Iraq and Afghanistan how much different it is continuously cooperating with K9s. Since this takes place early 2000's we were really going confident going into the Middle East. We were just hoping that establishing order there would ensure safety in the United States, but in my opinion, it kind of worked, but then again not really. So it's told through Mike Ritland's perspective to see and make you think about if what we're doing is right.

Another reason he might have wrote this is to show how much different it is continuously cooperating with K9s. Many of us have dogs today, and well dogs are a man's best friend right? Well that's exactly what Mike would think. Today, he trains German Shepherds and other suitable dogs to be able to use, so he probably still thinks this today. But do you guys think the same about what we're doing? And do you agree with what dogs really mean to you?

Final Blogging Assessment in English 1B

This is some of the best things that I have read about so far in Navy Seal Dogs by Mike Ritland in my opinion. One great thing that stands out in the book is that the knowledge and information you gained in this book comes from a primary source. Mike Ritland was a former Navy Seal and instead of getting information by someone else over a broad topic it won't get you the best experience and information by someone such as Mike Ritland and how he got to where he is. He uses long sentences and some run-on sentences to express his writing.

Another great thing I find about this book is the first section of the book talks on his training and not just all of a sudden going into combat when you don't understand prior what happened. He includes a lot of elevated diction, which explains to you what he was feeling at the time. A quote to show elevated diction from my book would be,"Because adaptability to an environment is so key to a working dog's success, I do a couple of other things to enhance both the pups' prey drive and their comfort level with the unfamiliar"(Ritland 56). I mean I don't think many would succeed in the training that Mike had to go through. They were more tough and fierce and required more tough and fierce training than another section of the military such as the marines or the Green Baret.

This book does tell you many things you may not know and is a lot different from many other military stories. I would continue to read more books like these and hopefully someone else would too.


Mike Ritland

I included elevated diction to show how the training was going for Ritland. My quote from my post to show this is my quote in the post about how he uses elevated diction to show the special training for dogs. I included sentence lengths in my post. In my post, the second paragraph has many long sentences to include his experiences. The long sentneces make you wonder/think about his experiences he had to go through.

My blogging goal for the trimester was to include my voice more in my blog posts. And I think that I have improved my writing voice in a good number of ways, but is not as good as I wanted it to be. I discussed about my own feelings in my blog posts, and what I thought of what the book was saying. At first, I felt like I didn’t include my voice and I just included whatever the book said. I felt like I also did this in English 1A. Going through the trimester, I think I have included my voice in most of my blog posts that I’ve posted. Some of the posts though I think don’t really include my voice, as there may be just one line of my voice. Overall, I have definetly included and improved my voice in my posts throughout the trimester.

Impact of Setting in Navy Seal Dogs

In Navy Seal Dogs, the setting is in modern day Iraq and Afghanistan and happened in the earlier 2000's. This setting has to make the characters always be on their guard. Since they are in unwanted territory by the residents, the Seal's K9 has to stay up some nights and keep watch. Like I might've said in my earlier posts, if someone was invading your home/territory, wouldn't you get mad? Because depending on the situation, I think that I would get mad. Plus, the setting makes you wonder what will happen at any moment. While Mike (the Navy Seal) and his team are moving across a small town that happened earlier in the book, him and his team were ambushed by a small team of the "residents" I must say. While no body died from it, it just symbolizes how dangerous the world is out there. Even with some of the most advanced forces, American casulties still result. We never know what the people of Middle Eastern countries are thinking about us behind the curtain, such as Afghanistan. Sometimes I wonder why we're still there too, as even stated by Mike.

People's Behavior in Navy Seal Dogs

In Navy Seal Dogs, there are many different sorts of human behavior. Because of its true story being in the Middle East, the Americans may act differently depending on person to person. In our perspective, Americans are friendly and assertive, but the Middle East views us as invaders or liberators, and that's because our views are biased towards ourselves, I think. And we views many of the people over there are terrorists because of 9/11, uncivilized people living in anarchy, as even said by the author, Mike Ritland, as he was briefly explaining to another one of his soldiers, and just fighting war of attrition to the US. And they views themselves as just protecting themelves from us. Mike Ritland's views of people's behavior is not biased towards another nation, rather neutral so that the readers can get the best experience from him while avoiding bias. What I wonder though is what we think, do you think it's better to read a book through a neutral point of view to get a better experience or just one point of view so that we can understand what one side thinks?

Character Changes In Navy Seal Dogs

In Navy Seal Dogs, the Navy Seal, Mike Ritland, has to go through some changes, which I can't believe what he has to do. Before he was a Navy Seal, his life was very different when it came to everyday life. I may have expressed this already, but training was harsh, he had to get out of his comfort zone every single day and adapt. The good thing, however, was that his grandfathers had served in World War II, and he wanted to carry on what his family had done before. When he first started, he never had experienced training K9's, and I don't think he ever had a dog.

Krista Ramsey Introduction Activity

Krista Ramsey Column

This column by Krista Ramsey summarizes why teachers should not be armed. Will teachers be able to do anything if they had a weapon?

One of the lines I think Krista Ramsey had best written was, "Any teacher, principal or staff member who is armed will carry an enormous level of legal and moral responsibility, not just in the unlikely event of a school attack but in the everyday, unpredictable life of a school." The impact this has on readers is that if teachers were armed, can they be trusted? Nobody knows if it will be the teacher that does the shooting.

I'd say Ramsey's writing style would be elegant. A line from the first column to support this would be, "The kid who used to walk home from school looking at houses and trees now rides home staring at a screen not much bigger than his hand. The teenager who used to research at the library or hang out with friends outdoors now does her studying and socializing in front of a computer in her bedroom."

Three questions I would ask Krista Ramsey would be have you experienced any of your columns in person? Where did you go to school at? And what made you write about what you write?

Best thing about Navy Seal Dogs

This is some of the best things that I have read about so far in Navy Seal Dogs by Mike Ritland in my opinion. One great thing that stands out in the book is that the knowledge and information you gained in this book comes from a primary source. Mike Ritland was a former Navy Seal and instead of getting information by someone else over a broad topic it won't get you the best experience and information by someone such as Mike Ritland and how he got to where he is.

Another great thing I find about this book is the first section of the book talks on his training and not just all of a sudden going into combat when you don't understand prior what happened. I mean I don't think many would succeed in the training that Mike had to go through. They were more tough and fierce and required more tough and fierce training than another section of the military such as the marines or the Green Baret.

This book does tell you many things you may not know and is a lot different from many other military stories. I would continue to read more books like these and hopefully someone else would too.

Why I chose Navy Seal Dogs

The first book i am reading this trimester is Navy Seal Dogs by former Navy Seal Mike Ritland. There are many reasons why I chose this book, but I'll have to limit to only a couple of reasons. The first reason I chose this book is that i'm interested in these military or true story books such as Navy Seals or K9s because I think it's fascinating what both have to go through to get to where they are now. Another reason I chose to read this is because I never really know what the life of a Navy Seal is like, what they have to do and accomplish on a mission, and i'm really hoping this will be covered. And also what it took to train and befriend a german shephard. I have read very few amount of war and military stories, but the ones i've read are really deep and you can get more out of it rather than reading a summary of those stories. So far in my book, it hasn't really shown just because it's just the beginning of the book. And the third reason I'm reading this book is because I had many other people say that I should read this and that it's different from any other. So far, the book is good and has a lot of content that I didn't know about prior to reading such as training and tactics and a true story like this is well worth reading.