Unbroken Is it Broken?

"Unbroken" directed by Angelina Jolie portrays to be a true story. The is truth is that it is half a story. My question is: "Where is the rest of the story?"

The movie is the life of Louis Zamperini. His plane crashes at sea while on a rescue mission. He spends 47 days floating on a raft before being picked up by a Japanese ship and thrown into a prison camp. He is tortured and eventual liberated at the end of the war. That was in the movie.

The book by Laura Hillenbrand has the entire story. Here is what the movie does not show: One night he was converted at a 1949 Billy Graham crusade in Los Angeles. Louis came home from the crusade, threw his alcohol down the drain and reconciled with his wife. Louis said, "I'm a new man."  He asked Jesus Christ to be his savior.

I will read the book and get the entire story.

Filipino Traditions

There are several traditions among the Filipinos, those being: Christmas, Rizal Day, New Years Eve, Fall of Bataan Observation and Independence day. These holidays include celebration, food and family.

One tradition of Filipinos is Rizal Day, December 30th to New Year's Day. This several day holiday allows families time to return to their province. September through December are considered Christmas months in the Philippines, making this the world's longest Christmas season. Stores and households start playing Christmas Carols on the first day of September. The season ends on the Feast of Three Kings (Tatlong Hari) which falls around January 6. On New Year's Eve celebration will include firecrackers and gunfire according to everyculture.com. One of the Filipino firecracker (paputok) is called a judas belt (a string of firecrackers). Besides firecrackers, pots and pans are clanged. This is believed to scare away evil spirits. Some men will shoot guns in the air if they can get away with it. The objective of this celebration is to make as much noise as possible so whistles are blown, empty cans are dragged around town and horns are tooted. Other traditions are the Fall of Bataan Day on April 9th. This is a observation of the Bataan Death March in 1942. Filipinos celebrate Independence Day from Spanish rule on June 12th. The celebrations include fiestas, parades and fireworks
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Adventures on the Rail

I'm reading a book, "Marina" by Susan May Warren. One scene has the character jumping on board a moving train. I thought Papel lost his grip and fell under the moving locomotive. But a few paragraphs later we find that he made it to the platform and now has to follow Edward to the open box car. They climb the ladder and belly crawl to the next car. It's a scary scene as each one of the men could fall off the train at any time. They make it and fall into the open box car. They have to determine where to get off. Oh did I tell you that it's in the middle of a war against Germany and it's a German train?

Busy as a Beaver

In Washington state biologists are turning to one of nature's best engineers to help restore streams and salmon habitat. Landowners typically trap or kill the beavers that block irrigation canals and flood homes in the Yakima Valley. The little animals can be very destructive in the wrong place, but in the right place they can be good ecosystems engineers.
Approximately 126 beavers have been relocated over the past four years to the Yakima River Project. It sounds like a win, win.

The Rose Bowl - Things to watch in the Oregon-Florida State showdown

1.      Florida State has not been a good first-half team. But then Oregon has not been a good first-half team either. The difference? Florida State’s average comeback points were 14.1 and Oregon’s – 7.1.  The first-half may give us a clue as to who will win.

2

.      Quarterback Protection – Jake Fisher is the one to watch in protection of Mariota’s blind side. Fisher missed two early games to a leg injury, Mariota was sacked 12 times. Fisher is back on the line.

3

.      Jameis Winston likes to talk. Marcus Mariota does not. It will be interesting to see these two opposite players come against each other.

At the end of his Heisman Trophy Speech Mariota said, “God bless, and go Ducks.”  I agree.