Ok so today many of us woke up with the news that there was a 5.8-magnitude earthquake in East Coast affecting areas such as New York, Virginia and Washing on D.C., among others.
What's even scarier about today's news though is that just five minutes ago at around 11:40 p.m., I felt my bed shaking so badly that I thought the worse. I couldn't believe it was a quake, I thought it was just my bed, but as a matter of fact, it was an earthquake. Many of my friends who live in San Francisco were already posting on Facebook that they felt the shaking too.
So not only Richmond was shaking, but San Francisco too, along with other areas in the Bay Area. According to some news sites, the earthquake was of 3.6 magnitude and was felt throughout most of the Bay Area region. As well as the earthquake in the east coast earlier in the day, there wasn't any report on any person injured or any major disaster.
Although, it seems common to feel an earthquake in California due to the fact that it is a very seismic state, it is inevitable to think about why all these earthquakes happen, specially if you think about today that we experienced different quakes from Coast to Coast. I mean I am talking about from New York all the way to California?
After I felt the shake and commented on some of my friends' posts on Facebook, I couldn't stop wondering about how prepared we are for an earthquake. Hours earlier, during the day, my brother had asked me if we, at home were prepared to face an earthquake. My answer was no.
I don't think anybody is. And if we do, in case of a real emergency it is impossible to stay focused and do the right thing as instructed or learned. I mean there are many earthquake preparedness activities or emergency preparedness in general, but we don't pay enough attention to them.
The whole world had experienced great natural disasters, specially earthquakes. How to forget the most recent earthquakes in Japan, Chile, and Haiti; just to mention a few.
I think we should start to pay more attention on how to be more prepared for natural disasters like earthquakes because unfortunately they can't be accurately stopped or predicted . I know I will!
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Sunday, August 14, 2011
My Story With Final Destination Movies
I went to watch Final Destination 5 yesterday, which was released on Friday, August 12. And believe me this is a "must see" movie along with the other sequels. I mean, I've seen all of the other ones before and every time I get out of the theater with a weird sensation of "death" in my mind.
As you all know, these films are about cheating death and discovering one by one, as the movie moves along, the craziest death situations. I'm talking about the most extravagant deaths ever, which is the heart and most interesting part of these movies. This is where the suspense and fear take place among those of us watching them.
First, let's remember the opening accidents in every film. In 2000, an explosion of a plane takes place in FD1 (Flight 180, which serves as one of the warnings or omens for the rest of the films), a highway pile-up in FD2 released in 2003 (starring the only survivor from FD1), a roller-coaster crash in FD3 in 2006 and a race-car track in FD4 in 2009. And of course, exactly two years later comes FD5 with a bridge collapse.
However, the other freaky part and indeed the intention of Jeffrey Reddick, creator of these films, is to make people believe, think and react to them. And that's exactly what happens to me when I go to see them. And I am pretty sure many of you go through the same.
For this last one, I went to watch it with a friend who had never seen any Final Destination movie before. To be honest, I was more terrified and impatient than him. Anyway, as we got out of the theater, I started to notice every single detail; from the words on the walls to any strange noise. Once going home to Richmond, while on the Bart train, I couldn't stop thinking about...what if the train crashes as it happens on FD3? I stared at everyone around me, thinking about the worst case scenario. On top of that, when I got home, they were showing FD1 and 3 on Fox. I was like..what? But I watched them.
In addition, the next day I had to go to work. As every Sunday, my father would drive me to work and we'd cross the Bay Bridge to San Francisco. When we entered the bridge, I noticed a "Road Work Ahead" sign and two lanes were closed rounded by orange traffic cones. Honestly, I got scared for a second and couldn't avoid looking at the suspension cables of the bridge and thinking about what would happen if those cables tear apart as they did in the bridge collapse of FD5. Good thing at 6 a.m. in the morning, there isn't too much traffic and cars were running without any interruption.
I know this is ridiculous, specially because I love to watch these series of films and I know it is fiction. But I always wonder...where do they get these death ideas from? Are they from real life? or are they just messing around with us?
Well, I don't know. Meanwhile, FD3 is still my favorite. How to forget the phrase: "don't push the button"? For me, FD3 was a little bit more dramatic than the others though not only because the premonition character was a girl as it was on FD2, but because I liked the acting part on this one.
One last thing. I couldn't understand the last scene on FD5, where the last two survivor characters are embarked in a plane destined to Paris and where they perished. We see the scene of the first Final Destination movie all back again and the same characters involving the promonition that the plane will crash. Does it mean the end of these movies? Or is it all coming back to the beginning again?
As you all know, these films are about cheating death and discovering one by one, as the movie moves along, the craziest death situations. I'm talking about the most extravagant deaths ever, which is the heart and most interesting part of these movies. This is where the suspense and fear take place among those of us watching them.
First, let's remember the opening accidents in every film. In 2000, an explosion of a plane takes place in FD1 (Flight 180, which serves as one of the warnings or omens for the rest of the films), a highway pile-up in FD2 released in 2003 (starring the only survivor from FD1), a roller-coaster crash in FD3 in 2006 and a race-car track in FD4 in 2009. And of course, exactly two years later comes FD5 with a bridge collapse.
However, the other freaky part and indeed the intention of Jeffrey Reddick, creator of these films, is to make people believe, think and react to them. And that's exactly what happens to me when I go to see them. And I am pretty sure many of you go through the same.
For this last one, I went to watch it with a friend who had never seen any Final Destination movie before. To be honest, I was more terrified and impatient than him. Anyway, as we got out of the theater, I started to notice every single detail; from the words on the walls to any strange noise. Once going home to Richmond, while on the Bart train, I couldn't stop thinking about...what if the train crashes as it happens on FD3? I stared at everyone around me, thinking about the worst case scenario. On top of that, when I got home, they were showing FD1 and 3 on Fox. I was like..what? But I watched them.
In addition, the next day I had to go to work. As every Sunday, my father would drive me to work and we'd cross the Bay Bridge to San Francisco. When we entered the bridge, I noticed a "Road Work Ahead" sign and two lanes were closed rounded by orange traffic cones. Honestly, I got scared for a second and couldn't avoid looking at the suspension cables of the bridge and thinking about what would happen if those cables tear apart as they did in the bridge collapse of FD5. Good thing at 6 a.m. in the morning, there isn't too much traffic and cars were running without any interruption.
I know this is ridiculous, specially because I love to watch these series of films and I know it is fiction. But I always wonder...where do they get these death ideas from? Are they from real life? or are they just messing around with us?
Well, I don't know. Meanwhile, FD3 is still my favorite. How to forget the phrase: "don't push the button"? For me, FD3 was a little bit more dramatic than the others though not only because the premonition character was a girl as it was on FD2, but because I liked the acting part on this one.
One last thing. I couldn't understand the last scene on FD5, where the last two survivor characters are embarked in a plane destined to Paris and where they perished. We see the scene of the first Final Destination movie all back again and the same characters involving the promonition that the plane will crash. Does it mean the end of these movies? Or is it all coming back to the beginning again?
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