Chap 17 reaction

I think that the little bits of information like the one about the cryptology one in chapter seventeen. I cannot believe that the government made it illegal to encrypt personal numbers because it is so common today. Computer have firewalls that have encryption numbers and banks use them to lock safes. I do not believe that the Masha is not really in the web of trust. If everyone invited only people that they trust with their lives, I don't see how someone working for the government infiltrated the Xnet and the web of trust. I also don't trust Masha because she is not gaining anything from helping out Marcus. After she tells Marcus she has to flee also. I believe that it is a trap and Marcus is falling headfirst into it. After the DNS tunneling downloads the video about the severe haircut lady who was talking about the Xnet, I believed Masha a little more, but the whole video could have been scripted and Masha could be getting Marcus into the Gitmo-by-the-bay. I don't have any idea how Marcus and Ange will manage a big distraction, but in all the chaos, Marcus and Ange may be able to escape. 

Chap 16 Reaction

Darryl's dad showed was the DHS had done to some people even indirectly. He was decribed in the book as being a wreck because he was one very orderly and clean, but after Darryl's disappearance, the house was very dirty and smelled. There were dishes, bottles, and cans on the floor everywhere.  Because Darryl had disapeared, Darryl's dad was in depression. I think that telling a journalist about Marcus's grievances was a bad idea. First off, the DHS said that they would be watching Marcus and they said that he should never tell anyone what happened on the Gitmo-by-the-bay.But Marcus already knew of the risk and accepted it becuase this was the only was the only way to get people to listen to the Xnetters and Marcus's story without passing them off as a bunch of foolish adolescents. Then, I don't think that one news paper article that tells the truth and is from the perspective of the Xnetters can compete with the hundreds of articles that look down on the Xnetters and see them as obstructing justice. One newspaper article will not stop the DHS. I don't like the fact that Marcus did not tell his parents about his online avatar, M1K3Y, and his influence on the Xnet. It was a big part of his story because this was how he tried to fight back, and it didn't work. 

Chap 15 reaction

I was very surprised that Darryl had survived the stabbing incident. I thought that the DHS had not picked up Darryl because the severe haircut lady did not know who he was. I thought that either the DHS had killed him to destroy the evidence that they were imprisoning innocent people or had left him on the street to die. Zeb would not have been lying because his voice was very sharp and intelligent and he had very white and straight teeth considering that he was a homeless person. The media tricked Marcus again in this chapter. The newspapers had titles like "I COULD GET METAL ONTO AN AIRPLANE, DHS DOESN'T HAVE MY CONSENT TO GOVERN, and XNET KIDS: USA OUT OF SAN FRANCISCO"(85). The media is trying to manipulate the meaning behind the words by not including the context that the sentence was said in. This was not Marcus's intention at all when he said this. He meant to say that if kids could mess up the DHS, then terrorists could too. He meant that if the DHS was not doing its job then he did not want it controlling his life.

Chap 14 reaction

I thought that the media kept twisting the information about the concert and making the whole story one-sided. The story made the adolescents at the concert seem like people that are allies with the terrorists. The media made it seem like the adolescents were the terrorists of America. I found it very intentional that the books that Marcus had to read for his independent study were similar to memories of his life. Some of the quotes from Howl reminded me of the DHS and how the "best minds of [Marcus's] generation were destroyed by madness"(77). I think that Ange will eventually betray Marcus. The first meeting by themselves, and the police show up and gas everyone. She has history with some of Marcus's friends and the meeting with Van was very awkward for both Van and Marcus. I also think that the idea of a press conference is a very bad idea and will eventually backfire against the Xnet. So far the media has been very crafty and twisted thought again and again. The media will probably do it again and it would be beneficial for the media to write a story about rebellious kids rather than the unjust government.

Little brother chap 7- 13

The Xnetters are being rather extreme and radical in the war against control. Granted that the government and DHS are mainly at fault in this book, Marcus is at fault as well. The Xnetters jam the Fastpasses and cause chaos among the citizens of San Francisco. They choose to have an illegal gathering where there is loud noise in a busy neighborhood. The opinions are mainly one-sided. The media and the government have their ideas set in stone and so do the extremists like Marcus. There is no gray area in the scale. Even Marcus sees that the misery of his father and mother is somewhat his fault, but says that he is too far into the mess to stop now. To stop tyranny, they are being rebels and causing more chaos. The Xnetters are no better than the government is if they trouble the average citizen of San Francisco just as much.  The government basically has an unlimited supply of money and power to stop Marcus, so I agree with Vanessa and Jolu that Marcus will never win the war, even if he is right in his intentions.

Little brother chap 1 -6

The beginning of the book somewhat reminded me about what our school is doing with IPads and the one-to-one program for next year. The students were given laptops, just like we are given IPads. If we were to be monitored throughout the day, then I would not want the system. Ultimate control and tyranny would not be very useful in schools, but would be a waste of time and money. Marcus and Darryl find ways to avoid the systems in the school. Eventually it would happen to every system, so it would only be effective for some time. The school was also being very crafty while trying to monitor the children. The students in Marcus’s school are tracked down by library books, just like we would be monitored by IP address, to work around the ruling of the Supreme Court. They used gait-recognition software instead of face-recognition software and they bug library books instead of the students. If the whole point of laws is to only be an obstacle and not prevent this level of control to happen, then we should not even have laws to prevent because people are capable of overcoming these restrictions. If this would be the end result of the one-to-one program, then the system would be more of an obstacle for learning, rather than being helpful.

To Kill A Mockingbird movie 3/17/11

Today, the movie ended and Mr.Tate decides that Bob Ewell fell on his knife, killing himself. I believe that it was actually Arthur Radley who kills Bob Ewell. He probably did not do it intentionally, but in the act of defending Jem and Scout, it might have happened. He was rather shy and awkward later at Scout's house, but that is probably because of his nature and his plight. It would seem ironic that the same person that Jem and Scout were afraid of because of rumors that he killed someone would kill someone to protect them. I feel like that would have been a better ending to the movie.

To Kill A Mockingbird movie 3/16/11

Today the movie got a little more interesting because the showed the case. The movie did a good job of showing the little details that made the true result of the case more obvious. Mayella was very frantic and changed the mind often. It makes it seem like she was lying. Tom was very calm and kept his composure through out the case. It makes it seems like he was being honest. Again, several parts of the book were neglected, like Mr. Dolphus Raymond. My opinion of the movie didn't change from yesterday.  

Today in class, we watched part of the movie of the book, To Kill A Mockingbird. I felt that the director of the movie missed some key scenes in the book. The movie skipped over Burris Ewell and most of the school part of the book. The movie also didn't include the scene when fire ate Ms. Maudie's house and the first encounter with Arthur Radley. Christmas at Finch's Landing and Scout's fight with Francis was not included. I also thought that the movie was harder to follow because it skipped around much more. It went from Dill's arrival to the Robinson Case to Atticus shooting the rabies-infected dog. I thought that the movie was surprisingly good even though it was a black and white movie. Overall, I like the book better than the movie.