Operation Write Home Sketch Challenge #95

I am very excited about participating in Operation Write Home. This group is made up of crafters who make handmade greeting cards to send to members of the Armed Forces. The soldiers use these cards to send to their loved ones back home. My goal is to make 10 cards a month to send to Operation Write Home.

I made this card for the OWH Sketch Challenge #95. I was given a pattern to use as I designed the card.

I made this card with a "Friendly Alien" stamp from Stampabilities. I stamped the image onto a piece of watercolor paper and colored it with Copic Sketch markers and Marvy markers. I mounted the image on striped patterned paper.

I embellished the card with cotton baker's twine at the top. I made a flower from matching patterned paper with a punch from Paper Studio. The center of the flower was punched from felt.
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District 9 - A Movie Review

When I choose a movie to watch, I usually pick a comedy, romance or biography. I do not consider shooting, killing, bombing, torture and screaming my kind of entertainment. I see enough of that kind of stuff on the evening news - I don't need to pay money to watch it on the big screen.

However, yesterday I decided to move out of my comfort zone and see District 9. I decided to see this movie for the following reasons;

• It was Supersaver Tuesday at my local movie theatre and I had a coupon for a free bag of popcorn.
• District 9 was the only adult movie with good reviews showing at the theatre that I usually go to ( I have already seen Julie & Julia and The Time Traveler's Wife.)
• Curiosity.

District 9 is a realistic science fiction story. The movie begins by telling how an alien spaceship became stranded over Johannesburg, South Africa, over twenty years ago. The aliens have been living in a compound that has become a filthy, atrocious slum. This compound is called "District 9".

The Johannesburg bureaucrats decide to evict the aliens from District 9 and move them to District 10, a camp outside the city. Wikus van de Merwe is in charge of evicting and moving the aliens.

Wikus is a happily married family man but he is a real goofus in his dealings with the aliens. He goes door-to-door trying to convince the aliens to sign an eviction notice. He seems to really care about the welfare of the aliens but he is soon overshadowed by the military zealots who are only interested in shooting, beating and killing the aliens.

I usually favor the underdogs in a story like this and I soon found myself rooting for the aliens. Poor Wikus was accidently sprayed by a mysterious black chemical that he found in an alien's house. He realizes that he is slowly turning into an alien.

Wikus is now the hunted instead of the hunter. He is forced to swallow a huge dose of his own medicine. There is more than enough Rambo-style shooting, killing, bombing and screaming in the rest of the movie. Sigh...

This movie has a strong message about human cruelty and prejudice. The aliens were persecuted because they were different...they had no voice and they had no choice.

MOVIE RATING: 3.5 STARS (Out of 4 Stars)