Reaching Out

Photo from Truth Finder

You can't help those who don't want to be helped, but you could at least reach out a hand and hope that they grab on eventually.

-RC-

The Bridge

I discovered this short movie quite awhile back and have already shared this movie with quite a few people. The title of the movie in Polish, Most, translated to English would mean The Bridge.

This movie is adapted from a true story about a man named John Griffith, who was a railroad bridgemaster. Although the characters in the movie do not directly portray the actual story about this person, it is adapted from the famous story which was inspired by this man's life.

In the 1930’s John worked as the controller of a huge railroad bridge across the Mississippi River. Every day at certain scheduled times the huge bridge was raised so that barges and other ships might make their way down the river. And according to a schedule, John would lower the bridge so that the freight and passenger trains could rush across.

In the summer of 1937, John Griffith took his then eight-year-old son with him to work for the first time. The boy was excited to watch the big railroad bridge and the trains & boats, and also to see the control house with all kinds of levers over which his daddy had absolute control.

His father took him to an observation deck so that he could watch the boats and trains go by. At noon John put the bridge up to let some ships go by since there would not be a train coming for awhile. He made his way to the observation deck where the two of them had lunch.

Just as John was telling a long story about the trains & boats, he was startled by the shrieking of a train whistle in the distance. He quickly looked at his watch and noticed that it was 1:07.

In the midst of his story telling he had forgotten that the passenger train - the express for Memphis with 400 passengers on board - would soon be roaring across that bridge.

Without panic but very quickly he leaped from the observation deck and ran back to the control tower. He placed his hand upon the massive iron controls and started to close the bridge. But before pulling the lever, he glanced down beneath the bridge to see if there were any ships beneath it.

There a sight caught his eye that made nearly made his heart stop.

His son had slipped from the observation deck and had fallen into the huge gears that operate the bridge. Though the boy was still alive and conscious, his left leg was caught in the cogs of the main gears! John knew that if he pulled that lever his son would be crushed.

His eyes filled with tears of panic, and his head was spinning. What he could do was to take a rope, rush to the observation tower, tie it and lower himself into the gear box, free his son, bring him back up to the observation deck, and make his way quickly back to the control tower to lower the bridge.

But no sooner had he thought it, than he knew there was no way he could do it in time for the train.

Again, closer than ever, the train whistle sounded. He could hear the wheels clicking over the tracks and the puffing of the engine.

But that was his son!

Yet there were 400 passengers on that train which was roaring toward the bridge. But John Griffith was a father and that was his boy!

He knew what he had to do so he buried his head in his left arm and pulled the master lever.

That massive bridge lowered into place just as the Memphis Express roared across the Mississippi.

When he lifted his head with his face smeared with tears, he looked into the passing windows of the train.

There were businessmen casually reading their afternoon papers, uniformed conductors looking at their large vest-pocket watches, well-dressed ladies in the dining car sipping coffee, and children pushing long spoons into the dishes of ice cream.

No one looked at the control house and no one looked at the great gear box.

With wrenching agony, John Griffith cried out at the train, "I sacrificed my son for you! Don't you care?" But nobody heard. They never even looked up from their newspapers, watches, coffee and ice cream.

In the same way, the Son of God has been sacrificed so that we might have eternal life.

Will we look up from our newspapers, watches, coffee and ice cream?

Taken from http://www.goarch.org/

Here's a fan-made video adapted from the original movie:

Random Banter

hooraymydarlingisbackinpenangforgoodandigettospendmoretimewithherandmakeupforthefourmonthswewereapartandifeellikehoppingupanddownlikealittlekidcozmydarlingisbackkkkkkk!

=)

Movie Review: Mary & Max (2009)

MOVIE TITLE: Mary & Max
YEAR: 2009
GENRE: Animation/Drama

I wonder if any of you have heard of this movie before called "Mary & Max". If I recall correctly, I don't remember ever seeing this film in local cinemas, nor have I heard about it until I spotted it sitting untouched in a friend's external hard drive. He told me that he'd never seen it yet, but I copied it into my own, out of curiosity.

The film managed to take me by surprise, as I didn't have high expectations for it. If you know me well, very few animated films have managed to impress me, and I am very proud to say that this one has!

Based on a true story, our little tale unfolds in 1976, in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, where an estranged 8-year-old girl named Mary Daisy Dinkle, who lived with her emotionally absent father and alcoholic mother with a tendency for shoplifting. Being friendless and completely naive, she decided to randomly pick out a name from the New York phone book and write to the address. Scrolling through the long list of names in the directory, she decided to write to "M. Horowitz". M. Horowitz, or Max, as she learns later on, was an equally estranged man, with Asperger's Syndrome, a condition that renders him unable to physically express his own emotions, as well as perceive emotional facial ques of others. Thus begins a unique correspondence of letters between the two, but not without interruption by several incidences and misunderstandings along the way.

The juxtaposition of monotonous dialogues and narration, as well as the monochromatic colour scheme throughout the whole movie, with a vast array of emotions and symbiotically colourful personality of the characters combined (ironically) truly makes the film an immensely enjoyable one for the literature and art fans alike. And the fact that a monotonous and monochromatic film which features lifeless works of clay is able to stir emotions of the viewers (well, me at least) in such a manner makes the film a true work of art.

The movie will take you through the life of both Mary and Max as two unique individuals, from Mary's naive and querulous thoughts as a child through her ups and downs as she matures into a woman, to Max's monotonous expressions of his experience in life as a social outcast, and his rigid mundane daily endeavours. A truly insightful watch for the viewer seeking artistic and mental stimulation. But be warned, that the movie is not made for every random movie buff. No, this movie is for but the faint of heart, not because of the graphic explicitness (which it has none, if you discount the one scene where Max visualizes himself naked on a desert island; hey, it's just clay anyway), but because of the monotonous 'emo' theme throughout the movie may come as a huge bore to the common movie goer. Yup, you heard me, the movie is "very the emo," and the director, Adam Eliot beautifully brings the viewers into the climax of emo-ness when (SPOILER ALERT!) someone tries to kill him/herself. Truly, the makers of this movies should be crowned geniuses together with the likes of the Wall-E people for successfully drawing out raw human emotions from lifeless patches of clay.

Final words, I would so recommend this movie to all lovers of literature, theatre, fine arts, and art in general. Definitely earns a spot in the list of movies I deem worth watching over and over again.


RATINGS:
Rotten Tomatoes: 90% on the Tomatometer
My Rating: 8.5/10

Here's the trailer:

Don't let the trailer fool you. Take my word for it, it's super emo, unlike what the trailer portrays.

The Signs Of The Durian Season

Picture courtesy of Aesthetic Awakenings

Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come claiming, 'I have durians,' and will deceive many. You will hear of Durians and rumors of Durians, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the season is still to come. Durian lovers will rise against durian haters, and Malaysians against the "Ang-Moh". There will be thumps and thuds in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.

Then your durian will be handed over at airports and hotels, and you will be hated by all nations because of durians. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate durians, and many false salespersons will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of substandard durians, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will feast. And this love of the king of fruits will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end of the season will come.

DURIAN SEASON IS COMING!!!

Burnt Biscuits

*Disclaimer: I want to be this husband, and father. Thanks, William, for sharing this.

When I was a kid, my mom liked to make breakfast food for dinner every now and then. And I remember one night in particular when she had made breakfast after a long, hard day at work.

On that evening so long ago, my mom placed a plate of eggs, sausage and extremely burnt biscuits in front of my dad. I remember waiting to see if anyone noticed! Yet all my dad did was reach for his biscuit, smile at my mom and ask me how my day was at school. I don't remember what I told him that night, but I do remember watching him smear butter and jelly on that biscuit and eat every bite!

When I got up from the table that evening, I remember hearing my mom apologize to my dad for burning the biscuits. And I'll never forget what he said: "Honey, I love burnt biscuits."

Later that night, I went to kiss Daddy good night and I asked him if he really liked his biscuits burnt. He wrapped me in his arms and said, "Your Momma put in a hard day at work today and she's real tired. And besides - a little burnt biscuit never hurt anyone!"

Life is full of imperfect things, and imperfect people. I'm not the best at hardly anything, and I forget birthdays and anniversaries just like everyone else. But what I've learned over the years is that learning to accept each others faults - and choosing to celebrate each others differences - is one of the most important keys to creating a healthy, growing, and lasting relationship.

And that's my prayer for you today. That you will learn to take the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of your life and lay them at the feet of God. Because in the end, He's the only One who will be able to give you a relationship where a burnt biscuit isn't a deal-breaker!

We could extend this to any relationship. In fact, understanding is the base of any relationship, be it a husband-wife or parent-child or brother-sister or friendship!

"Don't put the key to your happiness in someone else's pocket - keep it in your own."

There Is A Life Outside Of Facebook

Ah, Facebook; the social networking site everyone's crazy about. It is the very piece of identification everyone should have, second to their identity cards. If you don't have Facebook, you'll look like an alien to everyone else. It's such an 'in' thing, that even the most stubbornly resistant people on planet earth would eventually succumb to the pressure of having a facebook account.

Contrary to other social networking sites, Facebook is not only limited to youngsters. Instead, it has successfully attracted hordes of users of all ages, ranging from kids to senior folk. I've heard of kids, as young as the age of SIX, asking for a Facebook account. And like it or not, we all dread the very day we'll see our parents/grandpatents sends us a friend request. Time to time, we would see a random teenager's status update reading something like this:

"Oh no! My mother sent me a friend request. Should I accept?"

or,

"My grandma is the coolest grandma on earth! She has Facebook!"

Excuse me, since when did Facebook become the pre-requisite for 'cool'? And what's with the surprised expression, like the world is ending tomorrow, when someone tells you he/she doesn't have a Facebook account? Please la, guys and girls. There IS a life outside of Facebook. Your virtual cow named Bessy on Farmville won't die even if you don't feed it for one day.

Okay, maybe it will.

But even if the cow dies, it shouldn't be such a big deal like everyone makes it to be. What's the point maintaining a virtual farm anyway? Honestly, I've been there too (not on Farmville though), playing Facebook games. In the end, we'll only find yourself playing it just for the sake of it without any goals. Some people will die if they don't log into Facebook for a single day. For others, it would seem like a huge sacrifice to make if they spend time with you instead of killing that Mafia boss from Timbuktu in Mafia Wars. It would be such a big deal to them until they would say, "Hey, I didn't log into Mafia Wars today because I attended your party, OKAY?!" Pfft! Big deal.

And you know what else I don't get?

Why is Facebook like the centre of the world to everyone? ESPECIALLY THE RELATIONSHIP STATUS?! I don't get the whole it's-not-official-unless-it's-on-Facebook nonsense. I've heard people gossip, "Hey, this so-and-so are officially together!"

And when I ask why 'official'?

"Because they just updated their statuses on Facebook!"

Come on lah, you mean all that holding hands, smoochy-moochy, lovey-dovey thing they do before that was not 'official'? And the best part is when I update people about other mutual friends, like, "Hey, did you know so-and-so are getting engaged?"

They'll ask: "Did you find out about that on Facebook?"

"No, I TALKED to them."

At the back of my head: "In case you don't know, it's something that normal people have been doing since the dawn of mankind."

I'm not saying that Facebook as a bad thing. It is actually very useful to keep in touch with old friends, communicate, share photos and stuff. But for goodness' sake, don't let it suck the life out of you!

People shouldn't take Facebook so seriously; it's not the whole world. For those of you who don't know, there IS a life outside of Facebook!