Ender’s Game: a movie review

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Ender's Game, movie review, movies, postaday2013

My hubby and I went to see the movie Ender’s Game and I really enjoyed it. I haven’t read the book or books, but I do know that there has been some controversy about the author and his views about homosexuals. I didn’t see anything controversial within the movie, instead I found that Ender was a very sympathetic and compassionate young man, I found his character to be riveting. During the movie I couldn’t help but think that someone of Ender’s caliber did not belong in the army or the military, that he would make a poor soldier because he wouldn’t simply accept orders and at the end it seems that my opinion was vindicated.

The movie also brought to mind our nation’s mindset after 9/11. How we brought a war to “them” and how we live militaristically and in fear. It struck me because Ender threw the fact that the initial attack was 50 years ago and then nothing from the enemy and yet Earth’s military was actively building up for another attack. The movie brought home to me that we as a nation maybe need to move back away from our oversized military and our oversized fear.

I was absolutely charmed by Petra and her relationship with Ender. I also enjoyed Ender’s evolution as a leader and how he brought the other’s into his decision making and his strategies. But Petra definitely was my favorite, she provided Ender with something indispensable, something that made him a better leader for it.

I don’t want to give anything away, I just know that I really liked it and it made me think which all good movies should do, it is their purpose after all.

Daily prompt: Placebo effect

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common cold, cure, disease, illness, postaday2013

If you could create a painless, inexpensive cure for a single ailment, what would you cure and why?

I was a little put off by the prompt because two books, one that I have read and one that I am in the process of reading, touch on the issue of over-population and the increased longevity of the human being. I know that I do not want to believe in the dire warnings of either one of these books, the first is Albert Brooks 2030 where the United States is in dire straits because cancer was cured and old people weren’t dying as often or as quickly and we could no longer afford them. This newest one, Dan Brown’s Inferno touches on the idea that human over-population will lead to human extinction. Personally, I think that we will see brighter days and somehow it will all work out, but since I would not want to contribute to any of these issues, I decided that I would find the cure to the common cold and give it to the world for free, much like Jonas Salk did for polio.

I know that the cure won’t save lives but who in the world would refuse the cure? Imagine never having a cold again, not having to feel run down for days on end, armed with tissues, a sore nose, red watery eyes, headaches, body aches, sore throat, cough and not being able to sleep properly because either your nose is running or your nose is stuffed so you can’t breathe or you sleep but with your mouth open and your throat takes a beating from being exposed to the dry air. A cold can really beat you down for sometimes as long as two weeks, a cure would be a gift from the universe and science. That would be the cure that I would choose to give to the world.