Thursday, October 26, 2006

Daylight Savings Time

I'm really upset with the Daylight Savings Time issue.  It was a joke you know.  And now we are all (except Arizona) forced to adhere to it.  The joke is it's costing consumers (end product) and employers, and everyone tons of money!!   People are late to work when the time switches in the Spring...I don't know what percentage, but its not small, and when you multiply it by the number of hours people are late, it is magnified.  People are less productive when it begins in the Spring because, even if they made it to work on time, they are still running on Winter time in their heads.  Here it is three days from the date time is changing back, and I haven't got used to it yet.  That may be because I've not been on daylight savings time for 35 years, until our Governor in Indiana took it upon himself to foist the stupid practice onto the citizens of Indiana.  We were perfectly happy without it.  Even though this is a Republican governor, and I usually vote a straight ticket Republican...I did not vote for the man.  In fact, my childhood friend's son was very active in his campaign, and I told him I would not vote for him if he didn't change his ideas about Daylight Savings Time.  I was right.  I predicted that he would foist other things upon us that we didn't want.  My next prediction?   This governor is a flash in the pan.  He will NOT be re-elected!! 

My solution to this stupid problem of Daylight Savings Time?  I believe we should all write to our Senators and Congressmen and let them know that Daylight Savings Time is stupid and that the entire country should do away with it.

I think I'll send this blog off to people who count.  Hmmm. 

 
Jana L. Shellman
Author of The Wish Factory: How to Make Wishes Come True.
Instructor of Creating Characters at www.writerscollege.com
Visit my web site at www.thewishfactory.com
Visit my blog: Jana'sblog

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

The Secret

I've just finished watching The Secret.  It's called a movie, but it's really a program that teaches you what the secret to having a happy life is all about.  It's pretty much the same as what I've written in my books and screenplays, but it's a bit more advanced.  I think it would be wonderful if people would "get it" the first time they saw The Secret Movie, but unfortunately they have blocks to it.  That's where my books, particularly my latest Winning at Wishing come in.  That book is for the initiates, the people who think there's a specific reason for their misery.  Winning at Wishing is a simple program to help people get past those blocks, and get on with things.  Unfortunately, there isn't a magic button you can push to understand this all, but fantastically, there is a magic button you can push to make all of your wishes come true.  And you don't just get three wishes like in the fairy tales, but you get unlimited wishes come true forever.   That's basically the secret.  The part you have to get past is that "it won't work for me" mentality.  It works for everyone.  All you have to do is know it, feel it, and act on it.

If you're well-grounded in your own understanding of your relationship with the Universe, i.e., your relationship with God or the Energy at the center of the Universe, which is God, then you can check out The Secret Movie, by going to www.thesecret.tv .  If you think you might need some preparation to it, you can check out my E-book, Winning at Wishing at www.thewishfactory.com  and click on the Ebooks button.  You can also download some free stuff, if you click on Free Books...

Remember ---  When two or more people make the same wish it almost always comes true!!!

Selling Intellectual Properties in Hollywood--The Panic!!

In 1988 or 1989 the major movie studios found themselves in a trap. Like a trapped animal they began gnawing off their legs to escape the trap. They gnawed off parts of themselves that were not even IN the trap. What was the trap? One studio, Paramount, had made a movie that closely resembled a treatment idea that Art Buchwald had written. Lots of money was made from that treatment idea, and nobody had bothered to pay Art Buchwald. So he sued Paramount. And he won. Sort of. But in the process the movie studios lost far more than they might have lost in any lawsuits. They insulated themselves from new and fresh ideas. The only thing creative they had left was their accounting practices, which were also exposed by the lawsuit.  That's a whole 'nother story you can get in Fatal Subtraction.

So they hired "inside creativity". The only problem is, it went stale. And  then they had nothing left to refresh it. So now they are "remaking old classics" that people liked before, thinking it will do.  Meanwhile they are losing millions of dollars because they aren't buying anything new.

I just sent off letters to three of the major people at Disney.  I got back a letter from a paralegal (I'm a paralegal...it was just a stock merge form that they put my name into) and they mailed back the letter I sent so they wouldn't be accused of "stealing" anything I wrote in my letter.    All I put in it was a link to my web site www.thewishfactory.com/screenplay.html  and you know what?  They went there and checked it out.  I've got a counter that tells me where hits come from.  One hit was on that direct link.  They were the only ones I sent it to.   I have been bouncing off the doors at Disney for some time.   I have written several screenplays that are family-oriented and that might have made all of us a bunch of money, but they are too paranoid to bite.   Not that Disney is alone.  The same thing happens at Dreamworks and all of the other studios.  My screenplay, The Wish Factory Movie, is for an animated feature film.  Not just tons of money in there, but amounts that would keep my extended family wealthy for generations to come.  If I could get someone to bite.  But everyone is afraid. 

I am trying to find myself a good intellectual properties attorney. I know there is a way to placate the scaredy cats and protect my interests at the same time.  A good lawyer could help out lots there.  I know, because I read case law for a hobby.  You'd be surprised what one can learn by reading case law.  I've been employed as either a legal secretary or a paralegal in Illinois, California and Indiana.  Reading case law is very informative, and I think it's fun!

In the meantime, the "Indies" have arrived. The independent movie producers and writers who, unable to get their screenplays into the major studios because every time they tried, they bounced off the same studio doors as I did, decided "the heck with the major studios, let’s make our own movies." And they have become very successful at it.

My son, Zachary is currently acting in such an Indie film, and helping with production and etc., as well.  But he's moving to California.  Oh!  Maybe he'll become a movie star...the girls would love him.  But, back to the movie thing....

Now, think about it. The lawyers who are "protecting" the major studios have hired paralegals to write letters that basically say "we didn’t even bother to read what you sent because we have our own talented [emphasis added] writers." Wouldn’t those lawyers better benefit their clients by coming up with a contract that allows the studio to read the new, fresh, creative things being written by talented writers all over the country? Wouldn’t the studios benefit from this new, fresh, creative talent, by making tons more money than they’re making now? Wouldn’t you think that the studio executives who are searching for new, fresh, creative projects would at least read what the new writers have to offer?   There's so much talent out there.   I run into very talented people all the time. 

I'll sure be glad when these dunderheads wake up to the fact that they might as well have taken chances with all of the screenplays that have been sent to them.  They might have lost a million here or there, but they could have made hundreds of millions in the past twenty-five years, if they'd just had something new to sell to the public.   From my fingertips to God's ears...

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Changes are Merely Wishes Coming True!! Don't Panic!!

I panic whenever a major change occurs in my life.  Yet at the same time, I'm always wishing this and wishing that.  I'm supposed to be the wishing expert.  It's very hard to kick oneself in the behind to say "wake up silly!  It's just your wishes getting ready to come true!"  Most recently I learned my son was going to be moving to California.  Abandonment!  How could he?  Wait.  I did the same thing to my mother.  Yet it is somewhat different.  I was 22 and my mother was 42 and she had my father around to help take care of her.  I'm 65 and although my mother is 86 and lives some 30 miles from me, my father died in 2000.  Even though my father was blind and disabled when he died, I still felt a bit of security knowing he was there in the event I needed him.  I've been counting on my son to fill in and help me out when things get a little rough and I need help with things.  So I started making a list of what I've needed him for, besides hugs.  He's helped me with car repairs.  He's helped me with house repairs.  I've got friends who could do those jobs, if I needed them.   He's my son.  He's always going to love his mother.  No doubt about it.  What could be better than having unconditional love, knowing that it's a forever thing and nothing is ever going to change it.

Somewhere within my font of wisdom I understand that when there are changes in ones life, it means that other things are coming into ones life to fill up the spaces.    Wow!  That's exciting.  I wonder what's coming up next.  I can't wait.  Oh yeah....the patience thing.  Thanks God.  But hurry up with the patience.