I'M STINE AND I AM A NORWEGIAN STUDENT!

This blog is made by Stine for her English class. She writes short texts about what the teacher asks her to and publishes a few essays. She is a very good English writer, despite the fact that she is born and bred in Norway. All of her blog posts are of very high quality and she delivers exactly what has been asked for.

Layout

"My love for candy" is a very tidy blog and the layout is awesome. The background is a picture of shelves upon shelves of old fashioned books. The background creates an effect that makes the reader understand that this is a blog made for school. "My love for candy" also has a Clustermap which shows where the blog has been viewed. Apparently this blog has a lot of fans in Israel. 

Ups and downs

Stine's blog is called My love for candy. It is a very appealing title, but I fail to see the connection between the name and the content. However, maybe it is a metaphor that tells us that she feels that English classes are as good as candy. Or perhaps it's a message that every blog post is comparable to a piece of candy. All in all this blog is a very good read and very well written with few mistakes!

I've decided to give this blog 4.9 out 5 stars.

The bottle man

Harold Hackett from Prince Edward Island, Canada, has sent over 5000 bottled messages. It all began in 1996 when he was on a fishing trip. "I just scribbled my address on a piece of paper and put it in a glass Pepsi flask." A few months later he received an answer, which inspired him to start sending out bottles on a regular basis.

By now Hackett has received over 3100 replies. These letters have been sent from neighbouring places in Canada, the eastern shore of the United States, England, Ireland, Russia, Germany, Norway and more. He has received mainly letters, but also pictures and gifts like candy. Some of the people who reply to these bottled message also come to visit him. A couple from South Carolina camped out in his yard for two weeks. "They had the best time in the world" says Harold. He was once visited by a whole school class from Ontario who sent off bottled messages of their own.

Some of the places which Harold's bottles have reached.

Harold is not doing this as a political statement in this modern world of tweeting, texting and emailing. It wasn't a romantic notion about the lost art of letter writing either. "I don’t know, I just can’t stop,” he said. “Makes me feel good, and it’s a good way to pass time."

Harold Hackett in his home in Prince Edward Island.

Young heroine in New Zealand saves a herd of whales

A young girl, aged 8, has just recently been spotted riding a whale. I, Shanarah Lee, for The New Zealander, have witnessed the dramatic story. "I felt like I was going to drown," says the young heroine, "but my head just kept popping back up again".

These past few weeks several beached wales have occupied the eastern shores of New Zealand's North Island. The brave young girl has prevented more of these devastating losses by leading the wales away from the shore. "I was doing it so my tribe would go on living," smiles Kahu.

The young Maori girl, Kahu saves the day

Several environmental spokespersons have already praised the girl in the media. "She is both brave and wise beyond her years," says Peter Savewhales. She has also been locally praised by her fellow Maori. "Kahu is truly the reborn Paikea." states chief Nuko. Paikea is a legend among the Maori, an ancient whale rider who rode along the coasts of New Zealand. However the legend of Kahu now threatens to outshine the old  legend of Paikea.

Pursuit of happyness

This film depicts the classic Hollywood storyline of a man chasing the American Dream. Nevertheless, it still gives the vibe of being a sort of independent movie. This might be due to the fact that the acting is very good and the story very realistic. And they don't live in a luxurious house in Bel Air,  they actually live in a dingy flat in San Francisco. However, the budget was 55 million dollars.

The main character Chris Gardner is in serious finanicial trouble and holds custody of his young son. The chemistry between Chris, played by Will Smith, and his son Christopher is really good. The son of Will Smith's character is actually played by Will Smith's real son. This is probably why their bond was so strong on screen. It didn't do any harm either that Jaden Smith happened to be incredibly cute.

The character Chris Gardner is very poor, and barely gets by. Will Smith plays this role very well. It is very different from the Bel Air prince and alienkilling roles he usually plays. Considering that Will Smith lives a very comfortable life, he managed very well to act as though he owned nothing at all. Chris Gardner also narrates the whole film, as though everything has already happened. He does this by introducing us to different chapters or key events of his life by saying things like: This part of my life is called being stupid.

The score for this film is very good too actually. The music is very motivational and creates the right atmosphere for different parts of the film.

This film is a Hollywood movie so the end is very predictable. I won't spoil it for those of you who haven't seen it yet, but I'll just hint that it has a very happy ending.

 Will Smith as Chris Gardner and his son Jaden Smith as Christopher Gardner

The presidential election

The presidential election in the states is gearing up to be the most stupid one yet. Considering you need to choose between a bad leader or a crazy douchebag, there's not much more to say. But I'll keep on writing anyway. There are a few differences between the candidates. We have Mitt Romney on one hand, who claims he likes firing people. On the other hand, we have a wonderfully hilarious president who dresses up as himself on Halloween, but so far has proven that he is incompetent to make any changes in the USA. The thing with Obama is that, you either hate him or you love him. This means that it has been very hard for him to gather the people.

This photo says it all to me.

As for what my opinion is, I edited this photo to show you:

Bullying in Norway

Bullying in Norway is actually not always like the bullying in many English speaking countries. The typical bully in an English speaking film is a huge boy who puches people for their lunch money. In most parts of Norway, this situation is unthinkable and almost even funny. Very few people actually experience this type of bullying. Bullying in Norway is usually more subtle than in a few other place, especially with girls. When it comes to girls, the bullying is actually more verbal than physical. It consists mostly of talking behind eachother's backs, though some people might say that this is not a type of bullying. A few girls also experience being excluded by a group, which is a very tough situation to deal with. Considering that I am a girl, I don't know really know how boys normally bully eacother, but I assume that there is not a very big number of physical assults. I'd say that the bullying is more verbal with them too.

Now that we have experinced a sort of technologial revolution, more and more bullying happens on the internet or on phones. A lot of girls might text people rude things and comments or text people rude comments about others. Phones are often used to take bad pictures of victims and then sometimes sent around or published on sites like Facebook.

Celebrities often experience some type of bullying or harassment on the internet. Stars with fan pages on twitter or facebook can sometimes receive death threats or rude comments on them.

So, what I'm trying to say is that there are lots of different ways one can bully and be bullied, but they are all despicable and should be abolished!

Questions from Simon: Part 4

How I think I will use English in the future.

I think I will use English a lot, because it is the most common lingua franca in the world. Half of my family only speaks English, so I will undoubtedly speak it more with them.