Saturday, November 13, 2010

A Day Without Rose



November 13 is a special day for us.... It was our best friend's birthday. We were very happy that day because we will eat lunch together and hang out.. All of us were free, we went to SM City to take a picture. We were not disturbed by something or someone that's why we really enjoyed. The only thing is that, 4 of us rode in one taxi and the other 3 rode in another taxi.. When the driver said that he had to fetch his boss and he will leave us under the flyover, all of us were shocked but when he said it's free, we all went out and rode the jeep... The picture above symbolizes something or someone....=)

Friday, November 05, 2010

Avatar: The Last Airbender



Book One: Water

One hundred years before the start of the series a twelve-year-old Airbender named Aang learns he is the new Avatar. Fearful of the heavy responsibilities and the separation from his beloved mentor Monk Gyatso, Aang flees from home on his animal guide, a giant six-legged flying bison named Appa. Caught in a fierce storm, they crash into the ocean, triggering Aang's protective Avatar State which freezes them in a state of suspended animation inside an iceberg. After his disappearance, Fire Lord Sozin, knowing that the new Avatar is an Air Nomad, launches a genocidal campaign against the Air Nomads in order to ensure his plots for world domination will not be interrupted by the Avatar. The Avatar is the only Air Nomad to survive the attack.

A hundred years later Katara, a fourteen-year-old Waterbender girl, and her older warrior brother, Sokka, free Aang and Appa from the iceberg. The three travel to the Northern Water Tribe so Aang and Katara can learn Waterbending. While on their journey, Aang and friends visit the Southern Air Temple where Aang discovers that the Fire Nation wiped out the Air Nomads. At the Southern Air Temple Aang meets his Avatar guide, Avatar Roku. The trio is constantly being pursued by banished Prince Zuko, the exiled son of Fire Lord Ozai, who can only return to the Fire Nation and reclaim his honor and throne if he captures the Avatar. Zuko travels with his uncle Iroh, a legendary Fire Nation general and the older brother of Ozai. Competing with Zuko for the Avatar is Admiral Zhao, who leads a Fire Nation assault on the Northern Water Tribe that is successfully repelled thanks to Aang and his friends. After the siege is ended, the Fire Lord tasks his daughter Azula to capture Zuko and Iroh, who are now considered traitors to the Fire Nation.

Book Two: Earth

After leaving the North Pole, Aang masters Waterbending under Katara's tutelage. Searching for a new Earthbending teacher, the group meets Toph, a blind Earthbending prodigy who teaches Aang how to "see" using earthbending and vibrations. Meanwhile, Zuko and Iroh, now fugitives from the Fire Nation, attempt to lead new lives in the Earth Kingdom. Zuko, with the help of his uncle, tries to come to terms with his troubled past and his obsession with capturing the Avatar. Aang and his friends discover that an upcoming solar eclipse will deprive Firebenders of their bending, leaving them open to invasion and giving Aang his chance to defeat the Fire Lord. Azula and her two friends Mai and Ty Lee pursue Team Avatar, who struggle to reach Ba Sing Se, the Earth Kingdom capital, and tell the Earth King of the eclipse. After capturing and impersonating the Kyoshi Warriors, friends of Team Avatar, Azula persuades an elite group of Earthbenders called the Dai Li to instigate a coup d'etat, allowing the Fire Nation to capture Ba Sing Se. In a final confrontation, Zuko sides with his sister, who promises to restore his honor. Azula mortally wounds Aang, who is in the Avatar State, with a lightning blast. Iroh helps Aang and Katara to escape after Zuko betrays him, and is imprisoned by the Dai Li for his actions. Katara revives Aang with spirit water from the North Pole, but his seventh chakra is blocked and he cannot enter the Avatar State.


Book Three: Fire

Aang awakens to find the group disguised as Fire Nation soldiers heading West on a Fire Nation ship, while Zuko has been restored to his position as crown prince and Iroh is imprisoned as a traitor. Sokka has planned a small-scale invasion of the Fire Nation to capture the Fire Lord's palace and defeat Fire Lord Ozai, taking advantage of the solar eclipse. The invasion will be staged by a ragtag group of benders and warriors whom Aang has helped along his journey. Initially the invasion proceeds as planned, but Aang fails to find the Fire Lord before the eclipse ends. The invasion ultimately fails, and only Aang and the rest of the young ones are able to escape. Zuko, in a change of heart, decides to defy his father and join the Avatar. Zuko catches up with Aang at the Western Air Temple and offers to teach Aang Firebending. After some reluctance from Katara and Sokka, Team Avatar allows Zuko to join the group.

In the series finale, Aang and his friends confront the forces of Fire Lord Ozai, who plans to use the power of Sozin's Comet to destroy the other nations and rule the world as the Phoenix King. Iroh, who escaped from prison during the eclipse, leads the Order of the White Lotus to liberate Ba Sing Se. Sokka, Toph and Kyoshi Warrior Suki take down the Fire Nation's airships, preventing them from burning down the Earth Kingdom. Zuko and Katara take on Azula, the new Fire Lord and are able to defeat her due to her deteriorating mental state. Aang struggles against Ozai, since he is reluctant to take his life. However, Aang is able to reenter the Avatar State and ultimately defeats Ozai by taking away his firebending powers with a technique known as energy-bending, taught to him by an ancient lion-turtle. With Ozai defeated, the war quickly ends. Zuko is crowned the new Fire Lord and, with the help of the Avatar and his friends, begins rebuilding the four nations. The series ends as Aang and Katara kiss beneath the sunset.

Wednesday, November 03, 2010

The Forbidden Kingdom


South Boston teenager Jason Tripitikas is a fan of martial arts films and he awakens from a dream of a battle between the Monkey King and celestial soldiers in the clouds. He visits a pawnshop in Chinatown to buy Wuxia DVDs and discovers a golden staff. On his way home, Jason is harassed by some hooligans, who attempt to use him to help them rob the shop-owner Hop. Hop tries to fight the thieves with the staff, but is shot and wounded. He tells Jason to deliver the staff to its rightful owner and Jason flees with the staff. He is cornered on the rooftop by the hooligans and almost shot too, but he is pulled off the roof by the staff and falls backwards onto the asphalt.

When Jason regains consciousness, he finds himself in a village inthat is under attack by armoured soldiers. The soldiers see his staff and attempt to seize it. He is saved by the inebriated traveling scholar Lu Yan, a supposed "immortal", who remains alert and agile even when drunk. Lu brings Jason to a teahouse and tells him the story of the rivalry between the Monkey King and the Jade Warlord. The Jade Warlord tricked the Monkey King into setting aside his magic staff Ruyi Jingu Bang and transformed him into a stone statue, but the Monkey King cast his staff far away before the transformation. Being an immortal, the Monkey King did not die, but got captured inside the statue. Lu ends the tale with a prophecy about someone, a "Seeker", who will find the staff and free the Monkey King. Just then, they are attacked by the Jade Warlord's men again but manage to escape with the help of Golden Sparrow, a young girl who refers herself in the third place. She reveals that her family was murdered by the Jade Warlord, against whom she has therefore sworn revenge.

Meanwhile, the Jade Warlord, upon learning that the staff has been sighted, sends the White-Haired Witch Ni-Chang to help him retrieve it in exchange for the elixir of immortality. Jason, Lu Yan and Golden Sparrow meet a strange man dressed in white, who takes the staff away from them. Lu Yan fights with the man (later revealed to be the Silent Monk) for the staff until the latter realizes that Jason is the prophesied Seeker, and he joins them in their quest to free the Monkey King. As the four travel to Five Elements Mountain, Lu Yan and the Silent Monk teach Jason Kungfu along the way. After crossing a desert, they encounter Ni-Chang and her henchmen and a battle ensues, in which Lu Yan is mortally wounded by Ni-Chang's arrow. The protagonists take refuge in a monastery, where they learn that Lu is actually not an immortal, and only the Jade Warlord's elixir can save his life. In desperation, Jason goes to the Warlord's palace alone to exchange the staff for the elixir.

In the palace, the Jade Warlord asks Jason to fight with Ni-Chang to the death, because he had promised to give the elixir to only one of them. Jason is defeated by Ni-Chang and the Warlord taunts him for his foolishness, and is about to decapitate him when the other protagonists and monks from the monastery arrive to join in the battle. Jason manages to grab the elixir and he tosses it to Lu Yan, who drinks it and recovers. The Silent Monk is wounded by the Jade Warlord during the fight and he passes the staff to Jason, who uses it to smash the Monkey King's statue. The Monkey King is freed and the Silent Monk is revealed to be actually one of the Monkey's clones. Lu Yan battles Ni-Chang and kills her by throwing her off the cliff hundreds of feet below. After another long battle between the Monkey King and the Jade Warlord, the Warlord is eventually stabbed by Jason and falls into a lava pit to his death. However, Golden Sparrow has been seriously injured by the Warlord and she dies in Jason's arms, thanking him in the first person before dying. By then, the has returned from his meditation and he praises Jason for fulfilling the prophecy before allowing him to return home.

Jason finds himself back in 21st century Boston after passing through a magical portal at the exact moment and location of his earlier fall. He defeats the hooligans easily and drives them away. He alerts the police and calls an ambulance for Hop, who survives from the gunshot wound and secretly reveals to Jason that he is an immortal (possible hinting that he is actually Lu Yan). Before the film ends, Jason is delighted to see a girl who resembles Golden Sparrow and speaks to her briefly.