Alpen-The Ultimate Lookbook

It was a sorrowful Sunday morning in the hospital when the rain stopped. It’s funny isn’t it? How a rainbow symbolizes happiness, but a blood-curdling scream was heard at the end of the hospital.

“We’ve tried everything but even though he’s alive, he won’t be able to do anything as his body has shut down,” the man with the long white coat said before he cleared his throat. ”We’re going to have to shut down his life support”

“There must be something you can do! There mu-“, the fresh tears of the woman halted her ability to speak. She rubbed the sweat from her forehead away as she tried to catch her breath.

She looked at the doctor desperately with her tired red eyes. “Can I please just say a proper goodbye?”

The doctor nodded.

She walked slowly towards the room completely drained of strength; unable to twist the doorknob open she collapsed on the floor. There, she saw her husband lying on the bed with his eyes shut. She glanced at him and stared at his hospital plastic bracelet, wishing that the patient’s name “Tucker Wilkinson” would change into somebody else’s. Suddenly, an insane idea popped into her head. She pulled out her phone and dialed a number. She rose from the floor, using all her strength to force herself up. She walked to her husband’s limp body and waited for the call to pick up.

“Make sure he’s breathing” the woman whispered through her disposable mask, holding the portable life support. She is now dressed in the same uniform as other nurses, walking alongside Tucker underneath a sheet on the gurney.

The male orderly pushing the gurney gave the thumbs up.

As the same doctor who patted her shoulder walked on a different direction, she grasped the handle of the gurney and she sped up.

“Again, why are we doing this?” he whispered. “Apparently the doctor said that only his body is shutting down, in spite of that, his brain is still working”. 

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Not far away from the hospital, there was a house of the Wilkinsons. It didn’t look like the house a famous IT engineer would have, but they liked living the ordinary lifestyle. At the edge of the house, a room was filled with a bunch of old computers, cables and IT tools.

“Liv,” the blonde man with the male orderly uniform sighed. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

“Ye- Of course, Seth. Don’t you want him to still be he- with us? He was a big mind and we don’t want to lose him.” she talked too fast that she choked on her words.

“Liv, Brain-computer interface is a collaboration between a brain and a device that enables signals from the brain to direct some external activity, he is not some kind of a machine!”

“But they can actually enable his mind to speak-“

“Through the words on screen.”

She wrinkled her forehead and sighed helplessly. “Please”.

Seth sighed and looked at her, thinking. He opened his mouth and rolled his eyes. “Sure thing”.

Nights passed, an empty coffee packet lay on the floor, and 34 cables are all tied up on the bald man on the table on his head, all 34 cables locked up in 3 computers. From all the nights that they had been working on, a night was made.

At 4:05 am Friday morning, they woke up to the sound of a computer.

 “Is anyone there?” a green line on the black screen popped up.

The feeling of happiness and excitement combined together. She held up the webcam and laid it down the table. “Liv, I can see you”, the exact same heavy voice of Tucker laughed nervously. “Where am I? Why can’t I move around?” his voice seemed to struggle. Olivia pursed her lips. “Your body system has shut down. But you’re now here, like how we’ve planned to be with each other forever” she smiled. “Now, I need you to get me on school database, wall street, social media an-“, before he could finish the sentence, his friend had shut the computer. “It’s not him, Liv. Two minutes coming up alive, and he already wanted to connect to Wall Street? Does it sound anything like Tucker? I have known him long enough and he’s not anything like someone who wants to rule the world.” the line had been an opening to an argument scene for hours, and at last, Seth took his bag and left with his shoulders down.

                 

A few moments later a group of police officers knocked the front door of the gigantic lab of the Wilkinsons. “Run!” the green line had pop up on the computer screen. Liv packed her backpack and wore it around her shoulders. “Copy all the files to my phone and delete them”, she whispered as she tried to manage her breathing. “I already have”, his raspy voice replied. She rushed to her dusty car and started the engine. All of sudden, her phone let out a beep, she pulled out her phone, which says, “I have put down your reservation in this hotel, and I’ve arranged the payment”, then just in a blink of an eye, the GPS located a hotel, hidden behind an unused building.

Tucker and Liv had a strong bond and connection. It all began in a research center, their second home. Seth used to tease Tucker and told him that she’s out of his league. He was a love struck for her and he would risk anything just to see her alluring dimples. “What’s your dream?” Tucker would always ask, wishing that her answer would change one time. “I want to create a better world. Don’t you just want this world to be filled with only good people in it?”

Five years later, year passes by, Tucker’s power grew stronger and stronger. But also, the world have been much better ever since Tucker have changed. ‘New Texas’ newspaper have changed criminal issues into the increasing line of economy. The people of the city were clueless, but their happiness has made them forgot about what’s actually happening.

“Would you like some more wine?” said a polished haired man on the huge monitor. “Tucker, have you heard about Seth?” Liv rested her shoulders on the luxury white couch. “Hmm, let's see, he hadn’t been posting on Twitter, Instagram nor Facebook for the last five years. You know, he used to say how much he hated technology, but it’s his job”, he laughed smugly. Liv glanced at him and stared at her shoes. “Well he sent me a message. Handwri-“ in a heartbeat a group of masked men had crashed down the windows and took Olivia away.

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She woke up to find herself, all tied up in a dark place with a spotlight aiming at her direction. Her heart pounded so fast that it felt like it is about to jump out of her extremely sweaty body. “Let me go!” she yelled.  Fifty-nine pictures of well-known criminals showed up ahead of her. The dark place was not just a dark place. On the screen she saw a baldheaded old man who used to kidnap kindergarten students, next to him was a well-dress man who stole four billion dollars of tax money, followed by fifty-seven other villains. “Does it make any sense to you?” a familiar voice of a man called out. She titled her head. “Does it make any sense to you that all these people are killed with radiation?” the heavy voice replied. “Should we not worry about that?” she ended her question with a cough.

“Who killed all of these people? Must’ve been the one who have the access to every network in this world. It must’ve-“.

“My husband is not a murderer” tears fell upon her cheek.

“It’s not him, Liv. Your husband died five years ago”

“Seth?! Seth, Tucker is just making the world a better place for us to live”

“By playing God? Killing all these people? Measuring your hormones and planting all the trees? It’s not him. He doesn’t love you.”

“Then how do we stop him?”

“We can upload virus on him. But I don’t know how”

“Give me the virus. He can upload me”

“But you will di-“

“With the real Tucker. I’m the only one he trusts”

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She rushed to her condo as the old memories flashed into her mind. Everything is a lie. Who is that 24/7 guy in her condo who had given her expensive jewelry, food and shelter? If it was my dream to make a better world, shouldn’t that be Tucker? She thought to herself. A polished looking brown haired man with his tuxedo stood up after her eyes made her stop her steps. He looked so familiar. “Tucker?” she dropped her jaw as she was trying to catch her breath. The man looked deeply into her eyes and sighed helplessly, “Sorry it took a long time. I was just trying to make you feel comfortable. I was creating the Tucker you knew with the tissues and the hormones of the.. Seth showed you” he avoided her eyes. “It was really you?” her eyes were watery. He gripped her hand and closed his eyes, his veins contracting. “What are you doing?” she shrieked horrifically. “Uploading the virus. This is what you want, isn’t it?” he replied with his well-known raspy voice. She broke into tears, watching him slowly dying in pain, didn’t know how to stop his suffering. With his last breath, he said “It was always me all along”.

                                           

What I LOVE:

1. Louis describing the story clearly and realistically. 

2. Louis writing the words easily so that we kids can understand.

3. The way he described each characters; he was being realistic

4. The plot is very interesting.

5. The love story is great, which is not cheesy at all.

6. Louis knows how would teenagers react and feel to certain things.

7. He describes every scenery clearly and realistically, as if he've been through the situations.

8. The chapters are short, making the readers don't feel like reading it for a long time.
9. He knows what each characters would say.

What I Don't Really LOVE:

1. The ending is unclear.

2. I wish that Louis would describe more about Zero's case on finding his mother.

3. The cover of the book is not engaging.

‘War Horse’ is an insightful historical fiction film, based on the best-selling novel by Michael Morpurgo about a horse’s journey in World War I. The film is directed by Steven Spielberg, an Academy Award winner, who also directed films such as ‘E.T’, ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’, ‘Jurassic Park’ etc. The cast includes a breakout performance by Jeremy Irvine (Albert Narracott), Tom Hiddleston (Captain Nicholls), who is best known for his character Loki, in Thor and Benedict Cumberbatch (Major Jamie Stewart), who is also best known as Sherlock Holmes from the TV Series, “Sherlock”. The ‘War Horse’ film is set in a beautiful breezy place called Devon, in South England.

            The story begins with an unbreakable friendship between a loyal gallant brown horse called Joey and young tender Albert, who lives in a village, that trains him. Albert and his father, Ted Narracott, a heavy drinker and is also a veteran from the Second Boer War in South Africa, has an unpleasant relationship. When the war comes, the friendship of Albert and Joey is separated when Joey is taken for war. The film then leads us on a wonderful journey with Joey taking a look at sceneries in three different countries, England, Germany and France during the First World War. Will this condition utterly break the friendship or will it bring them back together?

            This film amazes me, though mostly, by the costumes. Joanna Johnston, an Academy Award winner in 2012, is very clever and has done an amazing job with designing the costumes for each country and basing them on each character. As an example, we can see that Ted Narracott, Albert’s father, is an alcoholic and he has never worn different clothes and hat in the entire film. It is no wonder that Steven Spielberg is fascinated by the work of Joanna, and built a good partnership with her as she worked with him in his other films like ‘Lincoln’, ‘Munich’, ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’. Apart from the costumes, I also admire Gary Rydstorm’s hard work in making the sound effects. There are so many sound effects in this film and they all sound really realistic. Using coins to make the sound of running horses and using nitrogen to make the sound of bombs has proven his brilliance in this film and made this film more realistic and believable.

I strongly recommend this movie because this movie has powerful and insightful features. Every part of the scene is enjoyable and you might not even blink during the movie. ‘War Horse’ is one of the best films that Spielberg has ever done. It will change the way think after watching this film as it will touch your heart and brings you joy to your heart. It is definitely worth seeing and is bound to be a box-office hit!

The movie started with a horse giving a birth to a fowl. It was a great moment so far until they had to sell the foal to the auction. Ted Narracott, the owner of the fowl didn’t want to sell it to the mayor, the Lyons. Even though Ted Narracott would have to figure out another way to pay for his rent in order for his family to live. So at the end of the auction, he bought his own fowl with 30 guineas. He got home with the fowl and his wife, Rosey, was mad at home for losing 30 guineas instead of getting money to pay for their rent. But instead his son, Albert was so happy because he really fancy the fowl and he promised his mother that he can teach the fowl to plough the land. After a few days, Albert taught him so many things and he finally came up with a name for the fowl, Joey. But soon, the Lyons asked the Narracotts for their money, but then in the moment of desperation, they begged the Lyons to give them more time to complete the money to pay for their rent.

Ted was so frustrated that he’d kill his own fowl that he bought for 30 guineas, but then Rosey and Albert stopped him and Rosey stopped him from drinking. The day after that, Albert and Joey have succeeded on doing the land. And soon Albert learned more about his father through Rosey, that his father was a hero, not just for the country, but also for the family and himself, he felt bad for killing people for years and he drank because he wanted to forget about the memory so bad. But the day after that, Albert couldn’t find Joey in the barn, and it was the day when England was preparing for the war. Albert ran long enough to find the fowl and he found him being sold to a person in the military, it was hard for Albert to let him leave at first, but then the person from the military promised that he’d take a good care of him. After a few days, it was the day where the war begun, England wasn’t prepared enough and Captain Nicholls, leaving Joey, himself running and he’s captured by the Germans, rivals of the English people.

Then soon, Joey was brought to two German teenagers, Michael and Gunther. The leader of the Germans group assigned Gunther, a 14-years-old kid to join the war, while he assigned Michael, his older brother to take care of the horses. Michael couldn’t accept the fact that his brother couldn’t join him to take care of the horses. Soon, he wished him luck and gave tied the Regimental Pennant that was with Joey before for good luck. But then it the pennant wasn’t just a lucky charm, but it was Michael’s plan of getting his brother out of the war. He brought the horses, Joey and Topthorn to runaway with his brother from the war. They found a windmill house to rest, but not for long enough, they were captured by the Germans and they were killed, leaving the horses inside the house. After the sun rises, a girl called Emilie found them and introduced them to her grandfather happily. Unfortunately, she was having a terrible sickness and her parents died because of the war. She was eager to ride horses, but her grandfather wouldn’t let her to ride them because he was so worried that she would fall and pass away. After a couple of days of Emilie building relationships with the horses, the German military team came over and took their supplies, but luckily they didn’t find the horses that day. That day. The next day, her grandfather let her to ride Joey for a short time, just going to the top and go back again. But then she’s not back when her grandfather proceeded to call her name more than once. When he checked for her, the military team captured her, and they took the horses.

The Germans didn’t treat the horses nicely; they were forced to carry heavy tanks without rest, and when a horse fell down because it became really tired, they would shoot them dead. Topthorn almost lost his life because he’s too tired, but luckily, one of the Germans, Heiggleman and Joey helped him to not get killed. After the tanks were brought them, they shot England a lot of times and so many areas were wrecked. After a few years later, it was Albert’s time to join the military because he’s big enough to join it. It was a war with trenches between England and Germany. Albert, his best friend, Andrew and David Lyons joined to war and David was told to stay in the trench and shoot people dead when he found them, but he was too afraid to do it, and he didn’t want to shoot people dead because he was too naïve to do it and instead, he joined the war. Albert also saved his rival, David Lyons. Luckily, Albert was save and he found Andrew alive, but soon a gas appear and Andrew was killed, while Albert was in medication because he was blinded from the gas.

            Looking back in Germany, Topthorn passed away because he was too tired to walk again. In all of sudden, a tank was coming their way and a few men dragged Heiglemann away from the horses, leaving the horses with the tank. Heiglemann insisted to bring them, but his friends told him to let them stay where they are. Joey was too devastated because his best friend passed away and he couldn’t do anything except to accompany him for a while. But the tank was targeting him and he could do nothing except to run to the safest place away from the tank. But the tank put him to the edge and he couldn’t run anywhere else except to get through the tank. The tank was an obstacle for him since he couldn’t jump. So instead, he walked on the tank and ran away until he reached no man’s land and he was trapped with wires sticking into his skin. It was a stalemate condition. The English men were watching him with their binocular and the Germans also saw him from the distance. They were both trying to call him using different sounds but a man from England brought the white flag, saying that he’s in peace, and his name was Colin. He tried to unlock the wires with a knife, but a German man came with a wire plier and unlocked all the wires. His name was Peter. They talked about giving the horse to whom. And finally, Colin was the one to bring him home.

            After the English military arrived in a shelter, Colin tried to ask the doctor to heal Joey’s legs but the doctor said that there’s nothing he could do about it except to shoot him. When he was about to really shoot him, he heard a certain whistle that brought Joey to the sound and Joey couldn’t be happier to finally find the boy who raised him with good care. Albert proved doctor that the horse belongs to him, even though his eyes were covered and he tried to use his memory to prove it. Then the doctor agreed to try his best to heal the Joey. The next day, at 11 am and two minutes, the war has officially ended and the English military were free to go. But sadly, Albert needed to lose Joey because he needed to be in the auction. His friends helped him by giving him all they have left and he couldn’t get him back because a man (Emilie’s grandpa) bought him with a lot of money Albert and his friends couldn’t afford. Unfortunately, Emilie’s grandpa lost Emilie because of her sickness. But at the end, Emilie’s grandpa gave Joey to Albert, even at the risk that he would have nothing left to accompany him. Albert was so happy to finally bring Joey home and met his parents back when the sun goes down.

          The movie has taught me for showing more empathy, the Lyons might not be the best people, but they gave the Narracotts more time to pay for their rent. The movie gave a good a outline of friendship, Albert couldn’t let Joey go at first and real friends wouldn’t let each other go after what they’ve been through, the movie also taught me to not give up at any circumstances, just like when Albert kept on cheering for Joey and he kept on doing the land until he hurt his legs. There were so many scenes that taught me for being loyal. Like when Rosey told Ted that she could hate him, but then she couldn’t love him less, that means she’s accepting him in any ways, even though they don’t have any more money and Ted is stubborn and a drinker. Albert also promised Joey that he’d look after him after the war has ended. The movie also taught me about trust. Albert trusted Joey so much that he thought that Joey can help his family with paying the rent, it doesn’t mean that he’s not thinking logically, but he thinks positively, but yet logical.