LJ James Book Review :Iron Horse Rider

Posted on 10. Jan, 2010 by L.J. James in Book Reviews

The novel tells the story of a hardcore biker named Shane. Shane had always kept women at arms length and showed them no emotion – that was until he met Kelly. Try as he might this biker who had always kept to himself could not fight off his feelings for her and soon found himself married to the women of his dreams.

After 10 years of marriage Kelly is taken from Shane in a tragic accident while they are riding. Shane finds everything around him reminds him of Kelly, his home, his shop, even his clubhouse. His brother’s try to support and comfort him, but the looks of sorrow in their eyes for him is more then Shane can bare. He soon realizes staying in the world he has known and loved is not an option. Soon Shane is on his iron horse with the wind in his face and no destination! As Shane rides he finds the pain he feels for his loss begin to lessen!

With advice from a mysterious biker he keeps running into, Shane finds himself at a Micmac Indian Camp.

Shane is welcomed into the camp by the tribes Chief and soon finds himself becoming friends with the Chief’s daughter Tia who has recently lost her husband! While the two share their pain they soon begin to feel something for each other.

Is it possible for either of them to feel love again while still suffering from such a great loss? A member of Tia’s tribe is taking no chances and tells Shane to stay away from Tia. He soon finds out you never tell a biker like Shane what to do!

I found the writing in this novel; while in no way simplistic; was easy to read. I also found the story easy to follow!

Adelle “Legs” Laudan describes and expresses the feelings of biker brotherhood perfectly. When she explains Shane’s feelings while riding you can see in your mind where he is and you can almost feel the wind in your face!

In life we all have our worlds we live in, when something terrible happens sometimes we cling to what we know. Shane does what he; as a true Biker; must after such a terrible loss. He goes out and finds not only a new life but a new world to live in for a while.

I have to say I enjoyed the story. It was not what I was expecting or would usually read but I found I could not put the book down.

I think some men who ride will also enjoy this book, while many I feel will find it a little too much of a Romance novel! I do believe almost all women who have ever ridden a motorcycle or dated a man who rode one will love this novel.

As I know now, Adelle “Legs” Laudan is a writer of motorcycle romance novels. she works to promote the image of motorcycling one book at a time! To order Iron Horse Rider or other novels by Adelle “Legs” Laudan including the upcoming Iron Horse Rider 2 go to http://adellelaudan.com/IronHorseRider.html

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50 States in 50 Days – What is Memorable in the Eyes of a Child?

Posted on 08. Jan, 2010 by KG in Education, Parenting, Product Review

What started at age five with a talking map puzzle five years later has blossomed into a creative writing exercise. No longer is it just a metallic voice that informs us in a somewhat monotone singsong: “Nevada. The Silver State. State Capital: Carson City.

“ Don’t get me wrong. At age five and six our kids knew more about the 50 States than most, thanks to just that puzzle. As did we, and our cats, who, without fail, would walk across it in the middle of the night, no matter how high up we shelved it. We would then wake up to the sounds of „America the Beautiful“ . No “Off” button; the only downfall of this puzzle map. But I digress.

Now our children have been assigned a school project: Learn quick facts and interesting things about each of the 50 States in 50 days. So they dig into the depth of the encyclopedia, or its computerized counterpart, Wikipedia, Google the net for fun facts and pictures, and try to make intelligent notes of things worth memorizing.

We hope you enjoy our experience of traveling the 50 States in 50 days!

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra – One of The Most Anticipated Movie of 2009.

Posted on 03. Jan, 2010 by Saisha Jones in Entertainment, Movie Reviews, Video

G.I Joe: The Rise of Cobra is a 2009 American live-action film adaptation of the G.I. Joe toy franchise, the story follows two American soldiers, Duke and Ripcord, who join the G.I. Joe Team after being attacked by MARS troops. Filming took place in Downey, California and Prague’s Barrandov Studios, and six different companies handled the visual effects.

The plot of the movie begins with the Scotsman Klan McCullen being accused of selling weaponry to both the Scots and French. The jury brands his face with a white-hot mask in order to humiliate him, rather than executing for treason. In the near future, weapons expert James McCullen (Christopher Eccleston) creates a nanotechnology-based weapon capable of destroying an entire city. His company MARS sells four warheads to NATO, and the U.S. Army is tasked with delivering the warheads. Duke and Ripcord are rescued by Scarlett (Rachel Nichols), Snake Eyes (Ray Park) and Heavy Duty (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje). Duke (Channing Tatum) and Ripcord (Marlon Wayans) are delivering the warheads when they are ambushed by the Baroness (Sienna Miller), who Duke recognized to be his ex-fiance Ana Lewis. The warheads are taken to The Pit, G.I. Joe’s command center in North Africa, and upon arriving rendezvous with General Hawk (Dennis Quaid), the head of the G.I. Joe Team. Hawk takes command of the war-heads and excuses Duke and Ripcord, only to be convinced to have them join his group after Duke reveals that he knows the Baroness.

The filming of this movie began on February 11, 2008, in Los Angeles, California. The Downey sound-stage was chosen as Paramount needed a large stage to get production underway as soon as possible. The first two levels of the Pit were built there, to complement the rest of the building which would be done with special effects. Downey also housed Destro’s MARS base in the Arctic, his legitimate weapons factory in an ex-Soviet state, as well as various submarines interiors, including a SHARC (Submersible High-speed Attack and Reconnaissance Craft) manned by two G.I. Joes.

Digital Domain which handled the Paris action, sequences and the opening convoy sequence was the most prominent of the six different visual effects companies who worked in The Rise of Cobra. For the Eiffel Tower destruction, a special code for depicting how the crumbling metal works was written. The technicians had access to the original building plans, and built a digital model so complex that could not fit in a single file to create the digital Eiffel Tower. The nanomites used two different proprietary software for their depiction, one by Digital Domain, and another by, which also created tools to generate 3D cloud and sky environments for the aerial scenes. The landing platform of the Pit, the Cobra ice caverns, and the final underwater battle were the scenarios which were almost fully developed by computer-generated imagery.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is a record-breaking movie with all the latest effects & adventures. G.I JOE was a mass enthralling movie which ruled the box office for years & its sequel is creating a widespread trend all over.

What is the final verdict? Is it a “watcher”, “keeper” or “filer”? A “watcher” is a movie that you could watch one time, it was good once but you could live without seeing it again. A “keeper” is a movie that you have-to-have in your movie collection for all time to pass down to your children and your children’s children. And a “filer” – well you have probably heard of “File 13″ that place designated for trash. It’s a “why did I waste my money on it once movie – I hope nobody saw me coming out of the movie theater or dvd rental store with that movie” a “I wouldn’t wish that on my neighbors dog movie and I don’t even like my neighbors dog”.

The Whole Truth – by David Baldacci

Posted on 02. Feb, 2009 by M.L. Zupan in Book Reviews

David Baldacci – #1 New York Bestselling Author

It has been said that truth is stranger than fiction – if that is the case, then David Baldacci seems to have hit the nail right on the head with this spellbinding tale of ‘perception management’ in his book “The Whole Truth”.

Here is an excerpt from his book:

That’s why he’d hired Pender, who made the world believe what Creel wanted it to believe. It was often a war of attrition. You made up the truth and  then buried the real thing under so much garbage that people grew weary of trying to dig through it and instead just accepted what you offered. It was the easy way out and humans were programmed to always go that way. After all, there were bills to pay, shopping to do, kids to raise, and sports to watch, so who had time for anything else?

Wow! What a powerful statement! Especially with Superbowl yesterday.

The book came out in April 2008 and yet as I read through it, many parts seemed as if they were jumping right out of the headlines of today. It was a high packed International thriller that kept me captivated until the last page. A megalomaniac shifting events in order to orchestrate a desired outcome versus a super-spy organization dedicated to eradicate evil whenever and wherever it rears its ugly head.

It has a macho loner hero and a down-and-out female heroine hoping for a career comeback; lies, deceit, fights, twists and turns – and all the good earmarks of a Hollywood movie in the making.

But what of the concept of the book – this thing called ‘perception management’ or ‘PM’. What exactly is it?

Actions to convey and/or deny selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives, and objective reasoning as well as to intelligence systems and leaders at all levels to influence official estimates, ultimately resulting in foreign behaviors and official actions favorable to the originator’s objectives. In various ways, perception management combines truth projection, operations security, cover and deception, and psychological operations.

A PM Firm is a firm that sells the practices of perception management and writes truth for situations and companies and then sells that truth to the public.

David Baldacci writes in his Author’s Notes about PM firms:

PMs are not spin doctors because they don’t spin facts. They create facts and then sell them to the world as the truth. And that, to quote the venerable Mark Twain (who would’ve had a field day with the PM guys), is the difference between the lightning bug and lightning.

If that doesn’t make you wonder how much of what we read today in the news is nothing more than ‘perception management’.

One Yellow Lion – Book Review

Posted on 28. Jan, 2009 by KG in Book Reviews

Children’s Books – Preschool

CIDA News: Book Reviews

One Yellow Lion

by Matthew Van Fleet

One of our family’s best -loved children’s books is “One Yellow Lion”. The dog ears prove it. Advertised suitable for children over two, its appeal has long lasted us past the toddler years. The basic concept is simple: Teach colors, and numbers up to ten. Ah, but the realization!

Lift-the-flap pages encourage interaction of the younger audience, and even after the tenth, fiftieth or one hundredth time, the new number miraculously transforming into part of the featured animal, still elicits ohhs and ahhs.

Our personal favorite page is Ten Pink WORMS! The illustrations are whimsical, and the two extra fold-out pages in the back featuring both a beach scene and an animal pyramid offer opportunity to re-count the animal characters.

And characters they are: playful, bashful, silly, comical – piled up on top of one another, embedding in their illustrated antics all the features of the human nature: pride, strength, fun, fear, caring love and show-off dare. It’s subtle, but no doubt what appeals to older siblings, parents, grandparents and great-grandparents over and over again. I, for one, have yet to get tired of reading it. In all, a book that is for the whole family. It is simple, loving, and invites us to smile alongside our children about ourselves.

If you would like to find out more about the Author: Matthew Van Fleet and other books that he has written, including his #1 New York Times Bestselling Children’s Book, Dogs; check out the following video and then follow the link to Simon & Schuster.

Also stay tuned for his upcoming sequel to Dogs, (you have to watch the video to find out what it is) coming out Feb. 10, 2009.