For this portion in October 1964 I began to see the reason why David Halberstam wrote this novel. First of all this World Series and also this season was very special for two seperate reasons. The first being that the Cardinals rallied late in the season and came in to the playoffs playing really well and eventually making it to the World Series. This beng important because it is so difficult to do that even though it is a 162 game season. The second reason why this season was so special is because not only were the Yankees expected to win it with their big names and fantastic ballplayers but the fact was that the Cardinals were so young and full of Black baseball players. Especially in this time period where segration was a big deal and not many people took to the liking of the players (especially the Yankeees who didn't have any). Another reason I think that he wrote this book was because he wanted to show everyone how baseball was like when he was younger and he wanted to show the people that never got to see these great baseball players play. And thats why he picked 1964 to write about because of the great end to the season where the underdog St. Louis Cardinals defeated the heavily favored Yankees in seven games.

Blog #5

In this part of October 1964 the season is underway and early off the Cardinals are struggling. Their pitching is not doing good(excluding Bob Gibson) especially their bullpen. Also the younger players and the older players have yet to cooperate with each other and actually work together as a team. So the Cardinals are deffinately not looking like a playoff contending team right away. However the Yankees that are always promising are just cruising through teams and blowing them away. Their offense is always amazing with not a single weak hitter in the lineup, not counting the end of the order with rookie players like Joe Pepitone. While reading October 1964 I really got tosee what baseball was like back then and got to see what the great players of that time like Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris really were. Players I would never get to see play today. Which I think the author David Halbestam did a phenominal job writing this book and describing it in great detail.

Blog #4

Again in the novel i am reading called October 1964 the season is just underway and early on St. Louis are the underdogs and defintely not expected to make it to the playoffs and definately not agains the pretty much most impossible team to beat the New York Yankees. The Cardinals are set to win based mostly on their two anchors of the starting pitching rotation and there middle of their lineup. The New York Yankees on the other hand are always set to win and always have a good team. The Yankees have a good pitching staff, solid bullpen and a phenomial lineup. This is because the owner buys whoever he wants and the team is basically built up on money, and it always has been and most likely will continue to be that way. Overall the novel is beginning to pick up in the regualar season where we get to see how the teams will play.

Blog #3

In the book October 1964 that I am reading. The season has finally picked up and it is the start of the season that will become one of the biggest upsets in baseball at the time. The St. Louis Cardinals were just a scrappy young team with many up and coming players and a few big names. They were definately the underdogs in this series. On the other side was the New York Yankees which in fact are the best team in baseball. With all their powerhouse names, their filthy rich owner and baseball's best coaching staff. The Yankees were expected to win the World Series every year and were certainly this year. However so far in the book it has just started opening day and the season is just beginning. The book follows both paths of the Cardinals and the Yankees in every other chapter.

Blog #2

This week in the novel I am reading I have really gotten to see what not only what baseball was like in 1964 but what life was like there too. For example obviously everyone got paid less but what I didn' t know was that you only could pay one of your players $100,000 regaardles of how good others were. Today owners can pay as many people as they want as much money as they want. Another thing that I noticed in this book that demonstrates life in 1964 was the black players coming into the league. Beause previously they had there own league called the Negro Leagues. But in 1942 Jackie Robinson was the first black player to play in the Major Leagues. This was not only significant in baseball but all over the United States. It really changed how people saw African-Americans and years after when more and more black's were coming into professional baseball. More and more everyone was mixed together and forced to like each other. As a matter of fact some of the best baseball players from that era are African Americans. For example Ernie Banks and Bob Gibson. Overall this novel has showed me what life was like in baseball and in the real word in the 1960's.

Blog #1

I am reading the novel October 1964 by David Halberstam. This book is about baseball in 1964 and how the Cardinals overcame the odds and defeated the powerforce in that era the New York Yankees. While reading the first few chapters I realized the similarities between then and now. For example I have begun to recognize many of the players names and learn how valuable certain players can be to certain teams. Also as I was reading I began to see baseball from the owners perspectives and got to know the characteristics of them. For example in baseball the reason why the American League and National League are divided is because of beer. And in the novel Annheuser Busch is the owner of the St. Louis Cardinals and I get to see how they have changed baseball. Because all the owners were so rich and knew very little about baseball the only reason why they were owners is to make a profit for the thing they own. Also the owners have left a mark on baseball in todays time. For example Mr. Wrigley named Wrigley field after himself and it still remains today. Charles Comiskey did the same thing and the field was torn down only a few years ago. Overall in the novel I have been reading and learning about not only baseball at the time but the long term effects of what the owners have done.

Over Coming Odds #15

Recently I read an article on overcoming odds. This specific article was on how The Arizona Diamondbacks beat possibly the greatest dynasty in the world with some of the greatest baseball players in the game at that time, some who are future hall of famers. This article was published on October 2nd 2006 during the playoffs to recall the events of the World Series that happened in 2001. This story is about that year, 2001 the New York Yankees vs. the Arizona Diamondbacks. This year was special because not only did 9/11 occur the year of this world series but also the man who won the game for the Diamondbacks two different times in the playoffs had overcome an obstacle of his own. Tony Womack of the Arizona Diamondbacks had lost his father early in the season and then had been benched for poor play, but during the playoffs he got his chance. Womack got a clutch hit to send the Diamondbacks to the world series, where they were not favored, they were expected to get crushed in the World Series. The series went all the way to game 7, and thats where it happened. Mariano Rivera perhaps one of the greatest closers of all time was on the mound with a one-run lead. Womack came up to bat with a man on and he smacked a double in the gap on Riveras cut-fastball. The Diamondbacks had tied the game. Later Luis Gonzalez had followed up with a single that knocked in Womack giving the Diamondbacks the World Series. Womacks cluth double is arguably one of the greatest clutch hits of all time. Overall this article made me think about all the people overcoming sports odds as well as people overcoming personal difficulties, exactly what Tony Womack had done.

Walker , Sam. "Baseball's greatest hits: A study in 'clutchness'." 2/10/2009 21 Mar 2009 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06275/726154-63.stm

Love #14

Recently I read an article on the 15 greatest love songs of all time on the rolling stone website. My favorite kind of music is rock and alot of the songs written by rock bands are love songs. Especially in the 80's when alot of the bands wrote power ballads which were usally love songs, such as Poison's Every Rose Has Its Thorn, Whitesnakes Is This Love, and many others by bands such as Bon Jovi, Journey, Boston and Def Leppard. But the Rolling Stone article I read didnt have any power ballads in my opinion. Leading off the list at number 15 was Cream's Sunshine Of Your Love which I think is just a good classic rock song. Some other songs that were on there were one hit wonders such as The B-52's Love Shack and in my opinon The Cures Lovesong. Some other big bands that made the list were Led Zeppelin for Whole Lotta Love, David Bowie for Modern Love and Queen for Crazy Little Thing Called Love. I think this list was exceptional because the songs were not only love songs but they were great rock songs as well.

Wenner , Jan. "Readers’ Rock List: “Love” Songs ." 2/17/2009 21 Mar 2009 http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/02/17/readers-rock-list-love-songs/

Ann Frank

Notes of Ann Frank's Persecution
-Cause: The Nazi's persecuting the Jew's
-Frank and her family went into hiding in July of 1942
-Otto Ann's dad thought of a plan to hide away for awhile with help from his business asscotiates, and friends who were later persecuted as well-Effect
-August 4th 1944 the German police force, The Franks were exported to concentraton camps and were charged as criminals and were sent to punishment Barracks for hard labour
-Otto survived the concentration camp and returned home to find Ann Franks diary, he then had it published
-It is said that Ann died of a disease that spread through the camp

"Ann Frank Diaries."Ann Frank victim of Jewish Persecution and her wartime diaries. Mar. 2009. 16. http://www.solarnavigator.net/history/anne_franks_diary.htm

War #13

I read and article about the heroes of World War II. But more specificly the heroes who earned the Congressional Medal of Honor. The Congressional Medal of Honor is the highest award anyone can get in the military there has only been 440 given out 301 of the heroes were in the army, 57 in the navy, 87 in the Marines and only one was a Coast Guardsmen. One specific story is from Battle of the Bulge where my grandpa fought in. But this story is that of Arthur O. Beyer of Mitchell County Iowa. What he did to earn The Congressional Medal of Honor was that he tank-destroyer gunner, and he was held up by enemy troops. So Beyer shot two enemies and escaped attempting to save some of his crew. He was being shot at while trying to rescue them, so he stopped and threw a gerndade in the foxhole full of enemies. He escaped saving his crew, capturing 18 German prisioners and shooting down two machine-gun positions, and two bazooka teams and killing 8 enemies. This was just one story of war heroes and one story of one specific battle. This made me think about my Grandpa and what were his great accomplishments of the war and all the battles he fought in.

http://www.worldwariihistory.info/Medal-of-Honor/

http://www.worldwariihistory.info/Medal-of-Honor/Bulge.html

Colonization #12

Recently I read an article about the coloniation of the Americas. This happened when people first arrived in Jamestown, Plymouth and the other colonies around the eastern half of the United States. First it talks about how England tried to colonize the people when they first arrived in the United States. However when they first arrived it was not known as the United States. The people that began the colonizing were William Penn, Benjamin Franklin and Peter Styruesant. After A while the people who were living in the colonies began to get upset and declare their independence from England. England was mad about that but they recoverd. I can relate this to my history class in seventh grade where we learned about the colonies and how they came to America and how they gained their independence from England.
http://www.harlingen.isd.tenet.edu/coakhist/coloniz.html

Global Issue #11

Recently I read an article about Global Issues, this issue is about the Global Financial Crisis. This article talks about who is in trouble in the economy and what did people and companies and even nations do to go this far in debt. It talks about how this could have been avoided and what companies and nations can do for next time. For example companies with alot of money would soon run out, then they would have to turn to the government for a bail out which would in return weaken the nations economy if this happen often. Also as a result the bigger companies would ask for more money disminishing the countries economy. As an effect of that the nation goes under and the people suffer, they lose their jobs, their house and people have to live on less of everything. A text to world connection I can make is when I was watching the World Baseball Classic in China I noticed that there were not as many people in the stands for such a big event. From this I can infer that the Chinese economy is not doing so well. Overall The Global Financial Crisis has an effect on ones nation and in return has effect on the whole entire world.

Shah, Anup. "Global Issues ." Global Financial Issues. 2 Mar 2009. 8 Mar 2009

http://www.globalissues.org/article/768/global-financial-crisis#Acrisisincontext

4th Of July #10

This week I read an article on the website usacity.com. This article summarizes how America came to its independence from Britain on July 4th 1776. Also it talks about the many ways Americans celebrate, through family gatherings barbeque's, picnics and of course fireworks. What I can relate to this article is what I do for the 4th of July and that is go to my cabin. I usually invite four friends and we all go up to my cabin with my family. Sometimes my friends parents go along with us and spend a day with my family. We stay up there for about three days and always have lots of fun. We also always follow the 4th of July tradition and light off a lot of fireworks. Also I can relate this article to both Chinua Acebe's Things Fall Apart and Kamala Markandaya's Nectar In A Sieve. This can be related because America was being colonized by Britain but we had escaped and became our own nation, and in both novels there is a country trying to colonize them but they could not escape.

"4th of July-Independence Day." Happy Birthday America-Independence Day July-4th . 3 Mar 2009 http://usacitylink.com/usa/

Bollywood #9

I read some articles on Bollywood from the Bollywood news website. The site was designed much like an American pop culture website. I could see the resemblance between all of the websites I have seen from American cultures, actors actresses and all the movie businesses. A article that I read on the site was about the produce Rahman who had almost died while producing part of a movie in America. He recalled it as a near death experience and thought of it as a blessing and how you cannot take life for granted. Also as I read the page I began to see some similarities between the movie Bride and Predjudice and the website. I saw most of the actors and actresses in the movie which lead me to believe that Bollywood uses the actors and actresses alot just like we do in America. A text I can relate this to is reading magazines about the hollywood, this can relate because In my opinon bollywood and hollywood are very much alike, only in other places of the world. http://bollywood.celebden.com/

Indian Traditions #8

Recently I read and article about Indian traditions, their customs and how their daily lifes are. First of all before I read this I was going to compare how Indian traditions and culture are to the novel Nectar In A Sieve. I read about how important bathing is and about how washing there hands and body before prayer as an act of cleansliness. I could not relate this to Nectar In A Sieve but only the fact that I knew how much they bathed. Also I read about how often they pray and how important it is to their culture. I also could relate this to the novel because I do know in the novel that Rukmani prays for help and for other things. But something I could not relate to the novel was the turmeric that they hung over there house as a anti-septic. Overall I think that Nectar In A Sieve has both characteristics of the Indian culture as described in the article and some not so characteristics of Indian culture described in the article.

Indian Traditons, Customs, religions, festivals, pooja. NRIOL. 24 Feb 2009http://www.nriol.com/indianparents/indian-traditions.asp

Change #7

Recently I read an article about the research in the changes of baseball. The research was conducted by Pennsylvania University, the tests they did were trying to prove if the actual baseball has changed from when 1960's to now. The scientists dissected the baseball's and measured the baseball's densities. What they found was what they had predicted. The baseball from this era is much denser than that of a ball from 1960. Also they compared it to the time when the former home run king Hank Aaron played to now when Barry Bonds the new home run king played. The results were as expected because as the ball gets denser, the farther it goes and that explains why Barry Bonds has had more home runs. But also we have to take into consideration is if the pitchers these days are better than those of 40 years ago, also the technology of the new wooden bats. A connection I made while reading this article is the fact why Barry Bonds has more and why, and now it makes sense that he has more home runs.

University of Pensylvania, Changes In Baseball. 22 Feb 2009 http://steroids-and-baseball.com/changing-baseball.shtml

Hope #6

Recently I read an article called Powerful Hope by Steve Goodier. This article is about a general named Robinson Risner who spent seven years as a Prisioner of War, and the only thing he had left was hope. He could only hope and pray that he will see the the world again. He spent four and a half years of isolation and ten months of total darkness. In those ten months he again hoped that he would survive and pull through to see the world. But one day he crawled under his bed and saw a tiny sliver of light and all he could see was a blade of grass, but that tiny little blade was all he needed because to him it represented hope and he knew that God hadn't forgotten him and thats what got him through. This article made me realize how important hope is in my life and without it nothing really matters because I just wouldn't care. Also this article I can relate to Nectar In a Sieve because Robinson Risner in this article is like Rukmani in Nectar in a Sieve they both have hope and without it they both probably would have died. Also the last few sentences in this article state "It seems to run on forever on nothing but a morsel of hope. Without it, you have nothing. With it, nothing else matters." This quote not only explains the story in the article and Nectar in a Sieve but also everyones life in general, that everyone can hope for something and everyone needs hope.
Goodier, Steve. "Powerful Hope." All Things Frugal. 17 Feb 2009 http://www.allthingsfrugal.com/g.hope.htm

Christianity #5

I read an article on Christianity about the goals of Christianity and what the Christian life looks like. I am a Christian and attend church regularly and attend small group sessions with my leader and 3 other good friends. I chose Christinanity to talk about because I like to learn about God. In this article it talks about the goals of Christinaity which are basicly developing a realationship with God, loving God and learning that we are imperfect and we have to turn to God for help. Which leads to the next topic in the article sin. Sin is something that some people struggle with, but part of the religion is learning to deal with sin and to learn that you have sinned and know what ever you did was wrong and beg God for forgiveness. Christianity also has major components such as prayer, repentance, discipline, study, service and evangelism. In these components a person should pray at least once a day and it should be from the heart. A person should realize what they have done wrong and try to fix it, a person should be disciplined. Also they should learn more what it is about and a person should try to spread the good word of the lord. In conclusion this article on Christianity made me realize the importance of God in my life and the importance of a belief or religion.
Hedrick, Charles. "The Christian Life." 16 Feb 2009 http://geneva.rutgers.edu/src/christianity/life.html

The Changing of Roles in Society

Recently I read an article about women's changing role in society from not being able to have an education, vote, and basicly not being able to leave the house to being able to do everything a man can do today. Women didnt have much authority whatsoever until the seventies when more people began to recognize the more free women were able to be. It wasnt really that they couldnt do things like get an education or get good jobs it was that society saw it as odd and indifferent. Women became more free from all that, when society noticed that women can do things to the ability of men. Another thing that women were not able to do was to fight in the war. There were nurses but they could never enlist in the military. Now Women can fight in the military and do things that men can do not just in the military but all sorts of the forces. A connection that I made while reading this is that when I was watching T.V. shows from the 1960's such as leave it to beaver I could see that the women had a lesser role than the men, but as I watch the more modern shows now I can see the more roles a women can have in not only the household but society. In conclusion most people have changed there look on women and that they can do everything a man can do.

History of Women. 16 Feb 2009 http://library.thinkquest.org/C0110237/Population/Changing_role_of_women/changing_role_of_women.html

Indian culture

I read an article about the religions of India. There are many different religions in India such as Christianity Buddishim, Islam or Sikh but the main one is Hinduism. The difference between the religions in India and the religions in the US are that in the US the majority of the country is Christian but in India it is predominantly Hindu. Also in India there religion is more of a way of life, there religion not only affects their beliefs but also there daily lives, education and even politics. This article reminds me of World History when we studied the units of culture in different parts of the world and in different time periods. Also this made me think of a time in school when we watched a video on the cultures in Africa as well as the many religions. "India's Religions and Philosphy." 8/30/08 8 Feb 2009 . www.asianinfo.org/asianinfo/inda/religion.htm

Overcoming Stuggle

Recently I read an article on Steven Adler facing a difficulty and trying to overcome it. Steven Adler is the ex-guns n roses drummer and has a very bad and very serious drug addiction. Steven Adler was has been in and out of rehab many many times. Finally he appeared on the show Celeberity Rehab with Dr. Drew and instantly they knew he had major problems and he had to work on. One thing I remember seeing was the very first episode of that show and how screwed up he was, Steven Adler is facing a very hard time and it is very, very difficult thing to overcome. Overall Steven Adler is one person that is facing struggle and is also trying to overcome a very difficult thing.
"Judge Orders Steven Adler to More Rehab." 12/19/2008 5 Feb 2009 .

Natural Disasters

The text I found about Natural Disasters was about Huriccane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina happened on the 28th of August a little over three years ago. Hurricane Katrina wiped out most of New Orleans and killed many and left many homeless. Today the city is still not back to what it was and the people will always be remembered. Hurricane Katrina not only killed many people and left many homeless but not to mention the hit the economy took as well. Hurricane Katrina alone costed a total of 100 billion dollars in damage and also impacted the oil industry as well. The amount of barrels made were reduced to 1.4 million barrels a day and the price of gas had reached a record high on the monday following the storm. Reading this article about Hurricane Katrina made me think about a movie I watched in 8th grade about Hurricane Andrew in Florida and how devestating it was before and after the storm. That movie really put you in the spot the people were in and how scared they were. Overall this article really shows what a natural disaster can do to people and a nation as a whole.

Lawrimore, Jay. "Climate 2005: Summary of Hurricane Katrina." 29/12/2005 1 Feb 2009 .

My Identity

The thing I chose to define me was being a Christian. In my life God has been a key aspect of my life, he is someone who is always there for me and who I credit for all my talents and all my friendships with others and everything that is in my life. If someone were to look at me and judge me by who I am that would be it because I have no fear in admitting my religion and what my beliefs are. I regular attend church and small group sessions on wednesday with 2 of my really close friends and another person who I look up to which is my small group leader. Christianity and being connected to God is one of the most important things in my life. Overall that is the reason why I chose being a Christian to define me.