A Clockwork Orange

The novel A Clockwork Orange by Anthoney Burgess is about a young teen boy, Alex and his droogs, Dim, Pete, and Georgie who run around in London causing trouble. they have been into a lot of trouble over the years but that doesn't stop them. When the foursome isn't taking drug-laced milk in the Korova Milkbar and speaking in their slang, they are robbing, beating, and raping London citizens. On a particular night, they beat up an old man with science books and a homeless man, they also get into a fight with a rival gang led by Billyboy, and steal a car and take it for a joyride to the country. Alex lives in a life full of crime and he is caught up in all of it. I feel very sorry for him and his friends because they have to deal with messing up thier lives because of where they are from.

The author also uses a unique slang that he created just for this book. he uses words like droog instead of friends and other words as well. He said "There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar trying to make up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening. The Korova milkbar sold milk-plus, milk plus vellocet or synthemesc or drencrom, which is what we were drinking. This would sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of the old ultra-violence." The author uses the woed droog to describe Alex's friends. But his droogs don't have his back forever they actually tried to kill him for “their horrible selfish and boastful politics". This was a very interesting part for me because it was cool to see his best friends turn on him. That was very selfish of his friends and I felt very bad about what Alex had to deal with. There is also very violent thinking in parts of this book as well. For example, alex says " My endeavour shall be, in such future as stretches out its snowy and lilywhite arms to me before the nozh overtakes or the blood spatters its final chorus in twisted metal and smashed glass on the highroad,to not get loveted again. Which is fair speeching". You can see that when Alex talks about violence he has a very delightful and aesthetic tone to his voice. It is kind of weird how he would talk about violence in such a happy tone. Its like he is happy to kill someone eventhough he know its wrong. If that is true, that is very scary. Who would want to kill someone on purpose, its just wrong.

I also like how Alex is a very tough kid that never gives up. Near the end of the book, Alex falls from the building but doesn’t kill himself. All he got was a break his back, wrists, and feet, among other body parts, before passing out a crumpled mess in the street. I like how he is so strong and a real man. He has grown up a lot over the course of the book and I like how he has improved as a person. I also like how this book isn't a type of book that has a confussed kid that is surrounded by drugs and violence but as the book goes along he learns to become a better person. I can see a little improvement but it is not too big and I really like that. In the first book I read it was exactlly like this book except that the teenage boy learned to become a better person at the end. I am really tierd of those types of books and it is refreshing to finally have a cool book that is about a troubled teenage boy and his gang. I also give props to the author for amking up his own language for this book. It must have been really hard to come up with words that sound like real words but aren't really. Droogs is a really good word that can make someone think that it is real. I thought it was until my partner told me that this book is full of fake words taht the author made up. It was really hard for me to understand at first but as I read the sentence over many times and many times deeper in the book I finally got a good understanding of what they meant.

This was a really good book from start to finsih that I had a really fun time reading. I liked many parts in this book that included a lot of violence and action because it keeps me focused. In the last book I read, I had a really hard time getting focused because it was so boring to me. This is the type of book that I really enjoy reading. I love the whole storyline as well. I like how Alex has a gang at the beginning and they fight other gangs but later his droogs turn on him and try to kill him. Stuff like that keep me wanting to read more because I want to know what will happen next. I also like how this book is based on a young kid who is surrounded by wiolence and drugs, which is why he is what he is. he fell into pure pressure and could not handle himself. Alex just wanted to fit in and it turned on him. what seemed like a crazy fun life quickly turned bad when he started to get in trouble with the cops. Alex life was a really bad one and I felt very sorry for what he had to go through. I know that this is just a book and is not real but this has a lot of parts that relate to real world stuff. I am pretty sure that there are a lot of kids out there who are caught up in the life of drugs and violence and don't know how to escape. I fell very bad for those kids because they are just wasting their life. This was one of the best books that I have ever read in my life and I am glad that I finally chose a book that fit my expectations.

Basketball trouble

Dwyane Wade testified for the first time Friday at the trial where two ex-partners are suing him for $25 million in a failed restaurant deal, primarily explaining his relationship with best friend Marcus Andrews, who helped broker the ultimately flawed arrangement.The Miami Heat star was called as the case's third witness. He spent about an hour on the stand before court broke for the weekend and will be called back Monday morning for further questioning by plaintiff's attorney Richard Bales.The bulk of the questions to Wade involved how his agent, Chicago-based Henry Thomas, had negotiated several successful deals for him both on and off the court, including sponsorships with T-Mobile, Converse, Lincoln, Gatorade, Topps and others. But in the restaurant deal, Wade relied on Andrews to help him make certain decisions, instead of having Thomas exclusively handle the deal.The lawsuit involves the defunct plan over what was to be a chain of D. Wade's Place sports-themed restaurants. Plaintiffs Mark Rodberg and Lauren Hollander claim Wade breached a contract by demanding higher compensation than first agreed to and then abandoning the deal in 2008.
Wade says he's entitled to damages because Rodberg and Hollander used his likeness in ways he did not approve.Wade and Andrews have been close since they were growing up as neighbors together in Chicago.The restaurant deal was first mentioned to Andrews by Richard von Houtman another ex-business associate of Wade. The NBA guard has accused von Houtman of defaming him in e-mails to Heat president Pat Riley, and von Houtman has filed a countersuit to that.Wade acknowledged he was intrigued by the original notion of a restaurant but needed to learn much more before committing."I'm sure I told Mr. Andrews I needed more information," Wade said. "The biggest thing that I probably expressed to Mr. Andrews was to go back and get more information on what with these restaurants they wanted do to, what are they, what, where, how and all that. I needed more information than someone wanted me to do a restaurant."In time, Wade collected that information, and the sides went ahead with the venture, which unraveled quickly.The suit was filed in December 2008, alleging Wade Global Enterprises made "unjustifiable and unreasonable" demands such as a 30 percent ownership stake in the restaurant enterprise. The original deal called for Wade to receive a 10 percent stake, plus a guaranteed $1 million over the first five years of the arrangement, and Andrews a 2 percent share. I honestly think that the authorities made a huge deal out of nothing. What Wade did was not even that bad and could have been resolved at the spot without including the cops. I feel very bad for Wade not only because he might need to give up a ton of money but because his basketball reputation and the kids that look up to him will be ruined. This is a very bad situation for Wade and I hope that he gets out of it without any harm to his career because he is a great athlete and needs to concentrate on basketball.

Lit Circle letter

In the final part of the novel A Clockwork Orange, Alex is sent to jail where he is surrounded by terrible treatment and torture. I think that it is pretty cool how the author expresses how Alex was treated in prison and what happened to him. At the beginning of the final part, Alex falls from the building but doesn’t kill himself. All he got was a break his back, wrists, and feet, among other body parts, before passing out a crumpled mess in the street. Just before he slips into unconsciousness, Alex comes to the realization that F. Alexander’s associates, his supposed new droogs meant to kill him for “their horrible selfish and boastful politics". This part was very interesting to me and had a lot of things going on at once. I like how the author added this twist into the book to make it a lot more crazy even though it is already messed up enough.


Another part that I liked was near the end of the book when Alex feels the drugs kick in and punches a neighboring patron in the stomach and leads his droogs into the street. Then they come upon an old man buying a newspaper. Alex sanctions Bully’s assault on the old man, and the other two soon join in, tripping and kicking the man until he crawls away, whimpering. Alex then gives the boys permission to head over to the Duke, where they sit across from the same women Alex met there in Part One. The women praise the boys, hoping for a drink in return, but Alex gets annoyed and forbids it at first, noting to us that he has become frugal. Alex eventually concedes to buying the women another round, and, uncharacteristically, gets himself a beer. As he pulls out his money, a newspaper clipping falls out of Alex’s pocket, which Bully snatches up. On it is a photograph of a baby. The group has a bit of fun with Alex’s apparent sentimentality until Alex snarls at them and rips the picture up, letting it drop to the floor. To the group’s puzzlement, he goes on to chastise them, calling them babies because they take advantage of the helpless. Alex is a very confused kid that needs to get his life straightened out but we all know that, thats never going to happen. And I like it. I'm tired of books that have endings with people becoming better as the book goes on and this book was nothing like that. I really liked this book and I am really happy that I finally found a book that I liked a lot.

The Rules of Love

After watching the interesting video on high school in the 60's, I realize that it is not much different than modern high schools. The rules that dictate the behavior of young men and women in relationships are a lot similar to the old days. The rules include what friends each teenager has, how popular they are, if they were in any past relationships, and if they have reputation of being a person who dates a lot of people. A lot of teenagers in modern high schools don't really have long relationships with someone. There are a few long relationships if the two kids really like each other but usually two people get together have fun and break up. I also think that there are a lot less relationships as there was in the past because there are more boy/girl friends that just want to hang out. In the past hanging out would be like going on a date but now its just two friends having fun. No one really goes on dates anymore unless they are in a relationship because if two teenagers like each other they just get together without really wanting to know a whole lot about the person. But once they are a couple they learn more about each others lives and what they like to do. People don't really have a relationship with someone they are not comfortable with for example, athletic teens will usually go out with someone else who is athletic and popular kids will usually go out with other popular kids. There are also teenagers who become a couple just to look good so they will have more friends. Everyone wants to be known by everyone at the school and having a relationship with someone that is just as popular or even more popular will help that goal come true.
If these rules are broken by someone, nothing really changes in high schools today. The person that you used to date might be mad at you but your friends won't leave you and nothing to serious will happen to you. You might have a couple more haters but thats about it. No one really cares about the rules as much as they did in the past because no one wants to loose a friend or become less popular. High school relationships are a lot more different that they were in the past but they are still similar. These rules are not really important anymore because no one really cares.

The Perfect Game

Last weekend on mothers day, Oakland Athletics pitcher Dallas Braden pitched a perfect game. becoming only the 19th pitcher in MLB history to ever do so. He was born in Stockton, California which is a couple of hours away from Alameda and where my father grew up as a kid. Braden's performance was a lot more than just a perfect game because his mother died when he was a child and his grandmother took him in to avoid adoption. His grandmother was at the game where he threw the perfect game and they had a very emotional bond after the game which touched everyone who was watching. I know that this gives a boost to the Oakland Athletic organization and will probably help them win a couple more games in the next couple of days. This was probably the best moment of Dallas Bradens life and I am extremely proud of what he has done especially doing it on mothers day and dedicating it to his grandmother who saved his life. There was alos another reason why he was more fueld and pumped up during this game that involved another player.

Dallas Braden’s perfect game for Oakland has generated plenty of press, and only partly because of his feud with Alex Rodriguez. A perfect game is celebrated with bold headlines because it is one of baseball's rarest achievements. But somehow, without anyone noticing, the perfect game has started to become more common, while no-hitters over all have become harder to come by. Before 1998, only 6 percent of no-hitters were perfect games, but from 1998 to 2003, 20 percent were, and since then 27 percent have been.From 1900 through 1980, baseball witnessed only seven perfect games, including two in the dead-ball era and three during the glory days for pitchers in the mid-1960s. But in the 30 seasons beginning with 1981, nine pitchers have achieved perfection. And, oddly, regular no-hitter have decreased in frequency while becoming more erratic in their appearance.


In the 20 years before Babe Ruth and the live ball era of 1920, no-hitters were far more common, with pitchers hurling 48 of them. In the two decades that followed, the most explosive offensive period before the steroids era, there were just 16 no-hitters, one of which was a perfect game. Baseball found an equilibrium in the 1940s and ’50s and that span yielded 30 no-hitters.Not surprisingly, the swinging and missing ’60s produced an astonishing 30 no-hitters, along with three perfect games, but even after baseball lowered the pitching mound, pitchers churned out 31 no-hitters in the 1970s. In other words, from 1960-1979, baseball averaged more than three no-hitters per season yet only one perfect game about every seven years. Since then, the pattern has shifted: There have been 48 no-hitters over the past 30 years, meaning it now takes two seasons to produce three no-hitters. In the last decade, there were only 13 — none in 2000 and only one a perfect game from June 11, 2003, through Sept. 6, 2006.That decline might make sense considering that the strike zone, the ballparks, the ball and steroids all conspired to boost offense, yet there have been 10 perfect games in that span, meaning they are now coming along every three seasons on average instead of every seven. In fact, perfect games before this year were fairly evenly spaced out, appearing in 1981, 1984, 1988, 1991, 1994, 1998, 1999, 2004 and 2009.As for this year’s big events, it makes sense that Ubaldo Jimenez would pitch the no-hitter and Braden the perfect game because 25 of 35 no-hitters since 1988, including Jimenez’s, have been pitched by right-handers while six of the eight pitchers to retire all 27 hitters they faced, including Braden, have been southpaws. The only question now is whether Braden can live up to his place in baseball and I think that he can do it because he has great pitches and is still young and has room to improve. This is one of the biggest moments in baseball history and I am glad I was able to experience it on the television.

Lit. Circle Letter

In the second part of A Clockwork Orange, there is a lot more slang and a lot more psychotic. There is tons more action in the second section in the second part of the book which makes it a lot more interesting to read. I really thought that this book would be exactly like the other two book i read, start out good then progressivly get worse as I get more into the novel. The second part talks more about Alex's crazy life and all the hard experiences he has to go through during this challenging part of his life. I like this second part more because it is more entertaining since there is crazy parts to it. Alex is a very weird teenager boy so far in the book that has a very tough life because he has to deal with so many problems. There is also a lot violence thinking in parts of this book as well. For example Alex says " My endeavour shall be, in such future as stretches out its snowy and lilywhite arms to me before the nozh overtakes or the blood spatters its final chorus in twisted metal and smashed glass on the highroad,to not get loveted again. Which is fair speeching. You can see that when Alex talks about violence he has a very delightful and aesthetic tone to his voice. It is kind of weird how he would talk about violence in such a happy tone.
I really liked the second part of the novel because I now know what most of the slang the author uses in this book means, which makes it much easier for me to concentrate on the book itself and try to find out what this book is about. Another section of the second part that I like is the parts where Alex talks about his life experiences and his thoughts of violence. This book has gotten better as I have gotten deeper into the book and I hope the third part is much better. This second part was really good and I hope that the final section of this novel will be more entertaining and fun to read.

Oakland Raiders

This week I would like to blog about JaMarcus Russell, the former number 1 pick of the NFL draft by the Oakland Raiders. A couple a days ago he was released by the Raiders becuase he was not preforming at his best. When Russell was with the Raiders, it seemed to me like he did not try at all. He did not give any effort into becomeing better. He figured that since he was already in the league and is amking a good amount of money he could just relax and it did not work out for him. The Raiders used the No.1 overall pick on Russell in the 2007 draft. He never developed and was 7-18 as a starter, the worst winning percentage of any quarterback who was drafted No. 1. He became the quickest quarterback who was the No. 1 pick to be released by his drafting team.He was extremely over wight and was one of the worst quarterbacks in the league last year so the Raiders decided to get another quarter back named Jason Cambell. He played for the Washington Redskins last year and had a decent year. So he is a prety good quarterback. Since the Raiders have so much quarterbacks on their roster they needed to release one. They had a comepition a few days ago and Russell did not do so well so he was cut. He was due to make about 9 million dollars next year. But reporters say that his carrer is not over yet and he still has another chance to be a successful quarterback in the league.

JaMarcus Russell is now a free agent and is looking for a new team to play for. The talented but extremely disappointing quarterback went unclaimed Friday and passed waivers. He is now free to sign with any team that may become interested in him. Russell who is 24 was expected to go unclaimed because his salary is more than $9 million this season. Any team that would have claimed Russell would have been responsible for his salary this season. Russell will likely not want anything other than the minimum league salary if he signs with a team. He made more than $39 million in Oakland over the course of the past three seasons. Even though he is said to be one of the worst number 1 picks to ever paly in the NFL reporters say he still has another chance to make it big. A lot of players have been good with their second team after being terrible with their first and this may be an example of that. the Radiers haven't had a good quarterback in years and it seems like every player that leaves become better. Mabey the raiders coaching staff is not all that good and did not know how to improve Russell. A lot of teams are interested in signing him but are still hesitant becuase of his past. But I'm pretty sure that teams that have old quarterbacks are really looking into signing him becuase they will eventually need a new one. Russell may have had a very poor carrer so far but because he was the former number 1 overall oick he has another chance and i think that goes with any number 1 pick that plays any professional sport.

Lit. Circle Letter

In the first section of the novel A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess is about a dangerous fifteen year-old named Alex who talks in slang that he invented himself which is really hard for me to understand because they aren't real words. A Clockwork Orange is a frightening book about good and evil. and the meaning of human freedom. There is a lot of slang in this book that make no sense but after a while, I started to find out the meaning of them. For example, I now know that droog means friends in Alex's invented language. The slang made this book a little harder to read becuase you had to concentrated on reading the book while trying to figure out what the slang means. Alex is a so called "ultraviolent" who had all the luck in the world until he was convicted of murder and rape. Alex is a very interesting charatacter that is kind of like the one in the first book I read and I had fun reading about him. But so far it seems like Alex has not learned anything from getting in trouble. This is a good book so far that I hope continues to excite me and makes me want to keep on reading it.

In the first part of the book I liked and disliked the slang. I liked it becuase it is really cool how the author camed up with fake words that mean something. It is also really cool that he really can made someone believe that the words may be real. For example, I thought "droog" was a real word until the grammar stopped making sense. I thought it meant something negative until I figured out what it really meant. What I did not like about his made up slang is that it was hard to figure out what some of the words mean. If you really do not think that you will figure out the vocabulary this book will be very hard to read. This was a very good book so far and I hope that it continues to be just as good or even better when I read more of it.