Writing as an Art

For a while now, I have been having a story in my head that needs to come out. It all started one night as I was watching a cartoon from the 90's (the name of it is Cybersix). I realized that I missed watching the series, so I went in search of it. At first, it was hard to find anyone that sold the series on DVD but by the grace of God I found 2 sellers selling it at a reasonable price. After some debate and financial checking, I bought it for less than $10 and I watched the whole series from start to finish.

Never in my life have I been so wrapped up in a cartoon! Sure, the Simpsons always makes me laugh but it was something about this cartoon that made me realize that the storyline was excellent. The creators of the cartoon should have never stopped working on it, although it must have had low ratings.

It hurt me to see the last episode of it but for some reason, I saw a way to extend the storyline. To be able to look at someone else's work and figure out a way to extend it is pure marvelous and scary all at the same time. But it's something about this story that screams, "Finish me!"

Personally, I love to write. The one thing that would tick me off about my English classes is the fact that you can't write the way you want; you have to write in the way that the professor wants you to. Writing should be a freeing experience, not confined to someone else's rules. I used to write poetry when I was in middle school but I eventually stopped. Looking back at some of my former work, I realized that I was good. Really good. I was constantly winning awards so why in the heck did I stop?

Then around 2000, I started a book on my computer. To this day, I have yet to complete it (mostly because some of the material I don't understand how to word properly). But ever since then, stories have popped into my head. I would love to be the next J.K Rowling or Jackie Collins but will I?

What I finally realize is that writing is an art. Once a story is in your head, it's like a fever. It's with you the whole time until pen meets paper (or fingers meet keyboard). Your mind is constantly changing it and making it better. So my little saying for today is, keep writing whether you make it to the big time or not. Keep writing for the pure sake of it.

Miracle Reviews

Review of "Knight & Day"

On Sunday afternoon, my friend dragged me out of the house to see this movie with her. Thankfully, her sister paid for the tickets so I didn't have to spend my own money to see it (besides popcorn). To be honest and tell you, I can see why it wasn't a summer blockbuster.

The movie is about a lady (Cameron Diaz) who runs into a super spy (Tom Cruise) and it chronicles their travels together running away from some type of spy agency that looks like the CIA. Personally, for the first 20 minutes, I was lost. Usually if a movie doesn't capture my interest in 5 minutes, then I give it a bad rating. To just see an airport and see Tom Cruise's character kill everyone on the plane like it was nothing bored me.

The only highlights of the movie came from Ms. Diaz. She was totally funny in the movie and she kept getting drugged by Cruise and the bad guys. Seeing Cameron under the influence is hilarious! The whole point of this movie is trying to keep a battery that looks like a stripped Energizer away from the bad guys. But eventually the bad guys get it and it blows them up anyway.

I was confused at the part of Cameron going to Cruise's parents house. So Cruise gets shot and everyone thinks he's dead but he's not. Cameron goes to this address that she saw all the time on Cruise's phone and turns out it's his parents. The ending was quite weird too since Diaz drugged Cruise and stole him away from a hospital.

All in all, I give the movie a C-/D rating. The fighting scenes were good but the storyline was just too 3rd grade for me.

Mylot

Today I'll write a short post and I chose to blog about Mylot. Mylot is a forum-like community in which you can post things and make money. What I mean by post things is posting questions and answering other people's questions. I didn't know the payrate but I thought that it would be a good thing to try.

I posted a bunch of questions and answered a lot of people's questions. It reminds me of what Yahoo! Answers is now but we all know that Yahoo! Answers doesn't pay. I even skipped class in order to ask and answer as many questions as I could. When I logged into my account the next day, to my horror I only made eight cents.  $0.08!!! And I know that I answered at least more than 10 questions alone.

What Mylot advertises themselves as is another make money online opportunity but you'll just be working for pennies. I've only looked at the site when there is a good topic going on. The last time I effectively used it was to promote Procard International and although I got a few responses, no signups were received from Mylot.

So I basically don't sign into my account anymore. If you want to make money online, don't think that Mylot is the way to go.

Best Chocolate (and Chewy) Brownies!

So if you have been reading my blog, you know about the last brownies that I cooked (Supernatural Brownies.) Those turned out to be a complete disaster. But I tied up my heart and baked these brownies that I found on a Google search. And let me tell you, I had to get to page 5 on Google to find these brownies. But it was totally worth the search!

It was on a blog called Chew on That. The recipe is wonderfully titled "Best Chocolate Brownies" (recipe here: Recipe.) Most of the ingredients I needed I had already from the last recipe. All I needed to buy was the chocolate chips, baking chocolate, and baking powder. I really was taking a risk with this recipe. I was hurt with the last recipe and I thought that the same result would happen again: store bought tasting brownies.

I was supposed to make them on Saturday but I didn't want them to be too old. So I baked them on a Monday morning, since I was off from the Fourth of July holiday. I melted the chocolate and butter and the chocolate was so bitter! Thank God the recipe called for 2 cups of sugar. I added that and mixed well. Next, I mixed one large egg into the mix until it was fully incorporated. I had to do this 4 times, since I used 4 large eggs. Next came the cup of flour and one teaspoon of baking powder that I fully incorporated. Then I realized that I forgot to add some vanilla extract so instead of adding 2 teaspoons of it, I put 2 tablespoons. Accident but trust me, they still tasted wonderful with no heavy vanilla taste.

I then added a cup of chopped walnuts, since I like my brownies to have the nuts inside of them and mixed it all together one last time. I had my 13x9x2 baking pan already coated and ready to go. The oven was a toasty 325 degrees so I poured the batter into the pan and then sprinkled the top with a cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips. The recipe says to bake them for 45 minutes but I wanted my center to be chewy so I cooked them for 40 minutes.

I was so nervous. I was constantly checking up on them and I noticed that the cracks that were forming would have the chips sink in. When I took them out, they kinda looked funny. Not as pretty as the Supernatural Brownies but hey, who's judging? I finally cut them into bars 8 hours later and let me tell you, it was the best brownie I have tasted in 3 years. I was so happy!

My associate pastor was constantly bugging me to make some more brownies so I was too happy to let him have these. They came out with a pretty crust and the middle was perfectly chewy. They also came out thick so I got full on just one. Plus with the chocolate chips at the top, it makes them gooey. He was happy with these and they have been leaving at a fast pace! I doubt that they will be here tomorrow.

Today's a new day so I think I can down two (although I'm on a diet). I don't want them to go stale like the others! Finally, brownie success!!

Review about Dropshipping Wholesalers

In 2007, selling items on eBay was hot. I have always been interested in selling products on eBay but I wanted to do other things to generate money first and then come back to selling. I found this website on a random blog or Google search (can't remember) and once again, the website looked good. I printed out all of the testimonials and the long front page of what items could be bought for so cheap and then sold for high profits.

It took me 2 years to finally purchase the program. $47 is not easy to come by, but I had finally saved the money and found places to sell my products. Before I purchased the program, I talked to a guy named Ryan from Ryansreview.com. He had a list of top dropshipping programs and Dropshipping Wholesalers was listed. I e-mailed him constantly about the program and he said that it was good for a beginner but I should invest in Worldwide Brands. I couldn't invest in that because the membership fee is more than $200!

2 years passed by and I still didn't do anything. I had a choice of purchasing this program or buying some DVD's I really wanted. I should have bought the DVD's. Anyway, I listened to a crackpot psychic that told me that I would be profitable selling on eBay so I bought Dropshipping Wholesalers. I wish I didn't.

Once I purchased the program, I realized that the name brand products listed on their site is not the price that you would really pay. The honest truth is the products listed on the site are actually Chinese replicas that you can get at that price (I'll talk about that website in another post). Yes, they do have a directory for different categories of merchandise but you would have to spend more money on the genuine product than the profit you could make!

I've tried a few of the genuine sites that they listed but none of them made me money. The majority of the products I was trying to sell were in my Bonanzle booth. If you read my post about Bonanzle, you know what happened there: absolutely nothing.

My honest review is to not purchase this program. If you want to buy bootleg items and sell them for profit & go to jail, be my guest. But spending $47 on a program that you can do a basic Google search for the websites is not worth it. Now they do offer you a free website and ad credits if you purchase their platinum package (which is more than $100). I haven't tried it but I wouldn't want it if I couldn't make money with the regular membership. The testimonials are still the same; the only thing that's changed is the products they showcase to you. In future posts, I will tell you what sites I've tried to sell items from and see if you can fare any better.

The website is here: Dropshipping Wholesalers

Verdict: Don't buy; huge scam!

Miracle Reviews