Copyright (c) 2009 Mary Lloyd

I’ve always believed in computers—if my kids were going to use them. I started buying them for my boys when my older son was 12—in 1981. But my personal commitment to computers is far more recent.

When I HAD to use them, I did. Batch cards on the mainframe at the university where I did my doctoral work. Word-processed progress reports when the corporation where I worked insisted. I took company training when I had to. And generally told myself, “yeah, but…” in terms of doing anything beyond the obvious.

When I left the corporate world to pursue writing novels, I finally started APPRECIATING my computer. And when I began writing screenplays, the specialized formatting software seemed like divine intervention on my behalf. My tech comfort index increased even more when I took classes online as part of a year-long graduate certificate screenwriting program from UCLA. I’d joined the ranks of the cyber-skilled.

Not really, but at least I’d made a key transition. I wanted MORE–to learn more, to do more, to be more effective with what my computer and the Internet offered.

When I got into writing non-fiction, I discovered that publishing details for the bibliography and background on people I wanted to quote were a lot easier to find online. Once the book was published, I learned my computer and access to the World Wide Web and social networking sites are essential marketing tools. Facebook. LinkedIn. Twitter. YouTube. Flickr. All resources and information conduits. But also things I’ll be learning forever since they’ll continue evolving for as long as they exist.

That discouraged me at first. But it’s a precious gift, and one I wish more of my generation would accept. Learning is GOOD. If you’re over 50 and insisting you don’t NEED e-mail, or even a computer, you’re missing the point. If you “don’t want to deal with all that,” please reconsider. If this is you, some tech savvy loved one probably printed this for you, right? Eventually, you’ll be relying on that kind of kindness for the bulk of your information if you don’t get on the bandwagon.

The “all that” you want to avoid is where the future of the written word is going. More and more companies are putting statements and product information online and asking you to “go paperless.” More and more information you really need—about prostate cancer or current road conditions in Montana—is easily available online. But that’s not the greatest benefit either.

The fastest way to feel, look, and be old is to stop learning. If you want to come across as just marking time until your appointment with the undertaker, go ahead and ignore technology. You can do that. But you lose. Call it stubborn. Or scared. Or lazy. It’s a bad strategy no matter what label you use.

Yes, you will feel brainless the first few times you get on the computer–or the Internet. Yes, you will make mistakes. Yes, you will want to throw the thing out a second story window when you can’t get it to do what you need to do no matter how hard you try. But you know what? That happens regardless of how old you are when you first start using a computer. Even geeks face that, but they understand it’s part of the drill and just keep going.

Stop telling yourself you don’t need to do this. You do. If you can’t afford a computer, go to the local library. They’ll even help you get started.

Keep learning and you’ll start to recognize the potential of the Internet to improve your life. It may be by paying your bills online. (Studies show that online bill paying is less risky than sending checks through the mail—and cheaper.) It might be in finding a group of like-minded people to share ideas with. You will feel your world expanding as you become computer savvy. It will give you access to a whole lot of information you’ll be very glad you could find. Plus it’s a good way to stay in touch with people you care about.

Commit to being computer savvy even if your job doesn’t demand it and your family isn’t begging you. Access to information and connecting with others is faster and easier. Even better, you’re proving you can still learn—and that you want to. Key pieces of staying vibrant.

Who knows, you may get so far that you teach your kids things. Last week, I mentioned Worio to my ubergeek son. (It’s a new search engine that competes with Google.) He hadn’t heard of it. Yes! Just call me Grandma Geek.

If you are planning to watch My Sister’s Keeper movie, be sure you carry a hanky, a load full of tissues, sponge, your husband’s sleeves may come handy and to be a good citizen, get a mop too. The movie is deeply emotional and very sentimental. The online movie rather than just tossing a family coping with a sick-dying loved one, adds a twist of how a genetically engineered

The best part of this online movie is how the family copes up when the genetically engineered child, the donator sibling that is, decides she no longer wants to be harvested for her body parts. That is what Anna finds herself in, in this movie. For 11 years Anna has been living with the grand purpose of keeping her leukemia affected sister Kate, alive. But when Anna has to donate one of her kidneys to Kate, she has had enough of it.

Of course the soppy hearts would find themselves reaching for another pack of tissues and insulting Anna of being rude but, what would you say when you realize that Anna, after the kidney transplant might not survive long? That’s exactly what the case here is. And you indeed need to watch the online movie to understand the irony behind each word I write.

The movie is not just a tele-a-tale of a girl who sues her parents for medical emancipation, there is more to it. Director Nick Cassavetes has tried every possible method to keep the focus on My Sister’s Keeper’s characters and their struggle to keep Kate’s dire desire and Anna’s difficult decision rather than tugging the viewer’s emotional strings. Like frying a streak on the pan, he shows the better and the worst times of their past and gives equal time to everyone involved in the family.

The online movie varies from Jodi Picoult’s book in a few ways. Yet, on its own terms, the movie has quiet a relentless power to move any kind of an audience. The movie takes care of every member of the family carefully and lovingly showing us an array of fallouts and the good intentions behind every move made.

Apart from the story line, what makes the movie remarkable is the excellent performance given by each artist. The young actor performance is a graceful, working in the world that is tough even for the adults to take.

So if you are wondering, “Why do I need to watch a movie online, about a sick child dying?” then, here goes the answer. The movie is uplifting, it is thought provoking and it is alive with amazing performance. The movie if you ask me is not something you should miss. It is about love and the many forms we see love in.

You can read more reviews on our site: Mymovees.com

If you are planning to watch My Sister’s Keeper movie, be sure you carry a hanky, a load full of tissues, sponge, your husband’s sleeves may come handy and to be a good citizen, get a mop too. The movie is deeply emotional and very sentimental. The online movie rather than just tossing a family coping with a sick-dying loved one, adds a twist of how a genetically engineered

The best part of this online movie is how the family copes up when the genetically engineered child, the donator sibling that is, decides she no longer wants to be harvested for her body parts. That is what Anna finds herself in, in this movie. For 11 years Anna has been living with the grand purpose of keeping her leukemia affected sister Kate, alive. But when Anna has to donate one of her kidneys to Kate, she has had enough of it.

Of course the soppy hearts would find themselves reaching for another pack of tissues and insulting Anna of being rude but, what would you say when you realize that Anna, after the kidney transplant might not survive long? That’s exactly what the case here is. And you indeed need to watch the online movie to understand the irony behind each word I write.

The movie is not just a tele-a-tale of a girl who sues her parents for medical emancipation, there is more to it. Director Nick Cassavetes has tried every possible method to keep the focus on My Sister’s Keeper’s characters and their struggle to keep Kate’s dire desire and Anna’s difficult decision rather than tugging the viewer’s emotional strings. Like frying a streak on the pan, he shows the better and the worst times of their past and gives equal time to everyone involved in the family.

The online movie varies from Jodi Picoult’s book in a few ways. Yet, on its own terms, the movie has quiet a relentless power to move any kind of an audience. The movie takes care of every member of the family carefully and lovingly showing us an array of fallouts and the good intentions behind every move made.

Apart from the story line, what makes the movie remarkable is the excellent performance given by each artist. The young actor performance is a graceful, working in the world that is tough even for the adults to take.

So if you are wondering, “Why do I need to watch a movie online, about a sick child dying?” then, here goes the answer. The movie is uplifting, it is thought provoking and it is alive with amazing performance. The movie if you ask me is not something you should miss. It is about love and the many forms we see love in.

You can read more reviews on our site: Mymovees.com

Writing A Film Script Is A Thin Line Between Love And Hate

Coming up with a movie idea and writing a script treatment are what I like to call the honeymoon phase of screenwriting. You’re excited with the newness of the story you want to tell. That newness slowly begins to fade as you prepare to dig in to write. If you’re a newcomer to screenwriting it’s like your first marriage. How do I make it through this?

Formatting Your Script

First off your movie script should look like a real movie script. If you can afford screenwriting software get it before you put one word to paper. All the formatting is done for you freeing up your mind to focus on writing a script instead of dealing with formatting issues. I currently use Final Draft 7 and love it. If you’re going to run a marathon you would buy cool running shoes. Same thing with writing a script. Get cool screenwriting software because writing a script is a marathon. Moving on from formatting.

There Is No Right Or Wrong Way To Work On Your Script

I like to work alone without a writing partner. If you’re going solo writing your script, prepare yourself for a lot of late nights inside your own head. No one will be there to brainstorm with or motivate you. If you do not see yourself as the self-motivated type look into finding a writing partner to work with. It’s like a marriage, so make sure it’s the right person or you?ll drive each other crazy. Remember it’s thin line between love and hate when writing.

Some screenwriters like to schedule a block of time each day to work on their script. Some lock themselves in a room weeks on end. There’s no right or wrong way to work on a script in my opinion as long as you are making progress and are happy with what?s being written on the page.

Men and women, bless us all. We shall never truly understand one another. I think we’ve all resigned ourselves by now to the fact that we’re going to have our ins and outs. We’ll all experience both the bitter pain of heartbreak and the blissful joy of love. It’s a cliche to expect a rampant, torrid love affair in your life; the love at first sight, rip each other’s clothes off, then get married and live happily into your autumn years, aging gracefully as you watch your grandchildren win the big sports game. No one can realistically expect that to happen, but not because love is a fantastical myth. Love is very real indeed, but the problem that we all have with finding it is that people like Mel Gibson and Jude Law have completely ruined the idea of romantic love.
It’s not all flowers and happiness. Just as often, and even more importantly, it’s anguish, torture and compromise. Our interactions are fueled by the awkward sadness and anger that drives us all to love in the first place, not by the insane Hollywood drivel that we see every time we enter a movie theater. So what are we, the common man, supposed to do in a landscape of garbage like this? The problem is that our expectations have been elevated so insanely by devils like Matthew McConaughey and Josh Hartnett. The simple truth is that real love, the kind that is in the grasp of everyone, isn’t like that.
It would be nice, wouldn’t it? You meet on a cruise and she spills a cocktail on you during a fancy dinner at the captain’s table, then you go through a fumbling and innocent courtship in which one of you is constantly supplying some sort of comic relief. Maybe one of you is sexually inexperienced, that’s always good for a laugh. However, despite what Ben Stiller would like you to believe, romance is much more complicated and beautiful than that. The connection that two humans can forge is so much harder to maintain than the quick, easy, breakup-then-get-back-together formula that we’ve all become accustomed to.
Scripted Romance
We should all be striving to break away from the impossible circumstances that we see in the movies, the unattainable goal that is the heated love affair. It may sound defeatist, but it’s really not. It’s not even a realist’s view of the whole courtship ritual; I just refuse to believe that anything that is truly beautiful and holy can be captured on celluloid film. Whatever is going on in the chambers of the human heart is a strange and foreign beast, one that will not be slayed by romantic platitudes.
The happiest parts of my romantic life have been the pointless little interactions that weren’t worthy of a big budget film, things that would get a screenwriter fired. And I wouldn’t trade any of them for even a chance at a wacky sea-faring adventure. So my advice is this: stop waiting to be swept off of your feet by someone who will take you on a rollercoaster ride of romance and excitement, stop expecting to stumble onto a love that is pure as the driven snow and will last until time immemorial. Love is not going to be crammed into the spaces you’ve made for it. You cannot control what shape or form it will take. It will tell you what it wants to do, but you can enjoy the ride, go nuts. Fall madly in love at every opportunity and really throw yourself into something that is beautiful and innocent, but don’t expect it to be bullied into the constraints that you have made for it, because real love is something that will not be changed or shaped. We’re spectators in this enterprise, passengers at best, and that’s the way it should be.
Infatuation fades, love lasts
Psychologists are now saying that humans can only stay in love, or what we recognize as love, for a period of 18 months. Just a year and a half and then it changes; it evolves into something else. That warm, fuzzy feeling that we all strive to retain indefinitely, its shelf life is just six short seasons, roughly the same longevity as your average sitcom, and we should stop trying to change that. We’ll never be able to prolong our infatuations or our devotions past their natural and organic life. We can’t make love last one second longer than it wants to, and that’s the best part of it. Love is a challenge, it’s never easy, it’s always extremely rewarding, but it’s nearly impossible to force. So don’t try to, let these things happen, because what they can be is so much better than what you’ll try to make them.