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Cindy Williams

Comp. 1 World War Z

Blogger #3 10/21/15

           

When the tail of a C-130 blew off and it crashed into the swamps. And when the lady came over the radio helping him to find his destination. It really started to get intense. I was starting to get into the story. It became interesting how he had first lost his since of ground. And had forgot all of his training techniques. This ties into the beginning of the story, this was all about survival, staying alive, fighting zombies, and trying to save the world.  I just wanted to grab a rifle and help him fight them off.

This all happened when the pilot had left his seat and was using the head. He had no idea what was happening. Until he heard a boom and turned around to zip his pants. And saw that the rear on the helicopter had been blown off. He could see then that they were going to crash. So he jumped out from the rear of the helicopter, pulled his parachute out, and landed down into the swamps, landing in the mud.  For a few minutes he was dazed and confused. When he finally realized what had just happened, he started looking around and saw that his copilot (Zack) had landed in some trees a little ways from him. He still wasn’t thinking clearly and he rushed to help Zack, not thinking about what the consequences could be, but by the time he had reached him, the Zombies had already started feeding on Zack. He could see that Zack had blacked out from his crash in the trees, just then Zack opened his eyes, the Zombie’s had torn into his stomach and had his intestines strung out. So he decided to shoot him and put him out of his misery. Luckily the Zombies where so busy feeding off of Zack they didn’t see him. He knew then he was all alone and was going to have to fend for himself.

 After he got a distance from them. He tried to see if his radio worked, he noticed it had been smashed from the crash. At first there wasn’t a response, then later a lady came on, she said she was a sky watcher and was giving him directions on how he could be rescued, and what areas to avoid. Her radio name was “Mets”, she was helping direct him through times when he felt like giving up and ending it all. At that time Mets spoke to him on the radio and told him to go to high ground and look up, a black dot was coming from the morning sun. I felt very relieved knowing he was going to be rescued and safe. And after everything he had been through, even escaping the hundreds of zombie’s from below the tree where he had been sleeping that night. If it hadn’t of been for the lady on the radio, he might not have survived. But she was the one who had supported him and kept his self-esteem and will power up. Mets informed him he would be safe. To look up.  He was relieved, there was a black dot coming towards him.

After he was retrieved by a large Cajun man that was just doing a routine Air shuttle, he was returned to his Base. He called Mets on the radio to let her know he had been rescued and he was safe and thanked her for everything she had done. After that he never heard from her again. The base just couldn’t believe his story.  So they did a psych evaluation on him, they couldn’t figure out who he had talked with over the radio. Since the cabin she said she was living in, just didn’t exist. And his radio had been smashed before the crash and did not work. This part of the novel got really intense. This made me want to help him fight off the zombie’s. I felt like I had a part in helping him to get to his destination to being rescued. About the Mets Lady, I think she was some kind of phantom pilot that had died in a crash previously, but still had the will to survive. And helped him to find the will power to continue and save his own life. She was a loyal person, she felt it was her responsibility to help him to gain the knowledge and remember his survival training. Pilots are like soul mates. They stick up for each other and help each other out through good and bad times.  Like brothers and sisters, all one big family. It was interesting when Mets wouldn’t let him just give up and kept his stamina up to survive. Especially the Quote,” Are you your Mother”. That made him feel like a wimp, after that he became strong and he knew then he would survive. 

Around the world and above

In this chapter we traveled all round the world, like it states in the chapters title. Some places were prepared for the breakout and some knew this was upon them. Every place went about their actions in their own way. The part that stuck out to me was in Sydney, Australia, when the Interviewer heads to the outback for his discussion with the astronaut and Terry dispels some myths right away. .The view from space really gave them  a better look from what was going underneath them. Their goal was to keep the International Space Station intact but they were never promised rescue.

Blog 3

A part that i really found intriguing and interesting was when the Japanese boy escapes from his parents apartment in Kyoto. He climbs down the balcony below him after salvaging the sheets from the apartment. On the forth floor he finds and old mans residence. He was a WWII veteran, and The boy takes his former sword from his room after failing to find weapons in any other apartment before it. After reading the next interview, who happened to be the old man whose room he found, you learn that they both meet up with each other in the future, and we can assume they work together to survive. The irony in this is what I found most intriguing.

Around the World and above summary by Richard White

Around the World and Above blog

     This chapter discusses each country techniques in surviving the zombies. We travel around  European Union,Micronesia, South Korea, Japan, Cuba, China, Australia, and Chile.Each country took its own precautions before the war broke out.  Mainly the eastern side knew that this war was coming.  Japan and Korea, all of these countries prepared well in advance. South Korea went dark and shut everyone out and militarized there country. Japan studied there opponent in every aspect.   On the other side on European side you have people using old  relics to house and protect there society.
     The part that I found interesting was that the European Union used a castle to help protect themselves from the zombies.   Castle were vital during World War Z.  Designed for war with its own well, farmlands, and security.  It's amazing how useful an old building could be in modern day war.

Above the World, and Around -Zachary Loren Ira Nichols

The beginning of this very longer chapter, starts out by talking about castles.  Castles had become a safe stronghold more a decent amount of people. In the next part of the chapter we figure out that some people had believed that zombies actually retained intelligence and emotion.  In Japan, the main character for this chapter, was a computer geek.  He and his friends learned researched a large amount about the zombies.  However, assuming his parents had died, he had to resort to scaling his apartment building to get to safety.  Another guy in Japan was blind.  He thought he was a burden to everyone else so he left for the wilderness and survived there.  Cuba is claimed to be one of the few nations to gain from this apocalypse.  Cuba had refugees from america ironically.  Cuba used these refugees to build their economic system.  In China many people secretly boarded a military ship to join their family.  The ship located a place where they could be their own continent away from everyone.  From Australia we read about an astronaut that witnessed everything on earth from being in the international space station.  Then in Chile we find out that America plans to be on the offensive until the zombies were gone.  

Around the world and above

This chapter to me represents the final nail in the coffin for this book at least to me being considered in any way good. The first character of course like every other character throughout the entirety of this book speaks with the same voice and of course the personality as those who came before him. Almost all characters throughout the book is both in their actions and words are what I would dare to call "nonchalant bad-asses" this means that above all else they react without any sort of emotion to everything happening around them. There are several characters who do not fit this personality which at the surface seems like a good thing but first you should realize exactly why they do not fit this nonchalant bad-ass character and that would be because they are some stereotype or another, though being horribly stereotyped does not stop most characters from having that personality it most of the time encourages it. The characters who are incompetent are of course politicians, and intellectuals (almost exclusively american politicians by the way). The stereotyping of every character goes so far as to be their sole distinguishing characteristic but at the same time erases any personality that they could have had left. None of the characters in the book every have enough time to come up with a full fledged story just short anecdotes on the situation that they were in. The fact that no coherent story is revealed in a singular interview emphasizes the fact that there is in fact no coherent story tying the book together just a cobbled together group of interviews taking place in roughly the same area without any consistent theme to tie them together apart from of course the zombies and the gross incompetence shown by humanity at large.

Around the World and Above

To sum up this reading; it starts off talking about the difference in castles and palaces in the European Union. They stayed in Windsor Castle which kept them safe for a very long time and they had mainly everything they needed. This goes on to talk about the ways that the rest of these places went into hiding and tried to survive. Such as in Korea where everyone basically went missing, they suspect they went into some underground hiding where all the people still may be. Another impressive one was about a kid who had social anxiety so he just stayed in his room and his parents brought food to his room door while he played on his computer, one day his parents went missing and he had to survive on his own.

My favorite part of this reading was about the psychological side of things in Micronesia, they had to make a guide for the humans to make them realize that the zombies do not have feelings or emotions and are not like the rest of them any longer. This part was more realistic to me because that would definitely be a very real problem if something like this was to ever happen, it would be very hard for some people to kill their own kind.

Around the World and Above summary

Juan T. Chacon



     This chapter was about how people around the world were staying alive in isolated situations not on the country or city level.  They start off with the guy talking about how he used castles and other old fortifications to stay alive during the duration of the zombie out break and war.  Then in the second interview they were talking about how they were on a ship or something but they were just relaying radio messeges in a bunch of diffrent languages telling people how to survie and how to make medicin out of mold and other survival tips like that.  Then we move on to South Korea were they were only prepared really because the older generation was afraid that the North was going to attack because they all disapeared over night basically.  Which is super weird they thing that all of north korea is undergound with their glorius leader or something like that.  The next interview was my favorite just because the kid was a internet weirdo who survieved and used a katana to do it.  To think that this kid could survive with a sword with no training at all is not unreasonable but that he started so low man thats impressive if you ask me.  This next guy was blind and he still killed zombies like a pro.  He called himself the great gardener or something and thats cool lets be honest I wish I was blind guy killin zombies in a national reserve with an over sized prayer stick cool.   What happened in cuba is that the people handled the situation very well they were orginized and they took in refugees and handled the fact that they were the only people making food for the world they said they were the bread bowl for the world.  The chinese sailors that escaped on the submarine were neat because at first they were just saving their families then the found the floating island then they got chased off by the hunter killer submarine and then they got to go home and help the revolution people save china and all kinds of good stuff.  The last important guy was an Australian who was in space for the duration of the war and outbreak he saw the whole thing from space he evan made contact with the chinese space station and they took the food from the station which is what allowed them to survive for so long.  Then there was the guy from chili who talked about how the president of the United States felt they needed to go on the offensive or something of the sort.

Around the World in 80 Days

This section looks at different survivor stories from around the world ranging from top officials to shut-ins who never leave the house. It mentioned the difficulties they faced and explains different things that happened around the world such as Cuba, North Korea, and China. Going around you can see some countries did much better than others are surviving and boosting their economical position.

My favorite part from this section was in the beginning where David was talking about castles. Especially towards the end where he mentions "The Queen". In England where people are reverting back to the old feudal system in the wake of the Zombie War makes me wonder if there were any other situations like that. Or maybe situations that would happen similarly to that where people abandoning the newer modern ways that are supported by our current global economy and revert back the their countries past. In order to protect themselves and save their culture.

Around the World and Above

        In this part of World War Z, the story goes from Europe, Micronesia, South Korea and Japan. The interviewer discuses castles and there involvement in the Z war while in Europe, learning about the many different strongholds constructed and destroyed. While in Micronesia the interviewer learns that ignorance was the leading killer, not zombies. A radio station was set up in order to deliver information to people in hopes of keeping them alive. Those working for the radio station learned of all the misinformation people had to battle. In South Korea, the story of the North withdrawing form the DMZ is told and the interviewer and guest Hynghol Chi, speculate as to what the North is up to. While in Japan, Kondo Tatsumi described Japan's weak military and police force and how quickly it become infested with Zombies.

       My favorite part of the chapters was Kondo's escape from his apartment whenever Japan became infested. Kondo was the smart, geeky teen who'd done his research and knew how to escape, and to me that was really neat. The underdog who was an "outcast" in a way, survived and was going to live.

World War Z -- LaValle

A month before SK's troubles with the zombies began, NK went dark. The rail line was closed and nothing was heard from them. Many were convinced it was the beginning of the war that they all knew would happen, but NK didn't look like it was preparing for an invasion. The troops along the Zone began to deteriorate. Then the Doctor suggested evacuation. By looking over rather than collecting the facts, then he realized Japan was not ready to handle this. Their police did not have the equipment that they needed. The social media community were racing to find out where the population would start over. Kondo wasn't concerned for the safety of himself or anyone else because his world was all cyber, not physical.

This chapter from what I noticed involved a lot of non-prioritizing from a lot of different people. Nobody is prepared for the end. Mentally, or physically. 

Around the World and Above

This chapter starts off with an interview from David Allen Forbes at a castle. They are there to talk about what happens when the zombies take over a castle. They also discuss the difference between a castle and a palace. The interviewer then hears from Barati Palshigar and he says the zombies are not the problem, but stupid people are the problem. Also basically everyone from North Korea vanished. 

The part that I found most interesting in this chapter was when Barati Palshigar said that stupid people were the problem and that the zombies are actually somewhat smart. It just kinda goes to show that he is ignorant that he thinks only stupid people are the problem and he thinks that he isn't part of the problem at all, but he's not blaming any of it on the zombies. Instead of him trying to help the problem, which he thinks is the people he is just complaining about the stupid people instead of doing anything about it/them.

Around the World and Above

This chapter of World War Z was a very interesting read. I liked the section over the conference they had in Honolulu. It was interesting that one of the delegates said that the zombies were "punishment". Also that the delegate said that the undead were bringing justice for the future. This shows how crazy people's different thoughts can get when it comes to the destruction of the world. Then that statement brings up more questions, like if he would be considered a traitor to all of mankind.

Around the World and Above

Cindy Williams

Comp.1

Around the World and Above Blog

October 28, 2015

            When Captain Chen decided to steal the Admiral Zheng sub marine. I felt he knew the world was coming to an end. He started working three months in advance, to stock as many supplies as he could get his hands on. Captain Chen, was basing this on the survival strategies from Redekar. He knew he would need a full crew to run the sub. But in order to get the crew to go with him, he also knew that he would have to find as many of their family members as he could. He personally felt like he was abandoning the Navy. But, he did what he felt was right at the time.

            I feel like he did the right thing. When china was being over ran with the walking dead. His instinct was to survive and help as many people as he could, no matter what it took. His self-esteem was low, because he felt he had abandoned his country and his service. And the only way he knew to survive was to be out in the open ocean. A few months later after leaving the port, they noticed several ships where surrounding them, and their supplies where running low. The captain did everything he could to keep the sub hidden from radar. He wasn’t sure what his situation was. Whether he was running from or with the rest of the vessels that were out in the Ocean. He had lost radio contact with civilization. So he was unsure of what to expect from oncoming vessels, his main goal was to survive and keep as many people as he could in a safe zone.

            This part was interesting to me, because I thought he was being self-fish. He had only taken a few people with him mainly because he needed a crew to help run the Sub. And he wouldn’t have had a crew if he hadn’t of let their family members come along. The main idea here was survival. And the crew did eventually learn how to grow a garden, so the sub became self-reliant. The captain tried to keep hidden from other vessels, not knowing what to expect. He was unsure of his situation, not knowing if he was running from or with the rest of the vessels. Previously another sub had fired a missile at them. He had fired one back and hit it, which then the other sub exploded. It was the same type of sub that his son was captain of. The captain became distant from all the crew members, except for one guy. Thinking he had killed his only son. A few more months had went by. Another Sub was coming up on them, he realized the voice he was hearing on the radio was his son. He was relieved when he found out his son was still alive, and he was no longer running. The Navy, had sent his son out to find him and bring him back to the port.

Around the World and Above

     In this chapter they talk about the difference between a castle and a palace. Figured out by fire which were safer and what could go wrong. People would wait for the winter to go raid other towns to last them for awhile to hide away. One man even cleared a castle that had resources for hot rooms and food. Some of the myths people believed were that zombies could be trained like animals.
     My favorite park of this chapter was when Kondo realized he had to fend for himself instead of having someone take care of him. I couldn't imagine being in his shoes. He lived his life in a room, it would be rough to come out to that.

Turning the Tide/ Home Front USA

During these last two chapters, they basically start off just like any of the other chapters and the interviewer is interviewing different people around the world. Azania is interviewed and says his plan involves just killing off people. During his interview he says that its pointless to try saving everyone so he starts thinking about who should and who should not be saved. Phillip ended up killing the general because he figured that it would effect everyone negatively because he was the only coward. Also they say there is a safe place in America, west of the Rocky Mountains so everyone has to change their ways. the people who used to have the good life and never had to work are now having to work to save their lives and families.

The part that interest me the most from the past two chapters is when the weather get colder and the food source starts to run out so there are several fights and people start killing each other. This part was interesting because you would think they would want to stick together and try to help everyone get through the situation because they are all in in the same place but instead they all go against each other.

0ct 22nd read of "World War Z"

This weeks reading was probably my favorite so far. I really like the part when it talked about the man who was up in the space station during the outbreak of the zombie war. It was something interesting and different to read because it's a type of situation that you wouldn't think about at first if it happened. It was really cool to read what he saw while he was up there. It's a short section, but it had in my opinion, the most interesting view.

Turning the Tide/Home Front USA

World War Z: Turning the Tide / Home front USA

     These chapters mainly focus on getting civilization to a the safe zones in each part of the country.   all of civilization has to take a new role in there society.  You go from have this lavish life style not having a care in the world to now getting to business, working your butt off just to survive.  They all go through a retraining process and everyone is in the same situation, all are equal.  
     The part that really stuck out to me was Part one of Turning the Tide.  Everyone hated Mr. Redeker with coming up with a orange plan.  The orange plan was a plan to deal with the uprising underprivileged black population, made by white ruling class,  in South Africa.  He went into hiding because everyone hated him but when he came out they asked what his plans were in order to move forward and survive.   He modified his plan for zombies and wanted to keep a select few and realized that he could save the entire population because that would make there area run out of resources and energy.  This was ironic to me how his they despised him for his logical and emotionless plan at first but thought it was ok now, since the world is coming to an end.  Makes me realize how people would react in a major catastrophe.    
       

WWZ Turning the Tide/Home Front USA

During these last two chapters, the interviewer has done the same thing.  Just interviewing more people as usual.  Azania is interviewed about a man who has a plan that calls for many people to just simply die off.  This man that Azania spoke of, his plan was taken to the president.  Then his plan was carried out by Azania being in charge of it.  Another guy Phillip has his issues with another commanding general.  As in anywhere else in the world, Ukraine was a disaster.  The boy named Bohdan witnessed many people die of a chemical weapon drop on top a bridge.  Jesika and her family had moved up north as part of the first wave of many people to Canada.  In India a nuke gets dropped along a mountain range.

In America west of the Rockies is determined a safe area.  Life is different for previous high-payed workers.  Blue caller workers turned into the brains while white collar turned into the labor force.  There were many different outsider groups that included rebels that were known to be dangerous.  A guy named Joe was handicapped but could still kill zombies with ease.  Roy Elliot was a filmaker before the war.  He found a way to create films during the war about ADS.

Blog Thing

The first interview of Home Front USA really caught my attention, it focuses on the shift america went through after going from peacetime, to the disaster to rebuilding it describes the shift in labor force and ideals that america goes through. People white former fancy high paying jobs are classified as F-6 the lowest only redeemed through manual labor and retraining. They must abandon their former status and class and take classes from those under them. Even their former maids! Every resource is used from materials to manpower they must careful use there resources as well as maximizing a RSK ratio (Resources to Kill) where marines excelled using scrap metal to make battleaxe-shovel hybrids known as Lobos.

I enjoy the idea of the logistics and mental strain it must have taken to get all of the reorganization working. People had to be brought together defended, fed, clothed. Then they must gather information what can you do? How fit are your? What purpose can you serve? Then they have to analyze the data and use the raw talent and learned talent to begin rebuilding the US. Laws must be restructured.This whole undertaking and the path to rebuilding.