Every Saturday, participants post photos based on a theme. the theme for this Saturday, August 9, 2008 is DARK.

There are many ways to interpret dark. This can be interpreted literally meaning without light. This can also be referred to as a time of day where sunlight can no longer be seen. This can also be interpreted philosophically meaning different things depending on the person interpreting the word. Click here for the different interpretations.

It is dark inside a movie house. This was at an IMAX Theater when we watched The Alps, documenting about conquering one’s fears and facing these fears. There is a correlation here to being in the dark and not facing our fears.

Have you ever experienced traveling on a long road on a very dark night with heavy rains and fogs? The sight of the lights welcoming one back to civilization is both a relief and unwelcome. A relief because the travel has almost come to an end and unwelcome especially when one has to face “reality” upon arriving at the destination.

People have many dark moments in their lives. With so many problems one has to encounter day in and day out, it is easy to give up and not do anything at all.

But let us remember that God had His dark hour too, when His Son Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the people.

That is more than enough reason to get out of the dark and see the Light.

photohunt

Hubby and I went to the premier showing of The Alps movie at the IMAX Theater in SM Mall of Asia last night. Thanks to Noemi, I won two invites for the event which was sponsored by Holcim.

Watching The Alps made me nostalgic about my childhood dreams of living in Switzerland, breathing fresh clean air while walking on green grass that can be seen as far as the eyes can see. I used to read a lot about Switzerland when I was younger. Hubby was quite surprised I was able to name one mountain that they featured.

I even went there once. No, not in my dreams for I have been there in my dreams a countless times. I have been there through hypnosis. When I came to, I felt cold and happy.

The film is about John Harlin III’s ascent to the Alps, particularly the North Face of Mt. Eiger where his father, alpinist John Harlin II met his end during a climb back in 1966.

When my daughter Trixie asked me a while ago what the movie was all about, I had to explain to her about the story of the Harlins. I also told her that climbing mountains is not just about proving that one has the physical capabilities to maneuver dangerous crevices and nooks. Climbing a mountain is about conquering one’s fears, symbolic of facing life’s challenges.

To be a climber, one has to be not just strong but organized and mentally and physically prepared.

We do not need to climb mountains to be able to face our fears and conquer them. Of course, going up would be the extra for the view would be a euphoric and life-changing experience.

I admit I may not have the physical capabilities to climb any mountains for that would mean lots of preparations on my part to be physically fit. Thinking about it makes me want to achieve a certain level of being a physically fit person through exercise and proper diet, with fenphedra or none at all. And that perhaps would be comparable to climbing a mountain itself

You won the raffle for the The Alps ticket for two at the SM Imax Theater on August 4 at 5:30PM

That was a part of the email I got from Noemi. Now this got me very excited for two reasons.

First reason would be because this is the first time I have actually won in a raffle! Yeah, pathetic it may seem.

Oh, I did win some packs of soup during a Taste Asia blog event last year. Not that I really won but they had so many things to give away, I just had to be given one.

And there was this shirt raffled off during the iBlog4 event. The shirt I got was the second to the last to be given away. How did my name surface? It was because the name called for that shirt left already so my name was called instead.

I don’t even win in cake raffles.

Not even when in one school that i used to teach, they had so many gifts to be raffled during the teachers’ Christmas Party. The other preschool teachers won big prizes like a television set, and an oven toaster. What did I get? A fruit cake inside a wonderfully and cheerfully decorated golden box.

To say that I do not even eat fruit cake should give a hint at how I felt during that time. No kidding.

Second reason for me to be excited is because I haven’t been to the SM Mall of Asia IMAX Theater. Yeah, poor me, who confesses to love watching movies.

We do love movies but since movie watching has become expensive these days and there are five of us who will watch, we just have to be content waiting for the DVD release. Its not just the movie tickets that we have to buy. There’s food, parking fee, gasoline and other stuff that the kids might ask from hubby or me. We could have paid for acne treatments for my eldest daughter with those expenses.

Even if we are the last persons on earth who haven’t watch a specific movie everyone except us is raving about. still we wait.

Of course, there are movies worth watching on the big screen so we just have to wait for the right movie if we have to watch our budget.

I can’t wait to watch The Alps on August 4, at the IMAX Theater in SM Mall of Asia.

I can’t wait for December 12, 2008.

Here is why: When you can live forever, what do you live for? - Twilight

Must.Click.That -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9JgLtq_z5k

Lovelyn started a meme about Recent Movie(s) that the Family Has Enjoyed.

I have not done the tag since this was sent my way and Bing tagged me to do the meme too!

~o0o~

Rules Of This Tag:

1. Link back the person who tagged you and write what was the movie his/her family enjoyed watching recently.

2. Now your turn to tell about the movie your family had just watched.

3. Tell something about the movie and spoilers are accepted (hehehee).

4. Lastly, write anything that has something to do with movies: Trivia, your top choice or favorites and why, your family’s story about your favorite motion pictures, the first film you watched with your husband, any traditional film the family ’s been keeping etc…etc…

5. (Ooopps, I almost forgot) Copy and paste the rules of this meme on your blog and pass the tag to as many friends, bloggers and movie lovers you want. Don’t forget to tell them they’re tagged and leave a comment here if you’re done with the task.

~o0o~

My apologies, Lovelyn, I got caught up with a backlog of work and some commercial breaks in between that I neglected some posts sitting in my drafts.

Anyway, I have changed the contents of this meme since some changes happened with the movie viewing we have done. We are not much a movie-going family because the children prefers to watch DVDs at home. Fine with us. So, here are some of the movies we enjoyed at home during the Holy Week break:

1. Shaggy Dog - story about a family man who was bitten by a dog and who turned into a dog himself. The children enjoyed the movie, of course, because we have a dog and because one of their favorite pc games is about caring for pet dogs. Me? I don’t know, I was a bit bored.
2. RV - we watched this movie before but not with the children. We watched this the other night and they enjoyed it of course. They were able to relate to the homeschooling issue, the laptop (and the work), the road trip and having fun (and spats in between) as a family. After the movie, my son Julian can be seen reading an outdated (2004) magazine about RVs.
   
3. The Passion of the Christ - yes, I know, too graphic for the children. But then, we figured they have to know what the Holy Week was all about. We watched this Maundy Thursday and they were able to appreciate the story when we did our Visita Iglesia on Good Friday, especially when they saw people walking on the streets reenacting the Via Dolorosa. It also showed Jesus as a child. It tackled friendships, betrayal, grief and a host of other human emotions that run high. The movie is so intense one can almost feel the pain and the suffering. Guess what, after the Visita Iglesia, the children asked to watch the movie again, but we declined on the pretext of them having to rest first.

So there, these are some of the movies we watched just this week.

What movies have watched lately with your family, Cookie, Joni and Feng?

I know I am adding more buzz to this movie and would even encourage more people to see for themselves what the buzz was all about.

A few days ago, I got an email in one of my Google groups about this movie: The Golden Compass. Hubby and I are planning to watch this next month with the children when it is slated to be shown. I was really surprised when I was reading the email that I had to read it twice to make sure what I was reading sink in.

Here is the email I got in bits and pieces:

There will be a new children’s movie out in December called “The Golden Compass” starring Nicole Kidman. The movie has been described as “atheism for kids” and is based on the first book of a trilogy entitled “His Dark Materials” that was written by Phillip Pullman. Pullman is a militant atheist and secular humanist who despises C. S. Lewis and the “Chronicles of Narnia”. His motivation for writing this trilogy was specifically to counteract Lewis’ symbolisms of Christ that are portrayed in the Narnia series.

Pullman left little doubt about his intentions when he said in a 2003 interview that “my books are about killing God.” He has even stated that he wants to “kill God in the minds of children”. It has been said of Pullman that he is “the writer the atheists would be praying for, if atheists prayed.”

As I skimmed it, I couldn’t believe that in a children’s book part of the story is about castration and female circumcision.

Now, I am not starting a crusade here or something to boycott the movie. I feel that as a parent, as a teacher, as a person raised to believe in God, I feel this is something that should not be ignored, especially for my children who are still young and vulnerable.

I am torn between reading the book myself first but then…

Click here for the Snopes article and here for the RandomHouse synopsis of the book.