For those of you looking forward to Easter time, the one thing that makes Easter incredibly special are decorated Easter cookies. Just like Christmas cookies have become a staple of Christmas time, so have Easter cookies become a part of Easter tradition. There are many great ways to adorn the Easter season and decorated Easter cookies are just one of them. Here are some tips on putting smiles on the faces of your children or friends this Easter season.

Decorated Easter Cookies Come in Many Shapes and Sizes


Decorated Easter cookies can come in many shapes and sizes and if you can conceptualize it you can truly prepare it. For most people Easter is associated with bunnies, rabbits, chicks, lambs and Easter eggs. For the most part you can usually find most of these shapes and more in the form of cookie cutters.

Cookie cutters are usually easy to purchase at all discount shops, supermarkets, and craft shops. Or you can generally make them yourself- you just need some pliable metal and an idea. If you don't have a cookie cutter, no big deal. In fact a lot of people that are artistically gifted choose to cut their own shapes out of cookie dough by hand, without using any cookie cutter.

Decorated Easter Cookies Start Out with Delectable Cookie Dough


The most essential thing about the embellished Easter cookies that you create is that must taste just as great as they look. No one likes a nasty tasting cookie. For many chefs, a great cookie begins with delicious cookie dough. Yes, you can purchase the dough already pre-made and ready to cut, but for the purists out there, start with a family recipe that is either chocolate chip or of the sugar cookie variety.

Decorate Your Cookie Using the Tools of the Trade


It's easy to adorn your Easter cookies, just make sure you have all the accessories of the trade. They usually include, food coloring, colored icing, sprinkles, delicious candies such as licorice, M& M's, nuts, marshmallows, etc. Once you have gotten the cookie shape, let yourself or your kids use their creative magic to make cutely decorated Easter cookies. You can find food coloring and many cool decorating accessories at your local grocery store. You can even purchase pre-made Easter embellishments to add to your cookies, cakes or Easter eggs.

Presentation is Key


Once your newly designed Easter cookies are finished, make sure to show them off to the rest of the family and even give them away to your coworkers and friends. Savor the Easter spirit by showcasing your delicious and beautiful decorated Easter cookies.

One creative idea is to take some photographs of your adorned Easter cookies and include them in your annual Easter scrapbook, so you can always look back at the delicious and beautifully adorned Easter cookies that you have made.

You can also print the cookie recipe on an attractive recipe card and include a photo of your Easter cookies to give to family and friends. Most everyone appreciates handmade gifts, especially when it's a beloved family recipe.

If you are looking to magnify your gratification of Easter this year, take part in creating wonderfully decorated Easter cookies.

Anyone that enjoys science fiction will have a lot of fun watching this modern day Doctor Who series DVD. Over 15 years have passed since Doctor Who fans saw the venerable science fiction series go off the air. Fans from all over the world, however, received a 21st-century revamped show with up to date editing and CGI animation. How well was it received? The Doctor Who first series DVD got a thumbs up from loyal fans as well as from people that have just seen the show for the first time.

Christopher Eccleston stars as the new Doctor. The British pop star Billie Piper plays Rose, his new traveling companion. Each time Dr. Who "regenerates", he is inevitably played by a younger actor. This is also the case with Eccleston, but that hasn't prevented him from bringing back the wonderful, unique sense of humor that fans enjoyed from one of the most popular previous Doctors, Tom Baker. In the 20th century, it was Tom Baker's wit and charm that had been accredited for bridging the traditional gap between British and American audiences. Christopher Eccleston expresses an appealing, updated charm and clever wit, along with plenty of suspense for his audience.

During the first show, the Doctor meets his new sidekick in a department store in downtown London. It turns out the Doctor is pursuing an alien invader that is made of plastic. The alien plots to bring store mannequins to life and all plastic objects in order to take control of Earth. After being accidentally locked in her work place, Rose encounters several mannequins walking that end up trying to kill her. How can a mannequin, even a walking one, hurt a human being? The answer is a surprise waiting inside the show for anyone that views it.

Beyond the excellent CGI animation, this 21st century Doctor Who introduces a companion that has a boyfriend and a family life. This lets the audience have a chance to become involved with the sidekick character as well as seeing how the Doctor reacts to human relations as well as confronting and fighting off alien master minds from all around the universe and in time.

Once the Doctor and Rose foil the plans of the living plastic alien, they are on to the far distant future to see the last pure human being and the end of Earth. Fans will also see Rose and the Doctor travel back in history to meet Charles Dickens in Victorian England.

This series has the Doctor showing a side of his character that was not exposed during the milder and more gentile nature of the previous series. However, this time lord continues to live up his reputation of becoming the hero, and finding new friends and alliances with many kinds of beings.

Doctor Who is unusual from many science fiction stories of today, because while it does present more scientific possibilities, it also lets its audience see human nature at its best and worst, without profanity and blood filled violence. Families can watch this series, resting assured that all members will have a positive, fun experience.

Two major retailers have moved into the online movie sales business. WalMart and Amazon.com join existing properties in trying to convince the consumer their downloadable wares are more attractive than other, less "official" options. Do their services offer anything significantly different than the current players in the market, or is simply a case of the same limited options with different labels?

WalMart announced its entry into the download field at mediadownloads.walmart.com. At least, that's one of their promotional sites. WalMart enters the fray trumpeting licensure with all of the "big six" movie studios. That one feature does provide an advantage in that is allows them to offer a selection that eclipses most of the competition.

There is little else that is unique about it, however. There is download software made available much like Apple's iStore, but it utilizes Microsoft's DRM piracy protection technology. That means the service won't operate over Firefox or other browsers and won't run on Zune, PSP, iPod, or computers running Mac or Linux.

WalMart sells about 40% of the DVDs in this country and says they'll provide price protection for their products on the shelves. That means you won't see much of that to-the-bone price cutting on downloaded products. Prices will range from a couple of bucks for a TV show up to close to $20 for a film in recent DVD circulation.

The other challenge for WalMart is their corporate policy that every product they sell should be designed to draw customers into their stores. A product designed to deliver itself to your PC isn't going to do that. Currently, Walmart spokesmen are saying that their intent to bundle a movie download with the purchase of a DVD will meet that requirement.

That's WalMart's answer to delivering your download to the TV screen. It seems somewhat duplicative, but they are chasing the business in a big way. Wal-Mart's online video-rental service failed to do just that, and the corporation folded up the business after a relatively brief test drive.

Amazon's version of the video download service is called Unbox. They too are a major retailer for DVDs and see this business as complimentary. Their only marketing responsibility for the product is to drive people to their website - unlike the brick-and-mortar based WalMart.

Amazon launched without Disney, which is a major player in the Apple online video product development. That may have something to do with the fact that, when Steve Jobs sold the Pixar animation studio to Disney, he also became their biggest shareholder. At any rate, Apple's movie products are limited to Disney and Paramount. The other online services such as CinemaNow and Movielink are all also missing one or another of the major movie houses as partners.

What Amazon has done to bypass the issue of portability with downloaded movies is to develop a partnership with TiVo. The later versions of the TiVo recorder will be able to download Amazon delivered films and play them back on your television. With the rest of the Internet-delivered video companies, the downloaded product pretty much remains trapped on your download device. Apple's films can be downloaded by some iPod products and other handheld players, while WalMart, at the moment, is wedded to the PC.

It's a smart move on Amazon's part - four out of the six major movie studios and a television viewing partner. That relationship is limited, however, by the fact that TiVo's current distribution base of boxes with internet connectivity is a little over 1.5 million units. It's a start, but a small start on dealing with getting that downloaded movie to your television. Apple is planning a similar set top box to provide the same viewing capacity.

According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Internet video download business is expected to be worth $3.7 billion in annual revenue in 2010, when DVD rentals and sales as a business will amount to about $29.5 billion.

"Vibrator," by the renown Japanese director Ryuichi Hiroki, is a film that starts pretty much like the Japanese Last-Tango-in-Paris-on-the-road. But it doesn't end that way.

It starts as the story of Rei Hayakawaa (played by Shinobu Terajima), a 31 year old neurotic woman who is suffering from alienation and an inability to establish warm and genuine contacts with others. She wants to touch people yet she is afraid that it may lead to a physical altercation, assault and perhaps worse.

While shopping for a bottle of wine late one night at a convenience store, she meets Takatoshi (played by Nao Omori), a bleach-blond truck driver with ear rings who responds openly to her covert flirting. prod

When he leaves the store she follows him in the parking lot to his truck. It's snowing and both are ready for some sex, adventure, and perhaps more. That's the kind of Plan A that is rapidly replaced by an unexpected Plan B. And without that shift, you wouldn't have a quality movie anyways but only a third-rate soft porn video-musical.

They park the four-ton tractor trailer on a side road and have sex inside the cabin until morning. Early next day they take off together, to deliver Takatoshi's merchandise to far away destinations.

Throughout the movie, Rei wavers between sex and intimacy. The more she gets to know Takatoshi's checkered past the closer she feels to him for at least he seems to be a genuine person not hiding anything and on top, treats her kindly despite his alleged past experience with a "stalker" girl.

Watch satellite TV on PC, conventional satellite dish systems or cable TV? Nowadays, TV viewers are spoilt for choice and it can be challenging to make a choice. Depending on your needs, your home location and budget, there is a whole range of alternatives and different TV program packages for you. The key here is to be well informed about the pros and cons of each system. We will compare the different TV systems and you make your own choice on whether to watch satellite TV on PC or other means. How's that?

If you are not staying in a built up area and do not have access to cable TV, it makes perfect sense and necessity for you to go with satellite TV. After all, you would need a TV antenna in order to receive from the TV earth stations. So adding a satellite dish system is more appropriate, since you neither can watch satellite TV on PC or cable TV. However, this said, not everyone likes the idea of installing a satellite dish on their roofs. Firstly, it can be a hassle and not the simplest chore for folks who are not too hands-on. Secondly, the DIY equipment such as the satellite dish, receiver and decoders, mount, etc is not exactly cheap. Some guys prefer to do it on their own as a hobby. That's perfectly fine but for most folks, it would be better if they can wait out for special deals offered by satellite TV providers which include free installations. Sometimes, the service providers may supply the necessary setup for more than 3 rooms within a household.

Satellite TV provides a much wider coverage that cable TV network. Again, this is not always the case and is true only for advanced satellite TV technology and subscription packages offered by service providers. The heat is always on between satellite TV and cable TV to compete in the space of variety and number of channels. You, as a consumer benefits from either way. However, since the usage of cable is more applicable in built-up areas, they tend to lose out to satellite TV in rural areas. Otherwise, in built-up city areas, it would be a tough fight. There is of course a third option to watch satellite TV on PC which gives you the advantage of more worldwide channels over cable and even conventional satellite TV. Be sure to scout around for good deals.

Reception quality is hardly debatable. Satellite TV systems have gone the route of digital broadcasting. With digital that employs sophisticated signal compression techniques, the resolution is higher and sharper and more channels can be broadcast simultaneously. Even though cable TV is making the move towards digital, unfortunately, a lot of homes are still using analog channels. We all know that analog picture quality is poorer than digital so whether you watch satellite TV on PC or TV, your viewing experience is enhanced.

There is a growing community of satellite TV viewers switching to watch satellite TV on PC for several reasons. Internet users are growing at an astronomical rate and since people are already facing their PCs, it is natural for them to watch satellite TV on PC as well. At the same time, in order to watch satellite TV on PC, you need nothing more than an installed PC satellite TV software and fast internet connection. It is gaining popularity among TV lovers and even college kids can afford to do so.

Hopefully, this article would be useful to you in choosing a TV system of your choice. This article may be freely reprinted or distributed in its entirety in any ezine, newsletter, blog or website. The author's name, bio and website links must remain intact and be included with every reproduction.

Catch a Fire is the story of the Apartheid's collapse and South Africa's independence through the eyes of Patrick Chamusso, a real South African brought to life by Derek Luke, and his antagonist, police chief Nic Vos, portrayed with considerable chill and menace by Tim Robbins.

It must have been such a gut-wrenching experience for Robbins, as liberal a Hollywood actor as they come, to play one of Botha's chief enforcers. Vos is as ruthless in his defense of the white order as the ANC is determined to take it down.

What makes the clash as ironic as violent is the fact that, deep down in his bones, Nic Vos is also aware that the whites cannot hold the fort forever and things will probably change no matter what kind of a force the regime brings to bear against the "terrorists" and the "communists." It's a futile eleventh-hour effort to plug a bursting dam and that's the kind of desperation which escalates the stakes at every turn.

The film excels in laying out in the open the steps through which law abiding working class average-Joes like Chamusso are gradually pulled into the revolutionary fold and end up transforming into well-trained guerillas ready to sacrifice their lives for the common good.

Constant daily humiliation, indiscriminate intimidation and suppression of the natives including women and children, and the wide-spread crushing poverty of the black population is how the Apartheid regime prepared its own end. This film documents that fact beyond any doubt. Newton's third law of motion postulates an opposing force of equal magnitude for every force vector. Similarly, the ruling white minority at the end creates its own enemy that brings it down through sheer numbers, a burning motivation steeled by generations of pain, and an unassailable logic of justice that won't be satisfied by anything less than power changing hands.

The film uses to the fullest a very important and gorgeous character who is there in almost every frame of the film – the South African music, which I dare say is one of the most beautiful and sublime choral achievements of the world.

Riding the irresistible rhythm and haunting melodies of South African songs, we flow down the story of Patrick Chamusso, drift along the tributaries of his less-than-perfect relationship with his wife, survive the rapids of his trials and tribulations, and then find ourselves out in the open sea, in the choppy waters of his training as an ANC fighter.

However, after the liberation, when the ebb and tide of fate washes him back to the shores of his beloved country, Chamusso gets a chance to really prove his mettle as a human being and he does not fail the test.

When he catches the opportunity to kill off an unsuspecting and much older Nic Vos, Chamusso acts against his basic instincts and rejects violence. By letting their enemies live in the new free country that they have created with much suffering, all South Africans can at long last be really free, Chamusso reasons with admirable fortitude. That scene of true spiritual grandeur will probably stay with me long after the plot details of the "Catch a Fire" erode away from my memory.

Let's be brutally honest Meryl Streep has been a bit of a ghost lately when it comes to Hollywood. Once again though she has shown that she has what it takes to be an actor with the movie the Devil wears Prada.

The movie is about the Fashion industry and how "important" it is. From this theme the movie is built on a poor girl fresh out of college who become the assistants assistant to Miranda - a super goddess in the field of fashion - her views can sink whole fashion lines. Into this world Andrea a total fashion novice enters and the film is about her transformation and how the job from hell changes her. Imagine if you can your worse boss and its your job to try and please them and meet their every demand - like finding the unpublished copy of the next Harry Potter book!

Why the movie appeals even to fashion plebs (ok honestly fashion haters) like me is that we have all experienced bosses that we would like to see trip in front of a bus, well maybe thats a bit harsh, have a major heart attack. That position of powerlessness as an employee and the ability of our bosses to forget our good work and long remember our bad work appeals to us all. Been there, done that.

Andrea success at work impacts badly on her personal life and she is left to make a choice - be herself and keep her integrity or lose herself forever.

Movies like this remind me why I started an internet business in the first place. To be my OWN boss. Not only is it a great outlet when I see money coming from another source I know there is a growing escape route.