A letter to the Author

Si and his wife Christina

Dear Silas Robertson (also know as Si),
I am a big fan of the show Duck Dynasty and so is my sister. In fact, I bought her a Willie bobble head for her birthday last year and she also got a duck call for graduation last year. You could say we are pretty big fans. Anyway I have really enjoyed reading your book Si-Cology 101! I love how you tell stories up until now and how you start from when you were a child moving towards college, enlisting in the war, meeting your wife and having children! But your stories about each of those things always make me laugh! Especially the one about your tea cup because anyone who has seen Duck Dynasty knows very well that you never put your tea cup down. Im curius as to why you have made a facebook page and twitter for your tea cup but I find that very amusing. I also found it interesting how much you enjoyed being in the army to the point where you moved your whole family to Germany  and had your two children there! I also loved how you live your life through God, like when your wife Christina couldn't have children and you said "'If God wants us to have children, we'll have children. If he doesn't want us to have children, we'll adopt some kids'"(Roberston 147). I also enjoy reading this book because you have such a strong writters voice which makes it much more enjoyable to read your hilarous stories! Great book and great stories, I can hardly put it down!
                           From,
                                Madison Giessler

Final Blogging Assessment in English 1B

Text-to-Self Connection

I can honestly say I would have never thought I would be able to make a connection to Si. I mean he wears camouflage everyday while I would prefer to wear a dress. He is able to hunt, which we all know I would not be able to hunt for the life of me. But I was reading a chapter he wrote about snakes- funny thing is is that he is afraid of snakes- which you would think if you are in the woods everyday you would get over that fear but apparently not. This is what Si said, "As you may can guess, I don't like snakes. The only good snake is a dead snake! If anyone tries to mess with me when it comes to snakes, they're going to have a fight on their hands."(Robertson 43) when I read this I thought this is exactly like me. You can ask any of my friends I am deathly afraid of snakes (to the point where I can't even look at a picture of one)! I couldn't agree with Si more about the only good thing about a snake is when its dead! If I see a snake I will freak. period. It could be in a cage and I would still run away in fear! I don't know how Si does it!Even though he has to face his fear of snakes everyday and has been bitten 27 times I can still connect to his fear.


I also noticed some verbal irony (sarcasm) while reading that chapter. Si says, "Northwest Louisiana, where we grew up, is one of the few places in the United States that is home to all four of the venomous snakes of North America: the copperhead, cottonmouth, coral snake, and rattlesnake. We're even blessed to have two kinds of rattlesnakes: the canebrake and the eastern diamondback. Boy, aren't we lucky?"(Robertson 44) obviously he's being sarcastic when he says they are blessed to have two kinds of rattlesnakes- considering he is scared of snakes I doubt he's happy about that. Also the last sentence in that quote "Boy, aren't we lucky?" he's not saying they are lucky he is using sarcasm once again to get his point across that he's not happy Northwest Louisiana is home to all four venomous snakes that live in North America! :)

Text-to-Self Connection

I realize that I have already made a connection to this book but I found another and I couldn't help but share it! I also can't believe I was able to connect to this book again since Si is so much different from me! This connection is a little different than my previous one though. Si was just starting out in the military and he was sent to Vietnam, he had just arrived and some of the soldiers gave him advice on how to survive. One of the most important things they said "was to make sure all of my personal belongings were locked down at all times because the Vietnamese loved to steal from Americans". I was a little amused by this because lately people have been steeling stuff from the girls locker room including phone cases, clothes bags and a lot of other stuff. People in the locker room have never locked up our stuff because we feel like we can trust everyone, but in reality you can't fully trust anyone because anyone can walk in the locker room while we are practice and take our stuff. I was just as shocked as Si was when he found out people will steal your stuff because I grew up learning the same this he did: that stealing was bad and against the law. Here is a little lesson you can learn from this: always lock up your stuff just it case because you can never trust everyone!!

The best thing about my book is...

that (Uncle) Si uses his voice in his writing so it sounds like him. Whenever I read his crazy insane stories I can picture him saying it because he sounds like he would when watching the show. I have also noticed that just because it is a book that doesn't stop him from using his signature sayings including "Hey" and "Jack". One this that is not like Si in the book is the spelling and grammar (but thanks to the help of Mark Schlback all his grammar is correct in the book.) I just read a chapter in the book about Si and how he does not like school and how he didn't want to go to college but his parents made him- even though he only went for one year all he did was party. But as soon as finals came around the corner him and his friend realized they had to do well on exams so they got all the notes they had missed for a month (they skipped class all of the time) and they studied for 72 hours straight before their finals. And somehow Si ended up doing really well on them too, but still didn't go back for a second year instead he was enlisted in the army and was sent to Vietnam the next year. That's as far as I have gotten but the book keeps getting funnier and funnier because Si's stories are full of humor and dumb things him and his brothers have done!