monday/tuesday 4/28 4/29

It is monday night and I am blogging on my home computer. Break was boring, just like every weekend except longer. Today in class I did not have my laptop because Miss Van Gunten took it after I wasn't taking good care of it. I tried to rent the book Bringing Down The House from the school library but they were out. Because of this, I wasn't able to get much done today. Tomorrow, I will start my website that will ultimately be my final project. Now, I am going to bed. I will finish this post tomorrow.

K, It's tomorrow now. I was going to begin my website but I was just informed that the research paper should be our priority at this time, so that's what I will do. I must first finish the book I am reading and then watch the movie 21. My research paper will be ready to be completed at that point. The paper will make the overall statement that the American people are suckered out of millions of dollars every day by Las Vegas. To prove this, I will use statistics, books, personal accounts and more. So for the rest of my week I will be partially researching Las Vegas gambling statistics as well as reading my book.

Final Project, Finally

Brainstorming for the individual 4th marking period project has commenced. My mom ordered a book for me from the library called Bringing Down The House, which is the story line of which the new hit movie 21* is based on. This gave me an idea. One of the biggest passions in my life is gambling. I have been betting all my life. In 5th grade, I ran a march madness pool with a buy in of 25 cents. I've maintained the pool every year with an increasing buy in and amount of participants every year. Riding the points, letting it all go on a toss of the dice - there's no better rush. That's why, anticipating Mr. Saxon's approval, I am going to do my final project on gambling. I know that two of my materials will be Bringing Down the House, and subsequently, the movie 21*. One minor dilemna however, is I need to find atleast one more book because as of right now, my repetoir is quite shallow with one book and one movie. Thankfully, I found a website listing books that deal with betting, so hopefully by the end of the week I will have atleast one more novel to read. Also by the end of the week, I would like to have an entire plan for the marking period - what my paper is going to be about, what my final presentation is going to be, and what I am going to use as research or for other opinions. I'm afraid this post must come to end because I need to finish my PIP before my interview tomorrow. Expect to be hearing more from me in the near future.

Slammy - out

Clockwork Paradox

My favorite dialogue of the novel is on page 106 when the Prison Chaplain is talking to Alex about the treatment that he is about to undergo. During this conversation, the Prison Chaplain asks several hypothetical and paradoxical questions. At this point, it is obvious that the treatment that Alex is about to receive is still doubted by moral standards. "Very hard ethical questions are involved," says the Chaplain. "You are to be made into a good boy... It may not be nice to be good, little 6655321. It may be horrible to be good." And then the Chaplain is spiraled into deep thought and questioning in which is not so much talking to Alex as he is asking himself. "What does God want? Does God want goodness or the choice of goodness? Is a man who chooses the bad perhaps in some way better than a man who has the good imposed upon him? Deep and hard questions, little 6655321. His speech ends with "And yet, in a sense, in choosing to be deprived of the ability to make an ethical choice, you have in a sense really chosen the good. So I shall like to think. "so, God help us all, 6655321, I shall like to think." The questions that the man asks will never be truly answered - not until you sit down for coffee with the big guy upstairs. It can't hurt to toy with the ideas though. Here are my thoughts...
Our current system in which the bad are punished and the good (supposedly) are rewarded is the way God intended. People are born with a choice. They make a choice to be good or to be bad. This very choice is what makes this world diverse and colorful. If everyone was forced to be good, that would obviously mean there is no bad in the world. With no bad, there is also no bravery, no courage, no ability to overcome adversity because there is no adversity. The difference between the good and the bad is what keeps the world circulating and revolving. That said, Alex does not choose to be good, like the Prison Chaplain tries to think toward the end of his rambling. The man thinks that Alex has chosen the good because he knows that this process will only allow him to do good things, but that is not the reason for Alex's choice. Alex clearly wants to be a victim of the process because it will get him out of the staja much earlier than planned. Alex believes he will have freedom when he is released, but there turns out to be less freedom after he is released then there actually was in the prison.