Overview of 3rd quarter book and blogging assignments

    For the 3rd quarter i chose to read From Baghdad, With Love as you already know.  I liked this book for the most part because I like learining about what goes on in war and how people manage to live through it.  However, the settings were kind of hard to follow because Kopelman was contstantly on the move doing some different military assignment for the Marines.  I can relate to this because I have this video game series called Call of Duty that requires similar actions.  You are a soldier in the military and they send you out on lots of missions which is another reason why i liked this book.  The other aspect of this book containing calming, and loving emotions really balances out the effects of war.  I really liked Lava as a character and the way that Kopelman describes him is like he is a person, not an animal.  For this reason, I enjoyed the book the most.  I would recommend it to anyone that is curious of war and its effects on people, and people that like dogs.
   Blogging as a whole was kind of difficult this quarter.  The book that i chose was written in like a journal format with dates and places and years which made it kind of hard to follow.  Overall, it was ok, and maybe it was just the choice of book that made it slightly more difficult.  One thing that i would like to talk about would be ning posting.  I don't really know how to post on the ning without it being kind of awkward.  I kind of want to skype a lot more instead of posting on the ning because it would be easier if i knew the people that i was talking to.  The one day that we had to skype was really funa and I can't wait until we do it again.  Was it true that you said that we get to skype in groups in the library on the netbooks?  That would be really cool and fun!

Picture of Words- "From Baghdad, With Love"

    I chose to add words to this picture that represented every aspect of my book, From Baghadad, With Love by Jay Kopelman.  I included the settings of where the book takes place such as Fallujah, Baghdad, La Jolla, and Massachusetts.  The only characters that were really present in the book were Lt. Col. Jay Kopelman and his dog Lava and i included them in here as well.  I also included simple words that go along with the story as well such as the Marines, Lava Dogs(Kopelman's Marine Batallion), and puppy.  There were obviously a lot of other words that were in the picture, but i can't explain each one.
    The outline of this picture of words is ironically a skull.  I chose to do a skull for this background because the book's setting is in Iraq, which contains the war over terrorism.  Some of the images described by Kopelman are quite disturbing and i have seen footage of the war which helps relate to what the reality of war is.  The skull represents not only the deaths of the people, but also the people that are still alive and have to deal with death on a daily basis.  I mean psychologically it's really hard to deal with.  The author mentions this and uses Lava, his dog to help cope with the stresses of war.

Lava's Diary

Dear Lt. Col. Kopelman,
    I want to thank you for not only saving my life, but for providing me with the necesities to stay alive.  Without your help, i probably would have died shortly after you left the building that i was in.  Because i was so small and had no one to take care of me, i wouldnt have lasted more than a couple months on the streets of Fallujah.  We have been friends for quite a while now and i look to being your "mans best friend" for as long as i live.  The times that we spent on your military base in Fallujah were what brought us together.  You let me sleep in your sleeping bag and i felt loved by everyone in the facility.  Everyone fed me probably more than i needed it and i loved every minute of it.  Those MRE's were pretty delicious even though you humans dont seem to think so. 
    I would also like to thank you for getting me out of that awful country.  All of the war's loud noises such as explosions and gun fire were too much for a little puppy like me.  The struggle that you went through to find some way to ship me out of Iraq was highly appreciated as well.  I admit, the travel to America was very scary and confusing and i had no idea where i was.  Even after i arrived to La Jolla, California, your home town, i still didnt know where i was.  The confusion finally went away after you returned home in 2005.  The wait was long, but proved to be worthwhile.  Again, i want to thank you for everything that you have done for me.
                                                                                                                       Love,
                                                                                                                       Lava

Link Ups for "From Baghdad, With Love"

http://www.amazon.com/Baghdad-Love-Marine-Named-Lava/dp/1592289800

    Anyone looking to buy this book, which i highly recommend, would use this site to order a copy online.  If you like action mixed with cute puppies then this is a book for you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLIzyAM5qrQ

    This is possibly the best site out there for this book!  It is an official video of the book that contains footage of Kopelman and Lava interacting in the United States after returning from war.  Watch this Mrs. Hayes, it's worth it.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/From-Baghdad-With-Love/175992179090277

    You can even follow this book and it's readers on facebook.  This is really cool because i cheked it out and it actually has people on there from Iraq that commented in Iraqi but I obviously can't read it.

http://www.bookreporter.com/reviews/from-baghdad-with-love-a-marine-the-war-and-a-dog-named-lava

    This site gives a pretty detailed summary of the book that is actually pretty accurate.  If you need a review of this book, then this site is perfect.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/05/eveningnews/main2069276.shtml

    An actual article was posted on this book that was written based entirely on true events and this site provides the whole thing.

http://www.apdt.com/conf/speakers/bio_kopelman.aspx

    This site is about the APDT(Association of Pet Dog Trainers) which devoted a section of their site to Mr. Kopelman.  This was all because he saved Lava and brought him to the United States.

http://www.mcbh.usmc.mil/3mar/1dbn/1-3%20INDEX.htm

    I really like this site because it shows the whole symbol of the Lava Dogs marines team and it shows the times in military time of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Hawaii (which is where they are all from).

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/baghdad-zoo.htm

    This site deals with the Baghdad Zoo that one of the doctors that helped Lava was working at.  She helped many other animals reach safety during operation Iraqi Freedom.

http://militarybases.com/overseas/iraq/camp-fallujah/

I love this site because it has information on Camp Fallujah which was the actual army base that Kopelman stayed at and it is where he met Lava.

http://www.marines.com/home?WT.srch=1&WT.mc_id=GSLE_MARINES_MAIN

This site shows what it takes to become a Marine, which is what Kopelman was.  It takes a lot of hard work and strength, but seeing Lava in Fallujah brought him back down to earth.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18740.From_Baghdad_With_Love

    The rating for this book on this site is a 4.1 out of 5!  I think that it deserves a 5 out of 5.

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/baghdad.html

    This site contains a list of quotes that relate to Iraq as a country and the people as a whole.  The Iraqi people were heavily discussed in the book.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dogs

    While searching information on this site you can figure out what kind of breed of dog Lava is.  Can you figure it out?  I couldn't find any more sites that weren't repeats of anything that I have already found.  If you find any more I would love to see them.

Music for, "From Baghadad, With Love"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUe8uoKdHao

    I chose the song "Without You" by David Guetta ft. Usher to represent the theme and mood for From Baghdad, With Love.  I chose this song because the whole theme and purpose of the book was to get the dog, Lava, safely to America and the way Lt. Cl. Kopelman feels about this.  Kopelman wants him to be safe, but he wishes that he could handle the whole operation himself to ensure Lava's safety.  The line in the song, " I will never make it by without you..." is perfect for describing the way Kopelman felt after sending Lava to the Iraqi zoo which was in a red zone.  Red zones are military zones that are not necessarily safe.
   Another line that relates with the book is "I will never be the same without you..."  The significance of this line in the song to the story is the impact that Lava has on Kopelman after they both return to the United States.  Kopelman went to Iraq to fight a war, and came back with a cute little puppy.  Lava changed his life in many ways and helped Kopelman psychologically get through the war in Iraq.  This song by David Guetta and Usher is perfect for explaining the overall message of this book.  The music video of this song almost relates to the book as well.  It shows the continents joining together and in the story, a man from North America befriends a dog from the middle-east and they come together as friends.

3rd Qtr. Blog #1

    For my first blog this quarter, i will be reflecting on my 2nd quarter blog grade and introducing the book that i have chosen to read this quarter.  Last quarters blog grade was such an improvement from 1st quarters grade.  I think that everyone could agree with me on this one.  Now, all that I can hope for is to get the same grade as before.  Blogging has gotten more fun as the year has gone by and i look forward to finishing my 3rd Quarter book.
    I have chosed From Baghdad, With Love as my 3rd book on the read for a lifetime list.  So far, this book is about Lieutenant Colonel Jay Kopelman, also the author of the book, and his journey throughout the middle-east as the war over terrorism goes on.  He finds this abandoned pup in one of the buildings that he searches and takes it back with him to his camp.  They quickly become attached and he names it Lava after his team, the Lava Dogs.  I cant wait to finish this book and see what's in store for lava and Kopelman.

21st century english classroom

    My feelings of the 21st century english classroom are normal.  They are only normal because i have grown up with all of these things such as facebook, twitter, blogging, the internet as a whole, and cell phones as well.  The funny thing about this blog is that its asking us to describe what we think of as normal, but for you, its the opposite because most of this stuff is new. Because you didnt grow up with this crazy technology, the english classroom of the 21st century is much different than before.
    I have already talked about my feelings on blogging so i will start with facebook and twitter.  In the english classroom, facebook and twitter make it really easy to, not only communicate faster, but to obtain information quicker.  People can tweet their feelings about a book or something from class and someone at the same time could post a whole section of a book on facebook or start a group that follows stuff that relates to english.  I use facebook quite often to check what is going on with friends and stuff and there is no doubt that it influences school as well.  I dont have a twitter yet, but i dont really plan on getting one unless i am required to because i dont seem to have a lot of time.  Cell phones are also a huge part of the 21st century english class.  For example, the coolest thing about them is that they are so easy to use.  More specifically, even you, Mrs. Hayes, use it in class.  I think that it is pretty awesome that every time one of us updates their blogs you get an e-mail.  That just makes your job as a teacher easier, which therefore makes the 21st century english class even more fun.