Chainfire pg 127-173

Ann and Nathan found a prophecy that indicates the final battle which will decide the fate of both worlds is coming soon, and only with Richard leading them they have a chance of success. They immediately rush off to find Richard taking Tom with them and leaving Jennsen to watch over their new discovery and the Bandakar people.
Richard has arrived at Altur'rang and tries once more to convince them of the reality of Kahlen. They still do not concede to the point, but soon he finds other important matters at hand. The Imperial Order is coming to take back Altur'rang with a sizable force and they have a wizard with them. Richard decides that Nicci needs to stay and help them defend the city while he continues his journey.
I think Richard in his despair is missing things. In his argument for Kahlen's existence he did not push key points that would they could not have explained, and an easy solution of finding someone who can back him up is Jennsen because she is not effected by normal magic. Even if she cannot remember that reduces the causes down significantly. He is breaking the Wizard's Third Rule: Passion rules Reason. His is allowing himself to become distraught because of worrying which is distracting him from key pieces of the puzzle that he normally observes.

Chainfire pg 60-126

Richard raced back to his allies who had made a perimeter and found them all brutally decimated. Richard investigated the area, but found no tracks. Nicci, Cara, Victor, and he started heading to Altur'Rang to get horses because Richard plans to go somewhere. They traveled through the forest to not be tracked, and when they stopped for the night Richard asked Nicci what she knew about this thing. Nicci explained that she believes it is another contraption of magic manipulating people to form a weapon as Nicholas was. When she was investigating Jagang's use of magic to make people into weapons, she found that Nicholas was just a stepping stone to make some invincible monster. She thinks they may have succeed.
Nathan back in Owen's homeland found a concealed storage of prophecies, but something is unusual about them. He knows some of the books, but they have blank area's that he did not remember, but he cannot remember and other word that are there although he knows there should be. He tries to show Ann to see if she can explain the discrepancy, but she does not know what is happening either.
The beast is worrisome because that is most likely the cause of Kahlen's disappearance. When I was reading the the problem that Nathen knew was there but could not figure out, the problem occurred to me. Kahlen is in prophecy along with Richard, so the missing blanks in the books of Richard's prophecy are Kahlen. She did not only disappear from peoples memory, but she disappeared from the existence even in the books that were written over 3000 years before this point. The cause of her disappearance is strong. I think since Richard was near death when the magic to cause people to forget Kahlen was released it did not effect him, and that is why only he remembers her, or the bond between which prevents the confessor power from affecting him also wards this magic as well.

Eating Fiber Increases Life Span

http://www.usatoday.com/yourlife/food/diet-nutrition/2011-02-14-fiber_N.htm

High Fiber Diets have been linked with lower chances of heart disease, infectious and respiratory illness, cancer, and an overall longer life span in this study. People with high fiber diets were 22% less likely to die from any cause compared to those who had lower amounts. Confounding variables such as weight, education level, smoking and health status were taken into account. They suggest about 38 grams of fiber a day for men and 25 grams for women. 


I knew fiber is a necessary nutrient we need daily , but I did not think it would have such a large impact on our health that this study suggests. It even says that fiber may have strong immune benefits. More insight into how the study was preformed is found at http://www.cbs6albany.com/news/fiber-1282873-grams-study.html showing it was a prospective study with  31,000 participents. Although these results strongly show correlation, I am sure more evidence is still being complied to help support or verify causation.

Observations on the Walton Ford painting Buddha Purnima

In the painting “Buddha Purnima” by Walter Ford the monkey carrying fruit on the crocodile’s back with small monkey bones nearby on the island alludes to the folly of the monkey and the crocodile’s seduction which will help fill its belly. The scene of the picture at first glance appears lighthearted with the monkey and the crocodile cooperating to see the monkey to the shore safely, but when carefully inspected the crocodile’s seductiveness is revealed. The first clue is the mingled pieces of bones in the right corner of the painting suggesting the hostile intent. The detail that captures the intent is in the distances, and it is what looks like a crocodile’s mouth with a monkey fearfully flailing to escape its fate. The threat is not realized by the monkey which has a reassuring hand on the back of the crocodile suggesting the monkey’s unfailing trust in its ferry. The monkey is also clutching the fruits it has scavenged like a precious treasure. The value of his cargo seems to distract the monkey of his surroundings allowing him to fall into obvious trap. The obliviousness of the monkey due to the distraction of his treasure implies that we to may fail victim to allowing perceived valuables distract us from hostile surroundings and lead to misfortune.

The picture reminds me of the fable of the crocodile and the monkey in which a crocodile becomes friends with a monkey, and the crocodile’s wife demands for him to get the monkey’s heart, so he takes the monkey on the water to eat him, but the monkey tricks the crocodile to get back to land. Except in this painting, it appears the crocodile gets the heart.

Chainfire pg 1-60

Richard appears in the beginning of this book critically injured. He is being rushed to Nicci to be healed, but the whole time he is trying to indicate something to the men carrying him. At the end before he passes out he tells them one word "Kahlen". When he wakes up he is healed, but no one know who Kahlen is. Richard believes that she is in some kind of danger and immediately without concern for his current weakened state starts searching for her. Nicci and Cara worried about the injuries effecting Richard's mind follow him to look out for him, and in hope to talk some senses into him. When he arrives at the battle site where he was injured, he looks and finds all of Kahlen's footprints are erased. He continues and finds that one area seems perfectly untouched by even nature except for what looks like a slightly disturbed rock. Richard believes that all of Kahlen's footprints have been erased in a similar method to the one used by Zed in the first book, and that magic must have also been used to erase the memory of Kahlen through something similiar to a death spell. At the end of the chapter Richard notices something is wrong, and ravens immediately start flying away due to a disturbance.

I believe, of course, that Kahlen is real because I can not even begin to conceive how all of the events in the previous eight books would have occurred without her. Magic is definitely the cause and the Imperial order is related, but the question is how did Jagang accomplish such a feat. Due to the little information it is difficult to predict what is happening next. Without tracks to follow Kahlen could be anywhere. It is an interesting start to one of this author's books because of how quickly problems and events happened.

Naked Empire pg 689-725

Richard told everyone at the camp he had a plan and would reveal it in 2 hours and that in the mean time he needed to sleep. He used this as a distraction to make Nicholas stop watching him for about an hour, so he could sneak into Nicholas's room when the 2 hours ran up. When Nicholas used his soul to visit the camp again to learn the plan Richard went into his room about kill him before he realized what was happening to his body. Since Richard finally understood the problem his gift was back and he used it to return Kahlan to her body. Shortly after they opened the gate to the city from the inside, and eliminated the remained Imperial Order forces. Richard on the verge of death from the poison had his gift take over which told others how the make the antidote to save him. They were successful, and Richard survived. At the end Kahlan, Cara, and Richard resume on their way to Nicci, but Jennsen and Tom stay in Owen's land to help organize it and protect it for a while.

Zed in the New World has recaptured the Wizard's Keep with the help of Chase and Rikka. He plans to get the has some boundary wardens to protect the keep along with him because of his inability to deal with pristinely ungifted, and to get the Wizard's Keep more lively as it once was when the gift was a common trait.

Richard's gift began to fail because he held reservations on his actions. His perception of believing in his values were being questioned by himself, and it was creating the imbalance inflicting him.

The main theme of this book was to "Deserve Victory". This means two different things. It means that we cannot wait for things to be given to us, but must work for what is important for us. We cannot expect others to be our saviors, but we need to take our goals and fight for them ourselves. The other idea is we must not hold reservations in what we fight for because a little doubt can grow beyond control. That reservation can cause hesitation which means defeat. We must be determined and convicted in our actions and fight for them the best we can.

Naked Empire pg 640-686

Kahlan exchanged herself for the fake antidote. Nicholas took her into their fortified base and captured her soul to end her resistance. Richard woke up in time to realize that his location was about to be hit by wizard's fire, and he moved everyone around. When they avoided the danger Richard realized that Kahlan was not there, and learned what had happened. In the morning he attacked the base to recover Kahlan, but Nicholas had already fled. They were successful in the attack against the base with the help of Ann and Nathan who arrived at the end of the fight. Nathan tried to straighten out Richard's problem with the gift, but couldn't, so Richard decided to use the little time he had left to go save Kahlan. They perused Nicholas relentlessly and caught up to him. While planning the attack, Richard went out to think and realized what he was missing. The key to his problems. "Deserve Victory" the meaning of the wizard's eighth rule was for him not Owen's people, and he now knew why.

He did not tell us why it is the key yet and I lack solid speculation on the meaning it was trying to communicate to Richard. I definitely has something to do with unlocking his gift, but I am unsure what. Nathan gave him advice that a Slide is vulnerable when outside his body, so Richard will try to use that to hi advantage, but I do not know how he will get Nicholas outside his body when Richard is close because he knows right where Richard is all the time through following him.