I thought about my life and how many times I had been influenced by Disney movies as well as Disneyland.  The movies of old always had a lesson or two.  They were also written for adults.  As a kid I happened to watch them since there were no dreaded warnings stating that the violence, love, death and scary things were going to warp my young brain.  As a matter of fact, it didn't.  It instead taught me many things.  Bambi taught me the importance of family and friendship as well as preserving the forest.  Snow White taught me not to take things from strangers; work is of the utmost importance and true love is out there but sometimes you need to sacrifice for the greater good.  At Disneyland I learned music, art, that it is impolite to point, how to behave in public and how to talk to just about anyone in the world.  I also learned that the world was huge and diversified.  I could go on siting so many examples of how I have been influenced by life lessons and also that there seemed to be no more lessons to learn.  I felt that all creativity had dried up and was a thing of the past.  Disney kept coming up with remakes of classics and then cleaned them up to be PC.  I hadn't been watching any of the movies in the past few years.  I instead kept going back to my beloved classics.  I just recently watched Lady and the Tramp and I was still mesmerized by the movie. 

Last night we decided to pay the bucks and go to the movies.  The sticker shock was incredible.  But, I was able to come in as a Senior and I saved a few bucks.  But of course, it also made me feel so old because I could remember the times of going to the movies and paying only a few bucks to get in.  After finding the theatre at the other end of the building, we all sat down and watched a full half hour of commercials and trailers.  Shouldn't we be paying less if companies are paying for us to watch their advertisement? 

The movie we had decided to see was the Disney/Pixar animated film named "UP".  From the moment the movie started, I had a feeling that I hadn't had for a long time, I was mesmerized.  The movie dealt with death, love, violence, scary things and there was even a storyline supporting the saving of the forest and wildlife.  The movie also dealt with old age.  Definetly not written for the youngsters.  I sat and watched, I cried, I laughed, I cried again.  This movie also taught me a valuable lesson too.  It is never to late to have adventures.  Life comes at you from every direction and things may not work out the way you planned.  But, maybe the way things turned out in your life is the exact way that everything is supposed to be.  Also, just because you are old doesn't mean that you can't continue to follow your dreams.  Become creative and don't go gentle into that goodnight!

I applaud Disney/Pixar for a brilliant animation that celebrated what Walt Disney worked so hard to express.  I would even pay my Senior fortune to see this movie again.

If you haven't seen "UP", I urge you to go.  Find a coupon or tell them you are over 55, but definetly go.  It is well worth the price of admission.

I'd like to know at what time I agreed to pay Cox for "paid program" shows and stupid banner ads that take up over half of the viewing screen on my TV.  I shell out the bucks each month so that I can have cable TV and one movie channel available for my viewing entertainment.  The one movie channel is HBO which used to have more selections of channels and that has now reduced the amount of channels they offer.  But, I still pay the same even though I am getting less.  The other thing is the "paid program" that shows up continually on all of the channels.  As all of my friends know I am an Extreme Late Nighter (ELN).  If I am not on my computer at night then I will watch something on TV.  But, after midnight each of the channels stops their programing and then broadcasts programming that has some company has paid for.  It isn't just one channel, it is almost EVERY channel.  If you are not a late nighter check it out sometime.  Go to the menu and scroll to the late night viewing.  It is absolutely ridiculous.  And, my thought is always "What advertising executive sold this time as being the best time for people to buy things?"  I guess that there are a lot more middle-aged, bald, incontinent, bowel obstructive, insomniac men that have to cook their meals in seconds, then I would have ever thought existed!  This seems to be the demographic that is being played to.  Oh...I forgot to mention that these men have to be exceedingly rich since they are the ones purchasing from these shows!  

The next thing is the banner ads.  I don't understand what idiot decided that banner ads had to be playing DURING the program.  There have been banner ads promoting the actual program that we were trying to watch.  These ads take up over half of the viewing screen.  They have actors walking, running or blowing things up.  On Lifetime there was an actual realtime countdown during the entire show I was watching advertising for the show that came on next!   Needless to say I was so tired of watching the advertising during a dramatic show that I turned to a different show rather than watch the show they were advertising.  If they didn't have that banner ad running I probably would have just left that channel on.

I know that I am not the only one that takes offense to not only the running of banner ads during programs but also to hours of paid program info-commercials instead of real programming.  There has to be something that we are able to do.  One of my thoughts is getting back to the cable company and demand a refund for all of the hours where paid programs are on or where banner ads disrupt shows.  After all, this is time that we are paying for the programming!  I am tired of paying good money in order to watch info-commercials!!!!