I watched "The Rite" recently. That's right, I watched a demonic possession and exorcism movie based on a true story.
Starring Anthony Hopkins as Father Lucas and an unknown Colin O'Donoghue, at least to me, as a young man Michael Kovak who left home in search of his calling. The movie traced his journey from an initial skeptic till the end when he eventually overcame his own disbelief and embraced his status as Father Kovak in real life.
His lack of faith and his disbelief in God and Devil brought him all the way to Rome to attend a class on exorcism. After meeting Father Lucas in the suburbs, he witnessed how the latter conducted various sessions of exorcism on victims with demonic possession and still thought it was all a hoax. After one of the young girl victim died, he was even more disillusioned and all ready to leave since he felt there was nothing he could do and that the victims needed psychiatric help more than anything else.
His test came when Father Lucas was possessed by a demon, who tried to challenge the young priest. Due to the dire circumstances, he had no choice but to perform the first exorcism of his life and cast out the demon from the body of Father Lucas after regaining his faith in the religion, and belief in the existence of a God and a Devil.
While there weren't much special effects, I guess such movies are not meant for the weak heart. Demonic possession and exorcism are not things to be taken lightly and it is not something we usually see in our daily lives. Whether one believes it or not depends on one's experiences but if one comes across it, I am sure it is not a pleasant sight to stomach.
Anyway, I love Anthony Hopkins's acting in the movie and once again, it shows how good an actor he is. A link on the movie is below:
Why so glum, you little schnauzer?
For months now, this landscape reminded me of snow because of the white colour flowers and variegated leaves. Some of these plants were posted by me before and one plant is noticeably missing although it is on the site. The one that is missing in action is the white flower Oxalis. The others are:
I think this is the Mimosa diplotricha (common name: Giant Sensitive Plant; Family: Fabaceae / Leguminosae) and in my opinion, it is so beautiful with its nice leaf texture and cute tiny pink flowers.
The new team transplanted this bonsai-looking Hamelia into this pot at the Golden Garden and I think it is a wonderful idea. What is lacking now is the cascading groundcover at the base of the plant.
This post is supposed to be about the Dark Glassy Tiger (scientific name: Parantica agleoides agleoides; Family: Nymphalidae) but I couldn't resist taking a photo of the Plain Tiger (scientific name: Danaus chrysippus chrysippus) on the Lantana camara.
Coincidentally, I just realised that today on 22.2.11 at about 2:22 pm, we had an informal learning and sharing session and the turnout was overwhelming with about 200 people. What a coincidence I wonder? 
Ever since the crystal shrimps died, the aquarium was quiet with hardly any life. Recently, the aquarium short-circuited and all the electrical switches in the house were suddenly turned off. It happened on one of those days before I went out to work. So I had the tank cover removed and disposed off.
This roof garden has been around for a while now. It has been planted with a whole range of plants e.g. Tradescantia discolor (synonym: Rhoeo discolor; common name: Boat Lily, Oyster Plant; Family: Commelinaceae), Ananas bracteatus (common name: Red Pineapple; Family: Bromeliaceae), Agave and Sansevieria trifasciata (common name: Mothers-in-law Tongue; Family: Ruscaceae/Agavaceae), that are drought tolerant.
This is a small tree version of the Ochna I posted recently. Known as Ochna integerrima (common name: Vietnamese Mickey Mouse Plant; Family: Ochnaceae), the ones planted at HortPark's Floral Stitches have an almost non-existent crown with few leaves. One of them was in flower recently and these are the photos taken just days ago.
