Nature

We often take nature for granted. Actually, we almost always take it for granted. It is not until it is gone that we realise what we once had. Nature is such a wonder and it comes in many shapes and forms. For one we have our natural environment which is always around us. All the trees, animals, birds (why I added that after animals I will never know) and plants that make up our natural world are often taken for granted until they are all gone. As the popular adage goes; you do not know what you have got until it is gone. Without even one of these parts of nature our world would be completely different and unrecognisable. If one of these were to simply cease existing of whatever reason then a majority of the world would die.Without trees and plants there would be no photosynthesis and therefore no fresh oxygen which billions of living creatures require for life. Without birds and animals whole portions of the food-chain would fall apart which would affect nearly all living creatures on Earth.

Source: http://cauldronsandcupcakes.com/2012/10/12/self-growth-nature-oracle-a-reading-to-guide-your-current-energies/

Nature is also a very resilient thing. After all the destruction we put it through on a daily basis it still manages to thrive and adapt. How many plants have you seen grow around pillars? How many times have you seen weeds growing through cracks in the pavement? This is nature adapting even though we have been struggling with this for years. Of course, we are quite adaptive at times but nature is even more so. Just look at the picture above. We created a boardwalk through this nature which would have involved a lot of destruction. However, nature regrew and became what we can now see. It truly is beautiful. After the Black Saturday fires of 2009 nature was devastated and scorched. However, if you return to the places worst effected today you would find new life and a nature completely different to what it once was but in a beautiful way. In this way (and in fact most ways) nature is a very resilient thing. We destroy and destroy without even thinking of the consequences and whose homes we are destroying to create our own. Sometimes it takes a beautiful day like today to remind us of how lucky we are to have nature all around us. It would be very hard to live in a world without it and I for one am glad that I do not.

Nature is something we should nurture and not just toss aside like most of our lives, see you tomorrow.

Oblivion Review

My Rating: 9/10

Synopsis (Click here for source): 
Tom Cruise starts in Oblivion, an original and groundbreaking cinematic event from the director of TRON: Legacy and the producer of Rise of the Planet of the Apes. On a spectacular future Earth that has evolved beyond recognition, one man's confrontation with the past will lead him on a journey of redemption and discovery as he battles to save mankind.

Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) is one of the last few drone repairmen stationed on Earth. Part of a massive operation to extract vital resources after decades of war with a terrifying threat known as the Scavs. Jack's mission is nearly complete.

Living in and patrolling the breathtaking skies from thousands of feet above, his soaring existence is brought crashing down when he rescues a beautiful stranger from a downed spacecraft. Her arrival triggers a chain of events that forces him to question everything he knows and puts the fate of humanity in his hands.

My Review:
Oblivion is a huge success and is one of the best action/sci-fi movies out to-date. The action in the movie is not in your face and the suspense just keeps you glued to the screen waiting to see what happens. An exemplary writing skill is shown in this movie as you are left questioning right to the very end and the writers make you believe something at the start and then they show that everything is not quite as it seems. It is a cinematic success and the dystopian landscapes with constant hints to well-known Earth landmarks, such as the Empire State Building and the Golden Gate Bridge, add another layer to an already multi-faceted movie experience.

The acting of Tom Cruise (as Jack Harper), Morgan Freeman (as Malcolm Beech, one of the 'rebels'), Olga Kurylenko (as the stranger from Jack's past, a past he has no memory of) and Andrea Riseborough (as Victoria, Jack's partner [in work and bed]) is exceptional and adds yet another layer to the movie. The characters at the start seem entirely different to what they do at the end and this is partly due to the acting because no matter how good a script, if you don't have good actors playing the parts then the story is just unbelievable.

So that is another thing that provides this movie with some intrigue, it is believable. Despite the sci-fi aspect it is still a realistic futuristic Earth, ravaged by war of the greatest scale ever witnessed, that can be related to because of the use of famous landmarks such as the Empire State Building and the Golden Gate Bridge and they explain how the Earth got to how it did.

Overall it is a great movie which is why I gave it 9/10. I am not usually a fan of action movies but there isn't a lot of in-your-face action like Batman, or Iron Man, or any movie really where the last three letters are M-A-N. I really recommend this for teenagers and older (do not take your kids) and even my grandmother loved it and she doesn't like action movies, or sci-fi for that matter. So I urge you to watch this movie.

In other news: Today I had an award ceremony for the Fellowship of Australian Writers because I had submitted a selection of 10 writing pieces to a competition and my work got Highly-Commended (the one under Won) and there were only 4 people (out of hundreds) who actually got any recognition for their work. (1 person got Commended, 2 got Highly Commended and 1 won). Plus, this was an Australian-wide competition so it is really cool that I won.

Also, check out my friend Xavier's Awesome blogs! They are great because Xavier has just a natural sense of humour so you'll definitely enjoy them! Check them out here: Daily Xavier (wonder where the idea of that name came from [he made his after I showed him mine by the way]) and Xavier's Thoughts on Current Affairs

May the odds be ever in your favour, see you tomorrow!