Day: January 14, 2019

“The love of money is the root of all evil” – 1 Timothy 6:10 The book, “Treasure Island” is a good example of this verse. For example, the pirates killed their fellow mates just for their own personal gain. In fact, I am sure that there was a little place inside each person, not just in the pirates but in Jim Hawkins and, the good crew, that wanted to murder someone just for the love of gold. Also, the pirate crew was always threating to kill Long John Silver if he didn’t give them their share of money, which is just being greedy because, even if they killed John, there still wouldn’t have been peace with everyone else. Thanks to being greedy, almost all of Long John Silver’s crew died. Another theme for “Treasure Island” is, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” For instance, if the good crew and, the pirate crew would have evenly shared the gold, there wouldn’t have been a riot. In order to do this though, the pirates, and even the good crew, would have had to been okay with sharing the gold. And that brings up another theme, “You can’t reason with a pirate!” Remember, family, friends and, in the pirates case, crew mates, are much more valuable then any gold or silver also, do things for others before you do something for yourself. If the characters in this story would have had and, followed those two important tips, the story would have had a much happier ending.

All though the Saxons were a bit behind in culture then other people groups of their time, they got along fine in life. They were good, devoted Christians and loyal servants to their kings.
The Saxons were a culture who seemed to like bright colors yet, were simple. In G.A. Henty’s books, for example -such as Wulf the Saxon and the Dragon and the Raven- the Saxon characters that he describes liked being in style and, wore bright, colorful clothing. Men’s hair usually went to their shoulders and usually had beards or were cleanly shaved.
There was a pretty good difference between the nobles and the peasants. The nobles had large pieces of land that they usually inherited, ate good food and, dressed nicely. The poorer people were very different. There was a lot of slaves, they didn’t eat nearly as much food as the nobles and, didn’t have the best clothes in fact, a lot were dressed in rags.
The Saxons were good, strong warriors. They had excellent military leaders and, were good swordsmen. They died nobly in battle for example, Edmund’s father in the Dragon and the Raven. He died for a good cause for his people and even his son.
As for their religion, the were strong, devoted Christians. They had many churches, Popes and, monks. They may have been a bit behind culture wise but, they weren’t behind in there faith.

About two years ago, an earthquake effected a lot of the Kenai peninsula from small town Seldovia to big city Anchorage, Alaska.
When I went to bed the night it happened, everything was normal. Then, at about midnight, I suddenly awoke because the whole house was violently shaking. My house overlooks a beautiful marshland near the mouth of the world-famous -sort of- Kenai river. It is on a type of foundation called, pilings and, it’s built above a kinda-steep sloop. So, when we felt the earthquake, my dad thought we were going to slide down the sloop due to the violent shaking! (We didn’t by the way) My parents, my two younger brothers and, I where the only ones who felt the earthquake meanwhile, my three youngest siblings slept right through it.
Maybe three days after the earthquake happened, my aunt –who was a radio reporter- took me to a conference meeting to talk about the earthquake. The earthquake turned out to be a 7.9 earthquake! I also learned that it really effected a small town called Seldovia, which is a nice little fishermen’s village that my family likes to go to sometimes in the summer. Also, some underground natural gas pipes broke and, three houses blew up. (The families who lived in those houses got out before that happened so no one was hurt) I actually got to see the remains of those houses -it was kinda-cool. I also learned how to tell if there is a gas leak in my house –which is not a good thing, that is what made those three houses blow up- and what to do safety wise. Here are just some examples:
-If you smell a gas leak, immediately evacuate the house and don’t bring anything with you
-Call 9-1-1
There is more but, I don’t need to go through all of it.
My whole earthquake experience was sort of scary at first but now looking at it, it was actually cool to be able to learn about what happened, safety and, getting to be a part of a kinda- historical event in Alaska’s history!

P.S. This is an essay I wrote before I made this blog!

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s court is a book that shares Mark Twain’s view on politics in his time period. It starts with Hank, who is from the 19th century America, is transported back in time to 6th century Camelot. After a long series of events, Hank becomes King Arthur’s right-hand man instead of Merlin, whom is made magician over what Hank calls, the simple stuff like, weather. Hank, being almost as powerful as the king, has everyone in the land call him, The Boss but, is confused with why no one wants an autograph from him. He soon learns that, there wasn’t such a thing as an autograph in the 6th century because, the only people who were allowed to read and wright was, the Roman Catholic church’s priests. The Boss was surprised about this and, started secret schools throughout the country. The Boss later sets up a telephone system, railroads and trains and, introduces the bicycle.
Before Hank introduces his modern-day lifestyles, Camelot was a usual 6th century kingdom. The priests were the only ones who could read and write, the only way for long distance communication was by letters, there was much slavery and a few other brutal things. But, after Hank changes things, Camelot was similar to modern day times. There was many schools and colleges, there was a train, a newspaper company, telephone systems, no more slavery and, a lot more.
Hank had his own personal thoughts on how things should be and, him being the narrator of the book, you can read those thoughts. Mark Twain used this to make a point in how the government was at his time and, how he thought is should change.

P.S. This is one of my essays before I made this blog.