Dancing With the Stars

IT'S BACK! Season 19 of Dancing with the Stars kicked off on Monday, September 15th. It airs on Mondays and Tuesdays on ABC. For those of you who don't know this popular show, 13 stars were picked, with no dance experience, to dance with a professional dancer picked by the show. All of these stars are competing for the big, bad mirror ball trophy. Each week, one couple is voted off because they have the lowest combined total of points earned for their dance and number of votes received. The show is judged by four judges this year, Julianne Hough, Len Goodman, Carrie Ann Inaba, and Bruno Tonioli. Each of the judges rate the dances on a scale from 1 being the worst to 10 being the highest. I don't know what kind of judge Julianne will be because she is new this season but each judge has a different personality. Len is the strict judge. If anyone gives a lower score, it's usually him. One thing I noticed about him is that he loves to rhyme! Whenever he gives a 10 to anyone, he always says "From Len, the 10!". Carrie Ann is the nice judge. She's always crying and happy and giving high scores to people who don't deserve it! Bruno is the crazy one. Literally every single time he is talking to a star, he stands up and has these crazy hand gestures! It also helps that he's gay and always hits on the famous men! 



This year, our stars are Sadie Robinson (I'm rooting for her because I have been told on many occasions that I look like her!) from Duck Dynasty, Tommy Chong, a comedian, Randy Couture, a MMA fighter, Alfonso Ribeiro (OMG IT'S CARLTON!), an actor, Jonathan Bennett, which pretty much everyone knows from the wonderful Mean Girls, Lolo Jones only the fastest hurdler of ever, Betsy Johnson, a fashion designer, Bethany Mota, a famous youtuber (first time that's ever happened!), Antonio Sabato, a very attractive model, Tavis Smiley, talk show host, Janel Parish (Mona don't hurt anyone (only PLL fans would get that one...)) from my FAVORITE television show Pretty Little Liars, Lea Thompson, an actress, and Michael Waltrip, a former racecar driver.


Our pros this year are Whitney Carson (she's only 18 and she's a professional dancer...), Mark Ballas, Emma Slater, Keo Motsepe (he's new!), Allison Holker (also new), Artem Chigvintsev (It's okay I can't pronounce his last name either), Cheryl Burke, Karina Smirnoff, Val Chmerkovskiy (he's one of my favorite people ever), Peta Murgatroyd (just for clarification she is a girl), Derek Hough (he's won way too many times), Tony Dovolani, and Sharna Burgess (she's probably the most beautiful girl I've ever seen).

Each week, the couples are given dances ranging from Contemporary to Argentine Tango. A different couple goes home every week until there is a champion! This is one of my favorite shows to watch on television and I highly recommend this to pretty much anyone! Just because I love Val and his brother Maks a lot click HERE to watch one of The dances!  (516 words)

Guardians of the Galaxy

This movie really surprised me at how good it was. When my parents told me that we were going to it for our family day, I wasn't very excited. I mean it has a talking raccoon in it. I'm not into that kind of Stuff! And it's "action" and that's not my favorite genre but I seriously loved this movie it was so funny! I guess I should have figured it would have been awesome because it's Marvel and when has there ever been anything bad from there?


So I was really confused at the beginning of the movie because it started off with a scene of a young boy named Peter Quill in a hospital room with his dying mother. Right before she died she gave him a present but he didn't open it. He ran outside after she died and was taken to space with Yondu, a space scavenger. A really long time later Peter left Yondu to find this really powerful space orb thing. This made the bad guys, Ronan and Thanos, very angry and they sent Gamora (she's a really pretty green girl)to retrieve it from him. Also, the talking raccoon, Rocket, and his friend Groot (he's probably my favorite character because he's a tree and he's so cute!) want to get this orb from Peter too. They all end up getting in a fight and get sent to a "space prison". This is when they all join together and even find a new friend, Drax the Destroyer (he has a huge grudge on Ronan because he killed his wife and daughter and wants to kill him!). and they escape prison!


All of them regain the orb and head out. But of course the wonderful Ronan had to find them and take the orb from them. He plans on taking the orb and destroying the whole planet of Xandar. The guardians of the galaxy race after him and his army to try and take the orb back from him and save the galaxy!


Now a lot more happens in the movie but what kind of person would I be if I ruined the movie for all of you? A horrible one! But let me tell you this movie will not disappoint because It's really funny (and kind of stupid) and crazy unrealistic things happen in it! The movie comes out on DVD sometime in December so if you don't want to wait to see it you have to see it in theatres! Please enjoy it for me because I would watch it again a million times!  To watch the movie trailer click HERE!  (437 words)

Sarah Dessen (Author)

Sarah Dessen is one of my all time favorite authors. Her books appeal more to girls, but boys if you want to read it, go for it. So far I've read almost every one of her books (she just came out with a new one) and I've loved everyone of them. These aren't your regular, sappy romance stories, there more realistic and relatable. 

Sarah has eleven books; The Truth About Forever, Just Listen, Lock and Key, Along for the Ride, Keeping the Moon, This Lullaby, Dreamland, Someone Like You, That Summer, What Happened to Goodbye, and The Moon and More. I'm really excited because I had no clue she had a new book (The Moon and More is her newest one) and I found out about it while writing this blog:) She is one of the most popular writers for young adults and is even the #1 New York Times bestselling author of many of these novels which have received awards for themselves! And holy moly over seven million of her books have been sold!

A movie has even come about from some of Sarah's books. The movie is called "How to Deal" and it combines the books That Summer and Someone Like You. Even though she has eleven published books, she just recently found that she has thirteen unpublished books! That's so many! I hope she decides to publish some of them because I love her!

Sarah Dessen was born in Evanston, Illinois on June 6, 1970. Sarah was born to Alan C. Dessen and his wife, a professor at the University of North Carolina. She has one brother. Sarah dropped out of Greensboro College in Greensboro, North Carolina, and later took some classes at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, graduating with highest honors in Creative Writing.

I highly suggest that you read any of her books, I promise you will enjoy them! Once I started reading them I couldn't put them down! See you soon!  (328 words)

12 Years a Slave

Let me tell you right now that you should appreciate life and all that you have. If you don't believe me just watch the movie 12 Years a Slave. It is a TRUE story about a free African American man who is kidnapped and sold to a plantation as a slave. These slaves were treated horribly and I don't understand how a person could treat someone so bad. It made me cry more than I have ever cried in a movie before!

The main character in the movie is Solomon Northup. He lives in New York with his wife and two children. He is a free man so he earns a living as a violinist. He is going away on what he thought was a business trip only to be drugged and sold into slavery under a false name of Platt. His first owner, Ford, appreciated him and his talents and he was doing okay at the plantation. He was creating great ideas and doing advanced work for the plantation. It all went wrong because the overseer, Tibeats, was very brutal and mean to all of the plantation workers. He was starting to whip Solomon for no apparent reason and Solomon wouldn't take it. He took the whip from Tibeats and started whipping and beating him instead. This part made me particularly happy because I hated the way Solomon was being treated. However, Tibeats wanted to kill Solomon for this and tried hanging him. Ford stopped the people from hanging Solomon and protected him overnight from Tibeats because he knew that they were going to try and kill Solomon no matter what Ford said. Solomon couldn't be protected at this plantation anymore so he was sold to a different one. Ford was one of my favorite characters because he seemed to actually care about the slaves that ended up at his plantation.  

Solomon was sold to a cotton plantation to a very strict man named Epps. All of the workers spent many hot hours picking cotton and if they didn't pick "enough" cotton, they were punished. Another character is introduced here and her name is Patsey. The plantation owners wife did not like Patsey at all and threw things at her and punished her even though she was their best worker by far. If that wasn't enough, Epps would take her at night and rape her. Patsey and Solomon became friends and helped each other endure the hardships of being a slave. They both were whipped and beaten in many different occasions. It amazes me the fight all of the slaves had and how hard they fought to stay alive in the horrible conditions they were given.

This whole movie baffles me because of how horribly the slaves were treated. It was like people didn't believe they were human. They were literally tossed around from one plant to the next like they were just a piece of property. How could someone whip another person and laugh about it? That is just so inhuman and I don't think I will ever get it. What even started the idea that African Americans were beneath white people?  

This is where my description of the movie ends but here's a little tip. The end of the movie made me very happy but it also made me sad. What could that mean? You won't find out until you watch the movie, which you should do very soon! I REALLY enjoyed this movie, even though it made me cry a billion times. I think sometimes people forget how lucky they are and need to be reminded to be grateful. It makes you appreciate what you have in life a whole lot more.

To watch the movie trailer click HERE!   (623 words)