November Post Reading

November Post Reading

1. "You toss your luck in the air and it rattles down on the gambling boards and you either live or die."

. Out of the three quotes I think this one best applies to the book Ship Breaker. Nailer’s whole career is based around luck really. In his case you have to hope that the ship pays off. You have to chance it. There are many good examples of this in the book. Like in the beginning when Nailer fell into the oil, Sloth knew that while she left Nailer that it was possible he could survive. She knew the consequences of her actions yet she still rolled the dice of luck. In this case she “died” or lost in the roll. But in Nailer’s perspective he won. He was lucky enough to find a way out of the oil. This is the cause of rolling the dice as well. Nailer knew the many risks there were when he went inside the ship but he does it anyway.

Another time that Nailer rolled the dice of luck is when he convinced Pima not to kill the woman. I don’t think that Nailer did this only because he thought it was wrong to kill her but, I also think he believed some profit could come from saving the girl. He was not sure of it but he lost the chance of paying off his debt because he believed he could get more from this. His luck had payed off for a while and he decided to keep going. Doing this could have meant life or death for Nailer but he still took the risk.

Nailer took many risks in the book and this quote fits them all. When Nailer believed that saving the girl would have them rewarded he was rolling the dice with a 50/50 chance that it would turn out to be a good decision. He had barely any reason to believe that her father would repay them or that she would get them out of there when she left. Nailer believed in the girl and rolled the dice.

This quote also relates to real life quite a bit. There are many things that are purely based on luck and taking the chance. But most of the times the situations don’t involve life or death. Say you wish to apply for your first job but you’re nervous and don’t want to go through with it, you roll the dice of luck. Though your experience and smarts can help, like I mentioned in my pre reading.

This quote doesn’t exactly relate to my life specifically but I know for a fact it does for some people. This quote is very true in life and in the book. As someone grows up they will face more situations like this. But really while you’re young there are not as many.

November Pre-Reading

1. Write a blog that argues whether it is better to be lucky, or to be smart.  Be sure to back up your opinion with reasons and examples.

In my opinion it is better to be smart than to be lucky. If you’re smart you wouldn’t have to be lucky. You would never get yourself into situations where you needed your luck. For example somebody drives up on a kid and asks him if he wants candy. The kid goes up to him and actually gets candy and there is nothing wrong with it. This is luck. The kid wouldn’t have to worry about this if he was smart. If he was smart he would not have went up to the man and got the candy.

Luck has its upsides though. Say you forgot to do your homework, if you were smart you wouldn’t have forgotten to do it. But if you’re lucky maybe the teacher is sick and will take it up tomorrow. Luck can help you in situations that if you were smart you wouldn’t need help. Another upside is like if you are trying to find something you luck out and find it. But also if you were smart you wouldn’t have lost it. Unless we’re talking about the book and how he lucks out and finds a good ship. In that situation it is luck that is better.

Luck and smarts are kind of equal to each other. As an example let’s say you’re a police officer and you’re in some sort of shootout, if you have smarts you will be able to use that to your advantage and survive. This is the same with luck. In this situation you could either land your shots and save yourself with both. Let’s say that you get shot, smarts can only help you to a certain extent in this situation. You’re luck could very well save your life. Maybe your luck makes the bullet not hit something very important. Your smarts cannot stop a bullet from hurting you but your luck can. This is one situation where luck is the better thing to have. There are many benefits of being lucky and of having smarts. It would probably be best to have a combination of the two.

Really it all depends on what the situation is where either of these are needed. Luck can help you when smarts can’t and vice-versa.

October Post Reading

 "The choices we make about the lives we live determine the kind of legacies we leave."

    This is a very powerful quote. It applies to the book very strongly. These two will both leave legacies. One will leave a legacy as as successful writer who wrote two New York Times Best Sellers. And one who will go down in history as the boy who helped his brother kill a man and got a life sentence. These outcomes are all due to the choices the two boys made, events that occurred in their lives, how and where they were raised. These things caused the two boys to be how they are today. 

     The Wes that is in jail was raised in the hood. He went to jail for the first time when he was very young. He was destined for prison I suppose. He was around bad influences and his father was a drunk. He was not raised in the best environment for a child, and this ruined him. His brother was an especially bad influence. Wes' brother had been killing people and dealing drugs for quite some time, and he was no good for Wes. If Wes had made better choices and been around better influences he may not have been in this situation. He could have the same life as the other Wes. He could have gotten helped out his mother with money problems.But he chose to risk his freedom for some money. This quote could have changed his future if he had heard it and took it to heart. But his actions ruined his life.

     The Wes that is successful was raised in a great environment. He was taught to not hit women and his parents were very loving towards him. His father was a very nice man and treated him well. This is almost the exact opposite of the other Wes. The choices of their family members affect them. The Wes that is in prison is a prime example of this.

     This quote is very powerful to me. It acts as a reminder for me, it is a guide. It reminds me to make sure the choice I'm making is the correct one. Hopefully this will help me out when I leave my legacy. Hopefully I will be successful and not rotting away in jail. My parents have made good choices and are raising me right. Hopefully in the future I will make all the right choices. I know I will make a few mistakes during my life but most likely they will not be this severe.

      This quote is very powerful to me. I honestly think that this quote will stick with me and guide me through my life. It will put me on the right path to be a better person.

      

October Pre Reading

3. In life, it often seems like certain people get all the breaks, while others never have any luck (except bad luck).  Discuss what you see in terms of "the way privilege and preference work in the world."

In life many people get the easy way out. They get all the shortcuts while other have to take the scenic route. For example, people who are born into wealthy families often have many advantages of those who are born into families experiencing poverty. Some rich children will never have to work a day in their life but will still be rich. While poor children will have to work their entire lives. Rich children are able to pay tuition and attend college. While poor children will have to work for tuition or get student loans and have crippling debt for the rest of their lives. This is one of the many privileges in the world.

Another privilege is race, and religion, or even gender. In the Middle East women are given less rights and are basically objects for men. They are not allowed to get an education. Sometimes they are forced to cover themselves up and other times they do it to follow their religion, and they voluntarily do it. The women are beaten in many cases and are not treated as equals. Even in the U.S. They have less rights. They are paid less than men in many cases. They work just as much and maybe even more than men but still get paid less. This is one of the gender privileges in today’s society.

All through history and everywhere in the world people are persecuted for their beliefs. Especially religious beliefs. There are intolerant people all over the world. In the Middle East there is conflict against the Muslims and Jewish people. They argue over where they both can and cannot pray. They hate each other. They have gone as far as to riot and kill people of the other religion. It is a very violent long term altercation. In America recently there have been people rallying against people who believe in the Islamic faith. They protest Islam at Mosques and wear shirts insulting islam.I believe that in America people of the Christian faith have more privilege than people who believe in other things such as Islam. Christians get away with more things due to the fact that Christianity is the main religion in America. For example Kim Davis. She denied a couple a marriage license due to the fact that it was against her religious beliefs. This was part of her job as a government employee. I just feel like if she was a Muslim person and this happened to a Christian couple there would have been more jail time, and more of an outrage from the American people.

In America there is the privilege of race. People in America are discriminated against. One of the biggest people discriminated against are African American people and Mexican people. Many people are turned down for jobs because of their skin color. Sometimes there will be a highly sophisticated African American or Mexican person who is qualified or maybe even overqualified will be denied the position due to the color of their skin. Then maybe a white person will come to the job and have the same qualifications and be accepted. This is very wrong. All discrimination is wrong. These privileges are part of everyday society and should not be. It is sad but it is the truth. Bigotry and ignorance is becoming overwhelming.

September Post Reading

Post Reading

“When the noose gets tight around somebody’s neck, they’re liable to say anything to save their own skin.”  This quote is very easy to relate to. This happens in everyday life. People lie to help themselves. This is one of the most selfish things a person can do. Sometimes people put others in their situation by lying about them just to save themselves. People in school do this all the time. Like when someone blames someone else for something they did and then that person gets in trouble. Sometimes people do this just to get other people into trouble. Say someone tells a teacher that you stole something of theirs or that you skipped in the lunch line , then you get in trouble and they might get your item or they might get ahead of you in line because they lied. These are the type of selfish things people do.

      This relates to the book as well. In the book when Marcus is caught and arrested Eddy is off getting his scholarship and trying not to get caught and saying things to keep the heat off of him. He let his best friend get in trouble instead of him just because he didn't wanna fess up to it. This is really selfish or him. But it reflects his humanity and how people are in real life. This is just like how people put themselves before others to survive. In a situation of life or death, or in this case, prison or freedom, people will choose themselves over others. They will lie and cheat and maybe even kill to keep themselves out of trouble.

        This also relates to our human nature essays. I said that people are evil, this adds to that fact. There are people who will send people to jail maybe even for life just to keep themselves out of trouble. And it makes it even worse that half of these people lie about people close to them to stay out of the trouble that they put themselves into and in most cases it is no other person's fault that they did this, and the people they lie about half of the time have nothing to do with the situation.

       Another example is corrupt police officers. Officers of the law that plant evidence on people or on crime scenes to justify their warrants and suspicions and end up sending these people to prison. Or people who make false claims about others and get then sent to jail until it is found out that this is untrue.

    This is a very powerful quote that can apply to both real life and the book. I think that everyone can relate to it.

Human Nature Essay

Human Nature Essay

Ever since the dawn of time humans have been born with the ability to be evil but not the ability to be good. There are those who are able to keep their hatred and evil under control. Some people even turn that into good. People like firefighters, police officers and soldiers. People who donate to charity and help eachother out.

There are those who let their evil run loose. According to http://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie.html over 150,000 people are in jail for murder. And over 146,000 for assaulting someone. These people are the definition of evil. “Profoundly immoral and malevolent.” This is the definition of evil. And it fits these people. These people throw away their morals and don’t think. They attack people for no reason and end up killing them. There are people I didn’t mention who are locked up like people convicted for robbery, or burglary or even gun smuggling. These people do not care. This is the evil that is in them.

There are those who turn their evil into good. These people are the ones who protect against the evil in the world. For example poverty is one. People who fight against it like the Red Cross, who build houses. Or people who donate to poverty stricken people. The people like Police and Soldiers protect against evil overseas and on the homefront. Police even though some of them are evil, protect the good. They keep the evil from corrupting the good. They stop people from doing something that is evil as well. Soldiers protect people overseas from the evil over there corrupting them.

This is like in The Lord Of The Flies. In the book there is a good power and and evil power. The good being Ralph’s group and the bad being Jack’s group. Ralph tried his best to keep people from going over to the evil and side and joining Jack, but just like in real life he couldn’t stop them. They ended up joining evil out of temptation and lust for survival. They ended up killing people to survive. This is how everyone is. In a  situation of survival people will do anything to survive, steal, and even kill to survive. This also relates to Night. People were killing for food. And even stealing food from their dying relatives and murdering young boys and old men just so that they could survive.

People have always been like this. Trying to do anything to further things. This is the evil we are all born with. There is no denying this. Humans are evil.

Pre-Reading Black and White

Pre-Reading Black And White

I want people to remember me as a good person. I don’t want people to remember me for anything bad like many people will be remembered. I feel like the best way to be remembered is for you to be remembered as someone who made change, and as someone who was an all around good guy. I want to be remembered as the guy who got people off the streets. I want to help homeless people. I think everyone could help them in some way, I want to have everyone help their fellow humans and get them into a financially stable state. I hope that I am actually able to make a change in the way that people regard homeless people. Some people think that they are bums, and that they should just get jobs. Some people base their hate on this idea . But the reality is that it is very hard for these people to get jobs. People deny them work simply because they are homeless. People who send hate towards homeless people are the people who make it harder for them to get out of their situation and into a better more financially stable one. This is why some homeless people are on the streets, it is because the people who think like this make it harder for them to get jobs. Homeless people deserve a chance, they deserve it just like any other human. The only way that we could fix this is by loving our fellow humans and helping each other out. I believe it could happen. Martin Luther King, Jr. was able to reach his goals for equality for the races, it looked as if it was against all odds but he pulled it off. This is how I want to be remembered. I want to be like Mr. King. He alone has inspired me to do this. This will be the fight against poverty, and the only way I can end poverty is by having everyone learn to love each other just like Mr. King did. This would be one of the greatest ways to be remembered. I think it would be great to be remembered as someone who is a role model and an iconic person. I want people to learn about me during history class about how I sparked a movement to fight against poverty. This, is how I would like to be remembered.

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My favorite vacation ever was going to the beach.