what happened behind the scenes

Dickens lived in the 1800s. He was born in Landport, Portsea, England on February 7, 1812.  He had seven siblings and at age 11 was taken out of school to work at a factory.  He was paid six shillings a week. When his father and the rest of his family were thrown in jail, Charles was left in the city, alone.

After situations improved, he went back to school; then became an office boy, then a freelance reporter, and then an author. He published The Pickwick Papers in 1837 and gained immediate fame.

After publishing many other books, he married Catherine Hegarth. He had ten children when they split up. Sadly, he died of a stroke on June 8, 1870.  The books that he wrote were mostly about poor people’s situations. Dickens is very sarcastic in his books and he shows people’s situations without them coated in sugar and honey.

In Oliver Twist Dickens shows how children were treated in the poorhouse.  Careless and hard-hearted women accidently smothered children when making beds, they scalded them to death when they washed clothes, and the children were almost never washed. They were clothed in the thinnest clothing, beaten and starved. Oliver asks for another tiny bowlful of soup as he was still starving when in the poorhouse, and would’ve been hanged for it if not for a very narrow escape.

The rich people spoke of the poor as though they were whining, overfed dogs. They closed their eyes to the people dying on the sides of the streets and it didn’t even cross their minds that they should maybe help.

Certainly, people were left to starve in the streets, but at least some of them were given jobs!  Some boys could be chimney sweeps, so that they could get stuck in the chimney and have the fire lit while they were still inside. They were only smothered by the smoke or had the bottoms of their feet burned so they couldn’t walk properly for the rest of their lives, but who cares?  They’re replicable! Well, so thought their privileged abusers.

People were often put in prison for no reason. The judge casually assumed that a person who happened to be passing by the scene was guilty, and had them thrown in a cell without a proper trial.

Charles Dickens was one of the only people who wrote about the poor. He lived his books (quite literally) so he could really tell what was going on behind the scenes.

Life

Hello, Person!

Today, I will be talking about life.  A lot of people don’t appreciate life as it is.  I once (well, maybe about a week ago on a youtube video with Seananners) heard that to really enjoy life, you have to work for it.  And I(might) know what you’re thinking.  Well, maybe I don’t but anyway!  Sometimes, maybe on lazy Sundays when the weather is almost uncomfortably warm, you think about thinking of taking your rabbit, dog, or fish on a walk.  But then you begin to make a pretense of getting up, and all of your muscles and toes groan in protest and you sink back, defeated, onto the warm and fluffy couch.  Not so, fellow gerbils!

  You know how there are some times when you force yourself to do something?  They aren’t that often, but you know the feeling afterward.  You are either thinking, ‘Wow, I’m so awesome!’ or ‘Wow, I’m not doing that any time soon.’  You just have to take that risk that you’re going to regret doing it.  Also, doing things you dislike immensely grows you.  Once, I got up early (well, early for me which is about 8:30 a.m.) and I forced myself to get up…and then I went back to bed; I really need to work on my getting up schedule.  But most other times, I’m very happy that I did something like that.  So, basically, life isn’t all about watching Doctor Who or playing Civilization V.  Or maybe playing five hours of Battlefield III straight.  It’s about getting up early and NOT going back to bed!

  Thanks for reading, please post your thoughts in the comments below, and as always, have a great day! J

the little breeze

Hi, Everyone! I would love to know your thoughts, so please comment below and tell me what you'd like me to blog about.

I recently wrote a personification about the breeze. I wasn't going to publish it, but a good friend of mine persuaded me to do so.  In case you don't know, a personification is something that you write about (like a tree or anything really) and make it into a person. At least, you give it characteristics like a person.  You can make a conversation between a computer and its desk if you want!  Anything to give something human characteristics.  Here's my personification:

The breeze is a little girl.  She dances and plays with the sun. Jumping and spinning, she teases the papers that were carelessly left about. Her hair is as white as the dove as it flies and down at her feet it twirls. Her eyes are as blue as the midday sky, and they glisten and gleam like stars. Her dress is as green as the fields at the time when the sun rose for its first morning light. She leaps and flies with her races with time and she laughs at the people below.  It is heard at far above the trees and carried by the birds alone. Or else it is heard at the rocks in the sea, and then it is heard by none.

Tell me what you think of it!  It'd be nice to know how people like it.  Thanks for reading, and have a nice day.

Water!

Hello, All!  I haven't been posting for a while, so I thought that I'd write a post about water.  It's more of an essay, though.  So, here it is!

Water is one of the most unappreciated necessities on Earth.  Without it, everything (including us) would die and our planet would become utterly useless.  Rain is the most important ways we get water, while glaciers only sit there and look amazing.  The rainbows are remarkable and need to be learned and respected by all people.

I’ll start with rain.  With the amount of rain falling in even only one acre of land, if it rained a simple 1 inch, there’d be roughly 27,154 gallons of water.  On the acre only!  And if it rained one inch over California (its 840 miles long) there’d be a ridiculous amount of water.

Glaciers are nature’s way of saying, “Start small, think big.”  It starts out as a snow build-up and as more and more snow falls, the weight of it all compresses it into ice.  And, of course, it melts once a year, and every time it melts, it flows like a river, and freezes again.  More snow falls, and the process continues.  If you want to see some amazing photos of glaciers, than go to this website! http://www.travelsupermarket.com/blog/glaciers-that-look-like-art/

Rainbows are some of the most beautiful things that are created by rain.  They are only the sun shining through raindrops but all of the colors are amazing.  Sun dogs are more common than rainbows but are equally beautiful.  They’re formed by light refracting in ice crystals in cirriform clouds.  Their official name is perihelion.  Go to this website to see some amazing pictures of sundogs!  http://www.w7ftt.net/sundog1.html

Water needs to be more appreciated, and I’m hoping that this article will help with that.  Have a good day, and thanks for reading!  I'll be trying to blog more, but I've been pretty busy, so keep an eye out for more blogs!

Good Books for Pree-Teen Girls

If you know me, you know that I love to read.  I’ve got plenty of suggestions for them and I’ll write a post about all of the books I love some time later if you’d like.  And here are some of the books that I love!

Lord Dolphin (Book)

At first, I thought that this book was just for young kids about 7 years old.  But I thought, “What could possibly go wrong?” and I read the book.  I was in a trance the entire time I read the book.  If I didn’t already have a book that is one of the best books ever, I’d say that this book is the most amazing book I’ve ever read.  The author really brings you into the book.  I was not reading the book.  I was living the book.  I think that that says it all.

Ballad of the White Horse (Ballad)

This book is amazing.  Amazing isn’t quite the word though.  If you don’t like ballads then don’t read this book.  But for those who do, this book will become your favorite.  I don’t understand most of it, but it’s so beautiful.  I wrote a review about it on Amazon, and I expressed what I thought of it there.  I really think that this is one of the most beautiful books ever written.

The Little House series (book series)

I have been reading the little house books since I can remember.  I have reread all of them at least 5 times.  Some people won’t like them but as you can guess, I think that they’re wonderful.  I won’t tell you what it’s about but I will tell you this: these books are great for children of all ages and all adults.

And that’s pretty much it!  If you want more book reviews, please post in the comments below.  Thanks for reading and have a great day! J

One More Review

Hello again!  In my last post, I have received requests to write more reviews on movies that I’ve seen.  And in the last post, I forgot one TV show that I used to watch.  And here’s my review of it:

H20; Just Add Water! (TV show)

This show is great for girls from 4 to 13.  It’s about three girls called Emma, Rikki, and Cleo from Australia (I’ve always wanted to go to Australia) who are mermaids.  They obtained their… mermaidness by getting lost in a boat when they used up all of the gas.  The only land in sight was an island so they rowed to it.

Emma had a phone with her, but it didn’t get reception on the beach, so they began hiking to higher grounds.  They made it to a creek with two huge slabs of rock and between the two slabs, the creek had worn away at the rock so one had to jump to the other side.  Emma and Rikki successfully made the jump across but after Cleo jumped, she fell into a hole on the other side.  Emma slid down to try and help her, but then Rikki came down too, not knowing what else to do.

They found themselves in a cave. The way back out was too steep to climb.  They went further into the cave and found a pool of water that was connected to the ocean.  Directly above the pool was an opening in the mountain.  It was obviously a volcano that had been dormant for hundreds of years and most certainly wasn’t going to blow just then.

Emma jumped into the pool and swam to the ocean to make sure that there was a way out.  She came back with encouraging news: It was a rather short swim to freedom.  But Cleo wasn’t one to be optimistic.  She was afraid of water.  After hours of coaxing, they finally got her into the pool.  It was midnight and a full moon.  As the moon shone down onto the pool, although the girls didn’t know it, they had achieved their mermaidness.

As a result, every time they come in contact with water, even the smallest drop, after ten seconds pass they become mermaids.  They also gained powers.  Cleo can control water, Emma can freeze it, and Rikki can boil it.  They can use the powers whenever they want to.

They have to keep their mermaid tails a secret.  If anyone finds out then, of course, they will be experimented on.  The only one who knows their fateful secret is Lewis, Cleo’s to-be boyfriend.  I shall not tell you anything more about this.  If you want to know what happens, watch it on Netflix or YouTube.  I’d suggest Netflix though.

So that’s pretty much it!  I’ll write another post about books I love if you like!  Please leave your thoughts in the comments below and as always, have a great day! J

My Ratings

Hello!  Today, I’m going to write about something a little different than usual.  I’m going to review some movies/TV shows that I’ve watched.  And before you get started on the ratings, I’d like you all to know that I don’t have television.  I watch almost everything on Netflix, unless I watch it in the movie theaters.  So, I’m going to start my rating list with:

The Goonies 

-10 out of 10

There’s swearing, inappropriate and fat jokes, and stupid people in eighties hairstyles (I really don’t care for the eighties).  It’s about a family that really does love each other, but pretends not to because it’s “cool”.

The plotline is that the main character and his “buddies” find an old treasure map.  They decide to find the treasure because they’re poor and are going to sell their house.  They set off to find it and run into some thieves who are after it, too.  The main characters somehow manage to get to the treasure first, and they get it.  After some trouble, they get back home with some treasure and live happily ever after.

War Horse

3 out of 10

If you enjoy laughing at melodrama, watch War Horse.  It’s supposed to be dramatic and sad, but they messed up terribly.  They overdid the drama to the point that my big brother was trying not to have a fit of laughter when watching it in the theater. He didn’t want to be rude. (At least, I hope that was his intention lol!)  War Horse was directed by Steven Spielberg, who needs to steer well away from melodrama from now on.  But the photography was good and the horses were beautiful.  Spielberg also made my least favorite movie, The Goonies.

The Office

9 out of 10

I think that this comedy TV show is one of the funniest things that I’ve ever watched.  It’s not great for kids 10 and under though.  It can be inappropriate at times.  We have to fast-forward some parts, and we even had to skip a few episodes due to its inappropriateness.  It really could cut down on some of the jokes, too.  But the characters are loveable and adorable in their own obnoxious way, and you just wanna keep watching it all night.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

9 out of 10

This movie is wonderful.  It’s acceptable for children of 7 and up because it would be boring to the younger ones.  It’s about a guy who is appointed to fill a place for a guy that either had died or was fired… I can’t remember which.  He’s just a normal guy at the first glance, but when he goes into office, he changes positively everything.  There’s betrayal, lies, and love in Mr. Smith’s life as an office member.

Tangled

9 out of 10

It’s a movie that is great for the whole family on movie night.  It’s fun, quirky, and never gets old.  It’s not the best movie for boys, but my brothers didn’t hate it.  They gave it a rating of 5 stars out of 10.

Dr. Who

20 out of 10

Read my other blog post ‘The Most Awesome Show IN THE WORLD’.  I think that the title pretty much sums it up, though.

So, that’s pretty much it!  Thanks for reading and have a good day! J