Otilio+Q2

Quarter 2

10-14-10
 * What I'm reading:** U.S. Uses Attacks to Nudge Taliban Toward a Deal
 * What I've read:**
 * What I'm thinking:** It's hard to believe that the U.S. has been involved in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban for nearly 9 years.It's definitely a challenge to fight a guerrilla group, mainly because you don't know who you're fighting. How are you supposed to tell an insurgent from a civilian. The U.S. has definitely gotten themselves into quite an ordeal here, but they have handled insurgent groups before such as in Colombia. In efforts to try and get the Taliban to agree to peace talks the U.S. has been air striking many bomb making plants, but apparently the air strikes have had the opposite effect and only caused more motivation in the ranks of the Taliban. Hopefully, the U.S. finds a solution to this problem quickly.

10-26-10
 * What I'm reading:** Jump In The Fire by Mac Randall (Guitar World Magazine: February 2008)
 * What I've read:** U.S. Uses Attacks to Nudge Taliban Toward a Deal
 * What I'm thinking:** It's kind of inspiring how some people are able to overcome challenges despite the odds. Some people are just really unlucky but they keep with it and eventually they succeed. This article is essentially about how unlucky two guitarist are and despite their runs of bad luck they continue doing what they do and because of that they prosper. At one point they really landed a record contract but they got unlucky and the band split up. Yet, they moved on and worked vigorously and were able to get through it. It's the kind of story that makes you feel like you can do anything if you give it enough effort.


 * What I'm reading:** //The Wind-up Bird Chronicle// by Haruki Murakami
 * What I've read:** U.S. Uses Attacks to Nudge Taliban Toward a Deal, Jump in the Fire by Mac Randall (Guitar World Magazine: February 2008)
 * What I'm thinking:** I recently started reading the book //The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle// I haven't really gotten too far into it yet, but I've developed some good feelings about it; It definitely seems like an entertaining book. The book itself is very strange to put it simply and I can't really think of any other way of describing it. It's only been the first chapter and there's things going on that make no sense, but not in the sense of you can't understand what's going on; it's quite simple to understand what's going on you just don't really know why it's happening and it invokes your curiosity.


 * What I'm reading:** //The Wind-up Bird Chronicle// by Haruki Murakami.
 * What I've read:** U.S. Uses Attacks to Nudge Taliban Toward a Deal, Jump in The Fire by Mac Randall. Pg.5-58 of Wind-up Bird Chronicle.
 * What I'm thinking:** The book has gotten a bit more interesting although there are some parts where it lags. In particular there is a certain part that really interested me. Apparently he sees a fortune teller or something of the sort. This fortune teller tells him "The law presides over things of this world, finally. The world where shadow is shadow and light is light, yin is yin and yang is yang, I'm me and he's him. I am me and/ He is him/ autumn eve. But you don't belong to that world, sonny. The world you belong to is above or below that." (pg.51) I really don't comprehend this but i find it very interesting, perhaps it means that the narrator is different he isn't what he looks like as compared to other things which are what they seem. Nonetheless the book is starting to pick up and despite it's oddities I find it interesting, it's so odd that you want to get to the end just to figure out what the heck is going on.


 * What Im reading:** //TheWind-up Bird Chronicle// by Haruki Murakami
 * What Im Thinking:** The book is really grasping my attention. I love how the author introduces so many different and crazy characters, but they don't stick around long, at least not in concentration. This keeps me from getting too bored of any one character, instead each character is present for so long a time dissapear as another character is introduced and comes back into the novel later. It's kind of like giving each character a shift. However this doesn't prevent the character development, each character is developing slowly with each meeting and all the characters are sort of related so we learn about certain characters even when they aren't really around. For example the caharacter of May Kasahara, she's plays a significant role for a few chapters then another character comes around and takes her place for a while, and a few chapters later she's re-introduced. He also does a good job of never giving away too much information about any one character. He gives you enough information about a character to keep you interested, but he rarely tells the whole story this way each character has some mystery to them and it keeps the reader interested in uncovering each character's story. This gives you some variety in the novel it's like food, too much of the same dish and you get tired of it. The author, Haruki Murakami, does a real good job of avoiding that.

"Home again, I sat at the kitchen table as usual, drinking a beer and listening to music on the radio. It then occured to me that I wanted to talk to someone---about the weather, about political stupidity; it didn't matter what. I just wanted to talk to somebody, but I couldn't think of anyone, not one person I could talk to. I didn't even have the cat." (Murakami, 371) It shows just how lost he is, he needs a friend and some guidance but finds none and it feels like he's wandering blindly around and stumbling over himself. It's a feeling most people are familiar with and it makes the book more readable.
 * What Im reading:** //TheWind-up Bird Chronicle// by Haruki Murakami
 * What Im Thinking:** The protagonist has lost sense of direction. His wife has left him, he has no job, he has nowhere to go and no one to see. He's living his life day by day, just hoping something changes for him and that his situation gets better along the way. It's real relatable and this is one reason the book is so relatable. I guess in life someone might feel this sense of being lost, like they really don't know what they're doing or where they're going and when they stop to think about it they realize that they aren't going or doing anything, that they're stagnant. It feels like you have no control over anything, and like you're just along for the ride, like being in the trunk of a car with no driver. I think it's a problem that occurs a lot and something a lot of people face, and the author makes the main character real relatable this way. You know the pain he feels and root for him to get through it.


 * What Im reading:** //TheWind-up Bird Chronicle// by Haruki Murakami
 * What Im Thinking:** The book has a habit of picking up and slowing down and I frankly get a little annoyed of it, but I still love the book. It feels as if I'm entranced at some moments and can't put the book down and at other moments it feels like i got hit over the head with a bat and am being dragged along. There are moments when he (protagonitst) is just doing task that are a bit boring to tell the truth, but then something so out of the ordinary happens it leaves you sort of mind boggled but I sometimes find myself a bit dissapointed at how little it goes into some of these things. For example there is an instance in which the protagonist is following around a guitarist he saw perform a long time ago into a house. The protagonist enters the house behind the guitarist and is attacked upon entry, he then beats the guitarist and while doing so the guitarist has a wsmile on his face. He (protagonist) then flees the scene, but the reader never learns why the guitarist was or why he attacked him it never got too detailed into that inncident and I would have thought that intoducing the guitarist as another character with a story then would have been a great thing. But for now that is not the case, perhaps later on in the book it will get more into this.


 * What Im reading:** //TheWind-up Bird Chronicle// by Haruki Murakami
 * What Im Thinking:** I'm essentially 2/3ths of the way throught the book and things have been progressing slowly still. The protagonist has found more things to do throughout the day and he's made plently of new aquintances while keeping in touch with old ones. His cat, which left before his wife did, has returned to him after a year of being gone. Perhaps it's a symbol for him starting to slowly get his life back. He's starting to gain some direction now at least, he had a goal of buying a certain peice of property which he has completed. I think that things will really start tieing in to one another in these last 200 pages and I look forward to finishing the book.