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Thursday, December 8, 2011

A Mini-Break :(

I'm obviously not capable of writing much besides the TILT's right now, so I'm going to declare a mini-break for now. I am super busy at work right now, so I don't have my usual slacker time lol and it's too hard to write them at my mom's. I'm sorry y'all, I wish I had internet at home! I really wanted to get caught up on my reviews for this year by the end of December, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen.

If I get the chance to write some reviews, I will definitely get them up though! Until then, I will try to at least continue doing my TILT's and tweeting (@SeeJennRead) and of course reading. Try and stop me! :)

Friday, December 2, 2011

All I Want For Christmas Is....

....books books books books. :) A sort of continuation of yesterday's post, in which I share with you some of the books that I am hoping to get this year for Christmas! A nice, pretty little mosaic taken straight from my Goodreads Wishlist, just in case you want to go check them out in more detail or, you know, buy me one as a gift! Lol...

There are a lot on here that I've already read, but checked out from the library or something and now I want a copy of them. Like The Doll People series by Ann M Martin, which was the first book I reviewed on here! :) And The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, that I borrowed from my dad and loved.

And then there are all the new ones for series that I already read, like the newest Black Dagger Brotherhood by JR Ward (yum!) and Pretty Little Liars.

And of course, new to me that I've had recommended or just saw... Maze Runner and Lola & The Boy Next Door. Oooh...and a couple of craft books, like The Repurposed Library! I hope I get at least a few of these books. :)

Thursday, December 1, 2011

TILT: Bookends

Gosh I suck...I haven't posted a review in 2 weeks. I'm sorry, I promise to try harder! How about a little TILT gift-giving idea session for now? :)

In case you haven't noticed, today is December 1st, which means Christmas is 24 days away. (It is not my intention or purpose to exclude other holidays like Kwanzaa or Hanukkah, but since I don't know anything about them, I don't want to sound stupid lol, so feel free to educate me on your holiday of choice if you would like!)

Do you ask for books for the holidays? Do you give them? What about book related stuff, like the awesome bookends below? I always ask for books for Christmas (see tomorrow's post for my wishlist heh.) but I usually don't get very many. My sister says they're boring, which is pure hogwash, so she doesn't want to buy them. Even though she picks out a good 30% of my books for me already. O.o My dad will sometimes buy a stack of books, but not every time.

I always want to give books for gifts, but it depends on the person. Stepsis', stepbro, stepmom and dad are all getting books this year. Ssshhhh...don't tell them! :) Sister will get one if I can find one I like for her. (So probably not)

I'd love to get some book accessories, like these bookends below, or bookmarks (I never seem to have enough!), or some of the awesome prints I've posted in the past. How about you? What's on your bookmas* list? (*I am totally making that a word)

Funky Owl Bookends by CraftyCanadadotcom --so cute, especially if they did them in teal and green, which happens to match my bedroom! :)

Bicycle Bookends by KnobCreekMetalArts --what's my favorite thing after books and kitties and peppermint ice cream? Bicycles! If there were kitties riding these bicycles while eating peppermint ice cream, it would be what my dreams are made of. Somebody should draw a picture of this.

A to Z Bookends at Barnes & Noble --so simple and sleek. Love.

Iron Owl Bookends at Barnes & Noble --duh, I totally need more owls!

Thursday, November 17, 2011

TILT: Bookmarks!

I love bookmarks. I do not love dog-eared pages or using trash as bookmarks (which my sister has been known to do, even though I made her a super cute bookmark to use!! *rant*). I need to make or buy me some new ones, some of mine are getting pretty old and worn out. What's your favorite kind of bookmark? Here's some cute ones to get you started! :)

Wicked Witch Bookmark by IansCafe --love the little feet sticking out of the book...makes me giggle!

Doctor Who Blue Tardis Bookmark by BohoBearPaperStudio --I've never watched Doctor Who, but I have lots of Twitter friends who *love* it. I do like the 3D-ness of it! :)

Chocolat Friends Bookmark Set by Ribonita --so, so, so cute! Reminds me of Blythe dolls!

Animal Bookmarks PDF Crochet Pattern by RachelsCrochet --you can make your own bookmarks with this pattern! How cute is that little piggy??

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Review: "Burn"

Burn by Linda Howard
4 out of 5 stars

I picked this up at my mom's house one night we were over there hanging out because I was bored and then I ended up getting interested in it so I took it home to finish. I don't think my mom has even read it yet lol. This is definitely a "romance" book, so if you're not interested in that sort of thing, I wouldn't bother. And the cover totally annoyed had nothing to do with the actual book and besides, everyone knows romance books are supposed to have half-naked super-buff men on the cover. :)

Jenner Redwine is a hard-working, lower-middle class woman with a dead-beat boyfriend and a leaching loser of a dad. She buys a lottery ticket one night on a whim and...can you guess where this is going? Yep, she wins the mega-jackpot. My sis and I like to play "what if" when we're bored. We've got lots of plans if (when) we ever win the lotto, including what we would buy first, what kind of house and cars we would have, who we would give money to and who we would never speak to again lol. Please tell me we aren't the only ones who do this!

Anyway, Jenner wins the lotto and after getting rid of the trash in her life, she moves down to Florida to become a "socialite". Seven years later, she is finally happy and has become good friends with Sydney Hazlett, who was born into her money and has a kind heart. Syd talks Jenner into going on a charity cruise, but they never get to enjoy the incredible buffets or excursions, because they are both kidnapped and held hostage the entire time by a group of "bad guys". Or so we are led to think at first.

Jenner (I almost wrote Jennifer out of habit lol) makes it onto the cruise ship, but is being held hostage by a huge hunk of menacing man named Cael. They butt heads repeatedly but somewhere along the way start falling for each other. There's plenty of sarcastic one-liners traded but also some steamy love scenes and lots of action.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Review: "Mallory & The Trouble With Twins: The Baby-Sitters Club #21"

Mallory & The Trouble With Twins: The Baby-Sitters Club #21 by Ann M Martin
5 out of 5 stars

Oh I love this one: twins and tons of outfits and secret languages and ear piercing fun! Even though on the cover, the twins are incredibly creepy lol. I always wanted a twin. My sister and I are four years apart and in the last couple of years, people have started asking us if we are twins ALL THE TIME. Seriously, it's pretty funny when they start looking back and forth between the two of us and you can see the question coming. Of course, we never go with it, because we're dumb and don't think that fast. Sometimes we practice saying, "Yes, we ARE twins". :) Ally made this mosaic a while back for us...I'm the (older and shorter) one on the left in the majority of the pictures. We don't think we look that alike at all, what do you think?

Okay, on to the BSC! The Pike family is on it's way to the mall to buy new shoes...did you hear the Duggars are having another baby? I think the Pikes would be like that by now if they weren't fictional characters. Mallory wants cool pink shoes with green trim, but she has to get boring old loafers instead. Poor, deprived Mal. After she's humiliated in the shoe store, she takes Claire & Margo to watch a girl getting her ears pierced because Mal desperately wants hers done. When the gun punches the girl's ear, Claire freaks out, almost causing the girl to get a nose piercing instead and Margo almost barfs. Mal is humiliated yet again. You'd think she wouldn't get embarrassed so easily after 11 years with that family, but no.

At the BSC meeting, which Logan is attending btw so no bra talk!, Mal is still obsessing over earrings (Claudia has red sneakers) and she gets a regular job for 8 year old twins Marilyn and Carolyn Arnold. For some reason, I always called them MariLINE and CaroLINE in my head. I know that's not right, but I couldn't help it. Mar-Car (as I will now call them) were the epitome of twin-ness, thanks to their bow-obsessed mother.

Both girls were wearing blue kilts with straps that went over their shoulders, white blouses with lace edging the collars and sleeves, white knee socks, and black patent leather Mary Jane shoes. Their brown hair was cut in a bowl shape, framing their faces, and each twin had put on a blue headband with a blue bow on the side of it. Also, each wore a silver ring on the pinky finger of her right hand, and a beaded identification bracelet on her left wrist. The bracelets were the only difference between the twins.

Their mother is even worse....I just couldn't bring myself to make a polyvore of her outfit, so you'll just have to picture it on your own. She was wearing two necklaces, a pin, bracelets on each wrist, rings, earrings, and even an ankle bracelet. Her stockings [which means the ankle bracelet is OVER her stockings!] were lacey, and she was, well, as Claud might have said, overly accessorized. [Hello Pot, meet Kettle] Practically everything she wore had a bow attached. There were bows on her shoes, a bow on her belt, a bow in her hair, and a bow at the neck of her blouse. Her sweater was beaded, and she hadn't forgotten to pin a fake rose to it. Whew! [You’re telling me sister!] As for cute, her earrings were in the shape of ladybugs, one of her necklaces spelled her name-Linda-in gold script, her pin was in the shape of a mouse, and the bow in her hair was a ribbon with a print of tiny ducks [DUCKS!!?!?!] all over it. Seriously...there has to be something wrong with this woman. How does her husband feel being married to that?

Anyway, Mal starts out okay with Mar-Car until she mistakenly calls them "bookends" and they flip out. They abandon the name bracelets and start talking in their made-up language. And her easy-peasy sitting job turns into a nightmare after that. The girls completely ignore Mal the whole time, they play hide-and-seek and one twin gets 2 snacks instead of 1; just being brats in general. They also get Claudia in trouble when she sits for them, by sending the wrong twin to her music lesson. Claudia realizes that these girls really are rotten and it wasn't just Mal being a bad sitter lol. The BSC'ers try to figure out a solution at their next meeting, instead of you know, going to the parents. They don't really come up with anything, but Mal gets a chance to ogle their super awesome outfits...

[Claudia's] long hair was fixed in about a million braids which were pulled back and held in place behind her head with a column of puffy ponytail holders. She was wearing a T-shirt she'd painted herself, tight blue pants that ended just past her knees, push-down socks, and no shoes. From her ears dangled small baskets of fruit. She'd made those, I knew. Sitting next to Claud on the bed were Mary Anne and Dawn. Mary Anne was wearing a short plum-colored skirt over a plum-and-white-striped body suit. The legs of the body suit stopped just above her ankles, and she'd tucked the bottoms into her socks. I don't know where her shoes were. The neat thing about her outfit was that she was wearing white suspenders with her skirt. [Apparently, everyone in Stoneybrook wears suspenders all the time. I never had them! That makes me sad now!] I immediately decided to use some of my hard-earned Arnold money to buy suspenders. And maybe a pair of push-down socks like Claud's. Or, if I became rich, to copy Dawn's entire outfit. [I don't know why, I think it's pretty darn ugly and as you can see, I took generous creative licensing on it.] Dawn was wearing this cool oversized (really oversized) blue shirt. One of the coolest things about it was that it was green inside, so that when she turned the collar down and rolled the sleeves up, you could see these nice touches of green at her neck and wrists. She was wearing a green skirt--and clogs. I'd never seen a person actually wearing clogs, just photos of people in Sweden. Dawn was the only kid in school who could get away with wearing them. She is so self-possessed. [What the heck does that mean??]

Mallory finally figures things out at Mar-Car's birthday party, where they get identical presents from everyone except Mallory. She gives them individual gifts based on their interests and they LUV them and suddenly they're BFF's. Okay not really, but they chill out a little. Even more (or maybe before the party) when Mallory teaches them Pig Latin so they can have a real fake language. My dad taught us Pig Latin when we were kids. It-hay as-way awesome-hay. ol-lay. ;) She sits down with the girls after the party and they tell her how much they hate being "THE TWINS" all the time now. So Mal agrees to talk to their mom with them. Cause that's what every parent wants, for their 11 year old baby-sitter to tell them they don't know how their own kids feel. But it works, because it's BSCLand, and Mrs. Bowalicious agrees to let Mar-Car dress differently and even use some of their birthday money for new clothes.

Mrs. Bowtastic drops Mar-Car and Mal off at the mall one afternoon to do some shopping and the twins take this seriously, looking at everything in all the stores before going back and buying stuff. Smart. Very smart. Carolyn ends up with a neat white sweat shirt with a glittering yellow moon and two stars on the front, cool jeans and yellow push-down socks. Marilyn bought a cute pink jeans skirt and a ruffle white blouse which cost at least three quarters of her money, knee socks with hearts on them and pink barrettes. They're mom has a mini-freakout when she sees them, but then she's cool with it.

This whole "talking and communicating with your parents" thing gives Mallory the bright idea to talk to HER parents and see if she can get her ears pierced. Well actually, she first asks for: a haircut, pierced ears, contact lenses, and a new wardrobe. Selfish much. Her parents agree to a haircut and pierced ears and to let her spend some of her money on new clothes. Totally reasonable. I didn't get contacts til I was 18. I don't really get the pierced ears thing though. I had mine done when I was pretty little and then my mom and I got our 2nd holes together when I was 12 or 13. She did have a fit over the cartilage piercing when I was 18 but after about a week she wanted one too lol.

Anyway, Mal is super excited and talks Jessi into begging her parents for earrings too and they agree. And then Claudia decides to get another set of holes in her head too. So they decide to make it a day at the mall. I love when they go to the mall, it reminds me of when our dad would give us "going away money" (yes, I'm being serious here) and we'd hang out at the mall for hours just wandering around being nuisances to the sales people. Mal & Jessi get their ears pierced with no problem. (With no parents' permission btw.) Miss "I have 2 holes already and I'm an old pro at this" Claudia almost faints when she gets her's done. Hah! And then Dawn decides last minute that she wants earrings too and calls her mom, who agrees to not one but two holes in each ear! Kristy and Mary Anne are wusses, so they don't get any. They do buy secret presents for each of the other 3 though and there's a big earring gift giving meeting towards the end of the book. Studs in the shape of California, gold loops with oranges hanging from them, artists' palettes, ballet shoes, horses, books, and weird kitschy ones Claud made with miniature Coke cans, eyeglasses, forks, animals, feathers and beads. So dibbly. Oh wait, they haven't invented that word yet, have they? My bad. :)

Friday, November 4, 2011

Review: "The Summerhouse & Return to Summerhouse"

The Summerhouse by Jude Deveraux
4 out of 5 stars

My mom shared with me her love of Nora Roberts, Johanna Lindsey and many more when I was a teenager and young adult and this was one of my favorites. Don't let the author or "romance" category turn you off of this little series though, there's not a lot of "mushy" stuff lol and it is really a surprisingly good read. (Now, if you do want some "mushy" or "steamy" stuff, I can definitely recommend you some titles! :))

The first is much better than the second, in my opinion, but they are both good stand alone books. The Summerhouse starts out with 3 young women, Leslie, Madison & Ellie, waiting at the DMV in New York to get their licenses renewed on their 21st birthdays. Of course, they are stuck there for hours and eventually get to know each other a bit and become sort-of friends. They go their separate ways and don't speak or see each other again for 19 years, when they decide to get together at a summerhouse in Maine for their collective 40th birthdays.

All 3 women have changed drastically; they are no longer the beautiful, confident women from the DMV. They each have a story to tell and it's a big one. While out shopping around the town, they each pick up a business card from a Madame Zoya, who claims to be able to send a person back in time for 2 weeks and they decide to go visit her just for fun. Yes, the book does stretch your imagination a bit at this point, but it's worth it! Each woman goes back to a specific 2 weeks in her past to try and change her future. Or maybe just realize she doesn't need to.

Return to Summerhouse
3 1/2 out of 5 stars

In the sequel, we unfortunately do not get more of the same characters' stories, but 3 all new women visit the same summerhouse and visit the amazing Madame Zoya. Amy, who seems to have the perfect life and has followed her "plan" up to this point, has a huge setback and is coerced/forced/begged by her husband to go to the summerhouse, which has turned into a therapeutic vacation spot for women. Faith is a young widow who doesn't know what to do with her life. And Zoe has no memory of the night that caused her entire hometown to hate her.

Again, all 3 women visit Madame Zoya, but the main story is focused on Amy, who takes the other 2 back to her husband's ancestor's time to try and change his future for him. We don't get equal time with the other 2 girls and that is the only thing that made me mark this sequel down a half star. I loved Amy's story, but I wanted to hear just as much detail about the other 2.

I guess I enjoyed these books so much because I play a lot of "what if" in my head. What if I had said this to this person 10 years ago? What if I had been this way in high school? What if I could go back to any 2 weeks, which would I choose? Which would you choose? Would you go back at all? Intriguing stuff.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Review: "Kristy & The Walking Disaster: The Baby-Sitters Club #20"

Kristy & The Walking Disaster: The Baby-Sitters Club #20 by Ann M Martin
3 out of 5 stars

Kristy AND softball? Booooring. Lol...At least we get some Jackie Rodowsky (AKA The Walking Disaster) and we meet Bart Taylor, Mr McDreamy softball player. I don't really get the title of this one, Jackie is barely in it. It should have been called "Kristy and the Krushers" or "Kristy Discovers Boys" or something like that.

So the book starts out with Kristy baby-sitting her fabulous brothers and sister whom she loves dearly and they are such an awesome blended family blah blah blah. She's playing ball with them in their gigundo backyard and realizes they have a distinct lack of....talent. Okay not really, more like they're just too young and don't have enough practice and are scared the ball is going to hit them in the head. (I don't blame them.) So she has a brilliant Kristy Idea (patent pending) and decides to start up a softball team for all the kids who are too small or untalented or the wrong gender to get in Little League.

In doing so, she meets Mr Softball, who is so hot and also baseball obsessed, that Kristy immediately gets a Gigantic Crush. And somehow he challenges her Krushers to a game against his Bashers. Yes, those are the names, egotistical much? Kristy is kind of freaked, cause you know, her kids range from 2 1/2 to 8 years old. But she agrees and it's on like Donkey Kong. ;)

The Bashers come check out the competition one afternoon and being such smart little brats, divert Bart's attention so they can make fun of the Krushers and sike them out. Poor Jackie is Pig-Pen and a new kid, Jake Kuhn, is Fatso. :( The worst (and best) is when they call Matt Braddock Dummy and his sister Haley threatens them with bodily harm lol. Jerkwads.

All right, it's time for the big game. I won't go into the details of who got a run and who struck out and all that jazz, because frankly, I don't care. What I DO care about is that, again, we do not have a Claudia outfit!! Arg!! So I made my own again. :)

"What Claudia Should Have Worn" to Kristy's baseball game: Claudia had on a maroon baseball tee that she had found at the thrift store over some teal leggings with a hole in the knee from "running into home" she claimed. She had her long hair pulled into a low ponytail through a teal and black zebra printed baseball cap and she had braided the tail into about 20 smaller braids. She had these cool checkered hi-tops on along with baseball mitt & ball earrings-2 different ones-and a bracelet she had made herself from taking apart an old baseball I had given her.

And back to the game...the Krushers lose of course, but they held their own pretty well. Claire had a "Nofe-Air" tantrum...Claire's little phrases like Silly-Billy-Goo-Goo and such have always stuck in my head lol. She's so awesome.

After the game, Bart asks Kristy to walk home with him and they hold hands!! ZOMG!!! And he asks her for a rematch. So romantical. Oh wait. He asks her for a real date too. Okay then.

Monday, October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween!

Tricks, treats, ghosts, goblins, candy, candy,'s some spooktacular links for you...stay safe and Happy Halloween everyone!

-An amazing conglomeration of classic Disney movies and my favorite Halloween song, The Monster Mash

-Marilyn Manson does "Nightmare Before Christmas", turning it truly terrifying in This Is Halloween

-Christopher Pike vs RL Stine...who would win? You decide

-A child is raised in a graveyard by ghosts...intrigued? Check out Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book

-In my humble opinion, the best Halloween movie :) Watch it all here: Hocus Pocus

-Even your toys can get decked out for Halloween with these candy corn capris and socks for Blythe and other similar sized dolls at Daffodil Lane

Friday, October 28, 2011

Review: "Claudia and the Bad Joke: The Baby-Sitters Club #19"

Claudia and the Bad Joke: The Baby-Sitters Club #19 by Ann M Martin
3 out of 5 stars

I broke my ankle in 2nd grade. We were sitting on the floor doing math problems (why, I have no idea) and my teacher told us to hurry up and get to our seats. In my haste, I jumped over a chair and tripped over someone's math book and bam broken ankle. I don't remember a whole lot after that, except rolling out to my mom's car on an office chair and then having to twist my ankle all around for the x-rays (why must they be so cruel?!). I had to hobble around on crutches for what felt like forever but was probably only about 6-8 weeks? After I got the cast off, I remember how weak and ucky my leg looked lol. And we had a family trip to DisneyWorld planned for almost exactly a month after I got my cast off, so I had to go out and walk around the neighborhood every night with my mom to get my strength up. The first day we were at Disney, my then 4 year old sister and I both had to be carried out lol.

All that to say that this BSC book really hits close to home for me! :) That Betsy Sobak is a little snot and she should have all her joke stuff taken away from her! I mean, come on. Yeah, she's cute and all...the door was opened by a friendly looking girl with brown hair, which had been pulled into two ponytails and tied with big blue ribbons. She was wearing a very snazzy pair of red pants that were held up by red suspenders. Under the suspenders was a blue-and-white-striped T-shirt. The legs of her pants ended in cuffs, and on her feet were running shoes tied with purple laces.
But she's a menace to society with those joy buzzers and shaving cream sundaes. I don't blame Claudia one bit for wanting to quit baby-sitting after this either; I never wanted to do math again after that hah! The BSC'ers really acted their age in this one, which was refreshing to see but also super frustrating. They're supposed to be Super Sitters; why would they stoop to the kid's level and play all these pranks on her? And Kristy letting her get "lost" at the movie theater? No. They should have gone to the parents, first thing. For shame Kristin Amanda Thomas, for shame.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

TILT: Halloween!

Halloween is right around the corner! Do you dress up or go anywhere special? My sis *loves* to make costumes, so she talked me into being a space cadet girl (purple wig and all) and she is going as a 50s chick. We have no specific plans yet, so we may end up at Walmart wandering around in our costumes lol. Here's some special Halloween treats for you to enjoy and I have more for Monday! :)

Old Witch of the Wind Weather Vane by StainlessSteve --very spooky, very well done!

Halloween Bat Stacker Ring by Bewittched --I love this! I would wear it everyday. :)

Elvira Halloween Special Skeleton Cameo & Earrings by CinsationalBaubles --simply lovely

Trick or Treat Greeting Card by ThePaintedPeepShow --I wish I could draw! Look at the floating ghosty! So adorbs!

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Review: "Graceling"

Graceling by Kristin Cashore
4 out of 5 stars

My stepmom loaned me this book, saying I would really enjoy it. And I did! This is actually the first in 3 "Seven Kingdom" books, but I don't know that I will read the other 2 anytime soon since they are not actual sequels, but 3 different stories set in the same time period and place. That's kind of disappointing because I would love to read more about Katsa and Po.

I know a lot of people didn't like this book at all, because of Katsa's anti-marriage and children attitude, but it didn't bother me as much. Yes, it bothered me a little, particularly her "all men are bad, evil creatures" mantra, but I took it as part of who she was and how she was brought up. Also, her name bothered me as I kept wanting to call her Katniss lol.

A monster that refused, sometimes, to behave like a monster. When a monster stopped behaving like a monster, did it stop being a monster? Did it become something else?

Katsa is "Graced" with a skill from birth, giving her one green eye and one blue, that leads to her becoming the King's "hired thug" so to speak. She hates it and him. But she's learned to use her Grace to become strong, determined and not the type of girl to fall down in the forest sobbing when her man leaves her. *ahem*Bella*ahem*. Even when she meets Prince Po, who is seemingly perfect. And gorgeous. And hiding a secret of his own. I love Prince Po. He's so cool.

This book is full of adventure and mischief, a little bit of romance, a generous helping of sarcasm and wit, some comedic moments, some heart-breaking really has it all. And in writing this review, I've changed my mind about reading the other 2 in the series lol. So I'm going to try to pick them up this weekend at the library! :)

Monday, October 24, 2011

Update of Sorts...

Hi all! I know, I know...It's been nearly 2 weeks without a post. :( I was on vacation last week and had the best intentions to get lots of blogs written...but, yeah, that didn't happen. I did do lots of fun things though! :) My sis and I went to the State Fair and ate some super yummy foods, including fried pineapple upside down cake. Seriously. Omnomnom. It was a beautiful day for it, a little bit chilly, but way better than being hot!

And we did some shopping, mostly clothes and books! Half Price Books was having a super sale in their warehouse this past weekend, everything under $3, so you know I had to go! We went on Saturday and I got 8 books plus 6 movies for $17. Woo! I texted my dad to let him know about it and when they went on Sunday, they found out they were having an even BIGGER sale, so I ended up dragging my sister back over there! We got to fill up one of the Half Price reusable bags for $10. I was in heaven lol. I ended up getting 51 books total for $15 over the 2 days! :D Some of these are actually going to be used for giveaways on here, so now you can be excited too lol. I hope they make this sale a regular event, it was really awesome.

I did some reading too this week (too much according to my sister but whatev). I finished up my annual summer reread of Harry Potter *sad face* and read a few other books and started a few more. I'm hoping to have a review of Graceling up tomorrow, and then a BSC book that hits a little too close to home for me. And I have a super spooky TILT coming up! :)

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Review: "Stacey's Mistake: The Baby-Sitters Club #18"

Stacey's Mistake: The Baby-Sitters Club #18 by Ann M Martin
2 out of 5 stars

This is the first "Stacey in New York" book...and hopefully the last, according to my younger self, since I was already counting down to when she came back to Stoneybrook (10 more books). Stacey turns into a mega-snob when she's in New York; even more than normal. And when the other BSC members come visit her (minus Mallory & Jessi, cause they're not important) she turns into this uber-snob-o-maniac. Yeah.

The whole reason the girls are coming to visit is because there's a schizophrenic homeless lady named Judy living outside Stacey's building and her parents and all the other rich parents want to do something about this little problem. No really. That's the reason. After the first few pages, Judy's story kind of disappears (probably ranting on some other street corner now) and the partying and baby-sitting kick in. Stacey was asked to baby-sit 10 kids for an afternoon so the parents can discuss "the problem", and since she's not a super-sitter like Kristy with her 50bajillion brothers and sisters, she asks the BSC-ers to come stay the weekend and help her out. This would all be hunky dory dairy (one of my favorite books btw!) if the other BSC-ers weren't such embarrassing small town hicks.

Mary Anne is a walking guidebook...I'd love to see Central Park. It's eight hundred and forty-three acres of fun. Or maybe we could go to South Street Seaport, located in the Wall Street area of lower Manhattan and featuring nineteenth-century buildings, three piers, and a maritime museum. She looked quite proud of herself. She shouldn't be.

Kristy is almost as bad with her big mouth and the "fill-it mig-nun" incident at the Hard Rock. I've been to the Hard Rock Hotel in Vegas. It's super awesome. :)

Then there's Dawn...Miss Super Cool, Laid Back, Nothing Bothers Me Because I'm Probably Smoking Pot...who turns into a scared, freaked out mess in New York. She's scared of rats. (who isn't? But just trap them under a bucket with the laundry soap on top til your dad gets home and you're good to go. Not that I would know.) She's scared of the homeless lady digging the burger out of the trash and the cockroaches and possibly getting mugged and...oh, I don't even know what else.

Claudia brings a huge trunk of clothes with her, of course, which makes Stacey go "Oh Em Gee Claudia! How embarrassing!" And she gets in a little tiff with Laine, Stacey's tres cool NY BFF. Laine was beyond chic. She had chosen a short black dress, black stockings, and simple black flats. On one wrist was a single silver bangle bracelet. On her dress was one of those silver squiggle pins. Her fluffy brown hair was newly permed and perfectly cut. She looked wonderful-at least nineteen. All the better to pick up creep-o older guys at the bar.

In the end, the BSC-ers are still BFF-ers, Stacey gets over her prejudices against hicks and "the problem" is "taken care of". Whatever that means. Laine learns to tolerate the goody-goodies and they in turn worship her, mostly because she takes them to a play in a limo (that's short for limousine you know).

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Review: "Sweet Valley Confidential"

Sweet Valley Confidential: Ten Years Later by Francine Pascal
3 out of 5 stars

Oh the drama in these books! How I've missed you! The twins are back with their "long, golden hair, blue-green eyes, a tan, and a dimple in their left cheek." Only they're 10 years older and not the BFF's we remember.

As a teenager of the 90s, I of course devoured these books. I mostly stuck with SVH and the specials, my sister loved the SVKids and Twins. I don't know that I read them all or even in order like the BSC books, but it didn't seem to matter. They were such wonderfully trashy books lol. I do still have a handful of the books, mainly the Margo "evil-twin" arc (books 95-100 I think), the family history books and the secret diaries.

Reading this so makes me want to go back and reread them all but I think I'll wait a while it is super hard to find these at Half Price! I got nearly all of my BSC books I was missing from them, but I've only ever seen a handful of the Sweet Valley ones. It's weird, are people just keeping them more or is someone snatching them up right away? Hmm....there's a closeted SVH fan out there in the DFW area hoarding books!! Hah!

Okay, on to the review. :) As much as I love the drama-rama, the book was not very well written. I know she had ghost writers for the majority of the series and maybe that had something to do with it. Although I don't think the series' were very well written either lol. There were some pretty big inconsistencies though, which was annoying. (As was Jessica's Valley Girl accent she apparently grew in 10 years.) Overall though, if you were a fan of the original, you'll love this one!

The twins are 26 years old now and still as beautiful as ever (jerks) but living completely different lives. Elizabeth is in New York trying to become a writer, but barely making it as a reviewer for off Broadway plays. She's alone and miserable and says it's all Jessica's fault. Jessica is still in Sweet Valley, working for a cosmetics company called MyFaceIsGreen, and is hugely successful for once. But baby did a bad, bad thing.(probably NSFW lol)

Jessica slept with Todd Wilkins. More than once. They fell in love and broke Elizabeth's heart. And Liz will never forgive her. Or so she says. From what I remember of the books, I don't think Todd deserved either girl, but that's just my opinion. I was more of a Bruce Patman and Winston Egbert fan myself. Speaking of, they've both changed a LOT. Bruce for the better: he's redeemed himself from the egotistical rich guy and is now best friends with Liz!! And also, secretly in love with her. I really enjoyed their story and where it went in the end. Winston not so much. I don't care how much money he got, I don't think he would have changed that much.

Steven turning out to be gay was an interesting turn. Kind of shocking, but I didn't hate it. When Liz finally figures out that Jess & Todd are together (after way too long), she runs off to New York and won't speak to either of them. For like 8 months, until their grandmother's birthday and she is guilt-tripped into coming back. She decides to get some revenge on the two and brings along this hot actor she met in NY to seduce Jess. It almost works, but surprisingly Jessica resists.

Of course, there's an epiphany at the end, with both girls realizing they did awful things and judged each other, etc...and they finally hug and make-up in the end. I don't know if I would have been as forgiving as Liz, even if she didn't love Todd anymore. I mean come on.

Friday, September 30, 2011

Review: "The Morganville Vampires" Series Books 1-8

The Morganville Vampires by Rachel Caine
Series Books 1-8; Omnibus Volumes 1-4
4 out of 5 stars averaged!

Another series review! :) I really enjoyed these books, more so than House of Night and The Immortals. I read these in the volumes or omnibus' instead of the individual books, which I liked because I got 2 in 1 and they were still cheaper than most books! I picked the first one up at Walmart, unsurprisingly, because my sister liked the cover and said I should read it. For someone who doesn't read a lot and definitely doesn't read supernatural/paranormal books, she sure picks out some good ones! :)

I have 2 mini-rants before I start the reviewing though: 1. I'm assuming at least one of the girls on the covers is supposed to be the main character, Claire. Does she look 16 on any of these covers? No. So annoying. 2. Because I got the first 4 in the omnibus, I obviously want the rest like that too. So now I have to wait until the newer books are released in that version. Or until I can't stand the waiting anymore. Arg! Okay, on we go.

In the first volume we meet Claire Danvers, a 16 year old prodigy, who's parents won't let her go off to a big, fancy school but instead ship her off to a small community-type college a few hours away. Did I mention this book is set in Texas? So cool. Did I mention that I'm in Texas? Now you know. :) Morganville is a small town in the middle of nowhere with a big secret: most of its residents are vampires. And not the pretty, sparkly, I-totally-won't-kill-you-because-I-love-you-but-I-might-snap-one-day-when-I-have-a-moment-of-pure-happiness kind. Hah. These guys are bad. They drink blood. Some of them are certified insane (I <3 Myrnin). They keep humans as pets. Unfortunately for Claire, this was not in the brochure next to which biology class to take.

So besides Claire and the vampires, who else do we have? Well, there's Monica Morell and her cohorts, who are pure evil, only in an I-have-a-pulse way. They beat the crap out of Claire when she gets on their bad side and cause her to flee the dorms in search of a new place to live.

Then there's Michael Glass, who is an 18 year old, wise beyond his years, musician who has a big secret. He owns the house that Claire ends up running to and while he doesn't want some 16 year old kid staying with him, of course, he can see she needs some help.

And we also have Eve, another 18 year old, goth, punk chick with an attitude on the outside, but sweet and gooey on the inside. (Like a Payday haha!) She's one of Michael's roomies and works at a coffee shop, for a hippie vampire named Oliver.

And then there's Shane. *swoon* Also 18, also Michael's roomie, slacker, moody type. I kept picturing Shawn Hunter from Boy Meets World lol. He's got a serious past like the rest of them (the rest of the town really) and it comes back to haunt him.

The last one I'll talk about is Amelie, who is the big bad vampire in charge. She's way old, way prim & proper and way interested in Claire. As in her brain. As in if she could cut her brain out and stick it in a robot, she would. (And still might, I don't know since I haven't finished the series lol)

I don't want to write much more so I don't spoil it, but I highly recommend these books. They're fun, scary and exciting. There is some romance too; it's not just all Grr Arg. ;)

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Review: "Mary Anne's Bad-Luck Mystery: The Baby-Sitters Club #17"

Mary Anne's Bad-Luck Mystery: The Baby-Sitters Club #17 by Ann M Martin
4 out of 5 stars

Me: Oooh....I remember this one! It's kind of spooky.
Sister: Okay, whatever.
Me: *holds book out to sis* what is Mary Anne wearing??
Sis: Shiny pink pants?
Me: ew. *starts reading* Oooh! There's already a "What Claudia is Wearing"! Ready for it?
Sis: *blank stare*

Me: Okay then! [Claudia] was wearing her vegetable blouse: an oversized white shirt with a green vegetable print all over it - cabbages and squashes and turnips and stuff. [Awww...I just did the hamburger shirt outfit!] Under the blouse was a very short jean skirt, white stockings, green anklets over the stockings, and lavender sneakers, the kind boys usually wear, with a lot of rubber and big laces and the name of the manufacturer in huge letters on the sides. Wait, I'm not done. Claudia had pulled the hair on one side of her head back with a yellow clip that looked like a poodle. The hair on the other side of her head was hanging in her face. Attached to the one ear you could see was a plastic earring about the size of a jar lid. Awesome.

Sis: *blank stare*
Me: *back to reading* Oh! Mary Anne got a chain letter!
Sis: Is someone trying to kill her?
Me: What? No.
Me: Oh! She got a bad-luck charm necklace in the mail!
Sis: Did it choke her to death?
Me: Whaaat? No! She has to wear it "or else".
Sis: Or else what? That's dumb.
Me: I'm getting a little freaked. I may need to put this in the freezer for a while.
Sis: Nerd.
Me: Jackie Rodowsky wants to be a robot for Halloween. Can I be a space cadet? Will you make me a space helmet?
Sis: How the heck am I supposed to make you a space helmet? How about I just hot-glue some Christmas tree toppers to your head?
Me: *pouting* Jackie Rodowsky gets a robot head. Ooops...his costume fell apart.
Uh-oh, Jamie fell down the stairs. Look, this is Jamie *points at cover* he's four.
Sis: No, he's like nine.
Me: No! He's four! Whoa! There was an explosion in the science lab!
Sis: Did anyone die?
Me: And a fire in a trash can!
Sis: Did anyone die?
Me:  They're looking up books on witchcraft in the card catalog at the library.
Sis: What's a card catalog?
Me: *rolls eyes* Logan & Mary Anne are going to the Halloween Hop as cats. Mary Anne is wearing a leotard and tights. For somebody so shy, she sure is showing off her body.
Sis: I think I want to be a 50s girl. With pink hair. I really want a wig! And I'm totally keeping them after! And we'll get you a purple wig! Yeah! And I'll keep yours too!
Me: Oh! Cokie Mason said "nice bad-luck charm". I bet she sent it to her!
Sis: What's a Cokie Mason? Is she going to kill her?
Me: Oh my goshness! Mary Anne got a letter telling her and the BSC to go to Old Man Hickory's tombstone on Halloween at midnight!!!
Sis: Are they going to kill someone?
Me: They figured out it was Cokie. They're going to get even with her.
Sis: By killing her?
Me: Dude. Nobody dies in this book. Mimi dies later on and it's very sad, but no one kills her.
Sis: What kind of mystery series is this??
Me: It's not a mystery series! I haven't even started those yet.
Sis: Oh. That's boring.
Me: I am totally turning this into my blog review.

Hope you enjoyed this slight change of format! :)

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

3 in 1 Review: Fallen Angels

The Fallen Omnibus: Vol 1 by Thomas E Sniegoski
2 out of 5 stars

I will admit it right up front, I picked this book up because of the hot guy on the cover. And I completely regretted judging this book by it's cover. I have come to realize that I do not like fallen angels or books written about them.

This is actually 2 books in 1 and while I semi-enjoyed the first book "The Fallen", the second half "Leviathan" just about killed it for me. So much that I have absolutely no interest in reading the 2nd volume, even with the super hot cover lol.

Aaron is an 18 year old boy who has been traded off to different foster homes all his life. He has finally found a family that fits well with him when he starts hearing voices and understanding all these different languages, including that of his dog, Gabriel. Gabriel was probably my favorite character. :) Aaron discovers that he is a Nephilim, half angel-half human, and is suddenly being hunted by the Powers, who are fallen angels and pretty dang vengeful. I like Aaron as a hero; he's a good, average boy who suddenly finds himself thrown into this crazy situation and really wants nothing to do with it.

I didn't really enjoy the fallen angels part of the story, not because I'm anti-religious (which I'm not), but because it was so...much...and so deep that it was hard to understand and take it all in. Also, the 2nd book, Leviathan, has this creepy, gross Jabba the Hut type creature which I was so not into lol. I can see how some would enjoy this book though, especially if you are interested in fallen angels and such, so take this review with a grain of salt!

Hush, Hush #1 by Becca Fitzpatrick
2 out of 5 stars

Compared to the book above, I should have given this one half a star. It is seriously so, so, so bad. So. Bad. And yet. I read the second one too. Eesh....I apologize that you even have to look at these reviews!

This is another fallen angel/Nephilim book, but it is centered around a Twilight-esque relationship between Nephilim Nora Grey and Fallen Angel Patch Whatever-his-last-name-is. There's plenty of really good reviews on Goodreads about this, so I'm not going to go into a lot of detail.

The relationship between Nora and Patch is so wrong on so many levels it just gives me asco. You know that shuddery, creepy feeling you get when you walk by somebody on the street and they're just leaning on the wall watching you? That's how I feel about Patch. And Nora did too, at first, then she's all "Oh, he would never hurt me, he's my true love, blah blah blah, I've been watching New Moon, etc etc etc..."

Aside from the Twilight aspect, the writing and editing is just awful. The timing is all wonky for most of the book and characters disappear a lot with no explanation and suddenly show back up the next day like nothing happened.

Crescendo (Hush, Hush) #2 by Becca Fitzpatrick
1 out of 5 stars

The sequel to Hush, Hush...I know, you're thinking "Jenn. Why the heck did you read the sequel after that awful review above??" I don't know. I just had to. And in my defense, I did at least check this one out at the library instead of buying it! Lol...

If it's possible, this one is even worse than the first. More Patch and Nora drama, but of the "He doesn't show and say he loves me every single second of the day, so I'm going to break up with him and be miserable for 200 pages" variety. Blegh.

I know some of you are going to try to read this anyway, despite my warnings. And that's okay! I'll be here waiting with your favorite ice cream and a fluffy book about 13 year old baby-sitters solving crimes and child-behavior issues in 140 pages or less to make you happy again. :)

Monday, September 26, 2011

It's Banned Book Week...

September 24th-October 1st is Banned Book Week and I thought I'd celebrate with a quick post on some of my favorite banned books. According to Goodreads' Most Frequently Challenged Books List, I've read 42 horrible, shameful, should-be-censored books. ;) Seems like I should be reading more, don't you think? Maybe I'll make that a challenge next year.

(Awesome image found on The Lisa Simpson Book Club Tumbler, which I will be adding to my faves soon!)

1. Harry Potter Series of course...number 1 in 2001 and top 10 in 2002-2003. Banned because it promotes witchcraft and a fantasy life. Well, duh, I'm still waiting for my Hogwarts letter!

2. Their Eyes Were Watching God banned for sexuality in 1997, which coincidentally, is the year I read it in 11th grade English! :) Thanks Mrs S!

3. Hunger Games number 5 for 2010! Banned for being sexually explicit (um, wasn't Katniss completely socially backwards in this aspect?) and the violence. I think these people missed the whole point of this book.

4. My Sister's Keeper number 7 in 2009...I don't really consider this a YA/children's book, so I don't know why it would be on the banned list? Apparently for sexism, violence, suicide and homosexuality (which I don't remember at all, guess I need to do a reread soon!).

So that's just a few books that people think you shouldn't be reading. What do you think? What's your favorite banned book? Not sure? Head to your local library and check some out this week! :)

Friday, September 23, 2011

What I'm reading right now...

The reason there is no review today...this book was kind of wigging me out, so I had to stop reading it last night! Lol...I'm such a weenie. Maybe I should put it in the freezer like Joey on Friends when he reads Little Women.  Good news is, there's a "What Claudia is Wearing" right in the beginning! And I'm already planning on doing this review slightly different, involving my sister, should be fun!
 I'm finding it hard to read this one because I know what happens and I don't want ALL THE TEARS. *sob* Hopefully, I'll get a big chunk read this weekend though...I want to finish it by the end of September. I'm considering skipping next year's Annual Summer Reread just to make it fresh and exciting the next year. Hmm....

This is my new "work" book today. I've looked at them several times before, but never got interested enough to get it. My sis saw it on her beauty vlog she watches and said the girl loved them, so I checked it out at the library. We shall see. :) This girl looks like some actress, but I can't think of who. Maybe somebody from the 90s?

I hope I get to read more than one BSC book this weekend so I can have plenty of reviews for next week. The BSCers go visit Stacey in sophisticated New York, because I guess their parents are made of money. From what I remember, they clash horribly with Laine and is this possibly the one where Dawn freaks over all the germs and Mary Anne turns into Miss Tourist? I hope so! :)

So...what are you reading this weekend? Do you have more than one book going at once? As you can see, I usually have 3-4. I like to have options, for what mood I'm in. Happy Friday!

Thursday, September 22, 2011

TILT: More Reading Posters!

I had so many fun reading posters from last week that you get a second edition this week! :)

A Good Book Has No Ending Print by LittleSonrisa --so true...I'm looking at you, Harry Potter!

Reading is Cool Art Print by ParadaCreations --I love love love the little owl! I need someone to draw me an owl for my blog header and twitter picture...I can't draw at all lol. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Princess Bride Poster by HappyLandings --Princess Bride. Need I say more?

A Book Lover Print by ILoveDoodle --this guy was too awesome to even fit all the way on the page! Check out the link for the full awesomeness!

Book Nerd Decal by EllieHearts --a bonus today because it's too cool for school (or is it?) and it wouldn't fit in the little squares! :) I want this for my library bag. Extra bonus because the seller lives in my area!

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Review: "Tales of an Extraordinary Girl #1-2"

Playing with Fire & Twice as Hot by Gena Showalter
3.5 out of 5 stars

I love the Lords of the Underworld series by Gena Showalter, so when I saw the first "Tales of an Extraordinary Girl" at Half Price one day, I decided to try it out. I was glad I did and later bought the 2nd one new, which I didn't like quite as much but still a good quick read.

In Playing with Fire, we meet Belle, who is a 24 year old sarcastic barrista. She can't hold onto a job because of her short temper and sharp tongue and yet she needs one desperately to take care of her dad, who lives in a nursing home and flirts with every woman he meets. One day, after almost getting fired again, she drinks a latte that has apparently been spiked by this mad scientist being chased by secret agent guys. She wakes up several days later with super powers and a hunka-hunka man watching over her called Rome. Action, mayhem and lots of naughty hijinks ensue when Rome & Belle go on the run. Belle's BFF, Sherridan, is a great supporting character as are Lexis and Cody. But the one who made me keep reading was Tanner, AKA Crazy Bones, the 19 year old horndog lol. He was so funny and so sweet, you just had to love him.

Twice as Hot picks up a few months later I believe. I don't want to ruin too much of either, but all your favorite characters are back along with a few new ones. The ending of this one definitely leaves it open for more, but from what I've read, she is not planning on continuing the series at this time. :( Still worth the read though!

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Review: "Jessi's Secret Language: The Baby-Sitters Club #16"

Jessi's Secret Language: The Baby-Sitters Club #16 by Ann M Martin
3 out of 5 stars

Poor Jessi...apparently the book artists didn't know how to draw "darkish cocoa" people because this cover is not flattering at all. And her first book too! Anyway, Jessi gets assigned a special baby-sitting gig for some new kids in the neighborhood, Matt & Haley Braddock. Matt is completely deaf and uses American Sign Language. My sister taught me the alphabet and the colors over the summer; we like to practice them in the swimming pool lol.

So Jessi is apparently super awesome at learning different languages. Once, my family and I went to Mexico on vacation, and during the week we were there, I practically became bilingual. Okay. She picks up Ameslan pretty quickly (like, stringing full paragraphs together) and decides to start teaching some of the other neighborhood kids the "secret language" too, in the hopes that it will help Matt and especially Haley get some new friends. Of course, the Pike kids are all for it and start making their own language too. Those Pike kids are awesome, they'll just pick up any stray kids that come along lol.

In between teaching children new languages and helping them make friends, Jessi is also dancing the lead in a ballet called Coppelia. Since she's the newest and youngest (and only black) girl in her school, of course she gets some snarky comments and dirty looks from the other girls in her class. But she proves she can handle it all by dancing her skinny little butt off. She also decides to invite Matt & his class at school to the ballet, because most of them have never seen a ballet or even heard/felt music. I can't even begin to imagine that. This whole book is sickeningly nice and helpful, but it works! :)

And I'm happy to bring you another "What Claudia Should Have Worn" to Jessi's ballet, which the entire BSC was invited to: Claudia was channeling her inner-ballerina, in a short, high-waisted, flouncy blue & purple skirt with black tulle underneath and a wide black-and-white striped band on the waist. She had paired it with a blue silk tank-top and purple batik print tights that she had dyed herself. Around her neck she had a purple, animal-print scarf and a big chain necklace she had made...going with the animal-print theme, she had black & purple, zebra-print ballet flats. Her jewelry consisted of black shiny earrings, tons of black & jewel-toned bangles and huge shiny rings over long, black, fish-net, fingerless gloves. Her hair was loose and super straight, with a feathery headband that surely annoyed anyone sitting behind her. To top it all off, she was carrying a bright pink clutch purse with a large bow and purple jewels on the front.

Monday, September 19, 2011

3 in 1! "Hex Hall", "Kneebone Boy", "Mini Shopaholic"

Time for another 3 in 1 mini-review!

Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins
3 out of 5 stars

This was a cute and fast read. Sophie is a teenage witch (hello, Sabrina?) who is sent to a sort of reform school, Hex Hall, after a prom-night spell goes wrong and she attracts too much attention. Hex Hall is full of mystical creatures (witches, vampires, fairies, werewolves) and there's tons of mystery and suspense: like who's killing girls, who/what her father really is, why this hot guy is attracted to her when he has a girlfriend, etc...but there's also some humor and lots of sarcasm. But this room looked like it had been decorated by the unholy lovechild of Barbie and Strawberry Shortcake. I loved the bit where they are learning to make their fancy dresses. I did buy this book at Half Price, but I think I sold it back later on lol...I'll definitely pick up the sequel at the library next time I'm there though.

The Kneebone Boy by Ellen Potter
3 out of 5 stars

I would have given this one 4 stars, but I just did not like the ending. I did enjoy it though and it's actually on my Christmas Wishlist since I just checked it out from the library. This is the story of the 3 Hardscrabble children: Otto, Lucia and Max. They have had a hard life so far what with their mother disappearing several years before and their father being gone for long periods of time painting pictures of eccentric rich people. The oldest boy, Otto, is somehow blamed for his mother's disappearance by the townspeople and no longer speaks at all. He communicates only with Lucia through a special sign language they came up with. This is a mysterious, twisting, convoluted story that will leave you scratching your head and wanting more.

Mini Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella
4 out of 5 stars

If you are a fan of the Shopaholic books, the 6th (I so didn't realize there were 6!!) novel will not disappoint. Becky Bloomwood (Brandon) is still a crazy, scatter-brained, shopping oriented woman. But she now has a 2 year old daughter, Minnie, to shop for too. And boy, does she. Minnie is just as spoiled and shopping-addicted as her mother and her favorite word is "Mine".  :) Like all the other Shopaholic books, this will make you seriously reconsider your own spending habits and hope that you aren't going out of control crazy like Becky. (I really needed this lesson this past weekend when I had to pay $725 to get my car fixed!) The party that Becky is planning for Luke is obviously going to be totally over the top, but the ending manages to surprise and delight you (and Luke).


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Sunday, February 6, 2011

Better halves

Star wives are the new stars in the making

I am not a big fan of the new-fangled reality shows on Indian TV but give me a film awards function and I will happily stay in on Sunday evening and watch it from start to finish. Yes, all the way from the cheesy interviews of stars on the red carpet (“Who are you wearing?” “How are you feeling?”) to the many ‘scintillating’ performances by stars who have been paid enormous amounts of money to shake their booty, interspersed with the awards themselves.

Despite the bad jokes, the tacky costumes, the snarky commentary and the corny comedy routines, there is something fun about these evenings. And I love every moment, even though there is a certain predictability about the entire exercise.

You know that Shah Rukh Khan will make snide comments about his co-stars and then apologise laughingly in the next breath. You know that Karan Johar will get a bit teary at some point or the other. You know that the camera will focus lovingly on Rekha when Amitabh Bachchan is on stage and vice versa (they had an affair a quarter of a century ago; get over it, people!). And so on.

But last week, as I sat down to watch the Zee Cine Awards, there was a surprise in store for me – and the many millions watching across the world.

Doing his tried-and-tested ‘Gosh I am so witty’ routine Shah Rukh invited Hrithik on stage. There was the usual banter between the stars on the lines of how Khan had taught Roshan everything. But now, said Shah Rukh, it was time to teach Hrithik how to treat his wife. And for that, he needed the ‘lovely’ Sussanne Roshan on stage.

Sitting pretty in the front row, Sussanne went all pink with embrassment, then stood up gamely and went on stage much to the delight of the delirious crowd. But then, as the routine unfolded, it became clear that this was no impromptu interlude but a well-rehearsed item that the stars had put together well before hand.

Sussanne entered into the spirit readily enough, going on her knees to say “I love you” to a ‘stupefied’ Hrithik. And as they traipsed happily off the stage, Shah Rukh announced to the delighted audience: “This has never happened at any awards show before this.”

He’s probably right about that. But what’s the betting that this kind of stuff will become routine as this decade unfolds? That star wives will become part of the entertainment instead of just sitting in the audience and clapping madly with fixed smiles on their faces?

Yes, the writing is pretty much on the autocue on that one. Star wives are no longer content to sit on the sidelines, basking in the reflected glory of their husbands. They want to be stars in their own right, thank you very much.

We’ve come a long time from the days when stars like Dharamendra kept their wives (well, in his case, only the first) locked up at home. Or when heroes married in secret – Aamir Khan to his first wife, Reena – so that their sex appeal at the box-office remained intact. Or when even the most dedicated reader of Stardust couldn’t pick out Jeetendra’s wife from a line-up.

Even heroines at the peak of their careers had to go into hibernation once they got married. Dimple was whisked away into the shadows once she married Rajesh Khanna, re-emerging only once her marriage broke down. Jaya Bhaduri went into retirement after marrying Amitabh Bachchan, only to be coaxed back to do Silsila with the other woman in this triangle, Rekha (okay, okay, I know it was a long time ago; sorry to bring it up again).

Today’s star wives are not the retiring creatures of old. Like Gauri Khan (for Vogue and various other glossies) they are cover girls in their own right, flaunting the latest designer outfits on their gym-fit bodies. They appear on Koffee with Karan with their other halves, poking gentle fun at their husbands, all shiny and sparkling with confidence. They sit majestically in the front row at fashion shows, bona fide style stars in their right.

They have their own Twitter accounts; their own fan following; sometimes even their own ad campaigns. Twinkle Khanna stars in one featuring a mobile phone even though she retired from the movies nearly a decade ago after marrying Akshay Kumar. And Gauri Khan co-stars with husband Shah Rukh in an ad for a home decor company (she is, apparently, its brand ambassadress).

Over the last month, we have seen wall-to-wall coverage of the release of Dhobi Ghaat, with the husband-wife team of Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao (lead actor and director respectively) giving joint interviews to anyone who turns up with a microphone and a camera. And while I am sure that Kiran Rao is an immensely talented woman who has made a very worthwhile movie, there is simply no denying that the publicity whirl around her is down to who she is married to. She gets all this attention because she is a star wife not because she is a brilliant first-time director.

Whichever way you look at it, one thing seems clear. Star wives are finally striking out for a bit of stardom in their own right. And in our celebrity-obsessed world, it looks as if they will get it.

1 comment:

KrRahul said...

Very good point...

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description: Wide crawl of the web for February 2018
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Friday, August 16, 2013

openSUSE Kernel debuginfo weirdness

Just because I fell into the same trap twice, once when trying kdump a year ago, now when working on systemtap, a short reminder for everyone:

If you want to do something that needs kernel-default-debuginfo installed (like, say, "kdump"/"crash" or "systemtap"), then make sure that you also have kernel-default-devel-debuginfo on your system.

The reason for this is, that the kernel-default-debuginfo package has only the debuginfo for the kernel modules, but it misses the debuginfo for /boot/vmlinux. This debuginfo is in kernel-default-devel-debuginfo package.

This is at least strange, since the vmlinux binary is not in the devel package but in the main kernel package.
But in practice it does not matter if this is a bug or not: you need both debuginfo packages installed to make kdump analysis with "crash" or systemtap work.

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SEIREIA exists to inform and educate real estate investors in SE Idaho in the process, techniques, and systems for investing success; to provide opportunities for networking and joint venture efforts among its members, educational assistance in overcoming common obstacles, and to give encouragement and support for ongoing real estate investing success.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Merry Christmas! Education Subject Poll - Response Needed

I'm preparing for the next SEIREIA meeting upcoming this Thursday at 5:45 pm. I'm pondering what information would be the most helpful to present during the Education segment for the meeting.

I'd like to get some feedback from the SEIREIA members as to what questions you have or information you need to help you move forward with your Real Estate Investing business. Please feel free to ask your questions and/or give me that feedback in the comments below. Here are some topics that I'm considering...

1) How to avoid over-rehabbing, one of the biggest pitfalls for new investors.
2) How to market your FSBO property
3) Where to find funding for your real estate purchases
4) Setting RE Goals for the New Year

Please let me know if one of these or some other topic suits your fancy.

Monday, October 21, 2013

2 Important Reasons Why Attending a Real Estate Club Is A Good Idea

Build Your Investing Team Through Your Local REIA

A very important group of players for your power team are other real estate investors. One way you can find these investors through Investor Forums, through local real estate clubs, or through web-based real estate clubs.

1) We might use these investors as mentors, but more importantly, they are used to aid in your exits. While attending real estate clubs or chatting with other students, you might find out that one investor is interested in buying beat up homes to rehab and sell. You might also find another investor that likes to buy raw land and develop it.

2) Knowing investors in the area can be powerful because you can invest with those investors in mind. For example, you could speak to the one interested in land and find out where he or she likes buying land and find out specifically what he or she likes or avoids. And then you can find property specifically for him or her. Call the investor up and show images of the property and information on the property including historic values and the neighborhood and then work the deal before you make your investment.

Having other real estate investors can provide the investor with a constant buyer for investments. The investor can reach out to relationships and invest with the end in mind much easier knowing that other investors are anxious for the deals that [you] can provide.

(Basic text from www.taxlienvault.com, edited by Marti Castle Warr)

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Buying a HUD Home: The Ultimate Investor's Guide to Getting a Great Deal on a HUD Home

Hello everyone! Yesterday, 7/12/2013, was our monthly morning meeting for SEIREIA and we had a wonderful session on buying HUD homes. I combined a recap of my experience with buying from this organization as well as some juicy tidbits from an article of the same name by #Mark Ferguson on The BiggerPockets Blog (a place you should really check out for great real estate investing information). Mark had some really good tips to share and so I share them with you here in a very condensed version.

Things to Know About Buying HUD Homes
Before you find a HUD home that you want to pursue, you need to know the following:
  1. If you are acting for yourself (no RE agent), make sure you are registered to submit bids on the HUDhomestore.com website.
  2. If you are using a RE agent, make sure they are registered to submit bids on the HUDhomestore.com website.
  3. Make sure your RE agent's broker has a NAID number. It can take up to 6 weeks to get one.
  4. For an investor, do not depend on getting your Earnest Money back if you back out of a HUD contract. There are no contingencies for investors (though there may be 1 or 2 minor exceptions to this). You must be certain you can and want to proceed.
  5. HUD does not pay for Title Insurance and closing costs.
  6. HUD does not turn on utilities for inspections. However, the investor can and should, though HUD will not refund earnest money because of repairs discovered from the inspection. The house is being sold "as-is." You should know that going in. During winter, HUD will charge $150 to re-winterize, if you as the buyer turn on the water. However, HUD WILL pay for past owed balances and liens. HUD does an inspection on each home before listing called a PCR. (Look for it in the addendums tab in the HUDhomestore.com listings.)
  7. If something happens and you need an extension to the closing, the buyer will pay HUD costs as follows:
    1. If the purchase price is less than or equal to $25,000 -->  $150 ($10/day X 15 days).
    2. If the purchase price is greater than $25,000.01 up to $50,000 -->  $225 ($15/day X 15 days).
    3. If the purchase price is greater than $50,000.01  -->  $375 ($25/day X 15 days).
      In any case, should the whole 15 days not be required, this fee will be prorated and the unused portion refunded.
  8. There are 2 types of HUD home offerings: 1) FHA Insurable or 2) FHA Uninsurable
    1. FHA Insurable homes
      1. Have less than $5,000 in required repairs.
      2. Are listed with a 30 day restriction on bidding for Owner-Occupied bidders (OOs) only. Investors may bid starting the day after this exclusionary period is over.
      3. Do NOT try to cheat the system!
        For those who may consider "fudging" on this exclusion, Mark Ferguson says the following, "There is no way around this rule as an investor, unless you are willing to risk committing a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine." He says further on "At the very least HUD will immediately cancel a buyer's bid and take their earnest money if they find out a buyer is posing as an owner occupant. If you don't think you will get caught, there are many investors who would love to bid on HUD homes in the owner occupant period who pay attention to who is buying them and would love to turn in cheaters."
    2. FHA Uninsurable homes
      1. Have greater than $5,000 in required repairs.
      2. Are listed first for 7 days in a lottery for government and non-profit agencies to bid and may or may not be listed on the MLS during this period.
      3. After the 7-day lottery period, there is a 5 day owner occupant bid period.
      4. Investors may bid on the 6th day after owner occupant bid period starts (see tips below).
      5. NOTE: HUD stops the clock on the bid period when a bid is accepted. A HUD home listed for 45 days on the MLS may not yet be eligible for investors if the home was under contract for 30 days.
  9. Visit HUDhomestore.com and search the listings for State: Idaho, County: Bonneville. All the information is available for each listing to know what bidding period the house is in and who is eligible to bid.
  10. HUD does NOT allow assignments, a wholesaler will have to buy the home before selling it.
  11. HUD will require a proof of funds letter on cash offers.
  12. You must send in a cashier's check from your bank with your initial contract for earnest money, which means you must have the funds available. If HUD doesn't accept your bid, they will refund your money.
Trick to Use as an Investor
  1. Bid on FHA Uninsurable homes. You can bid on the 13th day of listing vs. the 31st day for Insurables.
  2. Bid as early as possible. HUD's Asset Management Companies review all bids received on the next business day after the OO period expires.  If the property is still on the website, it is still available for bidding.  Some AMCs accept bids as early as 6AM after OO period expires. Soooo, Investors should bid just after midnight on the day after OO period expires. (Day 6 after the OO period starts.)
  3. Mark bid as "Hold for backup" for 2 reasons:
    1. HUD will not make buyers stick to a bid marked "Hold for Back Up" if HUD accepts their bid and they do not want to proceed. (This is one of those minor exceptions I mentioned earlier.)
    2. If the property comes back on the market (because, for instance, an OO contract fails), HUD reviews all the back up bids before they put the property back on the market.
    3. There is a high cancellation rate on OOs on Uninsurable HUD homes. OOs financing often takes weeks. By the time the first OO decides to back out, the other OOs have moved on, then in comes the back up bids.
  4. Early in the bidding HUD allows AMCs to accept bids with a net price to HUD of about 11% below asking price. Net price = bid minus commissions and closing costs. If an investor does not ask for closing costs, then the AMCs can accept a bid of about 5% less than asking price. However, if the home has been on the market for 60 days or more and there are no other bids, the AMC can ask for a special bid approval for less, sometimes up to 20% below asking.
  5. Even if you think your bid is too low for HUD to accept, submit it anyway and have your agent mark "hold as backup". HUD will keep the bid in the system and if the price is lowered, HUD will review previous bids in their system before they look at new bids.
There you go! Please feel free to comment, forward, or share this information with anyone interested.

Happy HUD House Hunting!


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Comments on: Has anyone used the smart scoop self cleaning litter box? Top Self Cleaning Litter Boxes Online Fri, 14 Sep 2012 20:56:04 +0000 hourly 1 By: Kelley M Sat, 07 Apr 2012 00:23:57 +0000 I had one for a while and it was actually really annoying. It would go off in the middle of the night. Also, a lot of the time my cats’ feces would get stuck to the rake the box uses to clean. Then I would have to clean it in order for it to work properly. I don’t remember the cord being too long but I think it can be attached to an extension cord.
If you get the scoopable, clumping kind of litter, in any kind of litter box that will save you money on litter if you clean the box regularly.


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Life of Pi
7.2/10 by 6669 users
Watch Trailer

Free Watch Life of Pi (2012) : Movie The story of an Indian boy named Pi, a zookeeper's son who finds himself in the company of a hyena, zebra, orangutan, and a Bengal tiger after a shipwreck sets them adrift in the Pacific Ocean.

Release Date:Nov 20, 2012
Genres:, ,
Production Company:Ingenious Film Partners, Ingenious Media, Dune Entertainment, Fox 2000 Pictures, Big Screen Productions, Haishang Films
Production Countries:United States of America, Taiwan, United Kingdom
Casts:Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Ayush Tandon, Gautam Belur, Adil Hussain, Tabu, Ayaan Khan, Mohd Abbas Khaleeli, Vibish Sivakumar, Rafe Spall, Gérard Depardieu
Plot Keywords:ocean, zoo, shipwreck, hindu, tiger, faith, zebra, zookeeper, india, teenage boy, hyena, meerkat, cargo ship, lifeboat, injured animal, storm at sea

Similar Movies Life of Pi (2012)


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Photo of Senator Osten.

State Senator

Cathy Osten

Representing Columbia, Franklin, Hebron, Lebanon, Ledyard, Lisbon, Marlborough, Montville, Norwich & Sprague

Follow Senator Osten: Facebook icon.Twitter icon.YouTube icon.

Sen. Osten Supports Democrats’ Budget Predictability Plan

State Senator Cathy Osten (D-Sprague) today joined Senate Democratic leaders at the State Capitol to unveil a ‘budget predictability plan’ that would help Connecticut avoid future revenue volatility while simultaneously reducing the chance of unpredictable budget deficits and paying down some underfunded liabilities.

The Senate Democrats’ plan permanently caps the amount of revenue that the state can expect to collect every year from its highly volatile estimates & finals (mostly capital gains) portion of the state income tax; the plan caps those estimates at $3.1 billion per year, the current year’s collection rate, and does not assume any more revenue will be collected from Connecticut’s wealthiest residents.

Any revenues that might be collected above that $3.1 billion in future years would be dedicated to increasing the state’s budget reserve (known as the ‘Rainy Day Fund’) or making payments on unfunded liabilities, such as employee retirement pensions. Contributions could also be dedicated to certain one-time capital projects, paying in cash, rather than borrowing money.

The Senate Democrats’ plan builds on recent Democratic efforts to lay out a sustainable path for responsible allocation of future-year budget surpluses, which also target budget reserve savings and accelerated debt repayment. Today’s proposal goes even further, dedicating volatile revenues above the cap level to savings even without the presence of an overall budget surplus.

“In three of the past four years, executive and legislative budget analysts have been unable to accurately predict our income tax revenues, and the results have varied from alarming to disastrous. We cannot continue to grow Connecticut and provide the quality of life and jobs that our residents desire if we are hamstrung by decreasing revenues and increasing fixed costs,” said Sen. Osten, who is Senate Co-Chair of the legislature’s budget-writing Appropriations Committee. “This proposal helps by capping the amount of revenue we can expect to collect from Connecticut’s ultra-wealthy residents, and the less revenue we have to spend, the more austere our budgets will be. But we’ll have fewer nasty budget surprises. I think it’s a trade-off worth making.”

“By limiting our state’s current and future reliance on highly volatile revenue streams, we can provide for more predictable budgets going forward and greater stability for all state initiatives,” said Senator John Fonfara (D-Hartford), Co-Chair of the Finance, Revenue & Bonding Committee and the architect of the budget predictability plan. “Dedicating volatile revenues we do receive to savings will strengthen the state’s fiscal position by improving our credit rating and paying down the unfunded liabilities that are now consuming an increasing share of state resources.”

Legislative Office Building
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Phone: 860-240-8600
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Senate Hall Academic Publishing

Click HERE for a sample entrepreneurship paper

NOTE: Since 2009 the title of the International Journal of Entrepreneurship Education (IJEE) has been changed to the title above.  ISSN numbers: IJEE 1649-2269 and IRE 2009-2822

Publications & Abstracts below

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You Say you Want a Revolution? a Case study of

IJEE Vol 1: Issue 1, 2003, Pages 107-132

Author(s): Andrew Burke (University of Warwick, UK) and Chris Montgomery ( Universal, France)

Abstract: was a revolutionary venture set up in an attempt to break the mold of the music recording industry. The case study documents the venture's impressive growth and the factors affecting its performance. A deep understanding of the case requires the reader to draw from a wide spectrum of economics, new venture management theory, and both antitrust and copyright laws.

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To purchase this article click the Add To Order button below. The paper will be delivered electronically as a watermarked PDF file with a licence to make the number of copies ordered. Delivery of the article to your email address will normally be within 24 hours of placing the order online. If you would prefer to post or fax your order then please CLICK HERE for a printable order form. If you experience any difficulties please email us at:

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Friday, June 24, 2011

Malaysia Stock Market - Sentiment Index

Chinese stocks led Asian equity markets higher on Friday on hopes inflation will ease soon, though the euro's overnight rally fizzled, with Greece's deal with international lenders seen as only a short-term fix for a long-term crisis.

Local sentiment cheered on the recovery of regional market progressed positively with the Intra-day Oscillator surged to end at its day-high at +355.02; gained 365.25 when compares with its starting point. The Average recorded a gain of 55.89.

At the end of the day, %K (yellow) of MSCD recorded as -180.43 (+42.95), %D (red) -174.29 (+18.42) and the Histogram -18.00 (+2.97). Both indicators edged higher and the Histogram printed a shorter negative bar.

MSCD shows that overall market sentiment is improving. However, as both indicators were trapped inside the wedge channel the upside movement will still be quite challenging. Low-liners should continue to attract interests.

FBMKLCI edged up 1.47 points and closed at 1,564.66 today. The index will most probably be tepid and trapped in tight range, 1,556 to 1,567.

FBMSCAP rebounded today but ended below the 12EMA. The 12EMA is an immediate resistance to break through before the 20MA. Based on the higher volume, the index has the tendency to test the 20MA.

FBMACE moved higher today but was capped by the 20MA. Indicators show that the index has the tendency to break through this immediate resistance if market can keep its volume intact or increasing.

FLASH (Bursah)

Kencana net profit surged to RM56.42 million in the third quarter ended April 30, 2011 from RM31.17 million a year ago.

Keladi net profit surged to RM4.00 million in the first quarter ended April 30, 2011 from RM2.86 million a year ago.

Apollo net profit fell to RM2.01 million in the fourth quarter ended April 30, 2011 from RM4.88 million a year ago.

Astino net profit jumped to RM11.42 million in the third quarter ended April 30, 2011 from RM7.09 million a year ago.

Constructed and Written by Smartbiz (FBMKLCI Chart extracted from ChartNexus)

(Note: You can read the explanation for Intra-Day MSO and MSCD from the achieves under heading "Labels" at the lower portion of the sidebar.)

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SEO.ORG.PH Website Analysis

Home - SEO Organization Philippines

1. Site Overview is the 7735100:th largest website within the world. The website is created in n/a, owned by n/a, currently located in Australia and is running on IP registered by n/a network. This site not uses Javascript for user interaction. This site not uses CSS to manage the site layout. This site is running on the nginx webserver. The server side programming lanquage of the site is n/a. Google Pagerank is n/a and it's domain is Country Domain. estimated worth is $519.03, with 130 estimated visites per day and ad revenue of $ 0.39.

2. General Info

Basic up-to-date website information such as: Domain creation date, website ranking, owner information, main IP address, registrar information and more...
Alexa Rank: #7735100
Domain Created: n/a
Domain Expires: n/a
Google PageRank: n/a
Domain Owner: n/a
Hosted In: Australia
Host IP: n/a
ICANN Registrar n/a
Family Safety:
Charset: n/a
Domain History: in the past

3. Traffic Graph

4. Technical Info

Review the different technologies that were used for the development of the website. This technologies selection may affect both the website stability and how the website is being evaluated by the different search engines.
Server DNS A:
Server DNS NS:
Server Name:
Server Type: nginx
Server Side Language: n/a
Javascript Usage: no
CSS Usage: no
RSS Usage: no
Google AdSense Usage: no
Code to Text: 1.57 %
Additional Technologies: WordPress, jQuery, AddThis

5. Page Speed

Page speed is important to user experience. Pages with a longer load time tend to have higher bounce rates and lower average time on page.
Header Size: 326 KB
Request Size: 135 KB
Name Lookup Time: 0.51 seconds
Connect Time: 0.75 seconds
Pretransfer Time: 0.75 seconds
Total Time: 2.95 seconds
Size Download: 105670 KB
Speed Download: 35837 KB/S
Total Time 2.95 seconds
Download Size 105670 KB
Download Speed 35837 KB/S

5. Site Geolocation

Geolocation is the identification of the real-world geographic location of an object, such as a radar source, mobile phone or Internet-connected computer terminal.
Server Country Code: AU
Server Country Name: Australia
Server City Name: Melbourne
Server Region Name: 07
Server Zip Code: 3000
Server Latitude: -37.813899993896
Server Longitude: 144.96339416504

5. Site Worth

We are absolutely certain that every one is able to earn money from his website, Therefor we will display a short estimated numbers that might be achievable to your website.
Estimated Website Worth $519.03
Estimated Daily Visits 130
Estimated Daily Revenue $0.39

6. Google Trends

Google Trends is a public web facility of Google Inc., based on Google Search, that shows how often a particular search-term is entered relative to the total search-volume across various regions of the world, and in various languages.

7. Keywords Density

Website keywords and their density is an important aspect which is considered carefully by search engines before making a decision about current website promoting.
Keyword Count Density (%)
Seo 19
Seoorg 13
Shots 9
Philippines 8
Organization 4
Peepcon 4
Morcon 3
Social 3
Class 2
Force 2
Task 2
Fighting 2
Spam 2
Algorithm 2
Penguin 2
Mar 2
Engine 2
Rankbrain 2
Conference 2
World 2
Aug 2

8. Alternative Domain Spelling

It is very common for users to misspell domain names, at some cases these typos result in users ending up in competitors website. You can reduce these phenomena by adding alternative spelling options to the domain name, as part of the site content hence covering some of the more common spelling errors and typos.
eeo, heo, reo, teo, weo, yeo, sco, sdo, sfo, sio, sjo, soo, sqo, sro, sto, svo, sec, see, seg, seh, sej, sel, sen, ser, eso, soe, fseo, gseo, iseo, kseo, nseo, qseo, zseo, sjeo, sleo, sneo, speo, sxeo, seno, seqo, sevo, sexo, seof, seoi, seop, seor, seos, seot, seow, seox,

9. Domain Whois

WhoIs lets you perform a domain whois search, whois IP lookup and search the whois database for relevant information on domain registration and availability. domain is not supported

Recent Analyzed Websites


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SEO tutorial & guide 2017 – 21

SEO Tutorial for Beginners video lesson explains how to search engine optimize a web site for higher Google ranking results. If you want higher Google rankings, this SEO tutorial is for you. In my experience, success with search engine optimization comes down to getting the fundamentals right. Then moving onto advanced SEO strategies and techniques.

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The past fifteen years have seen a massive increase in conversation and debate about what Islam teaches. From US politicians proclaiming that Islam is a religion of peace to pronouncements that Islam isn’t a religion of peace, and everywhere in-between there are much heat and not much light on this topic. When you factor in the rise of Islamic terrorism, specifically the ISIS style terrorism that has launched itself on the world scene there are few questions on more people’s minds than these two questions, “What is Islam?” and “What does it truly teach?”

Over the past few years, we’ve also seen the Lord raise up a number of prominent Christian leaders to write on this topic. One of these is a former Muslim, Nabeel Qureshi author of multiple books on this topic. Today we’ll look at his book Answering Jihad A Better Way Forward.

Answering Jihad seeks to help readers understand the following two questions, “Do terrorists actions actually reflect the religion of Islam?” and “What about our peaceful Muslim neighbors?” In this hard-hitting book, Qureshi provides insights into the questions that people are seeking answers to several important questions posed on the nightly news.

The book is broken down into three parts with four appendixes. In part one, the author considers the origins of Jihad. Here we learn about sharia law, jihad and early Islam. Among the biggest topics covered in this section is the question, “Is Islam “a Religion of peace?” and “Was Islam spread by the sword?” These questions are not secondary. The first question, “Is Islam a religion of peace?” is massively important.

Several US Presidents and many politicians are instructing the people in their districts that the answer to this question is, “Yes”. The real question and one that author wants to help us understand in this book are whether the answer of yes to this question holds any water historically and from the teaching of Islam itself.

According to David Cook in Understanding Jihad Muhammad launched raids and battles every year until he died. Mr. Cook explains that Muhammed commissioned or personally participated in eighty-six battles during that time, which is more than nine battles per year. Qureshi notes, “For these reasons, no one can claim that “Islam is a religion of peace” in the sense that the religion has been historically devoid of violence, neither in its origins nor in the history of global Muslim community. Apart from the first thirteen years of Islamic history, when there were not enough Muslims to fight, Islam has always had an elaborate practice or doctrine of war” (31).

Section two of the book considers radical Islam, whether Islam is in need of Reformation, who are Al-Qaid, ISIS, and Boko-Haram. Along with these important issues, the author considers who the true Muslims are, and why Muslims are being radicalized. Lastly, the author helps us understand whether Muslims are trying to take over the West with Sharia.

One of the most important questions within this conversation is the issue of whether true Muslims are peaceful or violent. The author explains, “The reality is that Islam can be formulated either peacefully or violently, but violent expressions of Islam adhere more consistently and more literally to the foundational texts of the Islamic faith, the Qur’an, and the hadith. Peaceful versions of Islam must reinvent traditions from Muhammad’s life in order to be interpreted consistent, or they must ignore them outright. Regardless of which of these two options peaceful Muslims choose, the common assertion that violent Muslims are not truly Muslim is uninformed or even disingenuous” (93).

The last section of the book considers Jihad in Judeo-Christian context. Here the author helps us understand whether Christians and Muslims worship the same God, Jihad, and Old Testament warfare, the teaching of Jesus on violence, Jihad, and the Crusades, along with a few other issues.

Whether you are wondering what to make of the terrorist violence happening both in the USA and abroad, or you are curious as to what Islam teaches on the subject of violence, Answering Jihad will help you. This is not a lengthy treatise on this subject. Instead, it would be fair to say this is a primer. Each chapter is short and easily digestible but chalk full of helpful information from a Christian worldview.

Answering Jihad is a great book for the lay person concerned with terrorism in the news or the Christian interested in reaching out to his Muslim neighbors. This book would also be good to use to teach a Sunday school class on Islam or for Bible College and seminary students studying and writing on Islam.

Whether this book is used in this way or in another way, Answering Jihad aims to help readers understand the rise of ISIS and the mass shootings occurring in major cities around our world. Answering Jihad is a welcome and needed primer on Islam that comes at just the right time to help readers respectfully answer many of the greatest questions about the rise of ISIS, jihad, and Islamic terrorism that people are asking.


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Premium Work(HKTDC Packaging, Vol 01,2004)

Vol.1 2004

HK Enterprise Internet

Company Profiles

Premium Work
S.C.P.P.C Ltd

Tailor-made Solutions
Wood & Box Mfy Ltd

Premium Work

S.C.P.P.C Ltd

SCPPC Ltd has diversified from packaging into paper premiums and gift items while also investing in design and research and development

Paper packaging and boxes are no longer enough to sustain a company in the cut-and-thrust world of printing, according to SCPPC Ltd's marketing manager Marcus Chow. To face the challenges of this increasingly competitive industry, the packaging company recently diversified into paper premiums and gift items.

SCPPC, which has operated since 1968, conducts much of its business in paper packaging items. The company has no plans to abandon its long-standing packaging product clients, and readily fulfils orders to their specifications.

"The decision to move into producing premiums came as we realised that margins from the paper printing business were diminishing and unlikely to improve," says Chow. He adds that the new line of premium items includes calendars, jigsaw puzzles, photo albums, jewellery boxes, stationery sets and games.

"The mark-up from premiums is better, and we are also planning to sell our own-brand products in the near future."

To this end, SCPPC is increasing its investment in design and research and development, although Chow stresses that such plans are still at an early stage. "At the moment we are still mainly making OEM goods," he says. "We have just started out in this business, and are learning about the technology and the craftsmanship involved."

Main markets are the US and Europe, with a largely diversified client base. Chow notes that the peak season is usually about July or August, as buyers prepare for Christmas, although the company accepts product orders all year round.

For packaging products, SCPPC's main clients are distributors in various markets, while it normally sells premiums through agents. "We also have a small, but growing, number of direct clients, whom we hope to develop," adds Chow.

The company can usually turn around orders rapidly, although Chow notes that lead-time depends on the product's design and specifications. Paper packaging orders can normally be filled in seven days, while premiums take up to four weeks, depending on the order quantity and complexity.

Chow identifies price pressure as the main challenge for the paper products industry, caused by a large number of competing companies. "The only way to overcome this is to constantly improve our product quality and reduce costs," he says. "Generally speaking, raw material costs are much the same throughout the industry, as most firms can source paper from anywhere in the world. We therefore have to find ways to make operational savings without compromising quality."

Quality is another important factor, and the company was ISO 9002-certified in 2000.

SCPPC has a five-storey, 150,000-square-foot facility in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone on the Chinese mainland. The company moved into Shenzhen early, starting production there in the early 1990s. It shifted all its printing facilities to the mainland in 2000, to further improve cost efficiency. SCPPC employs about 700 workers, housed in two four-storey staff quarters next to the factory.

The company has made significant investments in technology, and offers complete on-site services such as pre-press, printing, overall or spot UV coating, laminating, die cutting, window patching and box gluing. It also has a fully computerised, six-colour printing machine with UV facility, imported from Germany, while the latest addition is a computer-to-plate (CTP) machine, which promises to dramatically speed up the production process.

"With this device we can now fully embrace digital printing," says Chow. "We no longer need to produce film transparencies, which will greatly increase production speed."

He estimates time savings could be as much as two or three days, while efficiency would also be greatly improved as designs can be transmitted direct from a designer's computer to the printing press.

"We can now edit designs right up until the last moment, and also save time in cases where a client decides to amend his film. Previously, we had to wait for a new transparency to be delivered before proceeding, whereas now we simply wait for a download," adds Chow. "The machine will be fully operational shortly, and our clients will soon gain the benefits from this new technology."

S.C.P.P.C Ltd

Flat C, 13/F
Kingsford Ind Bldg
26-32 Kwai Hei St
Kwai Chung, New Territories
Hong Kong
Tel: 852-2614-3666
Fax: 852-2614-0864
Email: sales@scppc.com.hk
Web: www.scppc.com.hk

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Mercedes E-Class Service

The E-Class is a large car which offers the typical luxuries of the Mercedes-Benz brand.  It’s a car that is for a laid back driver, not for thrill seeking petrol heads.

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