Gone But Not Forgotten

Photo credit: Songquan Deng/Bigstock

Do you remember where you were and what your were doing when the first plane struck? Do you remember what you were feeling? What you were thinking?

Did you think the first plane was just an accident...

...until the second plane hit the other tower?

Did you cry? Did you pray? Did you know anyone in those towers who never made it out? Do you forget about this horrific event until today? 9/11's mantra is "Never Forget", but how many of us do until 9/11 comes around every year? I'll admit, I have. 

The Pentagon gets hit also.

United Flight 93 crashes in Shanksville, PA. It's speculated that the plane could have been heading for the White House, but thanks to the heroics of the passengers, that never happened. We are eternally thankful for them.

I don't know what else to else other than let you watch again for yourself. Here's some vidoes from Youtube from 9/11:

1) 1st plane has hit

2) 2nd plane hits

3) South Tower collapses

4) North Tower collapes

5) Coverage on the Pentagon attack

6) United Flight 93 Audio from plane

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Here's something I found from my cousin's facebook:

"A scream torn from midair,
the sound of twisted metal clamors
out of blurry television images.
The T.V. silent,
but the images screamed in my head.

People will say:

it was a morning like any other,

and that is what it was.

The sun still rose,

not anticipating the horrors

it would illuminate.

People rose,

innocent of the terror they would witness

and the strength.

Which is what I will remember.

The miracle cries united

so many courageous voices

drowning out the sound of

buildings falling silently,

the giant damaged blossoms of humanity

crushed against the perfect sky."

-Elizabeth Keene 

written in 2001; revised, 2006

Categories: 9/11, history, news, Youtube videos

"My heart's been achin' for sweet September."

FYI - my post's title is from the song "White Horses" by Jenn Grant. She's a Canadian pop-singer/songwriter from Nova Scotia, who I discovered while watching my favorite show, Heartland! She's got this folksy, very unique voice and her music always makes me relax.

if you feel so inclined, you can check out her site and music right HERE.

The title sounds exactly how I feel! I really have been aching for September! While, I love summer and all the fun things that come with it...I'm just looking forward to cooler temperatures, wearing hoodies, drinking more hot beverages, apple picking, leaf peeping, harvest festivals, and campfires. We got apple cider and cider donuts yesterday which got me in the mood! Now if the weather would just cool down! 

I got so in the mood for cooler weather, that I was boot browsing earlier! But I'm restraining myself of buying them until we get closer to snowier weather :)

Here's what they look like in all their glory:

I think I've had the same pair of winter boots (like boots you can actually trudge around in the snow) since early high school, so in a few months, I'm buying myself a pair of these beauties!

They're North Face's Abby III boots for women, but the awesomeness of it all is that I'm not going to spend almost $200 for them because I found them on a different outdoor store site for $120 less! Yay for bargain shopping!

Alright, time for a movie spotlight!

This movie has been out on DVD for a bit, but I've only just seen it 2 days ago...

It ain't got that "Truly Moving Picture" award on it for nothing! First of all, I love Drew Barrymore, and John Krasinski, AND Kristin Bell, so I knew right off that it would be an awesome movie with them in it :) 

It's about 3 California whales, 2 parents and their young, who get trapped by ice in Point Barrow, Alaska where Inupiat whale hunters live. These whales can only stay underwater for so long before they have to come up to the surface for air. A news reporter miraculously finds them coming up out of a small hole in the ice, and pretty soon, reporters from all over the world, Green-peace, oil executives, 2 small business owners from Minnesota, the military, and eventually even the Russians are involved in trying to rescue these whales from their prison. This movie is based off of the 1989 book Freeing the Whales by Tom Rose, which recounts Operation Breakthrough from 1988.

Apparently this movie flopped at the box office, and I'm kinda shocked! I love movies that are based on or inspired by true events! Because those events that inspired the movie, end up inspiring you as well, and you leave the movie theater on cloud 9! I really think people need to go to more movies like this, or at the very least, take it out at their library and give it a chance. 

This movie had you rooting for the efforts of everyone involved rescuing these whales, and taught you that no matter what the circumstances are, there is always a way through every obstacle as long as you don't depend on yourself, but let others help and carry you through.

People all the around the world wanted to help, and back when this actually happened in 1988, the Soviet Union was still in existence. That says A LOT that they came to help with the rescue. And the Inupiat people helped, even though they could've killed the whales to feed their families, but they went against tradition and showed compassionate for these great creatures of God.

When you really think about it, this rescue effort was practically a miracle from God! 

He brought people from around the world together in peace, and changed the hearts of a people who could've made it easier to just kill them and eat them.

The acting was so genuine and heartfelt where it would tug you on the heartstrings and start to make you feel a part. I'll admit that I teared up a bit a certain parts (don't want to give anything away!). 

If you're an animal lover like me, then you will love this movie! And I hope that even if you're not as crazy about wildlife as I am, that you'll give this movie a chance instead of watching a vampire movie! ;)

 

ERW

Categories: animals, Autumn, movie thoughts, movies, music, Youtube videos

Thoughts on The Bourne Legacy Movie

A week ago I finally saw The Bourne Legacy, and for me, it was worth going to see! Mind you, I did have a free movie ticket so all I had to pay for was popcorn, but I think even if I had to pay, I wouldn't think it was a waste of my money. 

Jeremy Renner...wow, what can I say about him? I could say alot, but I don't want to ramble on about how good-lookin' he is and how talented of an actor he is! So I'll just stick with those two things ;) haha...But I do want to add that I'm happy he has been in some major movies lately (Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, The Town, The Avengers, The Hurt Locker) and now this one! When I saw previews for The Bourne Legacy, it made me really excited to see him as Aaron Cross. 

If you were hoping to see Matt Damon in this one, then I hope you weren't disappointed. His character's picture did make it in the movie in news scenes, and some of the events we follow Aaron Cross on overlap with what Jason Bourne was dealing with with Treadstone and Blackbriar and the London shooting of the journalist, but Jason Bourne never makes an appearance in any new scenes. 

I thought the storyline was fresh, engaging, and fairly believable. Maybe more the previous 3 Bourne movies. (but I still love all of those movies!)

Aaron Cross is a member of Operation Outcome, a Department of Defense black ops program that enhances the physical and mental abilities of the field operative by the consuming of "green chems" and "blue chems". While he is in Alaska for a training assignment, he meets Number 3, an exiled Outcome operative. 

During this, Treadstone and Blackbriar have been exposed, and one of the men involved gets help from Eric Byer to take care of the CIA's other secret operations. As in Operation Outcome. An order is issued to eliminate all those involved in Operation Outcome, and Aaron figures this out quickly when the cabin Number 3 lived in is blown up by an aircraft and then he is tracked by it until he destroys it. 

But more aircrafts are on the way, so Aaron takes out the tracker embedded in his side and force feeds it to a wolf. So we all know what happens to the wolf....BOOM. And Byer thinks that Cross is dead.

Byer then brainwashes an Outcome scientist to kill the other scientists and then commit suicide, but one survives, Dr. Marta Shearing (played by Rachel Weisz. 

Days after, Marta gets attacked by a CIA assassins in her home, but Cross shows up, rescues her, and convinces her to help him. He saw a news report on the shooting at the lab, and since Marta was the only survivor who knows how to make the "chems", he seeks her out, and just in the nick of time too! 

Marta reveals that Cross doesn't need to keep taking the "green chems" because he was genetically modified to retain the physical benefits even without daily taking the "chems", a process called "viralling off", but the blue "chems", physiologically-enhancing, aren't the same, and he has to keep taking those. Unfortunately, they are only made in Manilla, so Cross poses as a Doctor to get into the facility with Marta, so they can viral off the blue pills too.

Cross confides in Marta that he is actually Kenneth J. Kitsom, an Army soldier who was killed by a roadside bomb in the Iraq War, and that he had below-average intelligence before he started taking the "chems"

Byer finds out the Cross and Shearing are in Manilla, so he sends out a brainwashed super-soldier to kill them.

Cross and Shearing are able to get in the factory and get through the viralling off process, but they are found out by the security staff, who were called by Byer. 

They manage to escape, and have to seek shelter because Cross is starting to feel the effects of the process and he hallucinates about how he got in to Outcome under Byer's supervision. Cross wants Marta to leave him, but she refuses to after all he's done for her. This is when they finally connect.

The next morning, the police come for Cross while Marta is out buying medicine, but she gets back in time to warn him and then runs off. 

The police go after her, and Cross manages to rescue her again, only the super-soldier has finally caught up with them. 

Cross and Marta get on a motorcycle (and Jeremy Renner is already a talented motorcyclist which made the chase scene even more realistic) and have to evade the cops and the assassin. 

They thrillingly manage to escape both, but are both bruised, bloodied, and shot up as they fall off the motorcycle near a boat dock where a Filipino man finds them and agrees to take them aboard. They pay him with a gold watch that Cross stole off the supervisor of the chem factory. 

The end scene is of Cross studying a map on the deck as Marta walks up and joins him. They both agree that it doesn't matter where they go, as long as they're together. 

I've seen some reviews online that they were disappointed in it, that it didn't live up to their expectations, but it did for me. I think its just because Matt Damon wasn't in it. It's hard for a movie franchise to take out a main character three movies running, and then put in their place a completely new character...but I think that Jeremy Renner's Cross was very much like Matt Damon's Bourne, and I believe that's why I liked it so much. 

Cast:

Jeremy Renner: Aaron Cross

Rachel Weisz: Dr. Marta Shearing

Edward Norton: Eric Byer

Scott Glenn: Ezra Kramer

rated: PG-13

length: 2hrs 5mins

Categories: actors and actresses, movie thoughts, movies