I’ve been gaming all days and weekend and I just now got around to doing this. Probably going to be one of those BS reviews ’cause there wasn’t really much happening. There was a lot of headtable action though, but it was all from Kuroko… Basically this is a continuation of the Graviton incident along with all the other ones so far. The theme is ‘level upper’ of course.

Oh god… This just had to be posted. Irrelevant to the story.

Poor Uiharu is sick and so they head over to visit her. And there’s a wonderful moment that just shouldn’t go untampered:

Feel free to take any liberties you wish.

Misaka begging some guys to get information about the Level-Upper. Pretending to be an innocent and weak child. I’m surprised more people don’t realize who she is…

Predictable. Then their leader shows up which isn’t as predictable and would be a rather nice turn if it was a longer encounter.

Wouldn’t it have been easier to have touched the wall than to touch the floor? But yeah. Results are pretty obvious and occur quickly. Misaka causes another power surge and power is out in the city the next morning. So yeah… oh and I feel this needs to be posted ’cause it exists.

Uiharu~ um… Screen Cap gallery is next.

—–
Yeah I had something to say but i got distracted… so I’ll say it when I remember…

1 2 3 4 5
Reviewed for FasterLouder

Sydney’s The Maladies have been playing together for a few years now,  taking their time getting around to recording an album. That has worked in the listener’s favour as the clumsily titled With You Right By My Side… is 40 minutes of consistently brilliant songwriting, lively playing and the exceptional voice of Daniele Marando.

The thing that hits you straight away is the big warm sound and production courtesy of Jamie Hutchings. He has nailed the mood and controlled chaos of their live show and at the same time allowed the songs to flex and breathe. There is a tumbling feeling through many of The Maladies songs that conjures up images of danger, darkness, wracked souls and dances with the devil.

Continuing the southern gothic streak that Nick Cave has trademarked, The Maladies tell stories of lost love and life’s trials and tribulations. Their swampy blues incorporates chain gang vocals on This Wood & This Wire, Take Me Down and I Feel So Fine. All three songs are so infectious I’ve woken the next day still humming and singing their echoing refrains.

The immediate star of the show is singer Daniele Marando who truly possesses one of the most life affirming voices I’ve heard in a long time. His ability to switch from a delicate and sweet croon to an aching and tortured wail of a scream is spine tingling. When he sings ‘I feel so, feel so, feel so fine…’ it is as if he testifying to save his soul. So many singers these days can harness similar elements but Marando’s range and conviction are compelling.

Marando’s singing is like a much more realized and gospel-ized Finn Andrew of The Veils. It also has the warm falsetto of Roy Orbison as well as a sweet, sweet country croon that he uses beautifully on a cover of Don Walker’s Silo.

The rest of The Maladies are crucial components to their intoxicating sound. They know when to play with passion over technique and when to play with sensitivity restraint. Drummer Josh Harvey uses more than his standard kit to build clatter and harsh percussive sounds into the music while Daniel Babekuhl plays with a diversity that shows a strong knowledge of different guitar styles and emotions.

With You By My Side… isn’t all doom and gloom, the final track You And Your New Tattoo… is a fun waltz-like shuffle sounding like a Greek gathering in the back room of a bar, possibly a tip of the hat to some of the members cultural heritage.

The Maladies have produced the strongest possible renderings of their songs and captured what makes them such a great live band. Hard to believe it is their debut, it confirms them as undeniable talents on the local scene with a sound that will also transfer well to international audiences. Listen and you will be singing along to one of the best Australian debut albums of 2009.

Thanks for Kevin W. who gave the following review of “Operation SERF” on Amazon today:

Operation SERF had me hooked from page 1. It’s a page turner you can not put down. I found myself reminiscing between reading sessions and bringing up the topic of the book in daily conversation. I recommended this book to 5 close friends over the past week as I believe this book, although fiction, accurately portrays a potential SHTF scenario.

I found the story line so interesting that after I finished reading this book, I desperately wanted to finish reading the entire trilogy.
My only complaint is parts 2&3 of the trilogy will not be released for some time.

I look forward to reading future books by author Chris Sullins.

Part 2 of the trilogy will be finished by the end of Winter 2010 with an earlier release date than the timing I used for the first book. Proofing and publishing of Book 2 will actually be faster than what it was for Book 1.

“Slapsgiving 2: Revenge of the Slap”

November 23rd, 2009

I’ve been having a back and forth with other critics over the past few weeks about the current state of How I Met Your Mother, as there’s a general consensus that the show got rid of Barney and Robin before its comic potential had been fulfilled but a disagreement over whether this is all part of a broader plan. And, on Friday, co-creator Carter Bays did an interview with Michael Ausiello that managed to do absolutely nothing to settle this argument. On the one hand, Bays noted that this could just be one part of a larger journey between the two characters, which seems encouraging. However, on the other hand, he also said the following:

“None of us wanted to see Barney wearing a sweater-vest and going to bed-and-breakfasts,” says Bays, adding that it makes sense the relationship would “flame out fast” given that “neither of them, at their core, really wanted to be tied down.” Bays also believes that, deep down, viewers prefer single Barney to attached Barney. “It’s one of those things where you can give people what they think they want, or what they really want.”

It’s one thing that Bays is remaining coy about their future, but for him to have internalized what I feel is a close-minded and limiting audience reaction to the character is highly problematic for me. The show didn’t give Barney a chance to adapt Single Barney into Attached Barney so to judge so quickly is so short-sighted that it is either a misquote or a sign that my faith in Bays/Thomas is lower than it’s ever been.

And while “Slapsgiving 2: Revenge of the Slap” seems built to regain my trust and sympathy by tapping into the show’s most slaptastic mythologies and by actually giving Lily and Marshall a story of their own, it does nothing to deal with my overall concerns about Barney as a character (proving a wash in this area) and disappoints by feeling like a strange mash-up of sentimental and comic that feels far less organic than the original “Slapsgiving.

Accordingly, How I Met Your Mother remains “on notice,” even during this holiday season.

The reason this episode does nothing to do with Barney’s character is that he remains in a supporting capacity. Barney, as a caricature with no sense of emotionality, works so long as he isn’t asked to be the center of attention. Like with last “Slapsgiving,” the slap itself is less about Barney (who simply sits paralyzed by fear, this year trapped by not knowing who is going to slap him as opposed to not knowing when the slap is coming) than it is about Ted and Robin arguing over who is going to slap him. As a result, Neil Patrick Harris simply gets to play the combination of mortal terror and savvy disruption as Barney tries to get them arguing to the point where neither of them will dole out the slap before the imposed deadline of sundown. The result is a performance and a character beat that doesn’t fall short because it has no aspirations: Barney is specifically compartmentalized outside of the dramatic side of the episode, and there’s nothing wrong with this.

However, ignoring the fact that this story would have been just as interesting if Robin and Barney were still together (where Ted and Robin could have still brought the turkey as roommates and her right to the slap could have been about getting retribution for their fights), the real reason that this story doesn’t work is that Ted and Robin have nothing to work out. While the first “Slapsgiving” put a nail in the Ted/Robin relationship (if not the friends with benefits potential) for good in the midst of the slaptivities, providing an emotional depth to the episode, this year’s Ted and Robin story was ultimately pointless. I kept waiting for something to happen to make Ted and Robin’s conflict more explicitly about either Barney (for Robin) or something at all (for Ted, who hasn’t had a real story all year) so that it would have some sort of impact, but it never did. I don’t mean to so clearly cry out for some continuity, but at least start listing off the various ways that Barney has wrong Ted in the past, or bring up Robin’s relationship with him long before the conclusion of the episode. As good as NPH was in the various reactions, especially when Ted and Robin were arguing and he was popping up between them, the only time their argument became interesting was when Ted tried to lie and claim he was still in love with her: at that point, as played out as that card is, it was at least something to give the storyline a point.

In the end, for the episode to claim that the whole “Slapsgiving 2″ storyline was all an effort from Marshall to bring everyone together (which makes no sense considering that he raised it before Mickey arrived, and thus before they needed to be reconciled in any major way (Major Way! *Salute*) ) is patently false, and a bit of broad overgeneralizing that the show is normally above. I thought Chris Elliott was engaging as Lily’s inappropriate board game-obsessive deadbeat dad, and I like that Lily was finally given a storyline, but it failed to connect with me both a) because we had never been introduced to it in the past and b) because Lily was kind of unsympathetic throughout. It may be a symptom of the fact that Lily has been somewhat mean all season, but the “You’re Dead to Me” look and her unwillingness to forgive her father lacked emotional nuance. The episode didn’t know if it wanted us to take Lily’s hatred seriously (in overdoing his faults to the point of sending Lily’s grandfather back into the steel mill) or to view it as frivolous and silly (like with her newspaper stealing neighbour or her bridesmaid), mixing Lily’s pride and love for her family with being overemotional and bitter. So when the episode eventually tells, rather than shows, Lily’s moment of realization that the convenience store owner was actually dead to everyone, it’s like we’re so disconnected from Lily’s emotions that any real value in their reunion is lost, a problem only compounded when it gets lumped in with the slap towards the end.

Of course, the episode had its charms. I thought Marshall got a lot of great content in the episode, whether it was the fake arms in his Sunday dinner webchat or him retelling the story of he and Mickey’s meeting so that it wasn’t him who was balling his eyes out. And Mickey was worth it if only for the endless parade of board game concepts (Tijuana Slumlord, Car Battery, There’s a Clown Demon Under the Bed, Landmine Lunge, Diseases, Dog Fight Promoter, etc.) And even though it could be seen a mile away, the premise of the slap bet hasn’t lost all of its charm, and seeing Jason Segel rip into Neil Patrick Harris remains as entertaining as ever before.

But the episode struggling trying to both use an existing mythology (the slapping throne was a nice addition) and create a new one (with Lily’s father) in the same episode, and both suffered as a result. The two storylines never meshed together as organically as they did in “Slapsgiving,” and the Lily side of things needed more time and focus to allow us to connect with her emotional journey. It wasn’t an unfunny episode, but it didn’t live up to the mythology it tapped into.

It’s not a slaptastrophe, but let’s just say I have my slapsgivings…as in misgivings, not the pural of Slapsgiving. Note the lack of capitalization.

Cultural Observations

• You’d be amazed how instinctively I added the repeat/salute after “major way” above. No delay at all.
• Of the various new slap phrases in the episode, I think “Slape Diem” was my favourite.
• They’re onto the last slap, and I’ll say this much: it needs to be an event on its own. Don’t worry about other storylines, just give us an epic slap episode worthy of the occasion.
• It used to be that Lily’s different hair was what destroyed any realistic flashbacks, but wigs could at least pretend: Hannigan’s new chest, however, is far more conspicuous.
• And yes, as everyone saw, the 1990s Board Game commercial version of Aldrin Games’ Slap Bet, complete with kids slapping the elderly was a whole lot of fun, especially the 90s commercial interpretation of “You Just Got Slapped.”

Publisher’s Synopsis: When Mercury is in Retrograde, the only guarantee is anything that can go wrong, will.

Penelope Mercury, an intrepid reporter at the New York Telegraph, has pounded the pavement for five years from city borough, carrying out her boss’s eccentric orders to break stories that seem inconsequential to everyone but him.  Finally, she is inches away from being promoted to her dream job-covering courtroom drama for the paper-but after one spectacularly disastrous day, she is fired instead.

Lena “Lipstick Carcrash” Lippencrass has a pretty fabulous life, even by a socialite’s standards, as a top editor at the high fashion magazine Y.  Long lunches with her girlfriends and afternoons spent shopping at Bergdorf’s are all in a day’s work.  But when Lena’s always indulgent parents abruptly cut off her cash flow and kick her out of her beloved West Village duplex for refusing to work for the family business, she is forced to confront the reality of what it takes to pay the bills.

Dana Gluck, a workaholic lawyers, has been married for two years to a man who was perfect on paper but increasingly critical in reality.  She hoped that her dreams of motherhood would be fulfilled soon, which surely would also fix their marriage problems.  Instead, her husband leaves her for an exhange student/model who, to make matters worse, promptly gets pregnant.

When fate conspires to have these three very different women move into the same SoHo apartment building, they soon discover that having their carefully planned lives fall to pieces might be the best thing that could have ever happened to them.

Rating: 4 out of 5 Quills

About the Author: Paula Froelich is the deputy editor fo the New York Posts’s Page Six column.  She lives in New York City.  This is first novel

Review: I want to start off by saying that I loved this novel.  After three very hard months of work and school, this was the perfect read for me.  I felt like a kindred spirit with all three of the main characters.  Penelope was the crazy one, running around New York with her frizzy hair that would not calm down for anyone or anything.  Then there was Lipstick, the socialite, who had a crazy way with fashion.  Then there was Dana, the workaholic, who hadn’t spent enough time on her social life.  All three ladies needed something that they were lucky enough to find in each other.

This story shows that sometimes you need to lose a little to gain a lot.  Penelope loses one job that treated her like crap with unreasonable demand.  It might have seemed like a big loss, but eventually she’ll learn that with every major loss comes a new beginning.  Lipstick loses her parent’s wealth but finds a new side to herself that she could have never found with her monetary ties to hear parents.  Dana loses her husband who was an arrogant prick anyway.  She gains a new sense of confidence and two unbelievably great new friends.

The point?  Pretty simple, any loss is the opportunity of a new beginning and that is all that really matters.  Moping won’t help.  These girls learn that and through determination and hard work are able to recreate themselves into something better.  I loved the girls and their stories.  They were hilarious and outrageous at times, which made them incredibly fun to read.  I felt like I could relate to every girl from her highs to her lows.

Even better Froelich paints a very vivid picture of New York that I fell in love with.  I still see myself living there someday.  Only time will tell if I’ll actually ever make it over there, but this book will definitely keep me dreaming.

This might have been a fluffy read, but it was absolutely enjoyable.

The new film based on the D-Day prediction bugging everybody.
One Sentence Review: 2012 is a long film with great CGI visuals, but it lacks true facts and has many plot holes.

Rating: 3 out of 4 stars.

In-Depth: The film stars John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and many more. The plot is based on a man and his family trying to survive nature’s forces as the world collapses from the inside based on the Mayan prediction.

“The Bejeweled-meets-D&D smash Puzzle Quest proved serious RPGs and sparkly gem matching puzzle gameplay could tie the knot and keep from strangling one another. Gyromancer treads similar territory but adds in a few new twists… literally.”

Check out the full review here at GamesRadar.

Google WAVE logo

What can I say besides I’m just plain disappointed in Google WAVE. There was so much hype, so much excitement about it, and now it’s evaporated.

No HTML5

I understood that WAVE was to be done in HTML5, but it has a doc type of HTML 4.01. And actually, I found that it has a very serious case of “Divitis” (too many DIV tags). Can’t find any type of HTML5 tag at all, not even a section tag, header tag, nuthin’. Just a ton of DIVs and SPANs.

If you’re curious, here’s a look at the top of the source:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html><head><meta name="gwt:property" content="locale=en">

And the generated source:

<html><head><meta name="gwt:property" content="locale=en">

Not Accessible

Google WAVE is not web accessible. Period. Simplistically, this means that people with disabilities cannot use it, or it’s very difficult. For more on this, check out my Web Axe entry Podcast #75: Jeremy Keith Interview, Google Wave and Google Wave Preview Accessibility Review by WebAIM’s Jared Smith.

To further frustrate us web accessibility professionals, Google has stolen the name of WebAIM’s free tool WAVE (web accessibility evaluation tool).

No Usage

No one’s using WAVE. Most people I know now who want a WAVE invite (and that’s a lot of folks), has received one by now. And I haven’t seen much activity at all. As a matter of fact, I haven’t seen any new messages for a month now.

Disappointed in Google WAVE

Dennis

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:12:56 GMT

Google WAVE logo

What can I say besides I’m just plain disappointed in Google WAVE. There was so much hype, so much excitement about it, and now it’s evaporated.

No HTML5

I understood that WAVE was to be done in HTML5, but it has a doc type of HTML 4.01. And actually, I found that it has a very serious case of “Divitis” (too many DIV tags). Can’t find any type of HTML5 tag at all, not even a section tag, header tag, nuthin’. Just a ton of DIVs and SPANs.

If you’re curious, here’s a look at the top of the source:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html><head><meta name="gwt:property" content="locale=en">

And the generated source:

<html><head><meta name="gwt:property" content="locale=en">

Not Accessible

Google WAVE is not web accessible. Period. Simplistically, this means that people with disabilities cannot use it, or it’s very difficult. For more on this, check out my Web Axe entry Podcast #75: Jeremy Keith Interview, Google Wave and Google Wave Preview Accessibility Review by WebAIM’s Jared Smith.

To further frustrate us web accessibility professionals, Google has stolen the name of WebAIM’s free tool WAVE (web accessibility evaluation tool).

No Usage

No one’s using WAVE. Most people I know now who want a WAVE invite (and that’s a lot of folks), has received one by now. And I haven’t seen much activity at all. As a matter of fact, I haven’t seen any new messages for a month now.

Disappointed in Google WAVE

Dennis

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:12:56 GMT

“Sometimes making a game more realistic isn’t always the best way to go. Learning how to skateboard in real life is an exhausting, frustrating, and frequently painful experience. In that regard, Tony Hawk: Ride manages to hit the reality nail on the head. You might not crack your face open on the concrete or get de-balled by a freak rail-grind slip, but this awkward exercise in fake skateboarding is wonky enough to make even the most devout Tony Hawk game fans yearn for a return to the days of button mashing combos.”

Check out the full review here at GamesRadar.

Today, I am featuring a Guest post by Gary Ballard the author of   Under the Amoral Bridge (The Bridge Chronicles), a self published debut novel that was originally published in a serialized format on his blog. Gary contacted me and asked if I would be interested in reading his book, so I hopped on over to his blog (click here to or on the picture of the cover to check it out) and it sounded very interesting to me. I told Gary to  send it to me and the I asked if he’d like to do a guest post. That is what led us to where we are today.

I am still reading Under the Amoral Bridge right now, but I can honestly tell you that I am really enjoying it. It is the first Cyberpunk book I have ever read and if this is an example of Cyberpunk then I will be reading more in this genre. I will, of course be doing a complete review but here’s a quick mini-review based upon where I am right now:

I love Artemis Bridge, the main character and obviously the namesake of the book. In the introduction Gary says Bridge is ‘…a complete bastard, someone I could never sympathize with and could never like.’ I disagree with Gary’s assessment of Bridge, while there is no doubt that he is a bastard, there is also something I can’t quite put my finger on that makes him endearing to me. Its not your average ‘bad-boy’ lust either – its something deeper than that. Hopefully by the time I do the full review I will have identified exactly what it is about Bridge. When I read that part of the intro about him never being able to like Bridge I was wondering to myself why an author would choose to write an entire book around a character they didn’t like. Gary had also said that Bridge was a fun character to write and now that I have read a little more than half of the book I get it because, he is not only a fun character but also an intriguing and multi-layered character. As the book progresses its like peeling back the layers of an onion as you get to know Bridge. The world building is very good and the supporting characters are an absolute trip. Gary’s prose is at times absolutely mesmerizing. The only thing that has bothered me a bit so far is that I felt a like a bit to much was given way in the beginning over the book in respect to how Bridge became who he is and the key to why the book title is Under the Amoral Bridge – but that may be because of the format it was originally published in or there may be another reason I will find once I get to the end of the book. It in no way is enough of a reason not to read the book. I would definitely recommend this book right now, even if I am not happy with the ending (which I don’t know yet), because I am enjoying Artemis Bridge and Gary’s writing style that much.

(P.S. Yes, I know there would be no horror genere if everyone wrote MC’s that the personally would be friends with. But I wasn’t thinking about that at the time.) You can pick up Gary’s book at any of the following places:

Backcover Blurb:

Artemis Bridge is the know-who, go-to guy, the amoral fixer in 2028 Los Angeles with the connection for any illicit desire no matter how depraved. You need it, he can get it without questions or judgment. He prides himself on staying detached from the depravity, untouched by the filth, untouchable by the law. When a young hacker is assassinated before his eyes, he is burdened with a scandalous video of the mayor on the eve of the city’s most important election of the century. With digital assassins and murderous thugs dogging his every step, he has only days before the corrupt mayor is re-elected, handing the Chronosoft Corporation complete control of the city. Unable to sell the video, he is forced further into a complex conspiracy. This taut futuristic thriller is the debut novel by Gary A. Ballard, a rising new talent in the cyberpunk genre. The trade paperback edition includes the previously unpublished short story “Feeding Autonomy.”

Here’s the book Trailer:

And now the reason I gathered  you all here…

Today’s Guest Post:

The Genesis of Inspiration by Gary Ballard

Writers are always asked to name their influences, the specific or general inspirations that caused them to put pen to paper, fingers to typewriter keys and ephemeral thoughts to concrete words. I could write entire novels about the things that have influenced me. Growing up in the last ‘70’s and early ‘80’s, I come from a generation whose outlook was shaped by a curious amalgam of television, film, music and books. Inundated with visual and aural stimuli from music videos, the cross-pollination of movies derived from books complete with soundtracks that were made specifically for the movie and fed back to the audience through music television in some incestuous circular orgy of media saturation fed my imagination in unexpected ways. As a result, the inspiration for my first foray into writing cannot be linked to one source but many.

It would all have to start with my mother. Some of my oldest memories are reading memories: summer reading programs at the Meridian, MS public library with Curious George books; the first comic book I remember owning, a Batman comic from the Dark Detective mold so well presented by the artist Jim Aparo; stacks of hardback Hardy Boy mysteries. All of these disparate sources were a result of the love of reading instilled in me by my mother. During my elementary school years, she worked and went to school, eventually becoming a math teacher when I was nine. I’ve probably never told her how much I respected the difficulty she must have endured to get that degree. Raising three kids while working full-time is hard enough; earning a degree at the same time would be enough to drive anyone batty. But through all of that, she managed it and managed to instill a passion for reading in me. I took to the lesson with fervor. I do not remember a time that I was not reading something, often two books at a time, and it continues to this day.

Another library provided my second inspiration in the form of J.R.R. Tolkien. My school library had the most gorgeous edition of The Hobbit, complete with the lush illustrations that have always made Tolkien’s work come to life. At the age of 11, I discovered this fantasy world, a place and time so far removed from my own mundane, rural existence. I was hooked. One year later, I discovered the Lord of the Rings trilogy at the community college library where my mother pursued her post-graduate work. Digesting those books at the age of 12 was tough, but worthwhile. Not only did reading books with that density of language stretch my mind to the point that I was able to read Shakespeare right alongside it, but it fueled an interest in fantasy fiction that led me inexorably to the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons.

The final piece of the inspiration pie was a movie, or more specifically, the late-night B movies shown on the weekends after one of my favorite shows, The Avengers. In particular, the horribly cheesy movie Hawk the Slayer , which starred a typically overacting Jack Palance as the heavy. Make no mistake, the movie is bad. It’s B movie hack and slash fantasy at its best and worst, but for an 11-year old that has been introduced to the world of Tolkien’s Hobbit, it is manna from heaven. Sword battles, magic, elves, dwarves, it was glorious. And like Tolkien, it led me to Dungeons & Dragons and role-playing games. Role-playing games are the perfect arena for an imaginative mind, providing the structure for that imagination to create characters, situations and worlds in free-form, improvisational narratives. Running a role-playing campaign is worth a thousand writer’s workshops, regardless of how derivative the setting.

All of these things combined in my young mind to fuel my first attempts at writing. The stories were awful, of course, derivative hack and slash fantasy tales that might as well have been the flavor fiction found in the margins of the D&D rulebook. But the pulsating hum of that electric typewriter stashed in the laundry room gave me an electric charge. Those first stories morphed into other stories in other genres, each a derivative of whatever preoccupied me at the time. From fantasy, I moved to action adventure in the mold of Don Pendelton’s Executioner, horror copied from Stephen King, heavy metal songs and beat poetry and eventually the cyberpunk literature of my first published novel, itself derived from the setting of my own role-playing game. Those imaginary worlds of role-playing, created to interact with the worlds of movies and TV and books that I was so fascinated with, and the love of reading that led me to those worlds in the first place, those are the genesis of my inspiration.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Place’s you can pick up your very own copy of  Under the Amoral Bridge:

Createspace – where they are having a Sale from now through December 1st and you can get 25% off of Under the Amoral Bridge, just click the link and at check out use the coupon code:  HC86CZSY

Amazon

Plus there is an E-version that is available at:

Smashwords

Barnes and Noble

Here are some full reviews for your reading pleasure:

GoodReads

Fantasy Book Critics

Amazon Review

One last thing….

Giveaway! (Ends Sunday, 11/29/09)

Answer the following question for a chance to win a copy of Under the Amoral Bridge:

What inspires you? If you are a writer you can talk about what inspires your writing. For everybody else (and writers too if you don’t want to talk about your writing) tell me what inspires you in your everyday life. Something that motives you or just makes your day – even just an experience that happened just when you needed it. If you happen to be feeling under-inspired right now the you can just comment on something in Gary’s guest post – extra entry if you do both!

Breakdown:

+1 entry if you answer my question or comment on something in Gary’s Post

+2 entries if you answer question & comment something in Gary’s Post

+2 if you re-tweet this post & contest

+2 if you link to it on your blog

+2  if you subscribe to the email new email update option

+2 if you are already a follower of my blog

+3  if you become a new follower of me on Twitter (@bookobsessedGrl)

+3 if you become a new follower of Gary on Twitter (@HaemishM)

+ 4 if you subscribe to Gary’s Blog (linked above by clicking on book cover)

Please let me know in your link if you would like the paperback version or the e-version  and leave either an email address or twitter user-id so I can contact the winner. Contest is open world-wide but if you are outside the U.S. you are only eligible for the e-version.

Contest ends: Sunday, November 29, 2009 at Noon

P.S. You still have a chance to win a copy of Doubleblind by Ann Aguirre also until Noon tomorrow, November 24, 2009 at Noon click here to enter if you haven’t already.

FTC Disclaimer: This book was sent to me free by the author for review purposes, however none of my reviews are given positive feedback unless they deserve the positive feedback. I am honest in my reviewing practices. The giveaway copy will not be the one I was sent by the author it will be purchased with my own money.

Ernest Bloch is a Swiss born American composer most noted from his use of Jewish traditional and liturgical music in his compositions. His music is derived from Late Romantic and Impressionistic influences yet his liberal use of Jewish themes and motifs makes him stand out in 20th century music.

http://freealbums.blogsome.com/2009/11/23/bloch-violin-concerto/

فديو, فيديو كليب انا بيه ورومانسى من فلم, فيلم البيه الرومانسىافلام لك تحميل من

شاهد فديو, فيديو كليب انا بيه ورومانسى من فلم, فيلم البيه رومانسى – سعد الصغير 2009
تحمل وتنزيل فديو, فيديو كليب سعد الصغير من فلم, فيلم البيه رومانسى انا بيه ورومانسى

لمشاهدة وتحميل الفديو, فيديو كليب …

شاهد فديو, فيديو كليب اغنية سعد الصغير انا بيه ورومانسى من فلم, فيلم البيه رومانسى
يو, فيديو كليب سعد الصغير من فلم, فيلم البية الرومانسى – انا بيه ورومانسى

اضغط هنا لمشاهدة الكليب

|اغانى|فديو, فيديو كليب|مقطع|هدف|مسلسل|اعلان|فلم, فيلم|برنامج|حلقة|شاهد|مشاهدة|اون لاين|سرعة عالية |بدون
تحميل|اغانى|عربى|اجنبى|MP3, mp3, ام بي ثري|البوم|
2009|سينجل|نغمات|تنزيل|نزل|شعبي|راب|حمل|موسيقى|MP3, mp3, ام بي ثري

|افراح|فديو, فيديو كليب|راديو||اون لاين|بدون تحميل|مجانا|بدون اشتراك|2010

Envy of the Gods, a science-fiction novel, has a cast of five main characters that struggle through a rise to leadership, tough ethical decisions, the re-discovery and use of ancient textbooks, and a society that strives for a better, more efficient way of life.

In a ruthless and brutal age, much like our age of barbarian kingdoms, the novel takes the reader through immense social and governmental changes. Cold, power hungry Duke Atan Ishtba is on his way towards unchallenged dominance of surrounding kingdoms. Yet Raphela’s intense beauty not only brought him to his knees. All his efforts at wooing her with jewels and finery are only in vain. Her heart lay with the rightful leader who is destined to rule the land with a caring and enterprising heart. Between the two they bring education to the masses, equality to women and better economic situations for the general public.

This is not done through some kind of super-human power, but rather through genuine hard work, learning to use their minds creatively and through the generosity of the Ancients – who left behind a written legacy of their advanced knowledge. The loyal support of friends like Mahtso and Fatell, help these two through their many adventures.

The author never tells us much about the Ancients, the terrain or other such background information. I was clueless, until it was made clear in the end, that the book is based in another world entirely. Certainly, the characters were quite likely to be of humanoid life. Envy of the Gods is very interesting indeed, and deserves a second read.

I do, however, feel it is necessary to voice some negative comments. The back cover does not explain the book very well at all and the front cover image does not have much appeal. I felt, that at times, some of the events were not exactly believable or could fit a realistic timetable. But then, science-fiction genres can push many boundaries that other genres cannot.

This 320-page novel by Andrea Savitch is the first in the trilogy and though it does not require subsequent novels, the author has created sufficient curiosity to entice readers to wonder where she will take them next.

ISBN#: 1-933538-11-2

Author: Andrea Savitch

Publisher: Bridgeway Books

~ Lillian Brummet: co-author of the books Trash Talk and Purple Snowflake Marketing, author of Towards Understanding; host of the Conscious Discussions radio show (http://www.brummet.ca)

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“Nocturnal Habits” is classic IDM, but influenced by the land where he comes from, Andalucia, that has a long tradition of breaks, hip hop and other eclectic influences. Mixing dense sound layers with melodic moments, with the collaboration of the guitar player J. Masero, humour notes (Interludio andaluz) and hip hop (Frames), making this album not apt for purists of IDM, but atractive for electronic music lovers and especially those who like origin signed and personal flavour.

http://www.archive.org/details/Sr.AyenocturnalHabitsInr011cdr_67/

http://www.inrecs.com/

Last weekend the Pusan West FF occured at Chapman University in Orange, CA. I’ll be brief… it was awesome.

Some pictures I took

Best,

Reviews:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/iwnow/archives/pusan_west_to_launch_at_cas_chapman_university/
http://www.sparkoc.com/event/detail/440505071
http://www.ask.com/web?q=Pusan%20West%20Reviews&o=101483&l=dis

The difficulty of turning non-fiction into a convincing and enjoyable fictional narrative has defeated many a director including most recently Richard Linklater with the inexorable Fast Food Nation, so an adaptation of Jon Ronson’s book The Men Who Stare At Goats was always going to be hard work for first time director Grant Heslov, who previously co-wrote George Clooney’s Good Night and Good Luck.

This film starts with the disclaimer that more of this story than you would think and goes on to tell the story of hapless Ann Arbor journalist Bob Wilton who uses the break-up of his marriage as the catalyst to become a war correspondent on the War on Terror.  Frustrated and humiliated in a Kuwaiti hotel, Wilton stumbles across George Clooney’s Lyn Cassady, a name he recognises from his days interviewing in Ann Arbor.  What follows is part-road movie and part-madcap comedy exploring the antics of the so-called “New Earth Army” – a black op exploring the possibilities of the mind in combat led by Jeff Bridges’ Bill Django.

There are a number of problems with this film, most notably with the film’s structure.  The road movie sections are present day which leaves much of the antics of the army in flashback narrated by McGregor.  As a device, this doesn’t work and takes the audience in and out of the movie.  The other problem is that I just didn’t find a lot of this film to be particularly funny.  A lot of the jokes fell flat, particularly between McGregor and Clooney and this is symptomatic of  performances which feel “phoned in” and unremarkable.  With no-one is this more apparent than with Jeff Bridges who could play the drugged-up hippy role in his sleep.  In the case of Clooney, McGregor, Bridges and Spacey, all of them have played similar roles better in better films.

The book is a fun interesting book and whilst some of that fun makes it onto the screen, once again this film is just another illustration that adapting non-fiction is tricky.

4/10

I have to admit that nothing on the cover of this particular issue grabbed my attention.  The project on the front cover is pretty, but it didn’t give me those delicious goose pimples and inspire me to go into my craft room and play with my beads.  To be perfectly honest, I looked at the cover, gleamed over the subtitles, and let the magazine sit on my night stand for a week before I thumbed through it.

Honesty is my policy.  Being a fan of a magazine does not mean you have to LOVE everything it produces.

With that being said, a week later I looked at the cover and felt a little bored.  The wirework earrings featured on page 51 looked interesting.  Being a lover of wire work and beads, this piqued some interest.  The announcement of a chain maille project on page 39  got me to open the magazine.

WOW!

Suddenly I got the goosebumps and I felt like playing!  Feeling a little silly about discounting this particular issue from just looking at the cover, I started from the very beginning of the magazine and looked at every page.    Starting with the letter From the Editor, I couldn’t put the magazine down.  The Bead Soup introduced me to a silk/stainless steel blend fiber from Habu that could prevent my crystals from cutting my crochet cotton.  Priceless tip since I like to crochet with beads and have had to make some emergency fixes when a stone wore a thread a little too thin.

Anyway, I thumbed through the pages and caught another gem.  On page 18 is a stitch workshop for bead knitting.

Bead knitting.

I have just recently taught myself how to knit and I LOVE it.  With every new craft I learn, I always look for an angle to combine something else I already do.  To knit beads blew my mind.  Honestly, I couldn’t stop smiling.

All in all, this magazine is a sleeper find.  Initially it did not knock my socks off, but later I was sold.  My husband commented that my magazine should start repeating itself soon.  Well, that has been true for many other craft magazine subscriptions I have had, but I haven’t found the repeat.  I’m only a year in on this subscriptions.  When this magazine starts to repeat, I will definitely say so.  As of right now, I’m lovin’ it.

por Guilherme Zocchio

___________

Até hoje, a História que foi contada é a história dos vencedores. Daqueles que perderam restam as ruínas e um ou outro conto ou lenda. Por mais que se tente voltar no tempo em busca do que se foi, nunca será possível fazê-lo, pois há um vento que sopra numa única direção: o futuro.

E pelo menos na realidade, ainda que se tente, voltar ao passado é uma tentadora utopia. Diz-se muito sobre o fim dos tempos em 2012, que talvez seja de fato o rumo da humanidade, se esta, porém, já não tivesse fadada ao desastre em 1999 – quando Lavos finalmente despertou. Antes mesmo disso, cada disparo do gatilho da História, então controlado por ele desde sua vinda à Terra, construiu o final a que se chegaria em Chrono Trigger. No entanto, apenas caso ninguém fizesse algo.

Se, no ano 1000 do Reino de Guardia, Crono não tivesse sem querer encontrado Marle na Feira do Milênio, a viagem através do tempo protagonizada pelos dois nunca teria acontecido, e assim alterado este trágico destino que fora traçado. Isso porque, só após o acidente envolvendo a máquina teletransporte construída para a feira por Lucca – excêntrica inventora e amiga de infância de Crono -, estes três dão conta do poder de viajar no tempo contido num misterioso amuleto carregado por Marle.

Uma vez cientes disso após duas viagens acidentais – uma ao passado na Idade Média, e outra ao Futuro apocalíptico -, eles então descobrem sobre a existência de Lavos, e juntos a outros companheiros – Frog, Robo e Ayla – conhecidos nas idas e vindas pelo tempo, partem numa jornada a fim de destruir Lavos. Mas alguns dilemas surgem entre eles ao longo da aventura, pois, fazendo o que fariam – mesmo que para salvar o mundo -, alterariam o rumo da História e, com isso, talvez eles próprios deixassem de existir.

Eis uma trama atraente…

Trata-se, sobretudo, de um clássico dos games. Lançado originalmente para Super Nintendo em 1995 e com direito a dois remakes posteriormente, Chrono Trigger já surpreendera pelo enredo, profundidade dos personagens, trilha sonora e, além disso, por ser o primeiro RPG a poder alternar entre 13 finais diferentes para a estória.

Então, no fim, o que os protagonistas farão? Alterarem a História e se arriscarem a não mais existirem, ou se entregarem simplesmente ao vento que sopra ao futuro. Resta jogar para saber quem serão os vencedores.

[Este post é a primeira parte de uma série de três, cujos temas serãos os três jogos da série Chrono: Chrono Trigger, Radical Dreamers e Chrono Cross]

I was offered a blogger review pack of the new items of PIDIDDLE and I just want to thank the owner because I love the store. Out now you can find Kimchi Racerback Tanks, Raw Bones Leotards, and Scrunchy Wool Socks! Also there are new tattoos. I have new items from everywhere just sitting in my folder so I thought why not combine the new items with the items I have here and try to come up with a couple of outfits.

Outfit one:
Lashes: Eyelashes -20- DiamondDust *REDGRAVE*
Skins: Laqroki – Molly (Fair) Glow Skin 02
Hair: *Kookie* Kate Hair (Sunshine)
Leotard: PIDIDDLE – Raw Bones Leotard Redorange
Boots: *Kookie* Athena Boots (AT THE SHOE FAIR)

Outfit two:
Lashes: Eyelashes -20- DiamondDust *REDGRAVE*
Skins: Laqroki – Molly (Fair) Glow Skin 02
Hair: Artilleri – Rina Hair (Ebony)
Jacket: Zaara – Inka Jacket (Gray)
Leggings: Luck Inc – Wool Panty Charcoal
Heels: Tesla – Vinyl Vixens (Red)
Earrings: [glow] Folk Round Mosaic Earrings
Leotard: PIDDLE – Raw Bones Leotard Off White
Socks: PIDDLE – Scrunchy Wool Socks (Dark Green)

Outfit three:
Lashes: Eyelashes -20- DiamondDust *REDGRAVE*
Skins: Laqroki – Molly (Fair) Glow Skin 02
Hair: Exile – Jade Brownsugar
Shorts: Boa Creations – Short (Black
Undershirt: Whippet and Buck – Boatneck Top Van Cleef
Boots: (Shiny Thing) Old Boots – reddish
Leggings: Concrete Flowers – Simple Leggings Forrest
Shirt: PIDIDDLE – Kimchi Racerback – Red -

Outfit Four:
Lashes: Eyelashes -20- DiamondDust *REDGRAVE*
Skins: Laqroki – Molly (Fair) Glow Skin 02
Hair: Dernier Cri – Madeline Brown Shade
Shoes: Fri.Day – Basic Flats Brown
Skirt: Niniko – Gacha Corduroy Skirt (Brown) ( Got this for 30L in the “bubble gum machine” thing near the front door)
Cardigan: +KiiToS!! Lentotahti+ Long Knit Gown *Gray*
Earrings and Necklace: Dark Mouse – Bank’s Closed
Top: PIDIDDLE – Kimchi Racerback
Socks: PIDIDDLE – Scrunchy Wool Socks LightGray

Check out PIDIDDLE and get the new items ASAP.

Tange returns to Earth Mantra with a delicous collection of meditative pieces called “Steel Waves”.

Gordon Macmillan, the artist behind the Tange project, never ceases to amaze us with his patient approach to the ambient arts. He cites Tangerine Dream as one of his primary influences (hence the name), but to be honest we feel he has a very distinctive voice of his own, with very little of the formulism the Berlin School sometimes engenders. One can hear the occasional homage to Tangerine Dream in his music, but the overall impact is clearly his own, with nothing the least bit derivative about it. [...]

http://www.archive.org/details/earman103

http://earthmantra.com/steelwaves

So I kept expecting a clown to pop up somewhere and ruin it all. But it didn’t happen and the novel ended in a not entirely bizarre manner. Was this really Stephen King?*

The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition is essentially an end-of-the-world story. A superflu virus more or less wipes out the human race, except for some survivors who find themselves headed either to the west, to Las Vegas and the haunt of the  ’dark man’, or to Nebraska where 108-year-old ‘Mother Abigail’ resides. Most of the novel traces the spread of the virus, the painful deaths of many, and the cross-country treks of the survivors.

While the plot moved along at a decent enough clip, it was the characters that really appealed to me. Many of them were very believable and quite likeable – ordinary people who find themselves thrown into situations where they have to lead their band of survivors, often reluctantly but courageously.

While The Stand isn’t a creep show the likes of Guillermo Del Toro’s vampire fest The Strain, it is a horror story for our time, and one that is quite plausible.

(*As I thought about it a bit more, King has written some pretty amazing stories like The Shawshank Redemption and Stand By Me. I just made that mistake of reading It many years ago, and stayed far away from any King novels since then. While I am glad I stuck through this 1000+ page novel, it’s highly unlikely that I will reach for another Stephen King novel again – there are just too many other books out there!).

Source: Library

Finding an anti-perspirant and deodorant for women that works well and smells good or not at all has been a challenge for me. You see, I am one of those sensitive individuals who has allergic skin reactions to various products or items. In fact, the very first time I tried using an aerosol-type deodorant, the product cooked and blistered the skin of my underarms. Other brands of aerosol anti-perspirant and deodorant products for women produced the same allergic reactions. Therefore, I was unable to use such personal items.

Needless to say, the pursuit of finding something that would work for me without causing such painful reactions was on. Mother searched high and low to find an anti-perspirant and deodorant for women that I could use. I was 19 years old before finding a product that worked for me without the nasty side-effects. When I found it, I did stock up on it when I could. I used that product until the time it was taken off the market when I was somewhere in my 30’s. I did not know it was no longer sold at the local retailers. However, I was able to find some while shopping at the local Dollar Tree and then stocked up on that product again. Unfortunately, about three-quarters through my precious stockpile of that particular product, I developed an allergic skin rash to it.

Once more the search was on to find just the right personal product for yours truly. I have to admit to panicking just a bit about where to find another quality product that would work for me without causing problems. After trying several different types of solid anti-perspirant and deodorant products for women that I will not name here, since I do believe that the products I tried were quality items. However, the problem in trying out so many items that would not work for me was in the pricing per trial. Searching for the solution was too expensive.

You may continue reading this anti-perspirant and deodrant for women review