Wednesday, August 31, 2011

15. THIS IS AMAZING DUDES

I generally don't blog the emails I get. But I found this one exceptional. So I thought I'd make an exception just for this once. Give it a try. Hate Maths? So do I. Who don't? Try this one for size!
At the end of this message, you are asked a question.
Answer it immediately.

Don't stop and think about it.
Just say the first thing that pops into your mind.
This is a fun 'test'...
AND kind of spooky at the same time! Give it a try, then e-mail it around (including back to me) and you'll see how many people you know fall into the same percentage as you.. Be sure to put in the subject line if you are among the 98% or the 2%. You'll understand what that means after you finish taking the 'test..' Now - just follow the instructions as quickly as possible. Do not go to the next calculation before you have finished the previous one.. You do not ever need to write or remember the answers, just do it using your mind.. You'll be surprised..


Start: How much is: 15 + 6








21









3 + 56







59






89 + 2




















91







12 + 53



















65







75 + 26























101





25 + 52




































77







63 + 32

























95







I know! Calculations are hard work,
but it's nearly over..




Come on, one more! ....















123 + 5






















128













QUICK! THINK ABOUT
A COLOR AND A TOOL!





















Scroll further to the bottom....
























A bit more...



























You just thought about a
red hammer, didn't you?

If this is not your answer,
you are among 2% of people who have a different, if not abnormal, mind.


98% of the folks would answer a
  red hammer while doing this exercise.

If you do not believe this,
pass it around and you'll see.

Be sure to put in the subject line if you
are among the 98% or the 2% and send to everyone, including the person that sent it to you.

-- "When you are dissatisfied
And would like to go back to youth,
Think of Algebra."

Sunday, August 28, 2011

14. FORGIVE ME DUDE IF YOU CAN.




I saw you lying there on the side of that lonely stretch road in the beam of my headlight, dude. There’s no denying that! I saw you were in trouble, maybe badly injured, maybe dying. Or were you already dead?

My foot came off the accelerator and hovered over the brakes for a moment… just for a single moment.
Indecision.
Hesitation.
It was a conflict between the heart and the brain, both vital. For a moment heart seemed to be in charge, because I felt the minivan slowing down as it lost momentum.

Just then the brain took over. I hit the accelerator hard and swung the wheel to give you a wide berth. While passing I saw the bicycle you should have been riding a moment before you were hit by that hit-and-run-driver, lying on its side. I also had a glimpse of the dark pool of liquid you were lying in, probably growing larger by the minute… and also I’m not very sure of this … that you were convulsing.

While I was speeding away my heart screamed. “Hey, stop and help him. How could you run away like this? This is not like you. How many people have you helped? Hey Dude, how would you like to swap places with him? How can you be so heartless? Where are all the values you believe in?”
The feeling of guilt was consuming me. 

The rear view mirror suddenly lit up. I squinted. Some headlights were behind me. I felt a bit better. Someone would stop. Or would they?

It didn’t help much. How could I run away like that? Your loved ones, maybe your wife and children, maybe your mother or sister could be waiting up for you right at this moment, waiting for you to turn up any moment. You may be the one who feed so many mouths, toiling all day. And tonight a few more hours of OT most probably, in a desperate attempt to make ends meet. The possibilities were endless.

Who is that woman who is in tears and screaming in my head, “You monster, how could you just pass him? He would still be here, if you just stopped. You could have called 119…”?

Then who’s this woman in all smiles and saying this? “Thanks to you sir, he is here with us. We have no words to thank you for what you did. We are forever in your debt…” tears of joy ran down her face, “Thank God for making you pass that road, when you did.”

I almost hit the brake to slow down and make a U-turn when two cars overtook me at lightning speed. I swerved instinctively. I’d just avoided another crash. I’m not the only runaway. What about them? I can’t scold them. All of us dudes behind the wheels that night on that particular stretch of road seemed to be thinking the same thoughts. Get out of here as fast as you can. 

As if  running away from a plague!

I realized the vehicle was in a skid on the wet tarmac.

A cop with handcuffs flashed in my mind like a motion picture. 
“You are under arrest for causing this accident and…”. 
I was protesting, “Officer I’m the one who stopped to help him.”
“You can say that at the courts.” The hand cuffs snapped shut.

This solemn judge was saying in this solemn tone, “There is no evidence to prove beyond reasonable doubt that…” I didn’t want to listen.

The dude whose head is swathed in bandages opened his eyes. His eyes scanned the crowd and then they rested on me. He then mumbled, “He is the one…”
Hey, it was you!!!

I was actually back home on holiday. I was supposed to return to the foreign land and to the foreign job once again in a few weeks. So much was riding on my job, not tires tonight as that tire manufacturer Michelin said. And so much that I can’t risk on an unknown stranger like you. My kid in college. The house that I built with sweat and blood, this minivan for which I compromised so much to own. Well my whole world would tumble down. Who would help me? Who would help my family while I would be doing my time in jail?

All the stories I had read in the newspapers about the fate of the Good Samaritans who stopped to help and were accused later of a crime they never committed, by the law and as well as by the angry mobs didn’t help at all.

All the stories of the unsuspecting people who stopped to help and were robbed, carjacked and  even murdered, didn't help either. 


I steered into the skid text book precision. Minivan was back in control though still in motion. I corrected the wheel to avoid hitting the tree and the vehicle responded immediately and straitened out . I changed my mind one more time. 
Forgive me dude if you can.
  
I stepped on the accelerator again, homeward bound, where safety and security lay. The faithful Toyota diesel engine purring reassuringly beneath me whisked me through the night. Away from an incident that would possibly have changed the lives of mine and my family.
 
My wife and kids, tired of the 150km journey through the night were still asleep, lulled by the hum of the engine, restrained by the seat belts in the reclined seats, unaware of an event that could have turned their lives upside down.

If given a choice would I do the same? Absolutely.
I would have done the same. 
How come this makes me feel better?


EPILOGUE: This is a common occurrence in our society. This could happen to anybody. No one dares to help another human being in trouble. Whose fault is it?

All the photographs are from the albums of henryblogwalker aka Dude, that is me.
Based on a true event.

Friday, August 26, 2011

13. I HIT MY FIRST TWO 1000s SIMULTANEOUSLY DUDES!!! Yeaaaah!!!





Hey Dudes,

Thank you very much. 
To all of you who visited my two blog sites from all over the world, made comments, and became members, I’m really grateful.
I started my English blog “Hey Dude” on 13th of July, 2011 
and my Sinhala blog “මට හිතෙන හැටිon 14th July, 2011. 

Both were riding neck to neck and I think it’s a very memorable thing that both blogs hit 1000 mark exactly in 6 weeks on the same day at the same time. 

And the thousandth visitor was the same person who happened to sit down with a cup of tea to check out what’s new on my blogs. 

Isn’t it an awesome   coincidence.

These are the two comments she sent in.












Wednesday, August 24, 2011

12. " THAT'S A SICK JOKE, DUDE ! ! ! "

Thilaké is a bit senior dude than us. Anura (ACR) and I used to call him Carlos Santana because his long wavy hair reminded us of Santana. He used to wear his wavy hair which reached the small of his back in a pony tail when going out. And he stuffed the whole ponytail under his shirt when he was going somewhere important. This formed a soft hump on his back, which I used to thump on every time I meet him. I also used t pull his curls which stretched to double the length and sprang back when let go.


He was very clever at electronics though he is actually a cartographer by profession. Recently one guy was curious. 

“Thilaké, What exactly are you doing at the university?” 

“I’m a cartographer.” Thilaké replied.

“Carto..what?  Do you drive carts there in the campus, machan?”

“No machan, I’m just in charge of fixing horseshoes.”


Collecting old Volkswagen Beetles was one of his obsessions. There is a fleet of rusty Beetles all around his house at various stages of deterioration. He is in love with old German scrap metal alright.

His room was once our hangout. We loved to hear his tales, actually drama from real life. No matter how much we smoked and drank he never touched the stuff. He sat in a cloud of cigarette smoke and used to narrate his stories entertaining us as the host. All he did was dipping into our fries dish from time to time. We repeated our well worn but famous catchphrase, “Hey dude, don’t make meal out of our Fries. (Original: Don’t make a diet out of our bite)


We had a ritual we called punching the card. If I happened to pass his house any time of the night, no matter what hour it was I used to howl at the top of my voice, 

“Hey.. Thilaké ooo..” and fly by. 

And in return every time he passed my house in the night he flew by yelling,

“Hey Henry oooo!!”

I have woken up with a start so many times from deep sleep in the small hours, by his punching the card. Some days even my father asks with an amused grin, “Thilaké went by last night, didn’t he?” 


One of his overused jokes was yelling at me through the bus window. Every time when the bus stopped at his place he would yell to be heard by everybody,
“Hey Henry, just smile a while dude so that I can locate you” then the rest in for the other passengers in general, “Only this dude’s teeth are white. You can see him only when he’s smiling.” 

The passengers start enjoying because it’s new to them. The funny thing is he’s only fractionally lighter skinned than me. He… he…! (For non Sri Lankan reader: This typical joke has nothing to do with racism or color discrimination)

One night Thilaké had to go somewhere with another friend on that his brand new motorbike. They were in such a hurry none of them had helmets nor the documents for the bike. And Thilaké was wearing a sarong. (A sort of wrap around garment)
On their way back, with the headlight beam of an oncoming vehicle they had a glimpse of the cops waiting to catch traffic offenders. (Not the cops with rifles and traffic motorbikes.) Already one motor cyclist was stopped and being questioned. The dude throttled back and was about to surrender to the fate when Thilaké said,

“Dude you don’t stop. Just pretend you didn’t see them. I’ll see to the rest.”

Assured by Thilaké’s words dude whizzed by ignoring the cop’s signal to stop. A shrill whistle followed. Then  a voice bawled, “Halt!” A powerful flashlight was beamed to light up the rear end runaway bike and the riders. 

Back at Thilaké’s place the dude was grumbling.
“Now see dude. That was a stupid thing to have done. They would have noted my number plate. Now I’ll have to go to the courts. I should have stopped and talked my way out of it. All because of your stupid advice…I gotta be crazy to have listened to you...”

“Heh heh heh, don’t talk bullshit, man. What number plate? Number plate was in my sarong. Actually I’d lifted my sarong and covered the number plate tail light and everything.” He paused for a high five and continued. “But by any chance if you stopped, they’d surely have stripped me of the sarong, too.”

I warn you dudes who read this. “PLEASE DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME. THESE STUNTS ARE PERFORMED BY TRAINED PROFESSIONALS, BLAH BLAH BLAH.” And that is the Disclaimer.


Now to the main story. Another night Thilaké met a dude on the road who wanted to hitch a ride. (Now don’t ask why all his stories are night stories) Thilaké told him,

“Machan, I need to go to that funeral house over there, too. Won’t you get late?”

The guy said it was quite okay and got onto the back quite happily. Too happily for Thilaké’s liking which made Thilaké wonder. Ah hah! The road runs by the cemetery after a few kilometers. The dude is scared to go alone.

Near the funeral house Thilaké parked the bike and asked the guy to be with the bike till he pays a visit to the funeral. He agreed.

After about 15 minutes Thilaké returned and they started the journey. As they were nearing the cemetery the dude realized that Thilaké is unusually silent.

He inquired,
 “Hey, Thilaké,  why are you so silent, dude?”

Now they were passing the cemetery.
Haah Haah Haah,” 

Thilaké made an eerie laugh. Dude froze. Cold sweat broke out of his forehead. What he heard next made his blood curdle.

“...What makes you think I’m Thilaké?”

 
Dude nearly wet his pants. The still functioning part of his brain told him the real Thilaké could still be at the funeral house. And this creature also came from the direction of the funeral house and he remembered he actually hadn’t even seen his face properly in the dark. Or had he?

“Oh please Thilaké, please. Stop it. You are kidding, aren’t you? That’s a sick joke, dude.”

The guy was almost in tears, begging. Thilaké told us later he actually felt sorry for him and gave up the sick joke to the utmost relief of the dude.



The Sinhala version of this post is blogged simultaneously at මට හිතෙන හැටි

Sunday, August 21, 2011

11. I updated "Dudes, Ever Watched A 7D Movie? Not 3D! Wow!!"

Hi, I updated the post  "Ever Watched A 7D Movie? Not 3D!  Wow!!" with these  four new photos
The Other 7D Movies Displayed Above the Door in the Lobby.

This Is the Ticket for the 7D Movie we watched "The Lost Island"

In the Lobby. You can see an employee watching the audience on the TV screen.

The Name Of the Movie We Watched "затерянный остров"  . It means  Lost Island  .
.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

10. LABOR PAINS 3 - LABOR SCREAMS IN MULTI LANGUAGES





She was having her first baby. As was the custom those days it was a home delivery. Hey, I mean not in a hospital, child birth at home. The top ranking gynecologist attending was actually a family friend of the husband who was a high ranking diplomat who has served in many European capitals. The wife was in the bedroom having contractions at regular intervals watched closely by the nurses. A bunch of relatives and friends were gathered in the living room . The gynecologist was having a friendly chat with the expectant husband who seemed very edgy and was already hitting the bottle – as was the custom again I think. 

The wife though was from a rural aristocratic family was now well traveled and spoke a number of European languages fluently. 

Suddenly the conversation was interrupted by the scream from the bedroom.

“Oh, my God! Help me please!!”

The husband jumped to his feet with concern written all over his face. The gynecologist remained seated. He shook his head knowingly and said,
“Sit down, Sam. Not yet.”
Sam sat down reluctantly but in a little while another shrill scream, this time in French reverberated through the closed bedroom door.

“Mon Dieu,oooooooh!! Aidez-moi, sil vous plaît !!!”  
  
Sam shot back to his feet. Doc shook his head with the usual nonchalance which was now beginning to irritate Sam.
“Sam, take it easy dude. I’ll tell you when it’s really serious.”
Sam lowered back into the couch. Now the drink was forgotten. 

“O Mein Gott!!! Helfen Sie mir bitte!!”, came the scream now in German. Doc remained detached. Sam was now losing his head and was cursing himself for the choice of the attending gynecologist.

Another pause and then,
“Ooooh Mio Dio, Aiutatemi per favore!!!” 

 The ear splitting scream in Italian made even the men waiting around jittery.
“Doctor, now I think you gotta do something,” said Sam his face pale, drained of blood.
“Sam, bro, believe me.” Said the doc,  “I know the real thing when I hear it. You leave it to me. Have another drink. Looks like you need one.”

Even though Sam didn’t show it now he was infuriated at the gynecologist’s snobbish attitude. A few minutes passed without incident.

¡Oh Dios mío!! Ayúdame põr favore!!” 

Aww! This time in Spanish! Still the doctor is unimpressed.

A gynecologist with an attitude! What a nerve! Sam wasn’t going to put his loving wife through this. He was going to call another doctor. This son of a bitch isn’t the only doctor around. Sam was dialing the phone furiously when everybody heard the final call from the bedroom, but this time definitely not of European origin. It was in pure exotic Sinhala, the once mother tongue, long forgotten.


බුදු අම්මෝ!! මට බැරියෝ!! මා බේරා ගනියෝ!!

The gynecologist shot up. “And that’s it dude. This is the real deal. Okay, see you then!!” and with a wave of  his hand the doctor hurried towards the bedroom door.



Click here read LABOR PAINS 2 - , “OK Ladies, Don’t Say I Didn’t Warn You”

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

9. LABOR PAINS 2 - , “OK Ladies, Don’t Say I Didn’t Warn You”


It was the peak times of the Women’s Lib Movement.  A group of activists went to see The Creator to submit a petition. It said that the women strongly felt that it was very unfair for only the women having to undergo the labor pains. It was a miscarriage of justice and they wanted the men responsible to suffer the labor pains, not only the innocent women. The Creator tried His best to make the women see the light, but they were so much set on their cause they refused to budge. After the classical warning, “Okay ladies, don’t say I didn’t warn you”, the wish was granted. Women walked away triumphant.

Everything seemed to be going fine. And then this woman was about to deliver the baby. She was obviously in no pain, and all the folks who gathered to watch this historical moment were watching the husband.  The dude was already hitting the bottle to deaden the pain he was supposed to get.


Now the contractions were getting closer and closer but the dude was taking it pretty cool sipping his drink. He seemed to be riding the pain so well, the other expectant husbands who were in the crowd noted the brand of liquor for them to stock up.

Now the baby was crowning and the dude was grinning.
“I don’t feel a thing, bro!” he stammered in his drunken stupor.


It was then everybody heard the ear piercing scream from the next door. Everybody ran out to see the guy next door was screaming on the lawn writhing in pain!!


Epilogue: An emergency Women’s Lib meeting was called immediately and it was unanimously agreed upon to appeal to the Creator to reverse the changes back into the good old ways of the good old days. This was done with the classical statement, "I told you so."  The default setting was selected and saved. 

Now women have labor pains again.
Click here read LABOR PAINS 1- The Pregnant Dude
Please come back tomorrow at the same for the LABOR PAINS 3 - LABOR SCREAMS IN MULTI-LANGUAGES – my favorite story of the three.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

8. LABOR PAINS 1- The Pregnant Dude




Once a newly married young dude who was so deeply in love with his pregnant wife wanted to share the labor pains she was going to have at her first child birth. The gynecologist who listened to him with a professional thin lipped smile on his kind face nodded understandingly, and said that he really admired the his spirit. But when he kept on pestering the doc realized that this was something more than just infatuation.

“We need to share everything Doc.”

“But, there’s no way you can share this. It’s absurd!”

“She is undergoing this because of me…!”

“Nice attitude, but I’m sure she’s happy to bear up the pain on your behalf.”

“Doctor please… I’m begging you! I want to experience this!”

“It’s not humanly possible.”

Finally the Gynecologist gave up. After the classical warning, “OK then, don’t say I didn’t warn you”, he asked the intern he worked with to suture up dude’s anus and give him a powerful laxative.

Two hours later, the he was screaming his head off, nursing his bloated midsection when the Gynecologist entered the room.  Dude with streaming eyes and contorted face was begging the stitches to be removed, which was immediately done.
Later the Gynecologist told the dude, “Okay, that’s it. I see both of us made our points. But just let me tell you that the pain you underwent is only a fraction of what the real labor pain is.”

Epilogue: Now women folks don’t be alarmed about this because this is just an anecdote. My cousin has already told me that her toothache was much worse than her labor pains.
Epi-Epilogue: And this is a package of 3 stories. Even though I originally thought of writing all three at once my partner said that it would be too long. So I’ll publish it in three consecutive days. See you tomorrow.

 
henryblogwalker Dude on ANECDOTES THAT ROCKED US.

Friday, August 12, 2011

7. Ever Watched A 7D Movie? Not 3D! Wow!!

Have you ever watched a 7D Movie. Well dudes, I haven’t. My big kid Hiru who studies in a far away country did. She came online to chat two days ago. This is how it went.




Hiruni: hellooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Thaththaa, Amma, Malleeee,
Hiruni  is online.
Henry: hello
Hiruni: here TODAY WE WATCHED THE 7 D MOVIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW
thats the best movie experience ever
Henry: that's what we told you not to miss it…….


And that was how it started. She was so thrilled and was freaking out, I asked her to write it in a word doc right away while the memory was still fresh, and email it to me without smothering me with details, which she did. She’s always been one of my favorite writers. You’ll see what I mean.
It had been us the other day who had asked her to go and see what a 7D movie is like when she said about that. She was a bit reluctant and said it was not worth it as the running time is only 20 minutes which cost as much as a standard length movie. She finally went to see it with her best friend just because we were insisting.
And here is the account she wrote in a Word Doc and mailed to me as it is , unedited in its original form.


The Other 7D Movies Displayed Above the Door in the Lobby.

This Is the Ticket for the 7D Movie

In the Lobby. You can see an employee watching the audience on the TV screen.

The Name Of the Movie We Watched "затерянный остров"  . It means  Lost Island.


The Day We Watched A 7D Movie. Wow!!

A  7D  MOVIE! What on earth was 7D. I spent around 2 hours last night trying to figure it out and still couldn’t come up with any reasonable concept. I have watched the3D Movie “Avatar”. Three Dimensions I understand. What are 7 dimensions? Could it be that we can see the internal organs, this is the last idea that crossed my mind before I drifted to sleep. And this morning I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep due to the fear of oversleeping and missing the movie.
We reached the cinema around 10. 00 am. The neon lights sported the word 7D and a pair of specs in blue and red. It reminded me of Las Vegas. Anyway to my amazement there was just another small boy and his mom. The little guy had a huge Pepsi bottle and a can of popcorn tucked under his arm.  I asked the lady where to buy the tickets and she answered me in Russian that the lady at the ticketing counter will arrive soon. 
I took a sneak peek into the hall. The first thought that crossed my mind was that this was the planetarium that we were taken to so often on field trips as kids. There were so few seats and the screen was curved and it was a bit bigger than our living room. 

Then this boy came and switched on a TV that was outside the hall and guess what we can see all the chairs from outside. In other words we [ the spectators ] were on screen for the people who pass by the film hall. 

There were around 12 movies shown on the ticketing booth and we didn’t know which we were gonna watch. Then finally this girl came and sold us our tickets. The mom and the son were first to go.  They were each handed in a pair of specs. And then we approached her and she asked us what we wanted to watch and we promptly answered that whatever was shown was what we wanted to watch. Then she handed us two tickets and told us to go to seat row no. 2. We found ourselves seated right next to the mom and the son. On the row of seats in front of us we saw nozzles which we later understood the purpose of. Then all of a sudden the lights dimmed. And the sponsors were advertised, just some astronaut thing. And the letters were right in front of me I could reach out and touch them. And then it all began…………………..
There was this animated guy in a plane. Soaring over all these lush green lands and suddenly something goes wrong with his plane and it begins to swing and go all over like crazy. I felt dizzy and nauseous as I realized that we too were falling. Falling and swaying down down, down. And then bang. We crashed to the ground. I was nearly thrown out of my chair as we landed. I heard the little boy scream.
 And then we stood up and started walking through the jungle. The leaves were everywhere and so were the branches. I could touch them and every time I did my hand passed right through them. And I had to duck and bend just to save my head from hitting the branches and twigs. 
Then we came across some elephants. They put their trunks just near my face and I could touch them. And I would have if they hadn’t taken some water from the pond they were in and sprayed it right over me. I am not lying by the time we passed the elephants our faces were dripping water! It was so cool. 

Then we came to this spot with the butterflies and they were so colorful and flying just in front of my eyes and were coming up from behind me. It felt as if though I was somewhere else, somewhere like heaven. I touched so many of them. It was the closest I’ve ever gotten to live butterflies. 


Then came the leopard. Just like that. Out of nowhere. We ran and ran for our lives. Trudging and ducking to avoid being slapped in the face by branches and we ran up the wide branches of the trees, up and up tilting this way and that way.  It reminded me of the Tarzan video game I used to play with my little bro. And all the while the leopard was thumping and jumping and landing with such terrific shudders that the earth vibrated and rumbled beneath our feet. Then finally we were safe and it was night. 

It was then the fireflies came out. I touched about two or three of them. And then came the part when I nearly passed out. Well almost. There were the frogs. They were on the leaves and sticking their tongues out. And alas then they just jumped out and began crawling up our legs. Believe me they really really did crawl up our legs. I screamed and took my legs up onto the chair. And I heard a commotion to my right and saw that the little boy too has freaked out. They were just squirming up my legs. 

Then to my utmost relief that part ended and it was day time. They showed an area full of skulls guarded by this huge gigantic python. I was so glad we were not in that territory. But how was I to know that my relief was short lived? And we started our walk to find some help, any help. A flock of birds just passed us and the wind that followed their wake blew at our faces. We had to tilt away to miss their beaks piercing our eyes. 
It was then we came to the land of the skulls. And oh my God! There were these daggers coming right at our eyes. Swishing past us with the wind following their wake blowing right at us. They were coming straight at us. This way and that way and we were ducking all along to avoid them. I was so scared believe me I really expected one to hit me in the head! 

Then one of the skulls tilted forward and out of it came one rat. Then two and three. And they jumped straight at us, baring their sharp, pointy teeth all the while. And then it was happening again. They started climbing up our trouser legs. Climbing and climbing. Once again my feet were on the chair and I was almost running out of the hall. 
Then when I thought I had seen it all, the giant python started sliding. It was so huge. It unwrapped itself and then looked directly at me. Just at me. It recoiled and then with great vengeance it lunged forward at me!!!!!!!! Right in my face. Right there. Then it recoiled once again and lunged back at me. If in any case I had some heart problem it would have been it for me. I would have rested in peace then and there. Then it was the end. 

Oh no, not yet. Not at all. The ground beneath us started to cave in and we were falling and falling and falling. I just wanted to throw up. We were tilted this way and that way and then once again we landed with such jarring impact I nearly spat out my heart. It was such a harsh landing. 

Then was it over? No. The land once again tilted and everything around us came crashing down. The mountains, the rocks the trees. Absolutely everything.  And the Earth beneath our feet was rumbling and quivering. And we were tilted and were falling, down down down into the lava. Yes. This was it. It was how it was all going to end. And when we were just about to touch the flames that were coming up from the great depths of the Earth, we landed on a wedge of rock that was protruding from a mountain. 

And then we heard the nicest sound in the world. A chopper. Right there to save us. But were we to be saved that easily?  No way. The wedge of rock started crumbling, giving away chunk by chunk. We were running back. Then at the same moment a ladder was thrown out of the chopper. It was there right in front of my face. The rungs so inviting and I stretched my hands to catch it. And so did Jo Jo. The guy who was me all this time. The guy who crash landed. The animated guy who took me through all the terror. 

And we were safely rescued from all the horrors of the unknown land. And then the names were cast. And the lights came back on. And the little boy still had his Pepsi and pop corn in his hands, untouched. He looked at his mom with bewilderment! 

Yes it was over. The best 20 minutes any movie watcher can ever have. A 20 minutes I will not  trade for 1 hour 45 minutes of any movie I’ve ever watched. It was all over. I wonder how much the little boy managed to see through his fingers which were covering his face all the while. The fingers his mom was trying to pry away and show him what was happening.
 
And as we were coming out the lady at the counter took back our specs and asked us if we had enjoyed the movie. Had we enjoyed it? She already knew the answer as she could see us on the TV outside! It was an experience of a life time. We determined to see the rest of the 12  7D MOVIES, too.



So that was the end of it. Anyway when I referred back to the chat that I had saved it explained how some of those effects are made with strips of rubber, water sprinklers and the works. I’m also dying to see one dude!!
Well if you already have dudes, why don’t you write about it in a comment and post it?

Prologue: And I watched one later at the same place with the whole family.