The Story Teller

Archive for September, 2010

Robin Williams is simply my favorite actor of all. So, it has been difficult for me to choose which of his movies I would like to feature for this week’s theme.

I naturally considered Dead Poets’ Society because I am a teacher and passionate about my work.

Then the ‘child in me’ would like to post Hook which is the first movie that I have ever watched that starred Robin Williams.

But I settled for Mrs. Doubtfire

I found this movie simply hilarious, preceptive and REALLY GOOD! Also starring another versatile artist, Sally Field. I never get tired of watching this film over and over again.

An entry for

‘We can prevail against even a mighty adversary if we stay together and help each other out’

How far will you go for the sake of love? What are you willing to do? How much are you willing to spend?

King Nebuchadnezzar II had this magficent garden made on 580 BC to please his wife Amytis of Media as she was homesick for her green and vegetated homeland of Persia.

It gloriously stood 75 feet high and was maintained and watered by an ancient hydraulic system which drew water from the river through an underground artificial irrigation slope to raise the water up to a required height .

This is the ruins of the once impressive garden which was admired and revered for its towering splendor..

Well, such an incredible gesture of love, and an awesome engineering and architectural work!

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanging_Gardens_of_Babylon, http://www.bible-history.com/sketches/ancient/hanging-gardens-babylon.html

Photos courtesy of : timerime.com, thegardenblog.com, alltechn.com

I happen to be a fan of Morgan Freeman and I remember having watched a lot of his films. I actually considered posting ‘Deep Impact’ but I changed my mind because I think it was more of Elijah Wood’s movie. So, I settled for HARD RAIN.

I don’t know why I liked this one. Maybe because he played bad guy. Well, he actually co-starred with Christian Slater. The movie is about an armored car being robbed by a gang of professional thieves. The robbery took place in a town which was heavily flooded due to a dam accident which, on the other hand, was caused by the hard rain.

It may not be a card-core action film but I enjoyed the chasing part,

An entry for

A traveler ate breakfast at an inn. Just when he finished eating 3 boiled eggs and a cup of rice, his bus arrived and he went away obviously forgetting to pay the bill in his hurry.

After 3 years, he came back. He expressed his sincere apology for what happened 3 years ago and offered payment for the breakfast. The innkeeper smiled and asked for P3000. The traveler was shocked and asked why he has to pay P3000 for 3 eggs and a cup of rice.

The innkeeper said the 3 eggs could have hatched and become chickens which would give more eggs that he could have had a poultry from those 3 eggs in three years, never mind the rice. The traveler refused to pay the outrageous amount. The innkeeper sued him and took him to court.

On the day of the hearing, the traveler’s lawyer arrived with a pot of soil and a bowl of cooked rice.

To every one’s surprise, he planted the rice in the pot of soil and asked the innkeeper if it would grow. The dismayed innkeeper said it definitely would not as it was cooked already. The lawyer said, so are the 3 boiled eggs. They wouldn’t hatch anymore much more grow into adult chilckens.

The innkeeper lost the case and the traveler thanked his clever lawyer..

For some, LEONARDO DA VINCI is known only as the painter of two of the most popular paintings in the world..

The Mona Lisa

and The Last Supper…

But he was more than just a painter, he was a brilliant scientist. He drew a picture of a bicycle..

and airplane, hundreds of years before they were invented..

And he did something strange. He wrote his notes of his discoveries and inventions backward..

How can we read it? Put it in front of the mirror. Come on, try it..

Good luck!

I have seen some Brad Pitt movies like Legends of the Fall, Interview with the Vampire, etc. But I chose to feature The Mexican because he co-starred with another favorite artist of mine, the pretty woman Julia Roberts.

Released in 2001, The Mexican is about Jerry (Pitt) who was involved with the mob and was assigned to retrieve a legendary pistol (The Mexican) in Mexico, which was said to be cursed. In addition to finding the pistol and giving it to the boss, making up with his girlfriend Samantha (Roberts) who wanted him out of the mob is another pressure to Jerry.

The Mexican is an action filled romantic comedy that would surely entertain any coucher.

An entry for

Aling Sela was a mean old woman. She was selfish and she didn’t care about any thing or anyone. She did not do any body any good deed and kept every thing to herself. So, when she died, the devil simply snatched her soul away and took her to hell.

Her very loving guardian angel, however, wanted to save Aling Sela. So, he talked to the Lord and asked him if there is any way Aling Sela could be in heaven.

The Lord told the angel that if he could remember one single good deed that Aling Sela have done to another person, then, she might be saved. The angel thought long and hard until he remembered one time Aling Sela was working in her garden. A smelly beggar came and asked for a piece of onion. Aling Sela immediately tossed an onion to the beggar to get rid of him.

Upon hearing this, the Lord asked that the onion be brought and used to get Aling Sela from hell. The angel went down and held the piece of onion for the old woman to grab. Aling Sela got hold of the onion and clung to it while the angel pulled hard.

Seeing the old woman being lifted from hell, the other souls held on to Aling Sela’s dangling feet with the hopes of being saved, too. The old woman was annoyed, she thought ‘This is my onion, I am the only one who should be saved by it.’ With all her might, she kicked all the other souls off her feet but loosened her hold on the onion as she did until she completely let go of the onion and fell back to hell…

Pictures taken from the internet

Born in 1897, Amelia Earhart, The Lady Flyer, had always been an adventurous girl. Using a ramp and an improvised skateboard, she came close to ‘flying’ in her grandparents’ farm where she grew up.

She worked as a truck driver at 22 and used the money she earned to take up flying lessons. She became a pilot after a year. Then, she also worked in a telephone company and bought her very own airplane from her earnings.

She was the first person to fly up to 14,000 feet and in 1932 set the record for being the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean all by herself. What more? She took First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt for a plane ride.

But in 1937, while in her around-the-world flight, Amelia Earhart with her co-pilot, airplane and all, disappeared. No one knew what happened to her.