Plain and Simple, it's Tuesday.

So how many of you watched Jeopardy tonight? Man vs. Machine. If you didn't, you missed out. I know, weird that I'm so excited over a Jeopardy show. But tonight, they took the man who made the most money in the game and the man with the longest running streak, and matched them against an IBM computer named Watson. I think that was his name at least. It was crazy! They built a computer complete with knowledge on all sorts of things and built him so he can play Jeopardy. He analyzes the hints, thinks of answers, and if he is so much percent sure of it, he can actually buzz in and answer. As of last night, the man who has made the most money and the IBM computer are tied with $5,000. I didn't have time to watch it tonight but my guess is Watson won. It's crazy what technology has become now-a-days.

Straight to summarizing tonight... I have lots of homework to do!

The Kite Runner By: Khaled Hosseini Pages 214-223

After Rahim was finished talking, Amir asked if Hassan was still living there. Rahim handed him an envelope. Inside was a letter and a Polaroid picture. The picture was of Hassan and Sohrab in front of Baba's home. Hassan envied his self-assuredness. The letter to Amir tells about how the days have changed so much since Hassan lived there. Farzana was beaten in a market once becuase she spoke too loudly. And Hassan couldn't defend her because if he had, the army would have shot him. He tells him about how he learned to read and write, and how Rahim and himself have taught Sorab to read also. Once he has finished reading the letter, twice actually, he puts it away. Rahim told him that the photograph was taken the day before he left to go to Peshawar to see a doctor. A month after he had left rumors started spreading that a Hazara family was living in the big house alone. The Talib officers came and investigated Hassan. They called him a liar when he said he was living with Rahim, who was only out of town. They demanded that Hassan and his family were out of the house by sundown, but Hassan refused to let the house go out of his care.The officers said they were only going to keep it safe until Rahim returned.

"Hassan protested again. So they took him to the street--," said Rahim.

"No," said Amir.

"--and order him to kneel--"

 "No. God no."

 "--and shot him in the back of the head."

"No."

"--Farzana came screaming and attacked them--"

"No."

"--Shot her too. Self-defense, they claimed later--"

Rahim tells Amir that the Taliban moved into the house that day. Amir asked what had happened to Sohrab. Rahim says he hears he's in an orphanage somewhere. The reason he asked him to come, was because he wants him to go find Sohrab so he can be adopted by a good family. Amir says he doesn't want to go, it is too dangerous there. He offers to pay to hire someone to retrieve him, but Rahim reminds him, " I think we both know why it has to be you, don't we?" He tells him that one time Baba and him were talking and Baba said he was worried about Amir. He said that if he couldn't stand up for himself he wouldn't be able to stand up for anything. Rahim now says to Amir, "I wonder, is that what you've become?" Still, he refuses to go. Rahim tells him there is one more thing he has to tell him:

"Sanaubar wasn't Ali's first wife. He was married once before, to a Hazara woman from the Jaghori area. This was long before you were born. They were married for three years. She left him childless after three years and married a man in Khost. She bore him three daughters. That's what I am trying to tell you. Ali was sterile." "No he wasn't. He and Sanaubar had Hassan, didn't they? They had Hassan--" " No they didn't." "Yes they did!" "No they didn't, Amir." "Then who--" "I think you know who." "Did Hassan know?" Rahim shook his head no. "You bastards. You goddamn bastards! All of you, you bunch of lying goddamn bastards!" "Please sit down." "How could you hide this from me? From  him?" "Please think, Amir Jan. It was a shameful situation. People would talk. All that a man had back then, all that he was, was his honor, his name, and if people talked...We couldn't tell anyone, surely you can see that." Amir got up and headed for the door. "Amir Jan, please don't leave." "Why? What can you possibly say to me? I'm thirty-eight years old and I've just found out my whole life is one big fucking lie! What can you possibly say to make things better? Nothing. Not a goddamn thing!" 

And so ends chapter seventeen with Amir walking out the door angry and confused. Sorry that excerpt was so confusing... I wasn't sure how to put it in. It took me a while to actually comprehend the fact that Baba and Sanaubar had Hassan together but Ali had raised him. I can't imagine what would be going through Amir's head while he heard this. He let his own brother get raped! The book is definitely getting interesting again.

Ha, Goodnight!