David's Tangled Thoughts

I was a kid living in the Philippines. My white American father met my mother here in San Fernando during his first assignment.  This particular story occurs during his second assignment there.  Most of the time I was out in town, I either with my mother, grandmother, or aunt.  I have very few memories of my father being with me in town. One day--it had to have been shortly before his assignment was up--he took me into town to get some errands done.  He parked the car and I grabbed a pin.  I want to say that the pin was of an American flag.  More likely, I think it was off one of my dad's uniforms.  The point is that whatever it depicted, it drew attention to the fact that I was an American.  He told me that it was not safe to wear and that I would have to leave it. At the time I complied.  I had heard some hazy conversations about some threats.  Something do with a service member getting stabbed and attacked.  Whether that was actually true, I don't know--it was just som

...Okay, really, I still do. Over the weekend, I had the pleasure to watch Gravity .  I found myself on the edge of my seat for most of the movie as it was so intense.  It was visually stimulating and a real emotional driver, especially at the end of it. Even if it does seem like another simple survival story punctured with factual errors, I join the ever growing chorus of netizens  and recommend you see this movie. ***SPOILER ALERT*** There are essentially two characters in this movie: astronauts Ryan Stone ( Sandra Bullock ) and Matt Kowalski (George Clooney).  Disaster strikes when their space shuttle is destroyed, contact with Houston is cut off, and they must find a way to get back home. It's a very intense movie. Within the first few minutes we see the shuttle destroyed. Ryan is flung off into space. (If it was me, I'd have already lost all hope and resigned myself to death.) You might have wondered if we were about to watch 80 more minutes of her tumbling ou