Just after World War 1, in 1917 there was the want from Russian people for a revolution. Dr. Yuri Zhivago (Omar Sharif), a poet and a young practitioner, is about to have his wedding engagement with life time friend, Tonya Gromeko (Geraldine Chaplin) announced, but was cut short when a seventeen year old girl named Lara Antipova (Julie Christie) shoots the man who has been abusing her named Victor Komarovsky (Rod Steiger). As Yuri and Tonya watch this, Lara's fiancé, Pasha (Tom Courtenay) comes in and escorts her out of the party. He would begin a march for the people to protest their thoughts on banners saying "свобода и братство", which translated means freedom and brotherhood / fraternity, and begin the revolution.

Both Yuri and Lara would be involved in the Bolshevik Revolution serving as a medic and a field nurse. Tonya remained home with her father and Yuri's child, and Pasha, who is married to Lara at this time, was a part of the army until he had disappeared. During the six months together, Yuri and Lara began to have feelings for the other, but would be cut short when they were to return home to civil wars; Lara went to Yuriatin while he went back to Tonya and meet his son, Sasha, but on returning to his home, there were other families being sheltered there due to the effects of the civil wars.

Yuri's half brother, Yevgraf (Alec Guinness), was a military officer who convinced Yuri and his family to travel to Varykino which just happened to be after Yuriatin. While on the train to Varykino, they past a burned town and picked up a Russian woman holding her dead child. She explained that the village was destroyed for being thought to be aiding the White Guard, and told of the risen leader named Strelnikov. There was a meeting between Yuri and Streilnikov who was actually Pasha, hardened under his power in his long sought after revolution. By this time, the last Czar, Nicholas II and his family were killed.

While living in Varykino, Tonya and her father, Alexander Gromeko (Ralph Richardson), suggest that Yuri go to Yuriatin and go to the library. There he ran into Lara and there in Yuriatin, she would become his mistress and have continuous visits to her and her daughter, Katya, from Pasha. On what would have been his last visit, Yuri was captured Red Guards and forced to serve as a medic. He eventually became a deserter and traveled back to civilization. Yuri did not go back to Varykino right away, but he found a letter for him from Lara saying that Tonya and her family had been deported and are living safely in Paris. When she returned, there was a final message from Tonya saying how nice Lara is. Yuri, Lara, and Katya moved into an "ice palace" where Yuri wrote poetry and titled it "Дара" which means Lara.

Komarovsky went to them and tried to insist that they go with him on a train. He told Yuri that Strelnikov was dead and now they would come after Lara. Yuri got Lara and Katya to go with Komarovsky, but he stayed behind. Lara was pregnant now with Yuri's child. Many years later, Yevgraf told all this to a girl who knew nothing about her father. He believed this was Yuri's daughter, and he believed this was confirmed when he knew that she could play the balalaika, an instrument that Yuri had all the way from his inheritance from his mother's death.

Doctor Zhivago (1965) is a love story set within a historical period. Based off the novel by Boris Pasternak, director David Lean has created a classic that has been loved by viewers for decades. Though filmed mostly in Spain, the city scenes bring on a strong likeness to Moscow and the lifestyle of the Russians.

Maurice Jarre helped create probably one of the most remembered and most distinct love songs and music for Doctor Zhivago using several instruments that would be used in Russia like the balalaika which played an important role in the entire movie. As a minus, a lot of the actors, not including the Gromeko's which seemed to be the more British aristocracy, did not have Russian accents. Aside from a few minor things such as the signs in the parade which were missing letters, the actors were great, even with Alec Guinness who whenever you looked at him, you couldn't get Star Wars out of your mind.

This film is not about a historical event, but what the people went through during that historical time. It was not easy to critique such a film based off of what was seen alone, but to place yourself there, to think that a life in history than the history itself would make a timeless masterpiece is better than that. Not only would I recommend Doctor Zhivago to anyone who should know about the Bolshevik Revolution, but I would ask them to watch it in total frailty to grasp the love story and the story that drove it. Doctor Zhivago (1965) gets a five out of five.

It's so amazing how such simple things can be distorted and perverted. Such instances are notable in the life time of Martin Luther, a German monk trying to figure out his life in Wittenberg, and he has purchased an indulgence from the church to spare a soul from decades of life in purgatory. Something is just out of place to Luther. Why do we have to pay extra for the pardoning of sin? Why do we think that relics pose supernatural capabilities in what is supposedly perceived as a people under God?

Luther's epiphanies are shown in his acts of writing his ninety-five theses. Everything seemed wrong in the sense of pieces of paper save, instead of pure belief in God and the salvation that lies in accepting and believing the act of His son, Jesus Christ; so with his now renowned ideas, Martin Luther has started a revolt with his own pieces of paper. Sadly, the church would not allow these acts to go unpunished, and they strongly and undoubtedly thought that Luther was committing heresy and must repent or recant for this sin. Luther, steadfast at this time, would not recant for his actions for the fact that none of what the Roman Catholic Church preaches is justified by the scriptures; for this reason, he will be placed on trial.

The trial was a soothing success for Luther because he refused to recant unless his works were disproved only by scripture. The people, however, would corrupt Luther's works and thousands upon thousands would lose their lives, even within the church. He would later transcribe the New Testament into the German language which was a final straw for the church, but it would pass and that would be a turning point in Christendom.

Luther was very well done. It pained me to see how Christ was being replaced by paper for salvation, and how those who agreed with that corrupted the plans to avoid that. It portrayed in great detail how one man could change the views of the world, but it did seem possible to work and not be something that was conjured up by a writer. On the negative side, there seemed to be a small decline in flow of the storyline as it neared the conclusion. Also, other than with the production, it seemed as if Martin Luther vanished in the storyline toward the revolt of the people.

On the positive side, it was amazing how they decided to stick with an accurate depiction of the actual historical events. The character relationships were believable in the sense that Luther cared for the situations of the common man rather than an actor convincing a spectator that he truly cares. I recommend this movie to anyone interested in, or even never heard of, Martin Luther and his Ninety-five\ Theses. I enjoyed it and liked how it became a visual aid in retrospect of history. I give Luther a four out of five.

Have you ever heard someone say "Where will you be in your life in ten years" before? Well some people sit there and they might say they will have already graduated from the college of their choice, get that career they've always wanted like becoming a lead text animator, get married to the person they've always dreamed of, and settle down in a house with kids with a big yard.

But back up to right now. Sadly, the said person sees only a dream. You see, this person does not live a life that would even show that's where they'll be. They might actually be sitting in a bean-bag chair playing Halo 2 everyday. The questions to ask yourself right now are "What are you doing now that will affect you later?" and "What are you doing now that will affect everyone in the world?"

Here's an example. At age 4 you want to be a pirate (I know it's weird just roll with me), and someone tells you that could never happen and you should think about a career when you're older. Your 10 and now you want to get involved into sports. Someone comes up to you and says that sports could be dangerous for a kid your age and maybe you should wait until you're in middle school. Well, you're in 8th. grade and you have a crush in your grade. Another person tells you that you're too young to be thinking about relationships and should wait until high school. Now, you're in your sophomore year of high school and there's a trip that is going to Uganda to feed the hungry. Once again you're told that you'll have too much work to do for school and you should not be traveling so young an age and have your entire life to do something. This time, iet's fast forward to the day you become a senior citizen. You're single, lost the crush that -without you knowing- liked you back, playing your Xbox 720 E-1337, and never went anywhere or did anything in life; all because people have told you to look at your future and kept you away from your present.

So let's recap, if you want to do something you want to do; do it. If you want to tell someone how you feel about them;tell them(think about it and do it right). And if you want to go somewhere, make an impact on the world, do something great that is so small that one day will affect hundreds of more lives than you did before...just do it.

It's time for everyone to live in the Here and Now and not focus on tomorrow, or next week, or what you'll be doing in 10 years. I'll tell you what I'm doing here and now. I'm 15, play piano, supporting a child in Ethiopia, going to the Bahamas and Russia on missions trips, and kicking back with my friends, teachers, and youth leaders playing Xbox Live.

It's your life. Do not throw it away by doing nothing or just hiding in the what could be. But choose to live it here and now...

Thank you

*Inspired by StudentLife and StudentLife Camp 07*

This blog is to summarize a bit of end time events and I hope you all comment with your opinions.

I believe we are in the book of Revelations time wise, but who knows really. Know one will know the exact time and day the world will end. As far as the mark of the beast goes, I was in a Revelations teaching in my youth group when we learned that on the old Hebrew scrolls, the numbers might of been mis-interpreted to 666, but might really be 656 or 676, I don't remember which one.

I have many dreams here and there about the end. "The young will have visions." (paraphrased). Sometimes, the dreams are interpreted, sometimes they are as written. One dream was I was standing in the doorway of my house and saw a nuclear explosion way in the distance behind some palm trees. I could feel and taste the nuclear wave. I was then in the back of a van looking at the moon when it began to change blood red. "The sun will be black as sackloth and the moon will be as blood...the clouds receded like a scroll and the stars began to fall."

A recent dream was I was standing in a field with a bunch of other people, I think it was a trip because there were sleeping bags across the field. Some of us were looking at these blue particles that formed a ring around the moon. They began to spiral from the moon into the air and the moon again began to change. Then I woke up...

The story depicted in this document is about a game I would like to one day be developed. The document will always be up-to-date and is starting at the current time of 20:11 PM (E.S.T.) on Tuesday, March 28, 2006. Some may believe that the story below may resemble some other games, but is an original idea thought of by me. If there is a game that does everything below, please contact me and I will refrain and/or redo all comments and stories in the future.

Title: N/A

Type: shooter

Setting: future/ modern warfare, buildings, air, desert, snow, and sea

Background: The game is a real time war game with all terrains happening at once. You

will be able to choose your squadron and what weapons and vehicles (Choppers,

boats, tanks, cars, etc.) that will be available in each level. A vague concept as to how the storyline is is that the entire world is at war with a highly advanced rogue military force with unlimited resources for an all out war. There could/ might be four main characters that will later team up with each other to fight in every combat situation imaginable. I don’t know if it for some reason to make an area with a chemical warfare, but I do wish to have the shock force that a 500 bomb would inflict causing dirt, debris, and anything lying in the shockwave to fly away. The game should have a way of making the choice of the player effect the game-play. This is mostly the run down on the game, I shall continue later when I have a better idea.

Other: This portion is to show how I believe the game should run. You should choose

which side you want to fight as, either good or bad obviously. There should be that while you’re fighting on the ground, planes and choppers are flying over head giving you support, rescue, or an enemy attack. There should be a multi-player and an online system to fight with many other people. Every last thing in the game needs to be destructible, from buildings, vehicles, to bases/ outposts. Weather would also take place in the game. There should be blizzards, sandstorms, thunderstorms, wind, and tornados. (This is also a part of another game I was thinking about.) Let’s say that in one scenario there is a convoy on a bridge and you are either defending it or attacking it. If you’re attacking it you could try to attack the convoy and destroy each vehicle, or you can attack the bridge directly and drop it. If you’re defending it you should take out every air target trying to bomb the convoy, and attack the ground forces (if any) that are attacking. Also if you’re defending, you could try to drive the convoy off during the fight.

This is just a rough beginning for this game. I will post more later if people think it’s a good idea. Thank you