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127 Hours Review

Ok, spoiler — the scene in 127 Hourswhere Ralston (played by James Franco) cuts off his own arm is disturbing. If you are hoping it won’t be, then this is not the movie for you. But Danny Boyle does something that is simply remarkable with 127 Hours:He makes you understand the emotions leading up to it, and despite the horror of the situation, 127 Hours becomes a film about unbelievable triumph.

Going in to the movie, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I am not a huge fan of amputation (not that there is a pro-amputation lobby or anything), but I wasn’t sure how they could make a movie with a single location be worth a whole hour. I was sure Danny Boyle would be able to pull off something, I just wasn’t sure how he would do it, and whether or not it would be something I wanted to see. After watching 127 Hours, I not only left with a deeper respect for Boyle, Franco, and Aron Ralston, but I am convinced I watched another contender for movie of the year.

If you owned a TV or read a newspaper in 2003, you know the story

In 2003, while hiking alone in Blue John Canyon near Moab, Utah, Aron Ralston was hiking through a narrow ravine when a boulder dislodged and pinned his right hand against a rock wall. Ralston had entered the canyon without telling anyone where he would be going, which essentially meant that he was a dead man. Over the next five days, Ralston was forced to endure extreme physical and mental tortures as he tried to chip away at the boulder with his only tool, a cheap unitool with a dull blade. He soon ran out of water and resorted to drinking his urine, then as delirium began to set in, Ralston began to prepare for his own death, carving his name and what he assumed would be his date of death, then with his video camera he began to record goodbyes to his family and friends.

Ralston had attempted everything he could. As an engineer, he tried to create a series of levers and pulleys to move the rock to no avail, he tried wedging the rock, and he even tried to cut his arm off with the knife on the unitool, but found the blade could barely cut the skin.

Then as death seemed to be inevitable, his food and water gone and hallucinations becoming common, he decided he had nothing left to lose. His hand had been trapped for five days, and it was beginning to atrophy, so Ralston did the only thing he could think to and levered his arm until he broke both the bones in his forearm. Using only the unitool, he began cut through the soft tissue with the dull blade, using the pliers on the tougher tendons.

The process was long and excruciating, especially when he reached the nerves. Then, with the last piece of tendon cut, Ralston simply fell away from his trapped limb and was free- at least free from the rock. Once he could move again, Ralston faced a descent down a straight cliff face of over 100-feet, followed by an eight-mile hike through the Utah desert under the brutal sun, where if he was lucky he would reach his truck, which happened to be a stick shift.

(Scenes on 127 Hours)

When a group of tourists stumbles upon him, Ralston was delirious and dehydrated, but bewildered to find himself alive. He was then taken to a hospital, where he eventually went on to become something of a national hero and a symbol of the human spirit.

While this might seem like a lot of spoilers, odds are you know Ralston’s story, even if you never knew his name. If you ask people if they know Aron Ralston, most will likely shake their head no. The name might seem familiar, but probably won’t resonate with many. If you tell them he is the hiker that cut off his own arm, you will almost certainly see the spark of recognition reach them. It is a story that sticks with you.

When the real event happened in 2003, it became more than national news, it reached almost every corner of the globe. It raised the question in people: Would you be able to do it? When trapped in an impossible set of circumstances, could you do the unthinkable?

Boyle has claimed that he has been trying to film the events of Ralston’s life for years, and now that he had the chance, he nails it. 127 Hours is one of the most emotionally charged movies of the last several years. Although the majority of the film is spent in a single location, you never question the scope of the film or grow bored by the buildup to the inevitable moment you know is coming. Instead the film teases you through flashbacks and Ralston’s hallucinations. 127 Hours is a work of art. You know what is going to happen, and the film does a spectacular job of letting you feel the emotions that led to arguably the most intense decision you will ever see a person make.

Using every tool available

There is just something about winning an Oscar that seems to change directors. It might simply be the validation that the things they have been doing work, or maybe it is the sense that they can freely experiment after having hit the pinnacle of their industry. With Boyle, 127 Hours uses every tool available to it, from the music, to the sound effects, to the visual tricks. The story is told through the flashbacks and monologues, but the emotion is told through the visual scenes and haunting sounds. You feel the coming dehydration in Ralston as the images of water become more and more fleeting, and the camera tricks begin to simulate the claustrophobia in a disturbing way for the audience.

It is somewhat difficult to describe all the visual tricks, because most of them are so subtle and nuanced. The film messes with your head, and in doing so you begin to feel a shade of what Ralston felt. No one can ever truly feel what he felt, but the movie does as good a job as any film could possibly do at making you feel the level of isolation and desperation that he must have experienced.

The sounds used in the movie are also prominent, especially one at the end Boyle uses to highlight a particular moment of pain Ralston subjects himself to. It is jarring, and it cannot help but elicit an emotion from the audience.

If Boyle had told this movie in a more straightforward fashion, simply focusing on the plot and leaving the audio and visual alone, it would have been an interesting story, but an unspectacular movie. After all, the protagonist spends the majority of his time trapped in a narrow canyon with very little light, and only a sliver of sky above him. But with Boyle behind the lens, 127 Hours is one of the most compelling and at the same time gut-wrenching films that you will ever leave and still feel good about. After all the tragedy, there is a fantastic sense of triumph at the end, highlighted in a unique way that just proves that Ralston’s life is not over– in fact it may have just begun.

The Actor

While a handful of people make up the cast that haunt Ralston’s flashbacks and event surrounding the accident, 127 Hours rests on the shoulders of James Franco. Boyle took the movie and made it arguably a masterpiece, but without Franco’s subtle and compelling performance, the film would have been far less interesting. It would have been easy for the actor playing Ralston to attempt to portray him as angry at the situation — possibly frantic and nearly insane with fear and delirium. The Academy loves that kind of stuff — to see a person emote such obvious emotions — but Franco portrays Ralston as more level-headed. It is probably more true to life, based on the interviews Ralston has given, but whether true or not, the mounting desperation of Franco’s performance adds so many layers to the film that despite the emotional toll this movie may take on some, it is worth repeated viewings.

Franco has shown that he has talent by playing against character several times, but he reaches new levels of acting depths under Boyle’s watchful eye. If Franco can build on the performance in 127 Hours, he could be one of the best actors of his generation. That might seem like a stretch, and he is not there yet, but after watching 127 Hours, he shows a range that many could not reach. The entire movie is essentially him in a tiny and bland looking canyon, and he helps to humanize a story that most have naturally idealized — and with good reason.

Conclusion

On paper, if you downplay the amputation, you simply have a single person trapped in a ravine for 105 minutes of screen time. It doesn’t sound like much of a film.  But add in the talented James Franco in a true story about one of the most incredible feats of determination in recent memory, then add one of the best living directors working today, and you have a story that should be in the discussion for Oscars.

127 Hours does what most films aspire to, but few manage to achieve- it manages to illicit real emotions from the audience. You will watch in horror as the events unfold, and feel Ralston’s despair — then you will cringe when the inevitable happens. After that, you will see that the horrors were only the end of one amazing chapter in the life of Ralston, who has since gone on to do some amazing things, including climbing all 59 mountain peaks that reach above 14,000 feet in Colorado. In the winter. By himself. He also completed the Leadville Trail 100- one of the toughest ultramarathons in the world- climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, and is now married with a child.

After watching 127 Hours, most people will leave the theater as fans of Ralston; you will want to see him succeed in life. Few people have gone through more and still survived, and in 127 Hours you experience just a hint of what he went through. It is an amazing piece of filmmaking, and easily one of the best movies of the year.

Gloomy Sunday

Gloomy Sunday was also called "Hungarian suicide song" because of the believed to be in part false or misleading, although the music was strangely linked to several suicide cases.

Gloomy Sunday was composed by the  Hungarian pianist and composer Rezső Seress in 1933. 

All of his compositions failed to impress the music publishers of France, but Seress carried on chasing his dream nevertheless. He was determined to become an internationally famous songwriter. 

When the song came to public attention it quickly earned its reputation as a 'suicide song'. Reports from Hungary alleged individuals had taken their lives after listening to the haunting melody, or that the lyrics had been left with their last letters.

 The original composer, committed suicide in Budapest; he survived jumping out of a window, but later in the hospital choked himself to death with a wire. His obituary in the New York Times mentions the song's notorious reputation :

	"Budapest, January 13. Rezsoe Seres, whose dirge-like song hit, "Gloomy Sunday" was blamed for touching off a wave of suicides during the nineteen-thirties, has ended his own life as a suicide it was learned today. Authorities disclosed today that Mr. Seres jumped from a window of his small apartment here last Sunday, shortly after his 69th birthday. The decade of the nineteen-thirties was marked by severe economic depression and the political upheaval that was to lead to World War II. The melancholy song written by Mr. Seres, with words by his friend, Ladislas Javor, a poet, declares at its climax, "My heart and I have decided to end it all." It was blamed for a sharp increase in suicides, and Hungarian officials finally prohibited it. In America, where Paul Robeson introduced an English version, some radio stations and nightclubs forbade its performance. Mr. Seres complained that the success of "Gloomy Sunday" actually increased his unhappiness, because he knew he would never be able to write a second hit."
—The New York Times, January 14, 1968 This is the lyrics of Gloomy Sunday and the translation of that in English. r e z s ő   s e r e s s   l y r i c s Ősz van és peregnek a sárgult levelek Meghalt a földön az emberi szeretet Bánatos könnyekkel zokog az öszi szél Szívem már új tavaszt nem vár és nem remél Hiába sírok és hiába szenvedek Szívtelen rosszak és kapzsik az emberek... Meghalt a szeretet! Vége a világnak, vége a reménynek Városok pusztulnak, srapnelek zenélnek Emberek vérétől piros a tarka rét Halottak fekszenek az úton szerteszét Még egyszer elmondom csendben az imámat: Uram, az emberek gyarlók és hibáznak... Vége a világnak! LITERAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION: It is autumn and the leaves are falling All love has died on earth The wind is weeping with sorrowful tears My heart will never hope for a new spring again My tears and my sorrows are all in vain People are heartless, greedy and wicked... Love has died! The world has come to its end, hope has ceased to have a meaning Cities are being wiped out, shrapnel is making music Meadows are coloured red with human blood There are dead people on the streets everywhere I will say another quiet prayer: People are sinners, Lord, they make mistakes... The world has ended!

10 facts about water scarcity

10 facts about water scarcity

Water is an essential resource for life and good health. A lack of water to meet daily needs is a reality today for one in three people around the world.

Globally, the problem is getting worse as cities and populations grow, and the needs for water increase in agriculture, industry and households.

This post highlights the health consequences of water scarcity, its impact on daily life and how it could impede international development. It urges everyone to be part of efforts to conserve and protect the resource.

1. Water scarcity occurs even in areas where there is plenty of rainfall or freshwater. How water is conserved, used and distributed in communities, and the quality of the water available can determine if there is enough to meet the demands of households, farms, industry and the environment.
2. Water scarcity affects one in three people on every continent of the globe. The situation is getting worse as needs for water rise along with population growth, urbanization and increases in household and industrial uses.
3. Almost one fifth of the world’s population (about 1.2 billion people) live in areas where the water is physically scarce. One quarter of the global population also live in developing countries that face water shortages due to a lack of infrastructure to fetch water from rivers and aquifers.
4. Water scarcity forces people to rely on unsafe sources of drinking water. It also means they cannot bathe or clean their clothes or homes properly.
5. Poor water quality can increase the risk of such diarrhoeal diseases as cholera, typhoid fever and dysentery, and other water-borne infections. Water scarcity can lead to diseases such as trachoma (an eye infection that can lead to blindness), plague and typhus.
6. Water scarcity encourages people to store water in their homes. This can increase the risk of household water contamination and provide breeding grounds for mosquitoes - which are carriers of dengue fever, malaria and other diseases.
7. Water scarcity underscores the need for better water management. Good water management also reduces breeding sites for such insects as mosquitoes that can transmit diseasees and prevents the spread of water-borne infections such as schistosomiasis, a severe illness.
8. A lack of water has driven up the use of wastewater for agricultural production in poor urban and rural communities. More than 10% of people worldwide consume foods irrigated by wastewater that can contain chemicals or disease-causing organisms.
9. Millennium Development Goal number 7, target 10 aims to halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. Water scarcity could threaten progress to reach this target.
10. Water is an essential resource to sustain life. As governments and community organizations make it a priority to deliver adequate supplies of quality water to people, individuals can help by learning how to conserve and protect the resource in their daily lives.

Farewell

Guys thank you for being nice to me I will treasure all the memories that we experience and to all my classmates thank you for being good to me I appreciate it so much and to our professor specially to sir Alan thank you for  all of the advice that you given to us to do our best to make us successful . Thank you very much I  learned a lot from you and to all my other teachers thank you very much.I promise that I will continue blogging . :]

THANK YOU  :]

Promise

I will promise you I will live while my eyes seeing you.

From I awake in the morning until I fall asleep i'll only think of you

On the hot summmer days i'll provides shade for you

My heart beat from left chest will tell you that I love you.

I'll let you have twice of happiness were laughing together.

Love, don't forget this word I love you forever.

While crying i'll be towel absorbing your tears.

I will embrace you to lost your fears.

I like you since the day we met.

I love you with no regret.

I always need you wherever I go.

I'll be on your side on the go.

You always makes me inspire.

I love you with no desire.

I wanna walk with you on the aisle.

I love you till I die.

High School Life

High school life was my most memorable for me and it was the time I learned to stand on my own feet without hurting someones else, this is the time that I develop a lot of skills that I treasure in my life. There are so many activities that we've joined in our high school days. 


My high school days was very exciting and enjoyable I experienced so many things and lots of first.First cut classes, skip subject, and even going to the guidance office but not only the bad things that I experienced in my high school days I also experience talk in the front of the class without script. I have a lot experience during my high school days and there are so many activities that me and my classmates enjoyed like "Alay lakad"that was held at the Luneta Grandstand in Manila that was memorable for us because we start walking at exactly 4:00 in the morning and it was raining but then again we don't stop walking until we came to the Grandstand around 7:00am that was memorable. And every year our school have a Field Demonstration and I enjoy it even if I don't have a talent  in the field of dancing but I enjoy it because that is the time that me and my classmates are bonding each other and that was fun. 


I recall the day when me and my two classmates are skipping our mathematics subject and guess what ?? FOOD TRIP I  love food tripping in our school because our school has four canteen and my favorite canteen is the T.L.E canteen because it is the only canteen that selling Ice cream and that day the guidance officers are rotating in our campus if there are students who cut class and they caught us in the canteen so were busted and my mom was called by the officer and my mom was getting mad at me and my Phone is ban for a week and I cannot forget that so that was my last skip class.


I also remember my teachers in high school and and some of them are terror and strict in terms of their activities and homework so I do whatever they give and I cannot forgot my adviser in fourth year she is so terror and she has a very very loud voice even she is petite but even she's terror she is very responsible about her duties and responsibilities as a teacher and as a adviser. I am very proud to be her student because she is very respectful in all the fourth year teachers. I recall the when we are preparing for our advisers birthday in our classroom she is surprise and she cannot expect that we prepared her birthday because she know that we are mad at her because she was terror to us but she was wrong we love her very much because she is a kind of adviser who care about her student and even we don't have connection to each other she encourage us to do our activities, assignments, projects and many more, she always remind us to pass our project and other requirements on the right time that's why I like this I do my responsibilities and passed my requirements on the right time and I am sure that I can do my responsibilities because of her she is our inspiration because someday I wanna be successful like her, I will study hard to reach my goals and to be successful. That kind of teacher I cannot forgot because she encourage us to do our best to successful someday.


That was my high school life and I treasure it forever !! :]