old movies

So I bought the movie 1984 the other day. Last night my parents decided that they wanted to watch it. My mother didn't like the torture scenes, which really aren't bad no blood, and my dad had a hard time staying awake. Both complained that the movie was really slow.

It seemed that neither of my parents were horribly impressed with the utter control of the government that is presented in the story. Why would that not absolutely horify anybody? Especially when our government is considering the reenactment of some of the provisions of the patriot act, which gives our government controls which they really shouldn't be allowed to have. If the trend in government continues it might come to some of the controls that make up the core problems in the story.

Now, I did not have to read the book 1984 in school. I was introduced to the movie later. However, I do wish that I had been required to read the book in school. I think that I might have paid more attention to what the government was doing at a younger age if I had been exposed to a story like this sooner. Now as I watch our freedoms dissolve away, I wish that enough others could see what is happening so that we could stop it. Unfortunately, we are being fed an everything is fine line from the government and people really don't pay attention to what is going on.

So before I start to complain about human sheep, I'll get on to the next part of the story.

[Untitled]
cont.

While Kyra had been sleeping Julius had not been idle.

Kyra had told him of a nearby wooded area. She had said that small game was abundant there. It was not ideal, but it would have to do. Kyra was right, he should not have let himself become so weak and he could not allow it to happen again.

Julius also had another reason for searching the woods that night. He had to work on Kyra’s combat skills. He didn’t know what form her battles would take, or when they would happen. What he did know was that he had to do his best to prepare her in all necessary forms of combat.

He was searching for long, straight pieces of wood that he could shape into staffs. He needed to make sure that she could handle a relatively safe weapon before he could proceed to working with blades.

He spotted movement. A small white rabbit jumped in front of him.

The rabbit almost disappeared before he finally snatched it up. He wished that bloodroot was available in this world. He absolutely hated taking lives of any species. He hated it so much that he rarely took the blood of animals at all, and when he did they were usually volunteers, giving like Kyra had earlier that day.

Disgusted with himself he threw down the corpse of the rabbit. Then thinking better of it he picked it back up and started to skin it. If he had to take lives he would take as few as possible, and he would use everything that he could from those he did take.

Once all that was left of the rabbit was unusable to him he continued on his search for wood poles. If any more small animals crossed his path he would eat more, otherwise he was confident that he meal would at least last through the next day.

Looking up through the canopy he spied what he was looking for. Two long limbs of a tree had been broken when a large branch had fallen from another tree. Barely hanging to the parent tree they were in perfect condition, no bugs had delved into the wood yet and they were dry enough to work. Pulling the branches down he started back toward Kyra’s house.

“She will not be ready, Julius.”

“Malchevio, how did I know that you would break the rules?”

“Break the rules? Julius, how could you have so little faith in me? You know that not even I would attempt to break the rules of battle in this time.”

“Then why are you here? The rules say that you cannot interfere.”

“Yes, but they say nothing about intimidation. I may not confront her, I may not even speak to her. But, I can intimidate and bother you all I want to.”

“Your tactics will not work, Malchevio. Now be gone with you.”

“Fine. I shall leave for now, but don’t consider me gone. Oh, and Julius, don’t worry. I’m quite sure that the rabbit felt no pain.” Then with only a chuckle to symbolize his being there Malchevio was gone.

***

As soon as Julius got back to the house he snuck into Kyra’s bedroom. Seeing that she was still safe he went out back and started to work on the poles.

The night was so loud here. Julius was used to only the sounds of night wildlife, if the wind was right he might hear the noises of the distant human village.

Here he could hear the electricity humming throughout the homes. He could hear the highway that was only a few miles from the home. There were so many other noises all competing for attention that the sounds of wildlife were all but obliterated.

Deciding that listening to the sounds of the night was futile, he decided to see if the stars were the same here.

He was just as disappointed in the stars as he was in the sounds. The light from the houses, the street, and the city all combined to overwhelm all but the brightest stars. He did see some familiar constellations, but not enough to know for sure that everything was the same.

Homesick, Julius turned to the task at hand. He started by first stripping all of the small branches from the larger piece. Then he pulled out his tool kit and started shaping the poles to suit the purpose.

***

It was almost dawn by the time he was finished with the poles. He went back into the house and searched for something that he could wrap the poles with so that splinters did not get into their hands. He also needed something to cushion the ends.

Rather than make a lot of noise by searching blindly, he scanned Kyra’s mind. For wrapping the poles it seemed that a gray/silver thing called duct tape was the best thing that she would have. It was even sticky on one side, which would definitely help to attach it.

He then searched for something to cushion the ends of the poles. He found some clothes that Kyra had set aside to donate. He decided that the clothes would make a good inner padding, but he still needed something with only one opening to hold the padding.

He looked in something called a “linen closet” and was surprised to find mostly cotton, and no linen at all. But he did find something called a “pillowcase” which would do just fine.

By the time the sun had cleared the horizon he was satisfied with the work he had done. The staffs would be good practice weapons, and a little more work would make them very usable attack weapons.

Deciding that his work was done. He set the weapons aside and went in to rest before Kyra woke up.