I AM - 2010

Category: Movie

Genre: Documentary

Director: Tom Shadyac

Producer: Flying Eye Productions, Homemade Canvas Productions, Shady Acres Entertainment

Stars: Tom Shadyac, Desmond Tutu, Lynne Mctaggart, Noam Chomsky


Tagline:  The Shift is about to hit the fan


With all the documentaries we saw, there is really nothing new to the concept Tom Shadyac is giving. However, this video is really great in a sense that it would really support those who are still waking up. Also, it shows his journey of seeking for the truth. What makes it even more interesting is that he is the man behind successful Hollywood Films, like Ace Ventura, Liar, Liar and more.

With his Hollywood Life and feeling empty and meaningless, he began searching for the truth after a biking accident. Going back to the essentials and thought of having a documentary with 2 Questions:

"What's Wrong with the World?" and "What can we do about it?"

Simple. Also very good film for the youth.

I like how he ended it.. :)

Doc: The Rape of the Town of Lovell - Jack Olsen

Category: Book

Genre: Courtroom / Drama / Non-Fiction

Author: Jack Olsen


 For 25 years, the trusted family doctor (Dr. Story) in the town of Lovell, Wyoming, had been raping and molesting the women and children who relied on him.  The naive women victims who are mostly Mormons, realized on their wedding nights the truth about what happens in Dr Story's examination table.




It's long...and uhmm at the middle I was really feeling like I should abandon in reading the book because it was just way too creepy... but I pursued, just to have closure. Was well written and without bias, albeit what happened.

Photo Source: FantasticFiction.co.uk

The Hot Zone - Richard Preston

Category: Book

Genre: Non-Fiction / Bio-Thriller

Author: Richard Preston


This book actually recounts the history of ebola virus and marburg virus. The hair-rising idea of having this airborne virus spreading can be quite terrifying.

For awhile there, this book actually kind of "scared" me. And when I bought this I never really thought it was accounting for something that really happened in real life. It was an easy read because it was written like a story, and not some techie-bio-sci-thingamajig. 

Also, Preston has this analogy that fatal viruses, are acting as the Earth's own antibodies. Protecting the environment from encroachment of humans. Invasions of the deep rain forests are just warnings for humans to stay away. It's like "The Happening", eh? More like, the Earth responding in a different way.

and because it managed to scare me, i'm giving it a 4.5 :)

Realms of the Earth Angels - Doreen Virtue

Category: Book

Genre: Spirituality / Angels

Author: Doreen Virtue


Remember when Jesus said: "In my Father's House are many mansions?" I think he was referring to the different realms and dimensions of the Universe. And this book actually explains the different realms where we might have come from.

She talks about the different characteristics of each beings, Incarnated Angels, Elementals, Star People, Wise Ones and more.

I really enjoyed this book. (Anything by Doreen Virtue I really enjoy!!). It's actually just a small book which is an updated version of her previous book entitled: " Earth Angels: A Pocket Guide for Incarnated Angels, Elementals, Starpeople, Walk-Ins, and Wizards".

I love reading about elementals and "mythical", mystical beings. :)

Peaceful Warrior - 2007

Category: Movies

Genre: Non-Fiction, Based on a True Story

Director: Victor Salva

Writer: Kevin Berndhart, Dan Millman

Genre: Drama, Sport,

Tagline: There are No Ordinary Moments

Overview and Review of the movie Peaceful Warrior

This is based on a book "The Way of a Peaceful Warrior". It is about a young overachiever in gymnastics named Dan Millman who met a stranger at night in a gasoline station whom he named as "Socrates".

It is great for them to come up with this memorable movie of a lifetime. With great many aphorism and lessons to learn such as living in the moment, and more.

Very very inspiring. I could gush over this movie the whole day!! I actually watched it.. mhmmm around 10 times already? That's how great the movie is!

This is a no nonsense film... but a wonderful film that could inspire you to stay in the present moment! :)

Memorable Quotes:

Socrates: A warrior does not give up what he loves, he finds the love in what he does

---

Dan Millman: The journey is what brings us happiness not the destination
Dan Millman: The ones who are hardest to love are usually the ones who need it the most.
Dan Millman: A warrior is not about perfection or victory or invulnerability. He's about absolute vulnerability.

Tuesdays with Morrie - Mitch Albom

Category: Books

Genre: Based on a True Story

Author: Mitch Albom

Overview and Review of Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom.

Morrie was a college professor, who gave his all whenever he teaches. This book tells the true story of Morrie Schwartz and his relationship with his student, Mitch Albom. Both the film and the book chronicle the lessons about life that Mitch learns from his professor, who is dying from ALS. Mitch and Morrie calls each other "Tuesday People".

This book is very inspiring and actually helped a lot of people appreciate Life and Death. Here, it talks mostly about the things we forget about or take for granted when we are still alive. You would cherish this book because of the wisdom and depth it brings. It talks about the things that matters most and would remind you to look and appreciate them before it's too late. It talks about Death, Family, Emotions, Wealth, Fame, Fear of Aging, Marriage, Culture, Community, Giving, Forgiveness and saying Goodbye in the physical level.

Heartwarming. A must read.

Happier than God - Neale Donald Walsch

Category: Books

Genre: Spiritual

Author: Neale Donald Walsch

Overview and Review of Happier than God by Neale Donald Walsch

The title of the book may sound blasphemous but you see "All great truths begin as blasphemies", as George Bernard Shaw would have it and he is right. This idea of being Happier than God is revolutionary. And so, a lot of people tried to resist this great truth. A lot of people denied and pushed this GREAT TRUTH that we can truly be Happier than God.

But, fret not... here is the answer to our question.. here is the affirmation: that we can be Happier than God. Isn't that great?

I enjoyed reading this book... it talked about a lot of things and it clarified a lot of teachings of the phenomenal "Law of Attraction" message. It speaks to your heart and warms your heart more than a love story can. Really. GREAT. GREAT. GREAT.

Teens Ask Deepak: All the right Questions - Deepak Chopra

Category: Books

Genre: Self-Help

Author: Deepak Chopra

Overview and Review of Deepak Chopra's Teens Ask Deepak: All the Right Questions.


This is a book for teens and is all about the BIG QUESTIONS teens usually ask that adults can't answer or squirm when it comes up. This book is divided into five chapters: How Spirit Works, Success, Well-Being, Relationships, and God. It also centered on the questions that teens asked online or in person.

What I like about this book is that it tackles a lot about what we all have been wondering about. What is Success? Can we change the world? It also has a lot of tips, steps and ways that you could follow to improve your life. Very inspiring and an eye-opener at that. Would be very useful to your kids who loves to ask the BIG QUESTIONS. Hehe.

The sequence of the book is good, you can easily understand it. This book is very simple yet profound. Even adults could use this. Really.

The Prisoner in the Third Cell - Gene Edwards

Category: Books

Genre: Christian / Spiritual


Author: Gene Edwards

Overview and Review of The Prisoner in the Third Cell authored by Gene Edwards.

First Page is a Quote:

"It has been said that it is impossible to forgive a man who deliberately hurts you for the sole purpose of destroying or lowering you. If this be true, you have but one hope: to see this unfair hurt as coming by permission from God for the purpose of lifting your stature above that place where you formerly stood."

Prologue First Sentence:

"The new prisoner has arrived, Captain."

The Prisoner in the Third Cell is about John The Baptist. Jesus' cousin. It talks about a moving story of comfort and a very unforgettable drama in the New Testament.

There are always things in life we don't understand and of course there are stories in the Bible that tells us there are things that we are not meant to understand but we must always remember that there is SOMEthing bigger than us and that there are many universes in the world. "In my Father's house are many mansions". Mansions might mean different dimensions and universe.

I've always been a fan of Gene Edwards. I've read his books ever since I was 15 or 16. I like the way he writes "Bible stories" in a modern way. He makes everything very light to read but you learn lots of lessons from it. He is truly a great storyteller! I love all his books!!

Sleepers - Lorenzo Carcaterra

Category: Book

Genre: Non-Fiction

Author: Lorenzo Carcaterra

Overview and Review of Sleepers by Lorenzo Carcaterra a true story.

*It has a movie already.

The true West Side Story.

Sleeper

1. Out of town hit man who spends the night after a local contract is completed.
2. A juvenile sentenced to serve any period loonger than nine months in a state managed facility.

Hell's Kitchen is a place where everyone knows everything about everybody and everybody could be counted on. This is the West Side streets of Manhattan, where secrets lived and died on it. An area pretty much populated by a blend of Irish, Puerto Rican, Italian, and Easter European laborers.

John (The Count), Tommy (Butter), Michael (Spots), and Shakes (Lorenzo). Four boys inseparable, content and happy to live within the closed world of Hell's Kitchen in Manhattan. Having friends were important as neighborhood loyalty in Hell's Kitchen. They gave them an identity and a group one could trust that extended the bonds of family.

These four friends finds solace with each other's company since they can't find it in their own homes where their mothers are beaten and some of their fathers are out romancing other women. These four boys shared a common interest, like reading books, watching movies, listening to music, collecting classic illustrated comics and baseball cards, listening to Sam Cooke, Bobby Darin, Franki Valli and the Four Seasons on portable radios and playing pranks.

One prank would change their lives forever. One prank that would cost a man's dream to fade and a man to never walk again. One prank that could send them to a facility with multiple horrors to endure and one they would never forget. A mistake that would give them a heavy consequence.

It's a great "true-to-life" book. One that you could never put down and one that would make you read and read until the end. A story one could not forget and a horror you couldn't quite fathom if you live seeing the world in rose-colored glasses. One autobiography that never fails to put you in the edge, to bring tears in your eyes and make you laugh every once in awhile. It's amazing how he builds up the story up until the end. You would actually envy the way he depicted their childhood friendships. The bond they had when they were still young. I like the way he describes things. Everything seemed so important and so you want to read every line.

Predator - Jack Olsen

Category: Books

Genre: Non-Fiction, Based on a True Story

BAuthor: Jack Olsen

Overview and Review of Predator a book written by Jack Olsen.

This is a true story about a man named "Steve Titus" (a pseudonym to protect the identity) who was falsely accused of raping a woman named Celia Dalton. For eight (8) long months he suffered under a trial he did not commit. Along with it his career and sense of well-being ended.

The work was done by a serial rapist / psychopath who raped about 50-55 all in all named Mac Smith (a pseudonym as well).

There sure are some loopholes in every government system and this book shows how it could be made possible. I'm sure there are many others who were convicted of a crime they did not commit and that is just so sad.

The end was more like a report of events of what happened after uncovering the real story with the help of a journalist. It was reported and well accounted in the book. The family that Mac Smith grew up with.

Chicken Soup for the Network Marketer's Soul

Category: Books

Genre: Non-Fiction

Creators: Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Bill Hyman

A review and overview of Chicken Soup for the Network Marketer's Soul created by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Bill Hyman.

Wow! This is actually the second " Chicken Soup" book we have here in our home and the first Chicken Soup that I decided to read all the way. Why? Because I can practically relate to the book. I am a Network Marketer myself.

To a "Network Marketer" this would seem like a "motivational book" to different people in all walks of life involved in a "Network Marketing" company. Doesn't matter which company.

To someone who is in doubt of Network Marketing, you would find this book a useful book. It gives another light, which is to say the "true light" of Network Marketing.

Network Marketing may seem "lucrative" to most and even a "scam", but basically you just have to look for the "right company" that would suit you. I cannot say that all Network Marketing companies are good because some are hiding behind the guise of MLM and using Network Marketing but they are out there just to get your money/investments. Be AWARE of them.

The true PRINCIPLE of NETWORK MARKETING is "Helping other people get what they want before you get what you want". This is a People-Helping-People business and since you helped a lot of people to succeed - you can't help but succeed from it too. Only insiders would know the difference. No matter how hard we try to say this is a good business and comes with CLEAN MONEY, not everyone would believe it, which is just OK. This business is NOT FOR EVERYBODY anyway.

This book practically shows the difference that a NETWORK MARKETING company can make. It inspired me to do more. I saw how a lot of people out there in this business are helping A LOT of other people.

In all of the stories in this book I have three favorites:

Five Magic Words
A Smile Despite the Pain
That Little Voice Inside

I suggest people who are in the business of Network Marketing or even people who are mildly interested in the business and want to see the good of it, or those people who thinks this business is all about MONEY try to read this.

Saving Jessica Lynch - 2003

Category: TV Movie

Genre: War

Director: Peter Markle

Casts:

Nicholas Guilak - Mohammed Al-Rehaief

Laura Regan - Private Jessica Lynch

Review and Overview of Saving Jessica Lynch a TV Movie directed by Peter Markle.

This TV movie is based on a true story of the rescue of 19 yr. old Private Jessica Lynch by the United States army in Iraq.

The opening went good specially the part where the 507th Maintenance Unit entered an Iraqi territory in Nasiriya unknowingly. They got captured when a mobile Jessica was riding on along with their troop crashed to a big supply truck.

Although there was nothing "heroic" about Jessica being in a hospital bed but, I guess the story is not just about Jessica Lynch but it's about Mohammed Al-Rehaief who was the "hero" of the story. He was a lawyer who risked his life along with his family to help save Jessica Lynch. In the movie, he did not approve to most of his country's ways.

Although, there were a few controversies surrounding the movie which I particularly don't understand. I'm sure there were flaws and a lot of things were added as what was stated before it started. It's just BASED on a true story.

All in all the movie was good. The opening was great. It gives you the feeling of being there minus the blood. You can see it with both eyes wide open (unlike some movies where they show you all the horrific details of a war). The sound effects was good.

Starvation Heights - Gregg Olsen

Overview and Summary of Starvation Heights by Gregg Olsen

Category: Books

Genre: Non-Fiction

Author: Gregg Olsen

Some stories are never forgotten……

This is a true story of a haunted house located in Ollala, Washington.

In 1911 there were two wealthy British heiresses named Dora and Claire Williamson who came to a sanitarium near Seattle to undergo the fasting treatment of Linda Burfield Hazzard. Within a month of arriving at what the locals in Olalla, Wash., called “Starvation Heights,” the women were emaciated shadows of their former selves, groaning in pain, waiting for death.

The fasting treatment itself was ok, it’s purpose and all that but what made this wrong was how it was done. And the peculiarity of it, most of the people who underwent her treatment were rich people from Britain and when they died most of their money, jewelries and estates went all to Dr. Linda Hazzard.

It was a nice eerie story…. of how a doctor “murdered” those people. Not letting them eat and turning them skin and bones. She has a strong personality.

Munich - 2005

Overview and Review of Munich directed by Steven Spielberg.

Category: Movies

Genre: True Story

Director: STEVEN SPIELBERG

Rated: R - strong graphic violence, some sexual content, nudity and language.

Tagline: The world was watching in 1972 as 11 Israeli athletes were murdered at the Munich Olympics. This is the story of what happened next.

This is a story about what happened after the Black September *1972*. Israel’s Mossad retaliates by sending out five men (led by Avner) to kill those who murdered the 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics.

Some said the movie is biased. I think not, because it actually does not side with anybody. How the Palestinians killed the Israelites was gory and inhumane and you would begin to wonder how people can do such a thing like that. But, when the Israelites retaliated… you wouldn’t even want to side with them because you would see how helpless those Palestinians were as they were about to be killed.

I’m a BIG SPIELBERG fan.. and I have to say this was one of the best movies he had. Very thrilling, although confusing at the beginning *I have to watch it twice*. I like the five different character, their first kill shows how inexperienced they were and not cut out as assassins but eventually they later got the hang of it. All 5 believed they were bringing their country honor. The terrorists were different as well and were not steoreotyped to a bunch of screaming lunatics.

As they kill the terrorists in their list one by one their convictions changes. At one point Avner, said “Don’t think - Just do it”… but later on he wanted more evidences that the people they are killing are really part of the Black September. And the 5 began to doubt each other’s involvement.

This also shows how an assassin can be paranoid when they are left alone. All of them knew that the blood would come back to get them one day. Avner spent many sleepless nights getting paranoid about a lot of things because somehow he knew one day they will come and get him like he did to them.

Awards:

Nominated in 5 Oscar Awards: Best Achievement in Directing, Best Achievement in Editing, Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score, Best Motion Picture of the Year, Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay.

Nominated in 1 Eddie Award: Best Edited Feature Film - Dramatic

Nominated in 1 International Award *Australian Film Institute* - Best Actor

Nominated in 2 BFCA Award - Best Director and Best Picture

Won 1 COFCA Award - Best Ensemble

and moreeee……

Fire - Sebastian Junger

Overview & Review of Fire by Sebastian Junger

Category: Books

Genre: Non-Fiction

Author: Sebastian Junger

I thought it was just some fictitious book(it's not)... and the first part of his story (little did I know, there were different stories in that book) was pretty boring. It was all about Fire! Oh my gooseneck. Jumpers, fumes, forest fires... etc. etc.

Yeah, yeah the title was pretty much related.. I know.. it's Fire.. and literally about fire. -_-

I was expecting some kinda "story" in it... but the first part droned on and on about forest fires. How a couple of fire fighters were killed in a forest fire... and investigation says that it was all sudden.. blah blah. So, I stopped reading the book for a few days.

But then, since I bought it... and it's not good to judge a book when you have not finished it from cover to cover.. I decided to continue reading it.

The next part was about whales. I thought it was part of the first story... and I was confused at first because from fire to whales? -_- Confusing, really.

Finally, as I was reading the book... the characters, the events that took place was real. (di kasi ako nag research about the book.)

From whales to the war in Serbia.... to the conflict diamonds in Sierra Leone. (I even read the book.. with a map.. para ma-imagine ko talaga.. hehe.) From the diamonds to the logical warfare in Afghanistan.

I learned a lot. Really.

I learned diamonds are not exactly rare and should not be THAT expensive. The supply for the diamond was just controlled by some people.. and in that.. they increased it's price.

When the diamonds was discovered in Sierra Leone,and the whites heard about it.. they spread rumors to those "ignorant people" in Sierra Leone. In that rumor, they told the people in Sierra Leone that those stones are electric and they should not touch it, they should wait until a white man comes. *Wah, so mean!* Was that even right? *sigh*

I liked the story about the Afghan leader Ahmad Shah Massoud. He was never "power-hungry". He just wanted to serve his people and lead them away from all those people who wanted to wage war against them. Like the Soviets and the Taliban.

"A few years ago in Kabul, I thought the war was finished, and I started building a home in Panjshir. A room for my children, a room for me and my wife, and a big library for all my books. I've kept all the books. I've put them in boxes, hoping one day I'll be able to put them on the shelves and I'll be able to read them. But the house is still unfinished, and the books are still in their boxes. I don't know when I'll be able to read my books." - Massoud

Though he holds the post of vice-president in Rabanni's deposed governmenet, Massoud is a man with a few aspirations as a political leader, no apparent desire for power. Over and over he has rejected appeals from his friends and allies to take a more active role in the politics of his country. The Koran says that war is such a catastrophe it must be brought to an end as quickly as possible and by any means necessary. That, perhaps is why Massoud has devoted himself exclusively to waging war. - Sebastian Junger

Massoud's strategy has been studied by many soldiers in the Soviet. Massoud outwitted them for years.

One part, I found funny there was...about General Ratko Mladic the Serb's chief of staff who was indicted with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity by South African Judge Richard Goldstone. He was never caught. But they heard that Mladic spent his days on a Bosnian Serb military base, tending beehives and a herd of goats. Each goat has been named after a Western leader or UN commander.

Pretty funny. Hehe. -_-