Dear Snow,

I will always love you – no matter the season or the time that passes while you are away. Do not focus on the angry words of others, they cannot see your true beauty. They focus too deeply on their own discomfort, their warped idea of a perfect world. They cannot see the magic, the perfection in every snowflake. They ignore the sparkle, the purity, in favor of a derisive glance.

You bring balance, and peace, into a busy harried life – and a smile to my face each day you are here.

I would not keep you against your will, but do not forget to come back again. You are my inspiration.

Sincerely,
A Dreamer

Supporting local businesses is more than just a common courtesy. Support a local business and you are putting your money back into the community that you live in rather than into the hands of some corporation that already has enough to buy a few third world countries.

Supporting a local business cuts down on the overhead and transportation costs, especially if their product is created locally. Buying locally grown or manufactured products also eases the impact of your purchase on the environment. Fewer modes of transportation involved means less noxious gases will be poisoning our air.

If you can, support the local, the young, the talented. If you really need a previous movie deal and a 50 million dollar storefront location to convince you to spend your money – you’ve gone way past the point of what really matters.

The little people make this country great – the big fish bleed it dry.

There is such a monumental difference between writing for art and writing for money.

Copy needs to be clear and concise. Even simple. With short sentences.

If you want people to buy the product you are selling, they need to have no doubt in their mind about what it is, and what it can do for them. You will undoubtedly lose both them and the sale they represent if there is even a hint of confusion. Copywriters are even advised to use the smallest, most common words they can. And never must you write anything controversial – the risk of damaging the company name is just too great.

Literature on the other hand, is a completely different story. The critics want to be able to analyze, and critique – as is their nature, pulling out meaning and subtleties wherever they can.

I am inclined to think that authors are rarely as clever and intentionally cryptic as they are given credit to be.

However, literature – as opposed to the modern diarrhoea of words that pervade our life and stare greedily at our money – thrives in controversy. The flaws in the human race. If mankind were perfect then surely our literature would be as mundane as the copy that most of us ignore.

Literature, as the critics would have it – and copy, that corporations love, span either side of a great divide. It is only somewhere in the middle that the works that truly have meaning to the majority of the literate can be found.

Entertain, Amaze, Convince.

That is their goal. They elicit an emotional response in a reader in such a way that it is not accompanied by doubt or confusion. At the same time you are not irritated by the lack of genuine thought.

A story that is capable of drawing the reader in to such a depth that they forget they are reading is the pinnacle of all literary accomplishments.

I would rather write for love, for hopes and dreams, for the possibility of the perfect story.

Because you see, when you write for money – money is all you gain.

“No. It must be this way.” States the belligerent tone of the Experienced. “It must, for it always has been.”

“Change is the way of humanity, of the future.” says the Young Blood, “With this we can flourish. Become better.”

“It is a risk,” counters the Ageless One, “we should go with what we know.”

“We shall never grow.” sighs the voice of Change.

6:15 am – Day starts great. I’m up early. And it’s Friday.

6:35 am – Toilet is flushed. Murphy’s Law is active. Toilet overflows even though it only contained liquid.

6:40 am – I discover the clothing I had picked out for the day is covered in toilet water

6:50 am – Discover the toilet water leaked in massive amounts into the basement. Contaminated my clean laundry.

6:51 am – Realize that all my jeans that fit are now very much unable to be worn.

6:52 am – Begin pulling on a ‘spare’ pair of jeans.

6:55 am – Successfully pull the jeans on and find out they are about 4 inches too tight.

6:56 am – I wince a great deal.

6:58 am – I chug my coffee because I’m suddenly running out of time.

6:59 am – Put socks on. Can’t breathe while bending over due to the tightness of my jeans.

7:00 am – I feel fat. Very very uncomfortable – and fat.

7:05 am – I leave for work.

7:15 am – I realize I left my lunch on the counter, and there isn’t enough time to turn around and get it.

TFIF.

It’s late so I’m keeping this review short and to the point.

Terrible movie.

That is it in a nutshell ladies and gentlemen. Aside from the few humorous scenes, all of which derive their entertainment from the slapstick genre of humor, this movie leaves a lot to be desired.

The only reason why it wasn’t a complete waste of money is the ketchup popcorn I am currently munching on.

Stars? One out of five. Just cause I’m feeling nice.

In keeping with the Disney theme of the last post, I had to make a short rant about the ‘Disney Vault’.
As lucrative as it must be for them when they finally re-release one of their classics, it means that children will miss out on great movies when they are at their prime ‘Disney Movie’ age. A very unfortunate occurrence if you ask me.

That being said I will being one of those contributing to their disturbing amount of income as I will be purchasing ‘Beauty and the Beast’ the very instant it is released.

/post inspired by the preview for ‘Beauty and the Beast’ shown on the ‘The Princess and the Frog’ dvd.

To my surprise this cartoon did a decent job returning to the style of the Disney classics that we all know and love. The story is entertaining and humorous, and the few sad moments do not detract from the overall enjoyment of the film.

The characters created were surprisingly unique in many aspects. Perhaps my favourite being Louis, the jazz loving, plump, swamp gator. They did a great job of emphasizing the culture of New Orleans in the early 1900’s. The only character that was extremely empty was Laurence, the manservant of the prince. Despite his important role in the scheme of things he was poorly developed and the movie ended with little real knowledge of his motivation.

Aside from a few minor technical errors it was easy to enjoy, even for an adult. There are a few scenes that would be rather frightening to smaller children, and I find myself a little disappointed that they did not scale them back just a smidgen.

However, with that minor warning to parents I would heartily recommend The Princess and the Frog as a cartoon worth watching. I have no doubt that it will join the ranks of the Disney Classics.

The tomato is one of those organics that pretends and masquerades in an abominable way.

It spins its tale as a vegetable, though the enlightened know that it is really a fruit under its lies.

The only solution I have discovered is to either transform it into a liquid, or cover it in small granules of black and white till the red of its deception no longer shows.

Viva Salt & Pepper!

In the days of super easy connectivity, it is a simple task to get distracted by all the different ways we can interact with people.

If you truly want to get some writing done without all the distractions then of course the best way is to unplug yourself from the internet (or disable your wireless) and go somewhere with no people, no flashing lights and no noise.

However, if you find yourself unable to take such extreme measures, there are other – less rash options available. One of them, is of course, the reason for this post.

It’s a small program called Dark Room (http://bit.ly/cbCIQv). It has no fancy text features and as a word processor it has about the same capabilities as Notepad. No grammar checks, no spelling. No Fonts. No Size changes.

But when you open it, it sets to full screen, hiding even your task bar. All that remains is you, and your text. Everything else is still there in the background, i-tunes – your internet. But you don’t see them any more. It is very easy to get lost in the words with this program.

So even though this same effect would be very easy to achieve by simply using notepad and closing down everything else – the process of downloading a new program and using a brand new interface is surprisingly helpful.

The flow of writing isn’t interrupted by green and red underlines – you just write, and worry about those later.

As an added bonus for the monetary challenged writers out there – it’s completely free!

Try it today, 100% satisfaction guaranteed or your money back….