dystopia

Book Review of “Through the Storm” by: Lynne Spears & Lorilee Cracker
Amanda Bradbury

This is not a tell all book behind Britney Spears’ life, but it does offer a lot of insight into her world and her families world and how she journeyed to where she currently is in life. This book was very enlightening and informative about family, friends and life. You will learn a lot more than you think by reading this book. I thoroughly enjoyed the motherly advice from Lynne Spears. By reading this book you can gain a better understanding of her and her whole family. You get the full story behind her life from beginning up until now. You can see that they are real people, rather than what the media and paparazzi make them out to be. You’ll read about their trials and tribulations, hard times and difficult situations and come to realize that they too are not perfect people and that they are in fact just as real as you and me. The overall message of the book is to convey the message of their story and Lynne wrote this book as a tribute and gift for her family, both children and grandchildren. In this book you notice that she is a very spiritual and strong willed southern Christian woman and you can tell that she clearly wants to convey her beliefs and faith to her children and grandchildren. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a deeper look at the real and genuine people of Lynne’s family.

According to a recent article on CNN, people who quote movie lines are akin to telling a joke. Quoting movie lines is a way of creating solidarity with others, a form of bonding. “People are doing it to feel good about themselves, to make others laugh, to make themselves laugh,” said Richard Harris, a psychology professor at Kansas State University.

Harris decided to ask hundreds of young adults about their film-quoting habits after he and his graduate students realized it was a common behavior that no one had looked at closely before. He found that all of the participants in his study had used movie quotes in conversation at one point or another. They overwhelmingly cited comedies, followed distantly by dramas and action adventure flicks. When asked about their emotions while quoting films, most people reported feeling happy, the study found.

For those who can’t get enough of movie quotes, there are countless lists and trivia dedicated to them online. Depending on your budget and taste, you can buy T-shirts, mugs, games and posters featuring your favorites. Web sites like MovieQuotes.com allow users to submit film lines to a growing quote bank and take quizzes.

Some movies, like “The Godfather,” “Casablanca” and “Gone With the Wind,” seem infinitely quotable. Others can produce a single unforgettable line that will define that film forever: “You can’t handle the truth” from “A Few Good Men” and “I see dead people” from “The Sixth Sense.”

Here’s the TOP 20 MOST MEMORABLE MOVIE QUOTES:

1. “Bond…James Bond”
2. “I’ll be back.”
3. ”Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get.”
4. “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.”
5. “We’re not in Kansas anymore.”
6. “Houston, we have a problem.”
7. “Show me the money!”
8. “I’m the king of the world!”
9. “I see dead people.”
10. “Fuhget about it.”
11. “Get busy livin’ or get busy dyin’.”
12. “I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse.”
13. “May the force be with you.”
14. “You talkin’ to me?”
15. “ET phone home.”
16. “Say hello to my little friend!”
17. “Here’s Johnny!”
18. “Yo Adrian.”
19. “My precious.”
20. “You can’t handle the truth.”

“I know of no other way to perfection but love.” ~ St. Therese

There is no other way that is better than love. We must love each other in these hard times and we must continue to love each other in good times too. Love is what binds us, connects us together and keeps us alive. There is no other way to exist than to love, because if you do not love and feel love there is no reason to exist. God wants us to love one another as we love ourselves and to not be selfish, mean-spirited or hold grudges. We are to forgive one another and find the kindness and love in our hearts to truly care about others and their well-being and their lives like our own. I think a big part of our society has lost its empathy and feeling towards others and there are very few genuine people who truly care about others feelings, thoughts and well-being. One of Savage Garden’s songs says “Feelings of aggression are the absence of the love drug in your veins.” If we tried to love more and hate less, what a better world we would all live in. This isn’t to say that we all need to be the same to not hate each other, because a world where everyone and everything is the same would be awful too. It would be programmed and we would all be like helpless robots trying to think of one good original thought, but unable to because our minds had been sucked out by the massive push towards making everyone “alike”. We don’t need to be the same to be happy, we just all need to agree on love. We need to embrace our differences and love each other for them. Of course, I know, as well as you, that we don’t live in a perfect little world, a perfect little bubble. We live in a world full of misery, hatred, agony and awfulness everywhere. But if we all band together and unite we can make it better. Perhaps we will have to do so just to survive what the future holds. No one knows for sure what the future has in store for any of us, but wouldn’t it be a better world, a more prepared, loving and kind world, if we could just love each other unconditionally?

God wants us to love Him and each other above all else. He knows we are sinners and that we will sin and even when we asked to be saved and accept Jesus Christ as our savior, we will still be in sin, however, we must try to turn away from sin and ask God to forgive us of our sins. We know we are not perfect and we will probably sin again against God, ourselves or others, but we know in our hearts what we’re doing is wrong and we ask God to forgive us, for we truly do not know(or realize) what we do hurts Him, ourselves and others. God wants us to hate sin, but love the sinner. We are so quick to judge others, when it is not our place to do so. I know I am guilty of this. Many times I want to point out to people that what you’re doing is not right so I can try to explain to them why it’s not right and why they should choose to do things a better, more loving way. But many times it is hard to talk to people and make them see things how you see them or how God wants it to be. I am not perfect, no church is perfect, no other human being is perfect and we are all failures in the eyes of God, we have all sinned and are all sinners and we must realize there is no other way than love. Above all, Jesus preached love. I may never be perfect and no church may ever be perfect, but at least we can say we tried to be the best Christian we could be and we tried our hardest to follow God and what He wants in our life, living through Him. That is all we can do at the end of the day, is just be the best Christian we can and pray for forgiveness from God. Perhaps, as I’ve heard it said before, all we can do at the end of the day is be there for each other and love one another.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

—John 15:12-15

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

—John 3:16

Friday the 13th has a bad history of things going wrong, whether it be on a large or small scale. The number 13 is unlucky by itself, but combined with Friday, well, lets just say it always makes for an interesting day.

Here’s some facts on Friday the 13th and why so many people (including me) think it is a very unlucky day:

The British Navy built a ship named Friday the 13th. On its maiden voyage, the vessel left dock on a Friday the 13th, and was never heard from again.

The ill-fated Apollo 13 launched at 13:13 CST on Apr. 11, 1970. The sum of the date’s digits (4-11-70) is 13 (as in 4+1+1+7+0 = 13). And the explosion that crippled the spacecraft occurred on April 13 (not a Friday). The crew did make it back to Earth safely, however.

Many hospitals have no room 13, while some tall buildings skip the 13th floor.

Butch Cassidy, notorious American train and bank robber, was born on Friday, April 13, 1866.

Fidel Castro was born on Friday, Aug. 13, 1926.

The number 13 suffers from its position after 12, according to numerologists who consider the latter to be a complete number - 12 months in a year, 12 signs of the zodiac, 12 gods of Olympus, 12 labors of Hercules, 12 tribes of Israel, 12 apostles of Jesus, 12 days of Christmas and 12 eggs in a dozen.

The 13th guest at the Last Supper was Judas, the apostle who betrayed Jesus.

Jesus was crucified on a Friday.

Some theologians claim that Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden fruit on a Friday, and that the Great Flood began on a Friday.

Christian folklore holds that 13 is unholy because it signifies the gathering of 12 witches and the devil.

Norse mythology has the belief that you should never sit down to a meal in a group of 13.

Both Fiday and the number 13 were once closely associated with capital punishment. In British tradition, Friday was the conventional day for public hangins and there were supposedly 13 steps leading up to the noose.

For whatever reasons, Friday the 13th has become unlucky for many people. Many people will not plan anything on this day or go on a trip on this day. Bad things happen all the time, so it doesn’t necessarily mean that Friday the 13th is unlucky for everyone and that every Friday the 13th will be unlucky. But, you can’t help to see why there is so much superstition and apprehension around Friday the 13th, just look at its history. People are fascinated by numbers and how they can correspond to our lives and life itself.

Just as an FYI, this could be a very unlucky year for us all, considering that there are going to be three Friday the 13ths this year, today, one in March and one in November. Yikes! That’s a little creepy and it only happens like very 11 years!

Quote of the day:

Sometimes we need to be reminded that we do not need a big screen tv or a brand new car and that is what has happened due to the current economic recession. I think many people who had the wool pulled over their eyes before are now beginning to see the light and the wrong in their ways. So many people have abused the system. Taking advantage of buying things they cannot afford. People have bought houses, cars and expensive luxuries, even meaningless crap to consume themselves with. All for what? Consumerism is a virus on America’s current society and it is a trap. We must turn from our ways of over consumption and over spending and become more realistic. People are living way beyond their means and now everyone is paying for it. The people whom have been living beyond their means are now distraught in panic because they’re losing their home or their job or their car and even people who have been living within their means are now losing their jobs/homes/cars all because others have made such bad decisions with their money. This recession must be proof that others in society have an effect on the whole. Maybe just one or two people do not affect an entire society when they do bad or wrong, but when a fair number of people engage in poor decision making, we all pay the price for it, every single person on the face of this planet is paying for it right now. The only good that can come of this economic downturn is that the hope that people will learn from their mistakes and not repeat them again. If not, we are doomed to another recession or depression in the years to come. There is hope though, because of the recession people are being forced to live within their means or at least downgrade. This recession serves as a wake-up call to millions who need it desperately. We can all learn from this, how to better budget our money, how to make wise decisions with our money and wise decisions when making large purchases (such as a house/car/education). We can learn what is truly important in life, rather than what can I buy or how much spending power I have. In bad times, it has always been shown that people do pull together to pull through and tough it out. People will realize that God, family, friends and that other people are important. I hope that many people will realize now what an effect they could potentially have on others by making bad decisions in their own lives. I don’t really understand it, how can anyone think that they only affect themselves? As if they live in some bubble world that revolves around them and that nothing they do could ever possibly hurt or affect another in a negative way? It doesn’t make sense to me. How could anyone think that way? How could someone in their right mind not realize that everything they do, every choice they make, not only directly affects their lives, but the lives of thousands and potentially millions.

More people seem to come to God and are willing to accept Him in hard times as well. Possibly because they can finally see the truth, the light at the end of the tunnel and that money in this life and existance are not everything. Money is not all there is to this physical life. People don’t realize they could experience so much happiness and joy if only they would only give their entire life over to God.  So many people, including me, have such a hard time giving their entire self over to God. You have that awful thought sometimes that somehow you know better than God, but that is not true, you don’t know better than God. If you would give it all to Him whole-heartedly, He would show you His way is the only way and the best way. His way will bring you the life that you want. Anything in  your life, whether it be finances, relationships, work or just life in general, give it all to Him and then you will begin to see how He’s working on you and your life from the inside out.