Author: Noam

PW#8

Today I was confronted by Mr. MacKnight that he was going to delete my personal writing on my chemistry assignment which was very upsetting because I spent alot of time on my personal writting. Today I will finish my homework, study for math for a couple hours and review science. I will also play basketball at the university of Victoria also known as UVIC, to practice shooting and get better because next year Brookes Westshore is going to suck at basketball and i will be the one carrying it. This personal writing is currently being typed out during French class because I can’t find any other time to do this.

IRJE# 8

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, is a true story novel written about his childhood in his homeland Afghanistan and how he and his father had to immigrate to the U.S. due to terrorism. His mom had died at birth therefore he has a very strong relationship with his father Baba. When they immigrated to the U.S. his father was diagnosed with cancer and had passed away there which was very hard on him.

He asked us to lean in, gave us each a kiss.
“I’ll come back with your morphine and a glass of water, Kaka jan,” Soraya said. “Not tonight,” he said. “There is no pain tonight.”
“Okay,” she said. She pulled up his blanket. We closed the door. Baba never woke up

I had chosen this quotation because It was a reminder that not everything lasts forever and to always spend as much quality time with your loved ones. I love and respect my parents and see them as best friends and don’t want to take my time with them for granted.

Hemingway: They shot the six cabinet ministers

Five cabinet ministers are set up against a wall to be executed. Five of them stand up against the wall while it’s raining cats and dogs. The final minister has typhoid and is unable to stand up. They decided to let him sit. He is sitting in the water when they fire the first round of bullets. This story does provoke a strong emotion but is executed in the wrong way. The story is sad because it talks about the passing of people’s lives, but the author surrounds the story around the sick minister and implies that the story is sad because of them being sick. The author makes the story seem like if the one minister wasn’t sick then the story wouldn’t be as sad. Though I feel sympathy for the sick minister and feel bad, at the end, six lives were killed and sympathy should be given equally to all of them. 

PW #7 Aliens

Theorists debate that the human race is not the only life source in the universe and that there are aliens. We tend to make up a lot of theories like “Aliens are way more advanced than us and ignore us” and all that other good stuff. I know every theory about aliens is horribly inaccurate except mine. My theory is not a theory but a law. Hear me out. Like us, animals have instincts to survive, for example, a deer. A deer needs to consume food, drink water, and have shelter depending on its habitat, it needs to make sure it doesn’t get killed by a predator. So, aliens have no intention to leave their planet or whatever they have settled on and just have instincts to survive, maybe they’re just happy where they are and don’t want to leave or don’t know how to leave.

It’s hard to wrap your head around how humans were even created, but when you think about and put the pieces together it shows that there is a god or were in a simulation. The fact that we have a consciousness proves that something very advanced created us because a consciousness cannot be created by a man while everything else can be.

Romeo & Juliet 1968

The story of Romeo & Juliet was hard to watch. The sexual interactions between Romeo and Juliet seemed forced and exaggerated. The film did a good job of portraying the romance between Romeo and Juliet. But, it felt unprofessional because they were minors and seemed to have no experience. When both actors were naked in one scene and cuddling, it gave me secondhand embarrassment and sympathy for the real-life actors because they had been exploited. 

The storyline was enjoyable, and the actor’s enthusiasm and poetry were fun and impressive to watch despite reading off-script. I did have some negative thoughts about the story. My thoughts on the ending were that it was childish. It made sense for Romeo to kill himself because he was banned from his home and the love of his life seemed to have been dead but for Juliet to kill herself for Romeo was pure stupidity. Juliet had only lost a lover, and to kill herself because she couldn’t live without him was ignorant. Juliet had a rich family and could have found a new lover easily judging that we see lots of men finding her attractive. 

Overall, I think Shakespeare created an amazing story, and the movie was able to put lots of enthusiasm into it with young actors that made it entertaining to watch. 

  

IRJE #7

dopamine nation by Anna Lembke, is a non-fiction novel on how people get addicted to dopamine through ways they find out. One particular one stood out to me

“Over time I realized the more pain I felt with the initial shock of cold water,” said Michael, “the bigger the high afterward. So i started to find ways to up the ante
“I bought a meat freezer – a trough with a lid and built-in cooling coils-and filled it with water every night. by morning there was a thin layer of ice on the surface, with temperatures in the low thirties. Before getting in, I had to break ice.
“Then i read that the body heats up the water after a few minutes, unless the water is moving, like a whirlpool. So I bought a motor to go into the ice bath. That way, I could sustain near-freezing temperatures while I was in it. I also bought a hydropowered mattress pad for my bed, which I keep at the lowest temperatures, about 55*F (13*C).”
Michael stopped talking abruptly and looked at me with a lopsided smile. “Wow. I realize as I’m talking about this… it sounds like an addiction.”

This is interesting because things that we do to improve ourselves are considered addictions. But these are good addictions and the way that people phrase addictions are always in a bad way. So, in consideration, I would rather call this a habit more than an addiction.

PW#6 What I did on March 15

Today I didn’t do much, I would call it a typical day for me. I woke up did my stuff, quickly rushed to print of my biology notes because I had a test at fourth block. Ate some oatmeal which is an amazing breakfest that is full of nutrition, got driven to school and was late as usual which is my fault. Had a normal day at school, got driven home by a brookes student, ate at home, started watching a show, realized I should be doing something way more productive so I closed it and did some English and now I am writing this blog post. Just finished writing something about Brave New World. Brave New World, is a dystopian novel by Huxley, it is about how in the future people are going to be brain washed when they are born through sleep. There are four categories of people in this book. The first is the smart ones that didn’t get any alchohol poured on them to make them the smartest but they would probably be the same IQ as a human in our world then it goes down the list. The more alchohol you get poured on yourself when your in the tiniest version of yourself the dummer you become.

Brave New World Questions

Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, is told in a third person view. The characters in the novel never talk to us but to eachother and the narrator explains details of the characters and what they are doing. We also learn that most of the characters are sex. Most of the characters introduced into the story are high on a drug called soma, and since most of them are addicted to it they are always happy and sex-driven. All the characters that were made in the labratory are programmed like robots to act a certain way. So, when asked what personalities the characters have, the best way to describe them is by their categories of, Alpha, Beta, Gammies and Delta’s because this is how they were programmed. In the Dystopia, all languages have been rid of in the main society expect one (English), because all other languages are considered dead languages and are not used. Though all the characters are human its easy to agree that they are brain washed in a similar way that we are. Society in our world indulge ourselves in entertainment and yummy foods while the Brave New World’s version of this is to indulge themselves in soma.

IRJE #6 Is lying okay?

In dopamine nation, by Anna Lembke, it talks about how humans do things to get pleasure and dopamine. People don’t even notice that the things they do are addictions until its to late. 

The Lying Habit is remarkably easy to fall into. We all engage in regular lying, most of the time without realizing it. Our lies are so small and imperceptible that we convince ourselves we’re telling the truth. Or that it doesn’t matter, even if we know we’re lying. (p. 175)

Lying is a powerful tool to get things or avoid things. People say lying is bad and it destroys trust but not if you’re careful. Lying to protect someone or yourself is when you bring ethics into this and really debate whether lying is okay at certain moments. But its best to avoid lying, in my opinion. 

PW #5

What am I going to do after I graduate from school? I was thinking about going to university like everybody else but I’m going to be different. I’m going to make my own university. By doing this I will start off small, get a loan and rent out a warehouse. I will get 50 of the brightest introverts I have ever come across, I will pear pressure them into joining my university and they won’t have the self-confidence to say no. I will make them take a technology course that I’ve copied off the internet and put into my own words. After a couple of years one of them will become super successful and I will take the credit for it, after that people will start to go to my university, I will be charging tons of money, hiring professors and giving them a horrible salary. My plan is credited off Harvard and all the overpriced universities which have the same education. I will retire by the age of 25 and live in the Bahamas, with millions of dollars and I will have an income of 10 million a month because I have to intensions of paying anyone. This is how I will live my life.

BNW ¶

In Brave new world by Aldous Huxley, a society that is set in the future. Though sex is natural and normal for our society and the dystopia, we cannot just go onto the middle of the sidewalk and start doing the dirty because that’s exposure, but the future seems to encourage it. It goes to a certain extent to where it is even encouraged to children. In our society if a guy talk is seen as inappropriate. 

“Lenina Crowne?” said Henry Foster, echoing the Assistant Predestinator’s question as he zipped up his trousers. “Oh, she’s a splendid girl. Wonderfully pneumatic. I’m surprised you haven’t had her.” 

“I can’t think how it is I haven’t,” said the Assistant Predestinator. “I certainly will. At the first opportunity. (P. 37) 

This quotation stood out to me because if a man talked about a woman this way he is frowned upon in our society. Now what if Henry Foster and Assistant Predestinator were both women and were talking about a man as if he were an object. Would this be seen as rude or inappropriate? Would they be looked at the same as if a man said that? 

What I learned

Outsmart Your Brain by Daniel T. Willingham, PhD. The book talks about easy and effective ways for an individual to read a book the “right way”.  

The soluction is to set a concrete task as you read. The best known is called SQ3R (p. 95)

Learning that are ways to concentrate better whilst reading is what I am writing about.

Survey: Skim the reading, looking at the headings, subheading, and figures. Get a rough idea of what it’s about. This is how you’ll determine, for example, that an article about the Human Genome Project is about its economic consequences, not the ethical implications of sequencing human DNA. (p. 95)

The mistake I was doing according to the book is reading straight away and not looking over the skim through pages looking for headings, subheading, and figures and to ask questions about them if there are questions to ask.

Read: Keeping in mind the rough idea of the article’s content you developed when you surveyed the reading, it’s time to actually read. And now you have a concrete take to be completed as you read: look for information that answers the questions you’ve posed. (p. 96)

Before you begin the book you want to ask questions that may be answered along the way or that you may ask after each section or chapter.

Recite: When you’ve finished each section, recite what you’ve learned as if you were describing it to someone else. Summarize it and decide if it answers any of your questions. (p. 96)

Instead of summerizing after each chapter, summerize after each paragraph to process the information better without most likely forgetting some minor details.

Review: Reviewing is meant to be an ongoing process in which you revisit the content, focusing especially on the questions posed and the answers you derived. (p. 96)

Constantly reviewing is better than reading and reading without stopping because important things can just fly over your head.

Another thing I learned is that speed reading is not a thing. I’m a slow reader which I was ashamed of untill i read

speed reading is not a thing. (p. 101)

Knowing that I can read slowly to understand material better makes me feel better about it.

 

 

 

PW #4 Why school should get rid of English class

Although English is a very important language and is becoming the most spoken language in the world, I dont thing I need to learn 20 complex words in 2 hours that I will shortly forget. Why learning 20 complex words is useless? Because I can use easy short words to describe each word. Creative writing where Essays and assignments which have word limits that if you have enough or have to many words will lose you marks. Why am I limited to a certain amount of words when I want to speak freely and be creative isn’t that what being creative means. Why do I need to know how to write when without errors when theres more people’s first language isn’t even English then actual fluent speakers. I don’t want to spend an hour and a half everyday on something I don’t want to do.

IRJE #5 Dopamine

The non-ficton novel dopamine nation by Anna lembke, MD is a novel about dopamine addictions and how far humans will go to achieve it.

Rats who show a genetic propensity to become a addicted will, after a two-to-four-week period of abstaining from alcohol, binge on alcohol as soon as they have access to it again, and continue to use heavily thereafter as if they had never abstained. A similar phenomenon has been observed in rats exposed to and hooked on high-calorie foods. (p. 87)

This is scary because we have all these addictive products surronding us that we spend thousands of dollars on and can’t get enough of. This also includes digital things.

Unit Final

The Unit Final that I wrote on December 16th got me to reflecting about my essay writing skills. I crossed out a page that I wrote in my essay that I spent almost 30 minutes writing about. I could have received a better if i hadn’t crossed it out. Next time I will plan out my writing and make an outline before I start writing.

Utopia

The perfect society would be made up of equal pay. If an individual passes a certain limit of money, for example $1000000 in assets, the rest is donated to someone else. Doing this is so everyone can have the necessities for life like food, water, shelter and education. Just so people don’t find loopholes in this, everyone must graduate with a high school diploma and must have a degree. No brands that overprice things because of the price of the car. Let’s say this society is built after WW2 so all guns are illegal including drugs. Everyone has rights and can do anything, if society wants something governments will do the best, they can to make it work. Everything is powered by electricity. Human population will be kept at 2 children per family to lower overpopulation around the world, so supplies don’t run out. Things like cashiers and driving will be controlled by robots so that humans can find other jobs that aren’t so useless like a doctor, engineer, fireman and more. Society must be nicer to each other and help each other out so everyday people must do good deeds to other humans, this will bring up the morality of the society. 

IRJE #4: Adults taking advantage

The Catcher in the Rye is a novel by J.D. Salinger. Holden Caulfield is a 16-year-old teen who ran away from boarding school because he doesn’t find passion nor motivation in passing classes. He decided to stay in a hotel since he didn’t want to go back home.

Then, all of a sudden, I got in this big mess.  

The first thing when I got in the elevator, the elevator guy said to me, 

“Innarested in having a good time, fella? Or is it too late for you?” 

“How do you mean?” I said. I didn’t know what he was driving at or anything. 

 “Innarested in a little tail t’night?”  

“Me?” I said. Which was a very dumb answer, but it’s quite embarrassing when somebody comes right up and asks you a question like that.  

“How old are you, chief?” the elevator guy said.  

“Why?” I said. “Twenty-two.” 

 “Uh huh. Well, how ’bout it? Y’innarested? Five bucks a throw. Fifteen bucks the whole night.” He looked at his wrist watch. “Till noon. Five bucks a throw, fifteen bucks till noon.”  

“Okay,” I said. It was against my principles and all, but I was feeling so depressed I didn’t even think. That’s the whole trouble. When you’re feeling very depressed, you can’t even think.  

“Okay what? A throw, or till noon? I gotta know.”  

“Just a throw.” 

“Okay, what room ya in?” 

I looked at the red thing with my number on it, on my key. “Twelve twenty-two,” I said. I was already sort of sorry I’d let the thing start rolling, but it was too late now. “Okay. I’ll send a girl up in about fifteen minutes.” He opened the doors and I got out.

“Hey, is she good-looking?” I asked him. “I don’t want any old bag.”  

“No old bag. Don’t worry about it, chief.”  

“Who do I pay?” “Her,” he said. “Let’s go, chief.” (p. 99)

This reminds me of times when adults tried to take advantage of me since I am a kid and tried to sell products to me that are illegal and illegal to kids. This is sad because this is the reason that some kids get themselves into trouble or addictions. 

Basketball game (PW #2)

 

On November 11, 2022, I had a run and gun basketball game at Spectrum Community School. I was the point-guard, the point-guard is the one that brings up the ball and makes a play so the team can score. At the end of the game, I had 20 points, but we lost. I didn’t care about our loss since run and gun is basically so teams can practice by having a scrimmage. My best mate during the game was Hassan Mahommed, I was throwing him lobs and dunks and he was finishing them. My best mate during the game was Hassan Mahommed, I was throwing him lobs and dunks and he was finishing them.  

IRJE: Losing a brother

This IRJE will be talking about The Catcher in the Rye a novel by J.D. Salinger. The main character in this novel is Holden Caulfield and unfortunately his little brother (Allie) had died from cancer. This affected his mental health significantly. Holden’s brother Allie was an important aspect of his life and talks about him.

“What?” I said to old Phoebe. She said something to me, but I didn’t hear her. 

“You can’t even think of one thing.” 

“Yes, I can. Yes, I can.” 

“Well, do it, then.” 

“I like Allie,” I said. “And I like doing what I’m doing right now. Sitting here with you, and talking, and thinking about stuff, and–“ 

“Allie’s dead–You always say that! If somebody’s dead and everything, and in Heaven, then it isn’t really–“ 

“I know he’s dead! Don’t you think I know that? I can still like him, though, can’t I? Just because somebody’s dead, you don’t just stop liking them, for God’s sake– especially if they were about a thousand times nicer than the people you know that’re alive and all.” (pp. 184-185) 

This quote upsets me because I also have a little brother whom I really love, and I can’t even imagine how life would be without him. Though I don’t know what losing a close relative feels like but I can see why this puts a lot of distress on anyone who has. 

IRJE What drove MLK Jr. and I to be successful

       In the Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. By Martin Luther, MLk jr. (Martin Luther, King Jr.) talks about how he was restricted from going to the front of the bus due to segregation in Atlanta. 

I remember another experience I used to have in Atlanta. I went to high school on the other side of town—to the Booker T. Washington High School. I had to get the bus in what was known as the Fourth Ward and ride over to the West Side. In those days, rigid patterns of segregation existed on the buses, so that Nergros had to sit in the backs of buses, those seats were still reserved for whites only, so Negroes had to stand over empty sears. I would end up having to go to the back of that bus with my body, but every time I got on that bus I left my mind up on the front seat. And I said to myself, “one of these days, I’m going to put my body up there where my mind is.” (p. 9)

       Though I’ve never experienced segregation, the quote “one of these days, I’m going to put my body up there where my mind is.” really struck me. Though I don’t like to brag, I think of myself as an amazing basketball player. Back when I first started playing basketball, I was an amateur and was horrible at basketball. One day I got fed up with kids making fun of me that I sucked at basketball, so I told myself “I’m going to be better than them one day”. This gave me the motivation to wake up every morning at 6am to play basketball and practice every day for 6-7 hours in total.  

Personal writing response – Camping Trip.

My personal writing response is about the time my brother and I caught minnows and fried them at a beach near a cabin we were staying at in Pinawa, Manitoba. 

       On July 6, 2013, sometime in the afternoon, my brother and I decided to head down to the beach to catch whatever critters lurked in the waters. We put on our bathing suits, and each equipped a small bucket and a small fishing net. An hour after we arrived at the beach, we ended up catching roughly 42 minnows altogether. My brother and I debated on what to do with the minnows and ended up deciding to fry the minnows over an outdoor fireplace near the cabin we were staying at. Arriving at the cabin we asked our dad to assist us with starting a fire. Once the fire began to rise, we placed aluminum paper on top of the fire along with all the minnows. After a short period of time the skin of the lifeless minnows frying over the fire became burnt. We removed the minnows off the fireplace and placed them onto a plate sitting on a picnic table beside the fireplace.  

       After displacing the minnows, we noticed a lot of steam coming off the minnows, so we left them untouched until no steam was visible to us. My brother and I played a game of cards while waiting for the minnows to cool down. The minnows resting on the plate finally cooled off but still had a gross black and unappetizing crisp to them. I picked up a minnow with my fingers and placed it into my mouth. I soon felt sympathy for myself after exposing my taste buds to the horrifying and utterly bitter taste of the minnow. Since that day, I’ve never consumed another minnow. 

Comparison “All Quiet in the Western Front”, “Soldier’s Home” and “They Shall Not Grow Up”

       This blog will be comparing and contrasting “They Shall Not Grow Old”, “All Quiet on the Western Front” and “Soldier’s Home.” While all three fell into the category of WW1, “They Shall Not Grow Old”, and “Soldiers Home” fought for the allies while Paul Baumer from “All Quiet on the Western Front” fought for the axis. All three have nearly identical outcomes on the soldiers’ mental and emotional state after the war. It’s shown that arriving home traumatized and unable to reattach themselves to society is what makes their case alike. Overall, soldiers after the war ended up realizing how emotionally and mentally disconnected, they feel from their home.  

“Soldiers Home” only covers what a soldier experienced after the war while both “They Shall Not Grow Old” and “All Quiet on the Western Front” show the horrible and gruesome events that soldiers experienced while fighting, you can see that this led up to their trauma in the end. 

IRJE: “Pissing”

In Life of Pi, by Yann Martel, Pi disliked his name (Piscine) as a young boy because people would mispronounce it as “pea-seen” which sounds very much like “Pissing”. He stands up and tells his entire class he’s shortened his name into “Pi”. 

 

They could manage well enough the first syllable, the Pea, but eventually the hear was too much and they lost control of their frothy-mouthed steeds and could no longer rein them in for the climb to the second syllable, the seen. Instead, they plunged hell-bent into sing, and next time round, all was lost my hand would be up to give an answer, and would be acknowledged with a  

“Yes, Pissing.” (p. 23) 

 

This part of the book made me relate to Pi’s name. My name is Noam, and particular people who have heard of my name figured out that if you put a “G” Infront of “Noam” you can get something that sounds like “Gnome”. What makes these people even more brilliant is when they put “Garden” in front of “Gnome” they got “Garden gnome”. This made me chuckle because when I was in elementary school I became rather quickly annoyed when people would call me by “Garden gnome” instead of “Noam”. Just like Pi’s case where his real name is “Piscine”, but people called by “Pissing” instead. By middle school I grew to find the name funny and was never bothered by it ever since. 

The differences and similarities between Paul and Harold.

This blog talks about the comparisons of Paul Baumer and Harold Kerbs and the similarities and differences between them, plus the side effects of the war. Both fought in WW1 but fought for opposing sides, Paul fought for Germany and Harold fought for the allies this is irrelevant to the blog. Whilst All Quiet on the Western Front talks about Paul’s experience in the war and at home. Soldiers home only talks about Harolds time back at home. Therefore, I will mostly be talking about the about the before and after of the two soldiers. 

Harold went to a college in Kansas and Paul also went to school “Krebs went to… Methodist college in Kansas” (p. 1) of Soldier’s Home. What separates the two is how they were enlisted into fighting WW1. What differs the two is how they were enlisted in the war. “He enlisted in the Marines in 1917” (p. 1) Harold who volunteered for the war and Paul who was allegedly forced.  

Arriving home traumatized and incapable of comfortably reattaching themselves to society is what makes their case depressing. Fortunately for Harold, he didn’t have to go back to war unlike Paul who returns to battle again “Shall I meet all these fellows again?” (p. 152) finds out all his friends died. That’s not even the worst part “He fell in October 1918, on a day that was so quiet and still on the whole front.” (p. 296) Though maybe it was best for Paul to end his agony, never having to live another die in isolation from the rest of the world, I doubt that he wanted life to end at such a young age of 31.  

Overall, both soldiers ended up realizing how disconnected they feel from their homes after coming back from the war. It makes me wonder how many other cases like this occurred after the war. I’m grateful none of my existing family members went through war and dealt with that type of trauma. 

All Quiet on the Western Front-Personal Response

 All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel by Erich Maria Remarque is put in the perspective of a young German solider named Paul Bäumer who fought in trench-warfare along with his friends Stanislaus Katczinsky, Albert Kropp, Müller, Tjaden, Franz Kemmerich, Joseph Behm, Detering, Leer, Haie Westhus and Mittelstaedt. Paul and his friends seem likeable but there is nothing special or unusual about them, they are ordinary men that unfortunately got themselves fighting a war which introduced trauma to them. “We are so completely played out that in spite of our great hunger we do not think of the provisions. Then gradually we become something like men again.” “pp” 117-118. The plot of the story made sense, explaining the point of view of First-Person view of Paul plus the horrors and brutal events him and many other German soldiers had to or go through during trench-warfare and how they were scared because they could be killed anywhere at any time. Though the point of novel was to humanize people in the war and show that they are not monsters, it was not enjoyable to read due to the gruesome and graphic events occurring throughout the book.  

 

The poetry and tone in the novel are set in a depressed tone. It is easy to come across sad poetry reading the book. Getting increasingly more involved with the book makes me understand it was not made in a happy manner “It is very queer that the unhappiness of the word is so often brought on by small men.” “p” 10 and “We were all at once terribly alone; and alone we must see it through.” “p” 13. Me personally the book is formal, I do not understand many words in the novel without searching them up, complex sentences must be explained by someone for me to understand and slangs that I have never heard of “benediction” pg.118, “requisition” “p” 2 and “emaciated” “p” 280. The location Paul was fighting in made me imagine a land destroyed by bullets, shells, fire, and bombs. The part that got me thinking was “I raise one hand, I must show him that I want to help him, I stroke his forehead. The eyes shrink back as the hand comes, then they lose their stare, the eyelids droop lower, the tension is past. I open his collar and place his head more comfortably. His mouth stands half open, it tries to form words. The lips are dry. My water bottle is not there. I have not brought it with me. But there is water in the mud, down at the bottom of the crater. I climb down, take out my handkerchief, spread it out, push it under and scoop up the yellow water that strains through into the hollow of my hand. He gulps it down. I fetch some more. Then I unbutton his tunic in order to bandage him if it is possible.” “pp” 219-220.  I imagine a good man helping a man in need who was stabbed and in pain. 

 

Fortunately, I do not have to worry about having to go to war and experiencing similar things as the soldiers in the novel because I am not obligated to. I am capable of walking around without bullets constantly being shot, bombs are not going off and people are not trying to kill each other. “Müller is dead. Someone shot him point-blank in the stomach with a Verey light. He lived for half an hour, quite conscious, and in terrible pain.” “p” 279. I have not yet had a friend killed in British Colombia by a bullet; it shows how lucky we are that guns are prohibited; I know I can walk down a street without worrying that I will be shot. Paul and I are two separate types of people; all my friends are alive and all of Paul’s were killed in the war along with him. Paul is constantly anxious that he may be killed at any moment while I can have other things on my mind and not worry about that. We are fragile humans, for hundreds of year guns have killed millions of people and they still are not banned. It Shows how ignorant we are when it comes down to simple things.