If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
This was one of the quickest reads I’ve had in a while. I would consider myself a ‘below average reader’ (in regards to speed) and it literally took only 5 1/2 hours to complete this book from cover to cover. That’s two sittings. Here is my Summary of ”A Child Called It” by Dave Pelzer:
The story starts with closure
The book begins with gruesome details of Dave’s horrific events when he was 12. I think, the first chapter brought up a situation where he was placed on the oven, to be burned alive, by his mother. After the details of this painful situation, young Dave was admitted to the school nurse. When the nurse asked questions about his bruises and marks, young Dave was silent (later to find out, he was dishearten due to the years of beatings and demoralization). Before young Dave knew it, a few teachers, the nurse, and an officer accompany him in room at school. Young Dave thought he was in trouble and been a ‘bad boy’ but instead, the officer took him away and said “Your free now.”
I literally almost cried because I have a best friend who has gone through child abuse when he was younger. Not only that, I’ve been a youth leader at multiple churches and young kids opened up to me to reveal they’ve been beaten and abused or their friends have. This happens, this is real. So, I rejoiced with Dave to hear ‘Your free now‘, tears of joy.
Good mother transforms
After reading that ‘everything will be alright’ from the first chapter, that young Dave survives, the story twists the entire mood of the book and prepares you for the worst (the later chapters). It starts out talking about how the family started out loving and caring. There was an entire chapter of this love expressed. I was expecting Dave’s tooth to get knocked out or something but no, this was a good family. Then ‘the bitch‘ is unleashed. She starts to change into a monster, drink after drink, and focus her rage on 4 to 12 year old Dave. Keep in mind, Dave isn’t an only child, he’s one of 4 children, later in the book a 5th child is born, in the peak of the abuse but he is the only one receiving the child abuse. Yet Dave is ruthlessly beaten and tortured mentally and physically.
Forms of Child Abuse
Weaved throughout the entire book is young Dave’s deprivation of food. At one point Dave is starved for more than 10 days! He was placed on the oven to have his entire body burned only to come away with a semi-painful burn on his arm. Later as he got older his mother would play ‘games’ with him. Games like ‘you don’t eat until you finish your chores’ and when Dave did finish them, they weren’t completed fast enough, so he wouldn’t eat that night. Another time, after a brutal beating from his mother, Dave vomited and was forced to eat his own vomit.
After the birth of the youngest brother, Dave was demanded to eat his little brother’s feces, even after being starved for days on end, Dave resisted but his face was forced in the diaper. Young Dave persisted throughout the entire torment, that was his childhood, his will was strong as a rock. At points, in the story, David couldn’t finish his chores due to exhaustion. He stole food from other classmates in school, only to be reported to his mother, which produced more beatings.
Amidst all of the suffering Dave had two ‘breaths of air’. The first was when God answered one (and the only one; according to the book) of his prayers. Dave prayed that his mother would get sick, the next morning she was terribly ill, it lasted for a few days. The second, and final, breathe of air was when a social worker was inspecting the family for signs of child abuse. The social worker asked young Dave ‘if he’s been abused’ and he declined because he mother was standing over his shoulder but as soon as the social worker left, David was beating across the room for being a ‘bad boy’.
Dave also was commanded to drink ammonia. He had to clean the bathroom with a mix of bleach and ammonia, with the door closed, for hours on end. Only afterwards to cough up blood for more than an hour. On another occasion, Dave was forced to sit in ice cold water for 5+ hours, his brothers would laugh and pick on him for being a ‘bad boy’ yet Dave never did anything wrong to be punished this horribly. Finally, he was stabbed with a kitchen knife by his mother and then forced to do chores as he bled everywhere. He father enforced his mother’s command, which totally broke the trust Dave had in his father.
Father’s passivity and Dave’s Prayer
During the continuous abuse by Dave’s mother, Dave’s father did nothing to stop the abuse. He just stood there, afraid of his wife. He was a fireman in California and saved people from fires but when their was a ‘fire’ in his home, he didn’t know how to react. He couldn’t make a phone call. Although he promised young Dave that he was going to ‘rescue Dave from this torment’, instead Dave’s father decided to leave the house and not come back. His father had a drinking problem, like his mother, but it resolved in a paralyzing cowardice.
Dave’s prayer near the end of the book was the Lord’s prayer, ‘deliver us from evil’. Near the end of this 8 year abuse, Dave is totally broken and lost most, if not all, of his will power to live. His only hope was a prayer and a wish.
Conclusion and Critics
The story comes full circle when Dave Pelzer is now full grown and revisits the house that all the torment occurred. He brings his young child with him and naively says “I like it here Daddy.” His child affirms his love for his father and the story concludes.
There has only been two strong critiques about Dave Pelzer and his books. In the first, namely his brother, Stephen, is criticizing him and said, “David wasn’t at all ostracized from the family; he was very close to me and Richard. We were the Three Musketeers. David would make up lies, to receive some attention. But David had to be the center of attention. He was a hyper, over happy spoiled brat.” [2] This doesn’t surprise me because weaved throughout the book is Dave’s brother’s looked down on Dave as if he were ’scum of the earth’. There is also another critique but it seems more balanced than the WIkipedia article or New York Time’s article. [3]
In summary, this is a gut-wrenching story. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you come from, there are going to be people jealous of your efforts and fame. The fact is Dave Pelzer was rescued by the school system and sent into foster care. The fact is that his teachers knew the details and stand by Dave’s story/books. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but it doesn’t mean they are correct. I stand by Dave because I’ve heard stories similar to Dave’s, he’s entitled to monetizing his horrific past, and he’s out making a difference in the lives of other youth. Below is how you can do your part.
Child Abuse Prevention | Act Now
Please read on:
Every 6 hours a child dies because of child abuse/neglect. That means, every time you have a meal, a child dies due to child abuse. 79% of the children killed are younger than 4. [1]
You don’t have to provide your name. If you think, feel, or see child abuse, REPORT IT. It’s better to be safe than sorry. A child’s life is at stake. You can save a life.
DISCLAIMER: If you detest spiritual talk, or any philosophical things. Please avoid this post.
I’m a very unique individual. I say this proudly, not loudly. (Volume doesn’t equal comprehension ;))
Anywho, I’d like to give my readers an insight to my mind, my philosophy. If this frightens you, please stop reading now and read another post. I don’t nor won’t post all the time on my philosophy but I don’t mind sharing it, nor am I ashamed.
Literally, when I started this post, I had no idea what ‘Kaizen’ is, nor did I have any plan on putting it in the title of my post. I just knew that I’m a person who seeks continuous self improvement.
Kaizen (pronounced ‘ky-zen’) is a Japanese philosophy that focuses on continuous improvement throughout all aspects of life. [1] This sums up fully, what I’m trying to convey. Life isn’t just physical, nor just mental, it’s spiritual, social, economical, and many other dynamics. I’m not saying ‘be rich‘ or ‘be perfect‘ or ‘be such and such‘. I’m saying be the best you can be, at whatever you do/are.
This is my way of life. This is how I live life everyday.
- When I work, I do the best as I can. If I mess up, I improve upon it.
- When I come to a certain belief, spiritually, then find better ideas later. I modify the old and polish the new.
- When I see myself gaining weight, I lose it. If it creeps back…I let it
but over time, I lose the weight again.
- When I realize I pissed someone off because of a comment, I modify my way of reacting to people.
- When I see an error in others, I try to fix it in myself.
I’m like warm clay in the Potter’s hands. Although I’ve said a bunch of ‘I’ statements, it’s not really me doing all the work. It’s really Jesus empowering me to do such tasks. (For more on my faith)
Scripture teaches me (Col. 2:10) that I’m complete in Christ but it also teaches me that I’m to be continually pursuing perfection (Matt. 5:48). To many non-believers of Christianity, it would be a good point for you to interject and say ‘CONTRADICTION!!!’. :p But seriously, it’s an oxymoron, a dichotomy that we must balance.
For me, I look at ‘you are complete‘ and pull acceptance, fullness, and the need to pursue perfection extinguished. So, I’m complete, as the verse states, I’m perfect as I am. I can just sit here and do nothing, and God is cool with that because I’m fully accepted by Him. Also, there is the other verse where it encourages me to do something unobtainable, ‘be perfect as your Father is perfect‘. To ‘be‘ something, is to exist as, something. For example: A rock is being a rock. A rock can’t be a flower because a rock’s nature is a rock, not a flower. Instead, the verse is encouraging me to strive and pursuing the qualities of my Father (perfection, goodness, kindness, gentleness, self-controlling, slow to anger, etc)
I bring Scripture up because I’m a Christian and many things that the 66 books teaches (in it’s context) is what guides my entire life. So, this principle of ‘your perfect but be like your Father’ is a daily mandate for me. It’s something I try to obtain. I try not to condemn myself because ‘I’m complete in Christ‘. I’m fairly conscientious, so being too negative on myself is an issue and it’s something I’m trying to improve =).
In Conclusion: I hope after reading this you smile =) and consider how I view my life. That you’d actually think about ‘are there areas in my life, that I think I can do better’. Smile and enjoy your Kaizen life. 
Google Turns 10 years old today!.
wilson (earl hindman) from home improvement
Day after day, I watched Home Improvement. I remember those days vividly. Eating mac and cheese from breakfast, lunch, and dinner (no joke…). Getting home from school, I always had :) to watch Tim Allen and Home Improvement. Brad, Randy, and Mark were like my brothers. Doing things I would do.
I strangely related to Tim ‘The Tool Man’ Taylor. Even though I was young, before my teens, I still related to Tim because I was clumsy. If you remember correctly Tim, during every episode, asked Wilson (Tim’s neighbor) for advice but Wilson’s face was ALWAYS hidden.
If Wilson wasn’t behind the fence, hiding his face, he was wearing a mask or a plant would block the bottom half of his face. It was always a mystery throughout the entire T.V. series. Some say the reason why this happened was because when Tim Allen was young (in real life), he was too short to look over the fence to see his neighbor’s face. Others say it’s because Earl Hindman (Wilson) had a scar on his face. Since Tim Allen was the Executive Consultant, in the first two years of the show, I think the first story holds more weight.
Without further ado, here (at the top), is a picture of Wilson. On the left you’ll see Wilson as his is typically seen throughout the T.V. Series and on the right you’ll see him without anything hiding his face. Although the picture is a bit of a mug shot, this is what the famous ‘Wilson’ looks like without any disguises. I hope this made you smile.
Everyone is salivating over Google’s new internet browser, Google Chrome (somebody likes cars). Inside of of Google Chrome is a V8 (stop thinking cars!), which was custom made by the Google team. The purpose of V8 is the engine of browser, in other words, it makes pages run faster.
The concept of Google Chrome was forged from components from Apple’s WebKit (which is used to create Safari) and Mozilla’s Firefox (another browser). Google created a neat video called, “The story behind Google Chrome“. If you don’t like videos and you like comics, check out their Comic Book. (39 pages in total; I don’t doubt someone wants to buy those domains on page 10)
When you launch Google Chrome, it’s interface is similar to Opera, where it has 3 by 3 (total of 9) boxes, used as a ‘dial’ for popular sites. As you start using Chrome, it sends data to Google. If you do a query, Google.com records it but so does Chrome. This bite size information (cookies) are sent to Google for them to ‘improve’ your internet experience (just like when you use Google, Google.com’s results get better for YOU, individually; things like ’spellcheck’ and ‘did you mean’ evidence of that). But as time goes by, Google Chrome will take the most popular 9 sites you visit and fill in the default homepage.
Another feature Google Chrome has is called the “Omnibox”. It’s similar to Google Suggest, the new default feature when you search on Google.com, where as you type letters in, a drop-down list appears to help your search experience. Omnibox will suggest various things, such as: specific websites/webpages you previously visited, files on your hard drive, Google search, and other diverse suggestions.
Within 9 hours, on Digg, the page was dugg over 7,200 times. Which is outstanding! Plus by the comments, it seems the Digg community is in love with Google. (Update: Currently now over 9,100 diggs)
After the launch, within 8 hours Matt Cutt’s tweeted that Chrome has 2% of the market share. This is astounding but just only the beginning of Google conquest over the internet world, scratch all that. Google is trying to build a platform for the next wave of the web, Web 3.0. I think Mircosoft, Mozilla Foundation, and Apple will take the concept of ‘tabs with different processors’ and add it to their browsers. But I’m not sure if they can catch up, some tests have come in stating that Google’s Chrome browser is at least 5 times faster than all of it’s competitors. Others have done their own tests stating it’s on the same plain as Firefox and Internet Explorer
Okay, now to a light critique, if you read the FAQ on Google Chrome, you’ll realize this is called ‘beta’. Some areas where Google Chrome can improve:
- Google Chrome isn’t displaying characters correctly (if a developer/coder doesn’t label code properly, the page will be displayed sloppy, where FF, IE, and Safari have compensated for this)
- Declaring encoding using JavaScript (document.write) doesn’t work (If a developer/coder uses Javascript heavily to create a website, such as writing in js, it will break, yet again FF, IE, and Safari have compensated for this)
- The HTML5 database API isn’t supported in Google Chrome (the latest version of HTML isn’t supported for developers…)
- There is no RSS reader.
I commented on Matt Cutt’s blog exposing the truth behind his first point. Matt said that Chrome doesn’t send any data to Google.com but I said that’s semantics, and Google Chrome does record information and send it to Google, Inc. I wasn’t being hostile nor a jerk about things. I just opposed his first point in his blog. In addition, Matt decided add another blog post. He now points out, in his 3rd Q & A, it as a ‘conspiracy theory against Google’, when instead it’s a fear of too much power.
Google literally has 80 to 90% of the market share of search, worldwide. Some stats report that Google has 68% of a market share in the US. In addition to the US, there are other countries, Google literally has 90% of the market share in 95% of those countries (not in Russia, China, nor Japan).
US laws are far too behind, with a steady recession happening, and the entire country divided, it doesn’t look like the US will catch up anytime soon. I bring this up because Google is based in the USA and Google does have monopoly characteristics. A South African firm was one of the first to sue Google over their dominance of market share.
Summary: Did Google make a superb browser? Maybe, time will tell after the expert reports come in. Are there legal issues with it? Yes and no. No because the US is too far behind technology. Yes because Google’s shear dominance is very similar to Microsoft’s dominance as an OS.
If you want to test it out, make sure you have Windows (Sorry, no Mac, or Linux platforms yet).
This was one of the quickest reads I’ve had in a while. I would consider myself a ‘below average reader’ (in regards to speed) and it literally took only 5 1/2 hours to complete this book from cover to cover. That’s two sittings. Here is my Summary of ”A Child Called It” by Dave Pelzer: