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The Twilight Collection – Reasons to Buy the Twilight Book Collection by Stephenie Meyer

admin — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 07:53:28 +0000

If you are a big fan of magical mystical books, you should definitely get your hands on the Twilight book collection. This consists of four novels written by Stephenie Meyer, three of which have now been made into movies and DVDs.

What Is In The Collection

The names of the individual books in this series are called:

Twilight
New Moon
Eclipse
Breaking Dawn

There are four separate novels which follow the lives of Edward Cullen and Bella Swan. These are the two main characters in the book and we learn how they first met, how they are attracted to each other and what makes their relationship different to the majority of people in the world.

These books come under the genre of fantasy and intrigue because we learn that Edward Cullen is a vampire and that he will always be the eternal teenager. In truth, he should not be so attracted to the young girl Bella because she is human and that should make her not only his enemy but more importantly, his prey. Vampires normally feed on the blood of humans but we learn that the Cullen family are different in this respect.

The whole way that they live and try to co-exist along with the human world is what makes this series of books so compelling. This not is a straight forward love story between a boy and a girl. There are some major complications along the way and we are taken on the journey of how these two people try to come to terms with their feelings and what destiny holds for them.

It is possible to buy these books individually but there is a greater benefit if you can buy them all in a collection. This will definitely make your purchase a lot cheaper and you can also get a lovely presentation box with it.

This would certainly make a wonderful gift idea for anyone who loves to read and you could buy it for any occasion.

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The Facebook Effect by David Kirkpatrick

admin — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 05:53:28 +0000

Book Review: The Facebook Effect – The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World

Facebook is now the king of social networking leaving behind it competitors like Myspace, Hi5 and Orkut way behind as the company grows at an unbelievable pace. Therefore it is the perfect time to bring forth a detailed study on the social networking behemoth! Its history and state of affairs. It has gained half a billion users and this number is still growing while also gaining a lot of private funding. Facebook is unquestionably the most important social utility to ever hit the web.

In the book “the Facebook Effect”, former fortune magazine technology editor David Kirkpatrick studies the structure of the company that has gained a strong foothold in the networking sector. He delves into the causes and the inner workings that made Facebook the current Media giant that it is. All the famous stories – from the “borrowing” (stealing?) of the original concept from ConnectU and houseSYSTEM, to the fever-pitched growth, through early stage investor meetings, the move from Harvard to Palo Alto.

The book seems to have received favourable support from most of the big names associated with the company that is still very young. There are multiple interviews conducted with Mark Zuckerberg himself. From all these insights, David speaks of the young company that went through all the turmoil that every young company faces while still remaining true to its goal of making society open, while creating and maintaining the “social graph”.

He also gives his take on why some of the features and applications became a raving success like Farmville and Mafia Wars while some turned into utter failures like Beacon. Other issues are also explained like privacy, advertising vs. user experience that are related to the applications themselves.

The author also delves into the life of Mark Zuckerberg in relation to his company Facebook. He seems to have changed himself when the investors wanted more maturity infused into the company. For example he states that when he found a girlfriend, he actually negotiated 100 minutes of time in a week for her. That is how detailed the book is about Facebook and everything related to it.

The revolutionary change in social behaviour that emanates from a 19 year old student is the Facebook effect.

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Science Fiction Book Review – Themes From Asimov’s Robot Series

admin — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 03:53:28 +0000

I recently read I, Robot, a collection of short stories written by Isaac Asimov in 1950′s. The movie that came out a few years ago with the same title was loosely based upon some of the themes from the stories, but did not follow any particular plot in the stories. While I did enjoy the movie, it failed, in my opinion, to capture the depth of the original writing and and themes Asimov was trying to communicate. Asimov’s body of work is considered a pillar of science fiction, and his Robot Series is some of his best work. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend that you do. And if you don’t want me to spoil it for you, stop reading now.

I, Robot tells the story of the creation of a robotic race, for lack of a better term, created initially as a work force for people, and the problems that arise as this race integrates into humanity. For safety, every robot is programmed with three basic laws,

A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law

The overall plot of the stories explore how various robots, as they become more advanced, interpret these Laws, and how those interpretations affect the world. As the stories near the end, a handful of humans realize robots have assumed more and more control over the world, politically and economically. Everything has become more efficient. Better rules. Less poverty. The world is truly a better place, because robots have become far more advanced, and are less corrupt than humans. In one of the last scenes, it is revealed that the robots have done this on purpose, for the sole purpose of fulfilling the First Law. They have taken control because they know humans are better off in their hands than our own. However, they go to great lengths to hide the fact that they have taken control, because our awareness of our loss of control would injure us emotionally, and that would be a violation of the First Law. In essence, humans could never know they were not in control.

This is why Asimov is a genius. He understood something profound about humanity. It seems we would rather run our own lives, even if we know its not the best life possible.

If you’re a parent, you’ve probably used the phrase “This is for your own good”. This phrase is normally followed by the parent making the child do something they do not want to do, like eating vegetables. The child probably understands that the parent is right, even if they don’t understand why. But they will fight as long as they can. Why? Because they are being made to do it. They are fighting for control, even if keeping that control means facing otherwise avoidable pain and difficulty later.

In many ways, we never grow up. I still find this theme in my own life. I grasp for control and fight to understand things that are often completely beyond me. I know I don’t have the wisdom or knowledge to call the shots in my own life, but keep doing it anyway. I know what it means to trust and see when doing so would benefit my life, but still find it hard to bring myself to do it. I tend to be much more willing to do something when it is my idea.

This is what made Asimov great. In these stories, he chose to use robots to examine the human condition. He wove creativity and insight into extremely fascinating, entertaining stories that challenged us to think.

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Holmes on the Range – Can Two Cowboys Channel Holmes and Watson?

admin — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 01:53:28 +0000

“It was like waking up at the sound of a train whistle-and remembering you’d fallen asleep on the tracks.
‘Damn it, Brother,’ I said. ‘You’re a cowboy, not a detective.’
Old Red didn’t answer with words. He just turned and showed me that little wisp of a grin he slips under his mustache when he thinks he’s being clever.
Oh? his smile said. A feller can’t be both?”

Hang onto the reins and enjoy Steve Hockensmith’s first novel, Holmes on the Range. The brothers are Gustav and Otto Amlingmeyer known by one and all as Old Red and Big Red due to the ginger color of their hair. Old Red is illiterate and relies on his younger brother, Big Red to read him stories about Sherlock Holmes.

The two are down on their luck cowboys drifting along looking for work. Hired on at a strange ranch Big Red is mortified and Old Red ecstatic when a murder gives them the opportunity to practice some “deducifying”. Old Red enthusiastically embraces the role of Sherlock while Big Red reluctantly and under protest becomes his Watson.

There is a cast of gossipy cowboys, uppity blue blood ranch owners from England, a tragic but strong beautiful woman, evil foremen, stampedes, a little blood and guts and on top of all that a pretty good story. A story helped along with a healthy serving of humor. The Swede is the cook and he doesn’t mean to be funny but…

“The Swede’s accent was molasses-thick even under the best of circumstances, but now it was as if someone had left the jug outside on a cold day. I was still trying to strain some meaning from the syrup when…
‘So I em going always to de oothoose when I am to be making with the plop, yes?’…”

Ahhhh, yes. Then there is the faithful horse, Pudding, who always comes home, then doesn’t one day. The legend of the beautiful but tragic beauty’s forbidden lover. Money troubles, a hermit cannibal and an “oothoose” door that keeps latching itself from the inside.

On top of all that good stuff there is confrontation and drama. The brothers have their differences.

“Thinking of Pinky got me heated up to quite a blaze again, and I was just about to singe Old Red’s eyebrows with some hot talk, spy be damned, when Anytime put out a shout that rescued my brother from the barbecue.”

Throw in a little action and this story is looking like it might be worth a little bit of your time.

“I smacked into its mangy hide like a snowball dashed against the side of a barn, coming down hard on my saddle warmer with my legs splayed out in a wishbone U.”

On that happy note take a minute to click over to your favorite online bookseller or hop in your car to visit your favorite bookstore or library. Gustav has probably deducified your intentions to read his story.

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Magazine Subscription Offers – Measure Your Options Well

admin — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 23:53:28 +0000

Nowadays, you can find attractive discounts and offers on almost anything. Whether you purchase toothpaste or a music system, you can find different offers on almost all of them. When sellers are providing offers on every other thing, there is nothing surprising if you get offer on your favorite magazine or newspaper. Newspaper and magazine subscription offers have become quite common these days. Many readers are opting for these offers to save some money or to get the best value of their money. When you are considering saving some expense on your magazine account, you need to be a little careful about some important factors.

The first and foremost thing that you should ensure is the magazine that you want to read. You can find different types of magazines in the market. It will not be a wise decision to make the subscription of any of the magazines. If you are considering for subscribing to a new magazine, you should at first purchase a couple of issue from the newsstand and check whether you like to read it or not. Subscription of a magazine will continue for a few months. Therefore, if you later find the magazine to be unimpressive, it will be a complete wastage of your money. When you want to save money, do not jump for just any offer. Find the best offer for yourself.

Subscription offers vary from one brand of magazine to other. Some magazine might provide you magazine subscription discount on the price of that particular magazine while some other might provide you some kind of free gift. Check the offer carefully and decide which offer will be the best for you. Take some time to make an appropriate decision.

When you are considering for purchasing a magazine on a subscription offer, you should also check the different types of subscription packages of that particular magazine. Offers for quarterly subscription, half yearly subscription and annual subscription is not the same. The discount rates vary from one offer to the other. Therefore, it is always recommended to compare the discounts properly before making any decision. If you do not compare the discounts, you might miss the best deal offered by the magazine publication company.

Many people consider that the magazine publication companies have designed subscription offers for their profit. Well, this is not incorrect but this is only one side of the coin. Magazine offers and discounts are meant for the benefit of both the readers and the sellers. Therefore, if you are a regular magazine reader and do not want to miss any issue of your favorite magazine for money, you should opt for subscription offers.

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Book Review – Spiritual Intelligence – The Ultimate Intelligence – Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall

admin — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 21:53:28 +0000

Spiritual intelligence is sadly often overlooked in coaching and development. It is related to that part of the brain which allows us to hope and dream and visualise and to connect us to our purpose in life. It is the trigger in our intelligence which entices us to seek meaning and a greater good by differentiating between good and evil.

The book highlights the quest for spiritual intelligence in addressing issues of meaning and value in our life along with our ability to dream and to inspire. It outlines a much richer context for our existence and for some, life’s purpose.

The book has something for everyone: those with a religious persuasion, those without, theorists and those fascinated with how the brain works. There is detailed information on the brain’s 3rd neural system and the “God spot” which appears to have been placed in all human beings to allow our own spiritual development and search for meaning.

It makes some interesting comparisons about the beginning of the earth making comparisons with how it is described by the following groups: Judeo- Christian/Esoteric, science and Ancient Greek, Taoist, Hindu and Buddhists.

Comparisons are also made in respect of personality between Holland’s occupational tests, Eastern religions and Greek mythology- fascinating stuff.

The close of the book outlines how you can develop your spiritual intelligence, grow as a person and prevent yourself from becoming spiritually stunted; described in the book as a cause of many illnesses and addictions.

I’d recommend this book for those who seek to understand what else makes us tick as human beings.

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Frank McCourt’s Beloved Ireland

admin — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 19:53:28 +0000

As a little girl, the only things I knew about Ireland were the leprechaun, the shamrock and the color green. I had always thought that the leprechaun was a cute little mythical creature in a green coat. I was completely wrong because just some years later, I saw a different representation of a leprechaun–this time, in a horror movie. That then made me ponder. Why Ireland had chosen such an eerie creature to carry the Irish flag, my young mind would never understand. I knew nothing more about this country and its culture for many years until…Frank McCourt.

Ah, who could ever forget the author of “Angela’s Ashes”? This riveting memoir tells the story of McCourt and his childhood while growing up in Limerick in deplorable living conditions. An alcoholic father who didn’t have regular employment, a mother who fell into depression after the death of her daughter, a miscarriage later on, and the subsequent death of her two sons, then two more babies afterwards, combined together make for the perfect melancholic novel. Not to mention their family is dirt-poor, living in squalor, and the pub-loving father, the only income-earner, who only had the occasional odd job, drank away the money that was supposed to be for food.

The McCourts were so poor, Frank did not have decent shoes to cover his feet from Ireland’s biting cold. And he had to walk to school every day at that. He was forced into child labor to bring food onto their usually empty plates. While recuperating from typhoid fever at a hospital, young Frank was introduced to the works of Shakespeare. This was where his love for the English language developed, and it was apparent from the start that he had a knack for it.

The whole novel is replete with sadness, anguish and suffering, yet Frank McCourt writes it with dignity. It was just straightforward story-telling. And you have to give it to him to make you cry and laugh on the same breath; it was just hysterical. His humor is another story altogether. Never in the whole book did Frank even insinuate any sort of hatred for his country of birth because in the face of such adversity, it was always love that brought Frank to eke out a living for his mother and siblings. It was love that helped him survive with flying colors all the hardships that a young boy his age would not have been able to manage. It was love that pushed him to go to the United States and carve a name for himself in the field of literature where he can show the whole world how a poor boy from his beloved Ireland can actually make it big someday.

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Wild at Heart – Discovering the Secret of a Man’s Soul – Relationship Book Review

admin — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 17:53:28 +0000

Author John Eldredge believes we have taken away the big dreams of a man’s heart when we told him to be a nice guy. This dedication to niceness is the reason there are so many tired and lonely women, so many fatherless children and so few real men around. Men can change this. Learn 3 things Eldredge says men must do to become Wild At Heart and revitalize their relationships.

1. Deep in his heart, every man longs for a battle to fight

Aggression is part of the man’s design; they are hard wired for it. Boys yearn to know they are powerful, dangerous, someone to be reckoned with.

Hockey and boxing were not feminine creations. A boy wants to attack something and so does a man. Even if it’s only a little white ball on a tee. He wants to whack it into kingdom come. Like it or not, the boy is a warrior who grows bored of games that have no element of danger or competition.

Life needs a man to be fierce and fiercely devoted. Eldredge reveals how to do that throughout his book.

2. Deep in his heart, every man longs for an adventure to live

There’s a reason the American cowboy has taken on mythic proportions. He embodies a yearning every man knows from very young–to go West, to find a place where he can be all he was meant to be. That is wild, dangerous, unfettered and free.

This isn’t a macho-man pep rally. It’s a search for authentic masculinity. Adventure requires something of us, puts us to the test. Though we may fear the test, at the same time we yearn to be tested, to discover that we have what it takes. If a man has lost this desire, says he doesn’t want it, that’s only because he believes he will fail the test. So he decides it’s better not to try. Eldredge reveals many ways to change that.

3. Deep in his heart, every man needs a beauty to rescue.

Once he is awakened to the beauty of love, a man wants to be the hero for his beauty. He wants to charge the castle, slay the giant, leap across parapets, or maybe hit a home run. It’s not just that a man needs a battle to fight; he needs someone to fight for. A man yearns for romance.

What about the feminine heart?

Eldredge explains the three essential desires in a woman’s heart:

Every woman years to be fought for, to be pursued and to be a priority to someone.

Every woman also wants an adventure to share. She doesn’t want to be the adventure; she wants to be caught up in something greater than herself.

Every woman wants to have a beauty to unveil. It’s not just physical beauty. It’s a deep desire to truly BE the beauty and be delighted in.

How can these insights revitalize your relationships?

WILD AT HEART is not about things men can do to be nicer guys. It’s a book about the recovery and release of a man’s heart, his passion and his true nature. It is an invitation and instruction guide for a man to head into the high country of the soul, into wild and uncharted regions, and reclaim your heart.

Eldredge invites women to discover the secret of a man’s soul and to delight in the strength and wildness men were created to offer. Eldredge concludes that men, women and children will be happier and healthier when men are Wild At Heart. He uses biblical references to support his recommendations, yet his insights transcend any religious boundaries.

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Review of ‘Get More Lawn Business’ by Brett Pieratt

admin — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 15:53:28 +0000

There are quite a few lawn care business guides available online that are designed to assist beginners in the process of setting up and running their own lawn care companies. Brett Pieratt’s guide ‘How to Double your Lawn Business in the Next 30 Days’ is an exception in that it offers informative reading for both established lawn care professionals as well as beginners. This article is a review of the guide and the package that it comes with.

Rather than going into equipment and business licensing like most guides ‘How to Double your Lawn Business in the Next 30 Days’ focuses mainly on the marketing side of the business, which afterall is one of the most important factors contributing towards success in any business. I found some of the marketing ideas suggested in the guide to be unconventional but Pieratt reports a great deal of success from them.

Pieratt starts off by covering ways that business owners can differentiate themselves from the competition and how they should view competition as being a sign of a healthy market rather than a threat.

He then goes on to explain the three most important skills that he sees as being critical to the success of a lawn service business. I was surprised to find out that lawn mowing and maintenance skills are not necessarily that important as they can easily be learnt in a short period of time. The most important skill is how you communicate and deal with people and this is essential in any service business.

Pieratt covers a lot of lead generation techniques and he is very strong in both online and offline marketing. His guide includes ways of using the Internet to generate leads without even owning a website. Many of his ideas do require a website though and he explains how to quickly and cheaply get a website set up and attract customers through it. His knowledge of Google and search engine marketing is impressive and he has a way of explaining things so that even the ‘technically challenged’ can understand.

He is also a firm believer in continuing to sell to your customers after you have taken the trouble to acquire them. The guide includes a number or ways that you can up-sell your clients with additional, extremely profitable services.

The guide is a little short at only 47 pages but it is packed with useful content and is set out as a kind of action plan with daily steps that readers can take to slowly move towards success. It currently comes with some free products related to sales and personal development.

For only $27 I highly recommend ‘How to Double your Lawn Business in the Next 30 Days’ to anyone wanting to get into the lawn care industry or improve their existing business.

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The Cautionary Tale of Shakespeare’s Macbeth

admin — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 13:53:28 +0000

William Shakespeare’s Macbeth contains a lot of life lessons. Number one: Don’t listen to stranger bearded women when wandering through a fog. Number two: Never let anyone bully you into doing something you don’t want to, even if it’s your wife. And Number 3? If you want to become king, the kill-everything-in-your-path strategy, while seemingly effective, is bound to backfire.

Macbeth is indeed a cautionary tale of greed, power and ambition. At the play’s core, it is about humanity’s tendency for evil and ruthlessness, particularly when fueled by the desire for ascension. Macbeth, a Scottish nobleman fresh from a ruthlessly victorious battle, stumbles upon a pack of prophesizing witches who imply that kinghood is in his future, effectively messing with his head and ego. Just a few little words set Macbeth in motion to achieve his fate of being king, instead of letting things unfold naturally.

Looking at Macbeth summary, Macbeth stands somewhat as a tragic hero and a villain in the play, as he is a man whose ambitious ego and thirst for power sets him on a path of destruction that inevitably arrives at a grisly destination with his head on a spike. Violent is as violent does for Macbeth.

What we learn from Macbeth, aside from the whole downside in embarking on a murderous rampage, is that our desires and our emotions control us much more than we think. It also highlights how easily swayed humanity can be at times, when all it takes is some eerie women to plant a seed of power in our impressionable egos. At its basic level, Macbeth is about the power and drive of man, and how that power and drive can effortlessly steer us off course. Take, for example, a selection from Macbeth quotes featuring the hallucinations of Macbeth that finally convinces him to kill the king. A floating mirage of a dagger, “a dagger of the mind” he calls it, seals the deal for Macbeth, reading it as something to “marshal’st” him on his way to power. Note the level of agency he ascribes to this image, which could either be a manifestation of the witches or of his “heat-oppressed” brain. The image is both a sign and a usher of sorts for Macbeth, suggesting his own lack of agency and self-determination that allows him to be easily swayed. A helpful comparison in understanding Macbeth’s craziness can found in another famous Shakespearean play where a tragic hero is conflicted with inaction, uncertainty and of course, impressionability when it comes to the supernatural. In the Hamlet summary, Hamlet is directed on a path to avenging his late father by his father’s ghost. He wavers and flip-flops on what to do-much like Macbeth-until finally committing the first murder (Poor Polonius!) that gets the ball rolling. For him, as for Macbeth, the first murder is always the hardest, but it gets easier with next few. For Macbeth, it gets excessively easier.

The tendency to be impressionable-either by one’s own mind tricks or the biting word from Lady Macbeth or the witches-makes Macbeth vulnerable to his own impulses of greed and power and the subsequent implication for evil. It’s also what makes him appear partly as a tragic hero, someone whose flaws of initial weak sense of self allows him to be a plaything of fates and witches. Those reading Macbeth as a tale of power and greed must also take into consideration how such ambitions are essentially weaknesses for Macbeth, as he fails prey to his own flaws. A cautionary tale indeed.