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New legends, like Halo, was originally was announced for the PC. Microsoft has since made this an XboX exclusive. This game is an Action/Adventure game with a twist of 3-D fighting. Your main character must destroy the evil that is plaguing the lands. Through out your adventure you will pick up weapons, mostly meelee weapons. You can dual wield (means use 2 weapons at a time) weapons, but some requires you to use 2 hands like axes and bow. Weapons and combinations will be associated with different combos, but there will be six main weapons you must get to progress in the game which will be from 6 warlords you must defeat. The enemies seem to spawn constantly so you will not run out of things to kill.
Having been just released, New legends might be a new game but
it will remind you of old school gaming. Why? It is simple yet
addicting. The graphics won't impress you, it doesn't take full advantage of XboX's potential and there is not excuse for it. The gameplay is what will make you stick to your TV, the variety of
weapons available and combos are just too many and the controls is quite easy. One thing you have to keep in mind is that however
many times you save, once you die you will restart that level,
one major flaw that will irritate you.
New legends is a good game, but its replayabity is questionable.
There are no modes or gametype you can choose, and no multiplayer
whatsoever. Might be an advisable rental. The game roughly is 5-7 hours to finish.
Graphics and sounds = 2/5
Gameplay = 4/5
Replayabilty = 1/5
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"New legends, like Halo, was originally was announced for the PC.",
"Microsoft has since made this an XboX exclusive.",
"This game is an Action/Adventure game with a twist of 3-D fighting.",
"Your main character must destroy the evil that is plaguing the lands.",
"Through out your adventure you will pick up weapons, mostly meelee weapons.",
"You can dual wield (means use 2 weapons at a time) weapons, but some requires you to use 2 hands like axes and bow.",
"Weapons and combinations will be associated with different combos, but there will be six main weapons you must get to progress in the game which will be from 6 warlords you must defeat.",
"The enemies seem to spawn constantly so you will not run out of things to kill.",
"Having been just released, New legends might be a new game but\nit will remind you of old school gaming.",
"Why?",
"It is simple yet\naddicting.",
"The graphics won't impress you, it doesn't take full advantage of XboX's potential and there is not excuse for it.",
"The gameplay is what will make you stick to your TV, the variety of\nweapons available and combos are just too many and the controls is quite easy.",
"One thing you have to keep in mind is that however\nmany times you save, once you die you will restart that level,\none major flaw that will irritate you.",
"New legends is a good game, but its replayabity is questionable.",
"There are no modes or gametype you can choose, and no multiplayer\nwhatsoever.",
"Might be an advisable rental.",
"The game roughly is 5-7 hours to finish.",
"Graphics and sounds = 2/5\nGameplay = 4/5\nReplayabilty = 1/5"
] |
I'm probably in the camp of the earlier reviewer who said they really wanted to like this book. I've read a number of books about Churchill over the years, so many of the characters in this book are familiar and known names. Still, when Mr. Dobbs goes into long and detailed conversations between these "real" people, how much of this is what those people said and thought versus what the author needs to make a good tale? By labeling this "historical fiction", what's the obligation of the author to observe the former, when the latter might make for a better read? I mean this as no criticism to Mr. Dobbs, since he properly calls this a historical fiction.
Mr. Dobbs has written a good book that is an interesting read. Still, my concern about books of this sort is how quickly the reader may forget the author's "fiction" disclaimer, and take this for total "history". I received this book as a gift from a friend who told me that I'd enjoy it, because, "it tells you what really happened". That's my concern....
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"I'm probably in the camp of the earlier reviewer who said they really wanted to like this book.",
"I've read a number of books about Churchill over the years, so many of the characters in this book are familiar and known names.",
"Still, when Mr.",
"Dobbs goes into long and detailed conversations between these \"real\" people, how much of this is what those people said and thought versus what the author needs to make a good tale?",
"By labeling this \"historical fiction\", what's the obligation of the author to observe the former, when the latter might make for a better read?",
"I mean this as no criticism to Mr.",
"Dobbs, since he properly calls this a historical fiction.",
"Mr.",
"Dobbs has written a good book that is an interesting read.",
"Still, my concern about books of this sort is how quickly the reader may forget the author's \"fiction\" disclaimer, and take this for total \"history\".",
"I received this book as a gift from a friend who told me that I'd enjoy it, because, \"it tells you what really happened\".",
"That's my concern...."
] |
Maybe it's my fault for expecting the exact same game from the good ole SNES days. The previous reviewer is correct, I came in taking this game lightly and we shell shocked when the game did not play as I had expected and remembered. However, I did not get this game to learn a brand new fighting game, I got it solely for the reason for the times when I just want to kick some a** after having a bad day. However, on this game, the CPU is usually the one that does most of the a** kicking!
I put this game in expecting the same amount of fun I had with SFII on the SNES, but the game is NOT the same. The graphics and sounds are the same, but the main difference is that the CPU does not play like they used to. This game is too damn hard even on Medium. On the old SFII I was able to beat the game on very hard without losing a round. While I wasn't expecting to be able to do the same on here right away, I at least expected to be able to complete it on Medium with no problem. But that is not the case, Medium on this game is just has hard if not harder than Very Hard on the SNES version. I moved it down to very easy and STILL had problems advancing. I finally was able to beat the game, but this game is just to frustrating to keep.
The CPU plays a lot like the CPU in Mortal Kombat; the same cheesy moves over and over and over again. That is exactly what turned me off from the MK series, but now this game does the EXACT same thing. The CPU does impossible things, like throwing you while they are being kicked or punched, they can even throw you then they are dizzy. The only way I was able to advance in the game, was to do the same cheesy moves as they do. It worked pretty well, but it made the game boring.
Old heads like me who are very familiar with this title on SF2 may be disappointed in this one. Sure with more practice I probably could get real good at this game as well, but I do not have the time or patience to be sitting at my TV hours and hours each day just to be one character. Maybe if I was a teenager again, then yeah I would enjoy the hours needed to master and enjoy this game like I did on the original SF2. But being 28, there are not enough hours in the day to dedicate to just one game. Besides I spent hours and hours mastering SFII on the SNES, why should I have to go through that again? I bought this game expecting a fun fighting game that I can just pick up and have fun with. Instead I got a game that is ridiculously hard and frustrating with all the cheesy moves and what not and requires you to re-learn almost everything. Having to relearn nearly everything for a game I have already mastered in the past is not my idea of fun. Take Ninja Gaiden for the XBOX for example. I also played and beat the NG games on the NES. And while the XBOX version of Ninja Gaiden is VERY hard, I enjoyed it a lot and played it all the time until I beat it, mainly because it was a NEW game! In fact I still occasionally pop it in and go through the game again on HARD difficulty! Where Street Fighter Anniversary messed up is that the kept the visuals EXACTLY the same, but changed the way it played on the backend.
To salvage some old time memories, I finally did beat the game with my favorite characters, Ken, Ryu and Guile, but after that I did not want to play anymore. The game is gone now; I sold it on EBAY a few nights after I bought it. Perhaps its new owner will have more fun with it than me.
Not recommended unless you have the time to master this game or are expecting the EXACT same game from the SNES. I suppose if you NEVER played SFII on the older gaming systems like the SNES, then you would more than likely enjoy this game, because to you its NEW!
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"Maybe it's my fault for expecting the exact same game from the good ole SNES days.",
"The previous reviewer is correct, I came in taking this game lightly and we shell shocked when the game did not play as I had expected and remembered.",
"However, I did not get this game to learn a brand new fighting game, I got it solely for the reason for the times when I just want to kick some a** after having a bad day.",
"However, on this game, the CPU is usually the one that does most of the a** kicking!",
"I put this game in expecting the same amount of fun I had with SFII on the SNES, but the game is NOT the same.",
"The graphics and sounds are the same, but the main difference is that the CPU does not play like they used to.",
"This game is too damn hard even on Medium.",
"On the old SFII I was able to beat the game on very hard without losing a round.",
"While I wasn't expecting to be able to do the same on here right away, I at least expected to be able to complete it on Medium with no problem.",
"But that is not the case, Medium on this game is just has hard if not harder than Very Hard on the SNES version.",
"I moved it down to very easy and STILL had problems advancing.",
"I finally was able to beat the game, but this game is just to frustrating to keep.",
"The CPU plays a lot like the CPU in Mortal Kombat; the same cheesy moves over and over and over again.",
"That is exactly what turned me off from the MK series, but now this game does the EXACT same thing.",
"The CPU does impossible things, like throwing you while they are being kicked or punched, they can even throw you then they are dizzy.",
"The only way I was able to advance in the game, was to do the same cheesy moves as they do.",
"It worked pretty well, but it made the game boring.",
"Old heads like me who are very familiar with this title on SF2 may be disappointed in this one.",
"Sure with more practice I probably could get real good at this game as well, but I do not have the time or patience to be sitting at my TV hours and hours each day just to be one character.",
"Maybe if I was a teenager again, then yeah I would enjoy the hours needed to master and enjoy this game like I did on the original SF2.",
"But being 28, there are not enough hours in the day to dedicate to just one game.",
"Besides I spent hours and hours mastering SFII on the SNES, why should I have to go through that again?",
"I bought this game expecting a fun fighting game that I can just pick up and have fun with.",
"Instead I got a game that is ridiculously hard and frustrating with all the cheesy moves and what not and requires you to re-learn almost everything.",
"Having to relearn nearly everything for a game I have already mastered in the past is not my idea of fun.",
"Take Ninja Gaiden for the XBOX for example.",
"I also played and beat the NG games on the NES.",
"And while the XBOX version of Ninja Gaiden is VERY hard, I enjoyed it a lot and played it all the time until I beat it, mainly because it was a NEW game!",
"In fact I still occasionally pop it in and go through the game again on HARD difficulty!",
"Where Street Fighter Anniversary messed up is that the kept the visuals EXACTLY the same, but changed the way it played on the backend.",
"To salvage some old time memories, I finally did beat the game with my favorite characters, Ken, Ryu and Guile, but after that I did not want to play anymore.",
"The game is gone now; I sold it on EBAY a few nights after I bought it.",
"Perhaps its new owner will have more fun with it than me.",
"Not recommended unless you have the time to master this game or are expecting the EXACT same game from the SNES.",
"I suppose if you NEVER played SFII on the older gaming systems like the SNES, then you would more than likely enjoy this game, because to you its NEW!"
] |
Schiff lays out Republican efforts to block access in Russia probe
Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) said that committee Republicans had blocked Democrats’ efforts to subpoena Deutsche Bank for financial records related to President Trump’s family on the suspicion that Russians “may have laundered money through Trump properties.” Democrats also were stymied in their effort to subpoena executives at Twitter Schiff said to secure the direct messages that members of Trump’s inner circle exchanged with representatives of WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange who Democrats believe acted as Russian intermediaries during the 2016 presidential campaign.
“If there’s credible information that Ivanka Trump had contact with any participants in that meeting at the time of that meeting . . . I think it would be valuable to have her come and testify before the committee ” Schiff said.
He added that he believes the committee should invite former White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon to testify saying “it’s my expectation that he will be doing so.”
Schiff said Thursday that the committee has interviewed 56 witnesses — half the number of people that have appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee Schiff said meaning there are “dozens” of witnesses they have yet to bring in.
A spokesman for Nunes declined to comment.
Schiff also said that he would hold Ryan responsible if the House probe “is prematurely curtailed for political reasons.”
Ryan responded in a statement: “While Mr. Schiff tries to distract from the serious bipartisan review that’s been underway for nearly a year we will stay focused on following the facts and working to safeguard the upcoming election.”
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"Schiff lays out Republican efforts to block access in Russia probe\nRep.",
"Adam B.",
"Schiff (D-Calif.",
") said that committee Republicans had blocked Democrats’ efforts to subpoena Deutsche Bank for financial records related to President Trump’s family on the suspicion that Russians “may have laundered money through Trump properties.",
"” Democrats also were stymied in their effort to subpoena executives at Twitter Schiff said to secure the direct messages that members of Trump’s inner circle exchanged with representatives of WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange who Democrats believe acted as Russian intermediaries during the 2016 presidential campaign.",
"“If there’s credible information that Ivanka Trump had contact with any participants in that meeting at the time of that meeting.",
".",
".",
"I think it would be valuable to have her come and testify before the committee ” Schiff said.",
"He added that he believes the committee should invite former White House chief strategist Stephen K.",
"Bannon to testify saying “it’s my expectation that he will be doing so.",
"”\n Schiff said Thursday that the committee has interviewed 56 witnesses — half the number of people that have appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee Schiff said meaning there are “dozens” of witnesses they have yet to bring in.",
"A spokesman for Nunes declined to comment.",
"Schiff also said that he would hold Ryan responsible if the House probe “is prematurely curtailed for political reasons.",
"”\nRyan responded in a statement: “While Mr.",
"Schiff tries to distract from the serious bipartisan review that’s been underway for nearly a year we will stay focused on following the facts and working to safeguard the upcoming election.",
"”"
] |
Not sure about reviewer with problems of instructions on how to put together. Not rocket science. Was easy to assemble. I have a few and are adequate. I ran out of wall space for art, so I have a couple of these in a room that is carpeted and sit very well. I then use small easles below these to display art. They are plain and simple. I did take the time to put polyurethan on them and look better. Ok for the price. Never have had to re-secure for any reason.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"Not sure about reviewer with problems of instructions on how to put together.",
"Not rocket science.",
"Was easy to assemble.",
"I have a few and are adequate.",
"I ran out of wall space for art, so I have a couple of these in a room that is carpeted and sit very well.",
"I then use small easles below these to display art.",
"They are plain and simple.",
"I did take the time to put polyurethan on them and look better.",
"Ok for the price.",
"Never have had to re-secure for any reason."
] |
I usually adore the Otterbox products. Customer service is outstanding. HOWEVER, this version of the case has a flaw. The side clips have a higher risk of breaking off if dropped, and if you ever snag a shirt, or piece of clothing in when you snap the phone in, it seems to go in, but the portion that holds the phone in will not do it's job. I lost my iPhone due to just that.
The new version, at least for the 4G, is a HUGE improvement in how it holds the phone. much tighter hold on the phone, the bottom side, and top hold the phone in tight, yet easy to release when needed. I have yet to insert the phone wrong, or have the phone fall out on the new version.
As I said, nearly every purchase I make from OtterBox it performs beyond expectations. The 3G clip shown in the picture has it's flaws. The skin and shell for the phone itself is very good in this family of cases. It may not be one you can drop in the lake, or have out in the rain, but it does a GREAT job protecting the phone.
If it wasn't for losing my phone when traveling recently, I'd give it 5 stars.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"I usually adore the Otterbox products.",
"Customer service is outstanding.",
"HOWEVER, this version of the case has a flaw.",
"The side clips have a higher risk of breaking off if dropped, and if you ever snag a shirt, or piece of clothing in when you snap the phone in, it seems to go in, but the portion that holds the phone in will not do it's job.",
"I lost my iPhone due to just that.",
"The new version, at least for the 4G, is a HUGE improvement in how it holds the phone.",
"much tighter hold on the phone, the bottom side, and top hold the phone in tight, yet easy to release when needed.",
"I have yet to insert the phone wrong, or have the phone fall out on the new version.",
"As I said, nearly every purchase I make from OtterBox it performs beyond expectations.",
"The 3G clip shown in the picture has it's flaws.",
"The skin and shell for the phone itself is very good in this family of cases.",
"It may not be one you can drop in the lake, or have out in the rain, but it does a GREAT job protecting the phone.",
"If it wasn't for losing my phone when traveling recently, I'd give it 5 stars."
] |
Version: U.S.A / Region A, B, C
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
VC-1 BD-25 / AACS / Advanced Profile 3
Running time: 1:24:54
Feature size: 16,74 GB
Disc size: 17,95 GB
Average video bit rate: 20.42 Mbps
Dolby TrueHD Audio English 1455 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1455 kbps / 16-bit (AC3 Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps)
Dolby Digital Audio English 640 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps
Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps
Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps
Dolby Digital Audio French 192 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps
Subtitles: English / English SDH / French / Spanish
Number of chapters: 24
#Audio commentary
#Kingdom: Elvis in Vegas - Featurette (20 min)
#Theatrical trailer
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"Version: U.",
"S.A / Region A, B, C\nAspect ratio: 2.",
"40:1\nVC-1 BD-25 / AACS / Advanced Profile 3\nRunning time: 1:24:54\nFeature size: 16,74 GB\nDisc size: 17,95 GB\nAverage video bit rate: 20.",
"42 Mbps\n\nDolby TrueHD Audio English 1455 kbps 5.",
"1 / 48 kHz / 1455 kbps / 16-bit (AC3 Core: 5.",
"1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps)\nDolby Digital Audio English 640 kbps 5.",
"1 / 48 kHz / 640 kbps\nDolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 1.",
"0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps\nDolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 1.",
"0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps\nDolby Digital Audio French 192 kbps 1.",
"0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps\n\nSubtitles: English / English SDH / French / Spanish\nNumber of chapters: 24\n\n#Audio commentary\n#Kingdom: Elvis in Vegas - Featurette (20 min)\n#Theatrical trailer"
] |
These are not dynamic cans. They are completely flat through all ends. I also own the PRO 550, both are tight and clear. Running @ 40 ohms, you can run Pro 750 on anything...but I would still recommend an amp. There is no bass that these can not handle. There are no cymbals that can't be heard, as if they are playing on a stage in front of you. The build is strong, the velvet pads cozy...the two detachable cables, flexible...these are what every headphone should aspire to be. Anything acoustic is ridiculous...just close your eyes and float on your waterbed of instruments.
NOW FOR THE AFTER BURN...
Updated:
I have really found myself liking these cans...2-3 issues now..or that I have been trying to wait out on...1) Jazz keyboards are just outright forward in comparison with other instruments... Distortion on guitars doesn't seem to have...I know...cleanness nor as much clarity among other instruments. Drums... separation is there, but, when I am at a jazz or rock performance...I want to feel the drums as well...with these and the pro 550, I can can hear them...just not "feel" them...
Comfort is still great...build is still great...anything classical...great...
The packaged CD...Almost entirely classical; that's where these absolutely shine...
These are not an "ALL GENRE" set of cans...
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"These are not dynamic cans.",
"They are completely flat through all ends.",
"I also own the PRO 550, both are tight and clear.",
"Running @ 40 ohms, you can run Pro 750 on anything...",
"but I would still recommend an amp.",
"There is no bass that these can not handle.",
"There are no cymbals that can't be heard, as if they are playing on a stage in front of you.",
"The build is strong, the velvet pads cozy...",
"the two detachable cables, flexible...",
"these are what every headphone should aspire to be.",
"Anything acoustic is ridiculous...",
"just close your eyes and float on your waterbed of instruments.",
"NOW FOR THE AFTER BURN...",
"Updated:\nI have really found myself liking these cans...",
"2-3 issues now..",
"or that I have been trying to wait out on...",
"1) Jazz keyboards are just outright forward in comparison with other instruments...",
"Distortion on guitars doesn't seem to have...",
"I know...",
"cleanness nor as much clarity among other instruments.",
"Drums...",
"separation is there, but, when I am at a jazz or rock performance...",
"I want to feel the drums as well...",
"with these and the pro 550, I can can hear them...",
"just not \"feel\" them...",
"Comfort is still great...",
"build is still great...",
"anything classical...",
"great...",
"The packaged CD...",
"Almost entirely classical; that's where these absolutely shine...",
"These are not an \"ALL GENRE\" set of cans..."
] |
Quote DanA. "Will start the bidding on predicted times between me and Pug over the next few days . Oh dear.. this'll be interesting.. I'm having reservations the way I'm feeling lately.. this tapering is horrible, just feel like a fat slug now... You want odd PB's check mine out!!! 5k = 18:09. 5 Mile = 32:42. 10k = 38:39. 10 Mile = 1:15:35. 1/2 Marathon = 1:21:10. Marathon = 3:32:59 . Bear that in mind when you do ya predictions hahaha!!! Pug
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"Quote DanA.",
"\"Will start the bidding on predicted times between me and Pug over the next few days.",
"Oh dear..",
"this'll be interesting..",
"I'm having reservations the way I'm feeling lately..",
"this tapering is horrible, just feel like a fat slug now...",
"You want odd PB's check mine out!!!",
"5k = 18:09.",
"5 Mile = 32:42.",
"10k = 38:39.",
"10 Mile = 1:15:35.",
"1/2 Marathon = 1:21:10.",
"Marathon = 3:32:59.",
"Bear that in mind when you do ya predictions hahaha!!!",
"Pug"
] |
ConsumetADVOCATE is a user of cb equipment since the late seventies. This hideaway model is basically a walkietalkie with attached combo power and signal coax. It has a fair noise suppression ANL but the squelch control is touchy. You must watch your matching with your antenna. Use a K40 or Wilson 1000. Install is simple. You can use a cigar or acc port. The display is difficult to read in daylight. It has green backlighting which could be better. I do think this unit is superior to Midland's offering.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"ConsumetADVOCATE is a user of cb equipment since the late seventies.",
"This hideaway model is basically a walkietalkie with attached combo power and signal coax.",
"It has a fair noise suppression ANL but the squelch control is touchy.",
"You must watch your matching with your antenna.",
"Use a K40 or Wilson 1000.",
"Install is simple.",
"You can use a cigar or acc port.",
"The display is difficult to read in daylight.",
"It has green backlighting which could be better.",
"I do think this unit is superior to Midland's offering."
] |
Warning: if you are fair skinned, this may not be the product for you. It applies dark. Even if you closely follow the instructions of using it sparingly and applying it in circular motions ... it is crazy dark (and a touch orange-y but this is probably because I'm nearly translucent, that's how pale I am!)
The great news is that there is no fragrance and no "weird smell." And, while it seemed to dry quickly, it still rubbed off on my clothes even after thirty minutes of waiting. So, be careful ... especially with those beautiful white summer skirts.
Now, know that the tube is not as large as I would have imagined. Therefore, it's a bit difficult to justify this exorbitant price (with the color transfer and the dark hue).
I'm going to pass on this. However, I love the idea of people using this product rather than tanning! So, three-stars for it's potential and for its good intentions (of saving people's lives!)
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"Warning: if you are fair skinned, this may not be the product for you.",
"It applies dark.",
"Even if you closely follow the instructions of using it sparingly and applying it in circular motions...",
"it is crazy dark (and a touch orange-y but this is probably because I'm nearly translucent, that's how pale I am!",
")\n\nThe great news is that there is no fragrance and no \"weird smell.",
"\" And, while it seemed to dry quickly, it still rubbed off on my clothes even after thirty minutes of waiting.",
"So, be careful...",
"especially with those beautiful white summer skirts.",
"Now, know that the tube is not as large as I would have imagined.",
"Therefore, it's a bit difficult to justify this exorbitant price (with the color transfer and the dark hue).",
"I'm going to pass on this.",
"However, I love the idea of people using this product rather than tanning!",
"So, three-stars for it's potential and for its good intentions (of saving people's lives!",
")"
] |
While there are many things in this recording of Mahler 3 with Bernstein and New York I admire, there are times the orchestra doesn't sound comfortable and it shows. At times balance or ensemble problems occur. Part of this might be do to Bernstein's style of conducting. He gives a very volatile account of this great symphony. Most of it works, though some parts, mainly in the first movement don't seem to hold water.
The orchestra plays fairly well, but at times there is a lack of subtley in the brass. The trombone solo on the surface is very impressive, but dig alittle deeper and it seems the solo is more of a display piece rather than part of the symphony. The horns at time have trouble make their mark when they need to and get lost in the textures of the orchestra. The New York Phil horn sound has always been rather heavy and muddy tending to get lost.
The posthorn solo in the 3rd movement is very good however. Phil Smith does an excellant job...its one of the highlights of the recording. The other highlight is the great Christa Ludwig...she as always is on fine form and her sing is nothing less then beatiful.
As a whole however I'd say go with Haitink/BPO if you can find it...the best playing I've heard in this symphony. They amaze as always. The other choices would be Maazel or Abbado, both with the Vienna Philharmonic...also on fine form
As a whole the Bernstein/NYPO doesn't quite make the final cut.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"While there are many things in this recording of Mahler 3 with Bernstein and New York I admire, there are times the orchestra doesn't sound comfortable and it shows.",
"At times balance or ensemble problems occur.",
"Part of this might be do to Bernstein's style of conducting.",
"He gives a very volatile account of this great symphony.",
"Most of it works, though some parts, mainly in the first movement don't seem to hold water.",
"The orchestra plays fairly well, but at times there is a lack of subtley in the brass.",
"The trombone solo on the surface is very impressive, but dig alittle deeper and it seems the solo is more of a display piece rather than part of the symphony.",
"The horns at time have trouble make their mark when they need to and get lost in the textures of the orchestra.",
"The New York Phil horn sound has always been rather heavy and muddy tending to get lost.",
"The posthorn solo in the 3rd movement is very good however.",
"Phil Smith does an excellant job...",
"its one of the highlights of the recording.",
"The other highlight is the great Christa Ludwig...",
"she as always is on fine form and her sing is nothing less then beatiful.",
"As a whole however I'd say go with Haitink/BPO if you can find it...",
"the best playing I've heard in this symphony.",
"They amaze as always.",
"The other choices would be Maazel or Abbado, both with the Vienna Philharmonic...",
"also on fine form\nAs a whole the Bernstein/NYPO doesn't quite make the final cut."
] |
I don't LOVE this CD, but I don't HATE it either. Anything by Barbra Streisand is usually better work than most of what is on the market...even when it's odd. This is not one of my favorite CD's, but song #4, "I Won't Last A Day Without You," is one of my all-time favorite individual tracks of Barbra Streisand's entire catalog. This is one of the most intimate, heartfelt, really- feeling-the-love-energy-go-right-through-you songs (and vocals, for that matter) ever recorded. This song alone is worth the CD purchase price. I also like the calypso "Guava Jelly." I can't help but think of Barbara Streisand singing this song dressed like Mary Ann from "Gilligan's Island." Incidentally, folks, don't forget the early 1970's were an experimental/growth time. Very little lasting/quality music, film, clothes, or interior decor came from this time. "Butterfly" is like that avocado lamp, harvest-gold rug or orange-and- brown bean bag chair you come across in the attic. Once you're through making jokes about it, you pay attention and begin to focus on what you liked about it at the time it caught your attention.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"I don't LOVE this CD, but I don't HATE it either.",
"Anything by Barbra Streisand is usually better work than most of what is on the market...",
"even when it's odd.",
"This is not one of my favorite CD's, but song #4, \"I Won't Last A Day Without You,\" is one of my all-time favorite individual tracks of Barbra Streisand's entire catalog.",
"This is one of the most intimate, heartfelt, really- feeling-the-love-energy-go-right-through-you songs (and vocals, for that matter) ever recorded.",
"This song alone is worth the CD purchase price.",
"I also like the calypso \"Guava Jelly.",
"\" I can't help but think of Barbara Streisand singing this song dressed like Mary Ann from \"Gilligan's Island.",
"\" Incidentally, folks, don't forget the early 1970's were an experimental/growth time.",
"Very little lasting/quality music, film, clothes, or interior decor came from this time.",
"\"Butterfly\" is like that avocado lamp, harvest-gold rug or orange-and- brown bean bag chair you come across in the attic.",
"Once you're through making jokes about it, you pay attention and begin to focus on what you liked about it at the time it caught your attention."
] |
I'll stay away from a novel here. This game offers nothing new in terms of core gameplay. If you played and loved the other games in the series - you are probably only reading this review so you can flame me for not going "5" stars.
Rockstar has employed the quantity over quality technique. You will play the same missions you've been playing for a decade. People will curse like they have touretts, the cars are tough to control and the graphics still can be distracting... but...the story is really good. Nico is very likeable and I was compelled to see what happened next all the way through. Had the story not been as strong, this game would have wore out its welcome after the first couple of hours. I'm usually not a sucker for story, but in this case I'll make an exception. The targeting and cover systems are well implemented for the action sequences, but like most of this game, it is a jack of all trades, master of none.
There are a lot of games that do some of things GTA IV does much better, but only pieces. The game is tremendous fun and I can't stress enough how great the characters are, but you've played it before, this version just has the shiniest wrapper.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"I'll stay away from a novel here.",
"This game offers nothing new in terms of core gameplay.",
"If you played and loved the other games in the series - you are probably only reading this review so you can flame me for not going \"5\" stars.",
"Rockstar has employed the quantity over quality technique.",
"You will play the same missions you've been playing for a decade.",
"People will curse like they have touretts, the cars are tough to control and the graphics still can be distracting...",
"but...",
"the story is really good.",
"Nico is very likeable and I was compelled to see what happened next all the way through.",
"Had the story not been as strong, this game would have wore out its welcome after the first couple of hours.",
"I'm usually not a sucker for story, but in this case I'll make an exception.",
"The targeting and cover systems are well implemented for the action sequences, but like most of this game, it is a jack of all trades, master of none.",
"There are a lot of games that do some of things GTA IV does much better, but only pieces.",
"The game is tremendous fun and I can't stress enough how great the characters are, but you've played it before, this version just has the shiniest wrapper."
] |
Works. Instructions printed on inside of packaging in 4 point type. Had to rescue it from the trash, then I needed a magnifier to read them. Fortunately they're simple, and I'll remember them.
Case shape doesn't fit my hand well, so is a bit tricky to use. I'd like it to be larger and not tapered at the bottom. Might fit small Asian hands, but not mine, and I'm no Paul Bunyan.
When it's in stopwatch mode the word "stopwatch" flashes in the upper left corner, which is maximally annoying. I can't stop thinking that it trying to warn me of a low battery condition. SPEAKING of batteries - there is no "Off " switch, so the battery is being drawn on continuously. How long it will last I don't know, but I will be very unhappy if I pick this thing up after a few months of non-use and find that it's dead.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"Works.",
"Instructions printed on inside of packaging in 4 point type.",
"Had to rescue it from the trash, then I needed a magnifier to read them.",
"Fortunately they're simple, and I'll remember them.",
"Case shape doesn't fit my hand well, so is a bit tricky to use.",
"I'd like it to be larger and not tapered at the bottom.",
"Might fit small Asian hands, but not mine, and I'm no Paul Bunyan.",
"When it's in stopwatch mode the word \"stopwatch\" flashes in the upper left corner, which is maximally annoying.",
"I can't stop thinking that it trying to warn me of a low battery condition.",
"SPEAKING of batteries - there is no \"Off \" switch, so the battery is being drawn on continuously.",
"How long it will last I don't know, but I will be very unhappy if I pick this thing up after a few months of non-use and find that it's dead."
] |
UPDATE: Temperature reads OK, but in the real outdoor world of coastal south Florida, the humidity needle is subject to so many influences (breezes, sunlight,radiated wall heat)that I have come to consider it +/-15%. EOU// Both temperature and humidity are accurate to about +/- 2% maximum, checked against digital meters in a controlled environment. The mounting will determine whether you get a true reading. First, there must be adequate air circulation behind it, which requires more standoff than direct-to-wall as supplied (hence 4, not 5 stars); I made two 1" deep wood block spacers for the screws, and still see some variability. Second, a wall that absorbs and holds heat, like concrete block, will radiate heat and may add a few degrees late in the day. Similarly, a cold cement board, metal or vinyl wall may subtract a few degrees early in the day. Third, hot air rises so if it is mounted near a ceiling, it may read a few degrees high and the humidity may be affected. Mounted directly to a wall, readings may be wildly untrue. The humidity bar reads from 40 to 90%; above or below that has little additional effect on wind chill or THI. The color coded index rings are pretty much useless for a visual reading from a distance; there is simply not enough color differentiation, but the information is there in printed numbers.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"UPDATE: Temperature reads OK, but in the real outdoor world of coastal south Florida, the humidity needle is subject to so many influences (breezes, sunlight,radiated wall heat)that I have come to consider it +/-15%.",
"EOU// Both temperature and humidity are accurate to about +/- 2% maximum, checked against digital meters in a controlled environment.",
"The mounting will determine whether you get a true reading.",
"First, there must be adequate air circulation behind it, which requires more standoff than direct-to-wall as supplied (hence 4, not 5 stars); I made two 1\" deep wood block spacers for the screws, and still see some variability.",
"Second, a wall that absorbs and holds heat, like concrete block, will radiate heat and may add a few degrees late in the day.",
"Similarly, a cold cement board, metal or vinyl wall may subtract a few degrees early in the day.",
"Third, hot air rises so if it is mounted near a ceiling, it may read a few degrees high and the humidity may be affected.",
"Mounted directly to a wall, readings may be wildly untrue.",
"The humidity bar reads from 40 to 90%; above or below that has little additional effect on wind chill or THI.",
"The color coded index rings are pretty much useless for a visual reading from a distance; there is simply not enough color differentiation, but the information is there in printed numbers."
] |
This Mustela stretch mark prevention cream is white in color and has the consistency of lotion. It goes on easily, absorbed into my skin quickly, light weight and not greasy at all. I feel like it made my skin feel really soft and smooth. The big downfall for me was how strong the fragrance is. I am super sensitive to smells. I can't walk into the bath and body store in the mall without getting a headache. I don't wear perfume or anything really heavily scented because it gives me a headache. I can use scented products if the scent is light, subtle and fades fast. I was disappointed that this stretch mark prevention cream has a heavy floral scent. While the scent is good, it is heavy and lasting so I couldn't take the scent and eventually had to wash it off. I also want to mention in my first trimester (and most of my second) I has horrible morning sickness and was incredibly sensitive to smells/fragrances (they made my nausea so much worse). I had to use fragrance free everything or I would have a headache, the nausea would be intensified and I would be sick. Just something to keep in mind if you are pregnant, really nauseous and sensitive to fragrance than this might not work for you. If you have no issues with fragrance than this prevention cream will make your skin feel soft and smooth! This cream is hypoallergenic, and free from parabens, phthalates, phenoxyethanol, bisphenols A and S, caffeine and alcohol. Overall I thought the cream felt nice on my skin and made it feel soft but I can't comment on the stretch mark prevention because I was unable to use it consistently due to the fragrance. I would love to give this product another try if it was fragrance free and had no scent.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"This Mustela stretch mark prevention cream is white in color and has the consistency of lotion.",
"It goes on easily, absorbed into my skin quickly, light weight and not greasy at all.",
"I feel like it made my skin feel really soft and smooth.",
"The big downfall for me was how strong the fragrance is.",
"I am super sensitive to smells.",
"I can't walk into the bath and body store in the mall without getting a headache.",
"I don't wear perfume or anything really heavily scented because it gives me a headache.",
"I can use scented products if the scent is light, subtle and fades fast.",
"I was disappointed that this stretch mark prevention cream has a heavy floral scent.",
"While the scent is good, it is heavy and lasting so I couldn't take the scent and eventually had to wash it off.",
"I also want to mention in my first trimester (and most of my second) I has horrible morning sickness and was incredibly sensitive to smells/fragrances (they made my nausea so much worse).",
"I had to use fragrance free everything or I would have a headache, the nausea would be intensified and I would be sick.",
"Just something to keep in mind if you are pregnant, really nauseous and sensitive to fragrance than this might not work for you.",
"If you have no issues with fragrance than this prevention cream will make your skin feel soft and smooth!",
"This cream is hypoallergenic, and free from parabens, phthalates, phenoxyethanol, bisphenols A and S, caffeine and alcohol.",
"Overall I thought the cream felt nice on my skin and made it feel soft but I can't comment on the stretch mark prevention because I was unable to use it consistently due to the fragrance.",
"I would love to give this product another try if it was fragrance free and had no scent."
] |
There's a good game lost somewhere in the maze of often-boring puzzles and confusingly huge map areas that is 'Primal'. An excellent, original storyline, likeable characters and a good control system can't save it from its flaws, however, and unfortunately this game never gets past Mediocre.
In terms of general atmosphere and game-environment the closest comparison I can make is with 'Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver'. Like LOK, Primal has an involving, gothic storyline, and lush, detailed areas to explore. The addition of a 'Buddy' system in Primal is also a welcome change, particularly since you can change between Jen (the protagonist) and Scree, her gargoyle companion, at any time. Similar to LOK, the game employs a Warp-Gate system because of its vast size, and to a point, this also works will, becuase the map system is so good. The graphics are sumptuous and the sound and voice acting is top-notch.
So far, so good.
Where Primal fails is in its over-ambition. It's a huge, sprawling game, and the first half of it is full of dangerously-difficult enemies and confusing arenas. This is remedied somewhat by the inclusion of a save-anywhere feature but I defy all but the most dedicated players to complete Primal without resorting to a wlakthrough. Also, because the difficulty levels are so steep (until Jen gains any kind of power worth mentioning) the enemies are sparse, and this is somewhat boring. The puzzles are plentiful, and none are too difficult, but a few more bad guys to waste would have been a great addition. Technically, there are some minor glitches, but in a game of this size, it's no big deal.
I can really only recommend Primal to people who love a good story and are willing to put up with some very dull gameplay to hear it. It's a beautiful, original game with some excellent qualities, but sadly can't compare to LOK in terms of action or interest.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"There's a good game lost somewhere in the maze of often-boring puzzles and confusingly huge map areas that is 'Primal'.",
"An excellent, original storyline, likeable characters and a good control system can't save it from its flaws, however, and unfortunately this game never gets past Mediocre.",
"In terms of general atmosphere and game-environment the closest comparison I can make is with 'Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver'.",
"Like LOK, Primal has an involving, gothic storyline, and lush, detailed areas to explore.",
"The addition of a 'Buddy' system in Primal is also a welcome change, particularly since you can change between Jen (the protagonist) and Scree, her gargoyle companion, at any time.",
"Similar to LOK, the game employs a Warp-Gate system because of its vast size, and to a point, this also works will, becuase the map system is so good.",
"The graphics are sumptuous and the sound and voice acting is top-notch.",
"So far, so good.",
"Where Primal fails is in its over-ambition.",
"It's a huge, sprawling game, and the first half of it is full of dangerously-difficult enemies and confusing arenas.",
"This is remedied somewhat by the inclusion of a save-anywhere feature but I defy all but the most dedicated players to complete Primal without resorting to a wlakthrough.",
"Also, because the difficulty levels are so steep (until Jen gains any kind of power worth mentioning) the enemies are sparse, and this is somewhat boring.",
"The puzzles are plentiful, and none are too difficult, but a few more bad guys to waste would have been a great addition.",
"Technically, there are some minor glitches, but in a game of this size, it's no big deal.",
"I can really only recommend Primal to people who love a good story and are willing to put up with some very dull gameplay to hear it.",
"It's a beautiful, original game with some excellent qualities, but sadly can't compare to LOK in terms of action or interest."
] |
I own the old Ibanez TS9, that I modified to the original Keeley specs. Side by side, there is a difference, but I only use it for my rehearsal rig. This is the first pedal, I've had to actually read the manual, in order to figure out how to install the battery! The instructions tell you to use a ball point pen, to press in the hinge pins, in order to remove the foot switch cover! I laugh when ever I hear about the "Holy Grail" 4558 IC Chip. When I modified my TS9, I found that Chip at Mouser, for 15 cents a piece! It was a net order, and I felt weird ordering 1, so I ordered 5. They send a 10 pound catalogue every month because of that purchase!!! The Behringer TO 800 is a cheap alternative to the original if you're on a budget, and will do in a pinch. The civilians won't notice the difference!
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"I own the old Ibanez TS9, that I modified to the original Keeley specs.",
"Side by side, there is a difference, but I only use it for my rehearsal rig.",
"This is the first pedal, I've had to actually read the manual, in order to figure out how to install the battery!",
"The instructions tell you to use a ball point pen, to press in the hinge pins, in order to remove the foot switch cover!",
"I laugh when ever I hear about the \"Holy Grail\" 4558 IC Chip.",
"When I modified my TS9, I found that Chip at Mouser, for 15 cents a piece!",
"It was a net order, and I felt weird ordering 1, so I ordered 5.",
"They send a 10 pound catalogue every month because of that purchase!!!",
"The Behringer TO 800 is a cheap alternative to the original if you're on a budget, and will do in a pinch.",
"The civilians won't notice the difference!"
] |
Bush to Put Nominations Back on Table
WASHINGTON Nov. 15 â White House officials said Wednesday that President Bush would renominate six of his earlier choices to sit on the federal appeals court leaving Democratic senators and other analysts to ponder what message he is sending.
When the 110th Congress is seated in January Mr. Bush can deliver another list of judicial nominees to the Senate which will by then have a Democratic majority.
Mr. Bushâs motive in sending up the nominations has been closely analyzed with several Democrats and liberals labeling it as provocative and a sign that he does not intend to seek compromise as he suggested he would after Republican losses in the elections last week.
âDemocrats have asked the president to be bipartisan but this is a clear slap in the face at our request â said Senator Charles E. Schumer Democrat of New York who is a member of the Judiciary Committee. âFor the sake of the country we hope that this is an aberration because the president feels he must placate his hard-right base rather than an indication of things to come.â
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"Bush to Put Nominations Back on Table\nWASHINGTON Nov.",
"15 â White House officials said Wednesday that President Bush would renominate six of his earlier choices to sit on the federal appeals court leaving Democratic senators and other analysts to ponder what message he is sending.",
"When the 110th Congress is seated in January Mr.",
"Bush can deliver another list of judicial nominees to the Senate which will by then have a Democratic majority.",
"Mr.",
"Bushâs motive in sending up the nominations has been closely analyzed with several Democrats and liberals labeling it as provocative and a sign that he does not intend to seek compromise as he suggested he would after Republican losses in the elections last week.",
"âDemocrats have asked the president to be bipartisan but this is a clear slap in the face at our request â said Senator Charles E.",
"Schumer Democrat of New York who is a member of the Judiciary Committee.",
"âFor the sake of the country we hope that this is an aberration because the president feels he must placate his hard-right base rather than an indication of things to come.",
"â"
] |
I'll have to say I was excited about this game coming out. With it's awsome graphics and the fact it's a FPS I thought it was a must have. Well I was wrong. I'm not saying the game is horrible or even bad, it just has some crappy gameplay points. The thing I absolutly hated about this game was the save option. When you save during a level, then load, it'll start you over. Plus when you shoot a person it may take two shots or twenty. Even if it's the same kind of guy! I once wasted an entire clip on one enemy! I'll tell you the thing's I do like about it.
1. Innovative cel-shaded graphics
2. Creative weapons, you can kill someone with a chair or a flower pot
3. Lots of weapons
So, I would say don't waste forty or fifty bucks on this game, buy used for fifteen or twenty, then it's somewhat worth it.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"I'll have to say I was excited about this game coming out.",
"With it's awsome graphics and the fact it's a FPS I thought it was a must have.",
"Well I was wrong.",
"I'm not saying the game is horrible or even bad, it just has some crappy gameplay points.",
"The thing I absolutly hated about this game was the save option.",
"When you save during a level, then load, it'll start you over.",
"Plus when you shoot a person it may take two shots or twenty.",
"Even if it's the same kind of guy!",
"I once wasted an entire clip on one enemy!",
"I'll tell you the thing's I do like about it.",
"1.",
"Innovative cel-shaded graphics\n2.",
"Creative weapons, you can kill someone with a chair or a flower pot\n3.",
"Lots of weapons\nSo, I would say don't waste forty or fifty bucks on this game, buy used for fifteen or twenty, then it's somewhat worth it."
] |
this decibel reader is ok.. not 5 stars but three.... american audio did make a former one with balanced connections.... this has rca.....keep in mind,this unit will cause ground loop hum within your balanced system... i had to run it off of my rca outputs to get rid of the ground loop issue.. american audio should of manufactured this unit in metal, use rca and additional xlr in,s and out,s would of been good... another thing with the decibel unit, it runs on 12 volts, with a plug in transformer... they should of used a grounded regular cord, with the proper step down power supply transformer built inside of the unit itself... i guess they wanted to cut corners.... as stated it is ok.......
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"this decibel reader is ok..",
"not 5 stars but three....",
"american audio did make a former one with balanced connections....",
"this has rca....",
".",
"keep in mind,this unit will cause ground loop hum within your balanced system...",
"i had to run it off of my rca outputs to get rid of the ground loop issue..",
"american audio should of manufactured this unit in metal, use rca and additional xlr in,s and out,s would of been good...",
"another thing with the decibel unit, it runs on 12 volts, with a plug in transformer...",
"they should of used a grounded regular cord, with the proper step down power supply transformer built inside of the unit itself...",
"i guess they wanted to cut corners....",
"as stated it is ok....",
"..."
] |
This CD collection is really beginning to grow on me. The instrumental touches on this double CD are pretty creative for the most part. Garth Hudson in particular adds some quriky organ and saxaphone solos. Check out Orange Juice Blues. J.R. Robertson adds some slick guitar solos. Just listen to Long Distance Operator, Odds And Ends, and Don't Ya Tell Henry. I love Levon Helm's vocals on the later track. I'm not the biggest fan of Bob Dylan's vocals as there are moments when his wheezy vocals are quite annoying. However, there are afew songs where Mr. Dylan actually tries to sing and he truly sounds quite good a songs like This Wheel's On Fire and Tears Of Rage. The harmonies only add to the beauty of those songs.
I wish that there were a few more rock n roll based numbers on this disc in the vein of Don"t Ya Tell Henry and Long Distance Operator. Levon Helm was not present for many of these tunes and his strong backbeat was surely missed. None the less, there are plenty of good songs throughout this record. 3 1/2 stars sounds right to me.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"This CD collection is really beginning to grow on me.",
"The instrumental touches on this double CD are pretty creative for the most part.",
"Garth Hudson in particular adds some quriky organ and saxaphone solos.",
"Check out Orange Juice Blues.",
"J.",
"R. Robertson adds some slick guitar solos.",
"Just listen to Long Distance Operator, Odds And Ends, and Don't Ya Tell Henry.",
"I love Levon Helm's vocals on the later track.",
"I'm not the biggest fan of Bob Dylan's vocals as there are moments when his wheezy vocals are quite annoying.",
"However, there are afew songs where Mr.",
"Dylan actually tries to sing and he truly sounds quite good a songs like This Wheel's On Fire and Tears Of Rage.",
"The harmonies only add to the beauty of those songs.",
"I wish that there were a few more rock n roll based numbers on this disc in the vein of Don\"t Ya Tell Henry and Long Distance Operator.",
"Levon Helm was not present for many of these tunes and his strong backbeat was surely missed.",
"None the less, there are plenty of good songs throughout this record.",
"3 1/2 stars sounds right to me."
] |
We own a lot of Melissa & Doug toys, and I'm happy with most of them. But this Birthday Cake set isn't one of my favorites.
I guess my biggest gripe is that this is basically the same as the pizza set - which I like more - but doesn't take advantage of the "cake" theme very well.
For example, why not some sort of "frosting" that can be actually put onto the slices? (Like a thin piece of wood that sticks on before decorating.) Or, why not decorations beyond 2-D illustrations on round "tokens"? This makes sense for pizza - because the toppings are flat! - but not for cake, really. And, there is a round "topper" for the middle, but you can't cut it with the pieces. The candles are probably the nicest pieces.
Overall, an okay toy, but it could have been so much cooler...
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"We own a lot of Melissa & Doug toys, and I'm happy with most of them.",
"But this Birthday Cake set isn't one of my favorites.",
"I guess my biggest gripe is that this is basically the same as the pizza set - which I like more - but doesn't take advantage of the \"cake\" theme very well.",
"For example, why not some sort of \"frosting\" that can be actually put onto the slices?",
"(Like a thin piece of wood that sticks on before decorating.",
") Or, why not decorations beyond 2-D illustrations on round \"tokens\"?",
"This makes sense for pizza - because the toppings are flat!",
"- but not for cake, really.",
"And, there is a round \"topper\" for the middle, but you can't cut it with the pieces.",
"The candles are probably the nicest pieces.",
"Overall, an okay toy, but it could have been so much cooler..."
] |
I am not one for energy drinks, such as Monster, Red Bull, etc., for, I cannot handle much caffeine in one drink. Soto see a product that is a natural energy drink with organic ingredients, (always a plus).I was ready to give this product a try. Though, I always wonder how organic the ingredients are, or rather, how MANY of the ingredients are organic.
In any case, I was drawn in by the natural/organicbasically, the healthy aspects to this drink. I decided Id give it a try, since, I don't like heavily caffeinated beverages and would prefer an energy boost from nature/natural ingredients, or even, ingredients that aren't manufactured and that I can pronounce.
*I cant find a can on hand, however, I remember reading the ingredients, and I could pronounce every oneexcept one of the berry/fruit extracts, or something.but it was a natural ingredient, for which, I was very grateful.
The drink is REALLY fizzy. I was not expecting that much carbonation well, I wasn't expecting ANY carbonation. So, that is the only real negative facet about this drink. Aside form this, the taste is fine. It isn't bland (like the kind of flavour where one can barely taste it, though it claims to have flavour,) yet, the berry/fruit flavour is not overpowering, but it is enjoyable.
Effective? Not "fully"/totally.
I think it helped some if nothing but the carbonation tended to wake me up. :p I mean, while I cannot handle a lot of caffeine and caffeine can sometimes affects me opposite (relax, not stimulate,) and while this drink doesnt have a lot of caffeine (the green tea, where the most, if not all, of the caffeine lays, appears in the middle-ish of the ingredients list), it was more likea kind of Russian roulette as to whether it would affect me or notand how much it would.
I appreciate how this is a natural energy drink, and I appreciate, too, that this pack can last almost a month. Granted, I only drank one can a morning maybe some would want/need/choose multiple but I wouldnt suggest more than twoand even then, Im not sure even that is the greatest/best idea. :/
In any caseoverall:
- its okay
- taste is fine
- effectiveness. TBD varies from person to person, but as for meit just didn't make a black and white difference. Does it have potential to be effective? Yes. How effective? varies.
- price/cost: well, I think it is okay price, but it really is up to each to determine if it is worth it based on its effectiveness
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"I am not one for energy drinks, such as Monster, Red Bull, etc.",
", for, I cannot handle much caffeine in one drink.",
"Soto see a product that is a natural energy drink with organic ingredients, (always a plus).",
"I was ready to give this product a try.",
"Though, I always wonder how organic the ingredients are, or rather, how MANY of the ingredients are organic.",
"In any case, I was drawn in by the natural/organicbasically, the healthy aspects to this drink.",
"I decided Id give it a try, since, I don't like heavily caffeinated beverages and would prefer an energy boost from nature/natural ingredients, or even, ingredients that aren't manufactured and that I can pronounce.",
"*I cant find a can on hand, however, I remember reading the ingredients, and I could pronounce every oneexcept one of the berry/fruit extracts, or something.",
"but it was a natural ingredient, for which, I was very grateful.",
"The drink is REALLY fizzy.",
"I was not expecting that much carbonation well, I wasn't expecting ANY carbonation.",
"So, that is the only real negative facet about this drink.",
"Aside form this, the taste is fine.",
"It isn't bland (like the kind of flavour where one can barely taste it, though it claims to have flavour,) yet, the berry/fruit flavour is not overpowering, but it is enjoyable.",
"Effective?",
"Not \"fully\"/totally.",
"I think it helped some if nothing but the carbonation tended to wake me up.",
":p I mean, while I cannot handle a lot of caffeine and caffeine can sometimes affects me opposite (relax, not stimulate,) and while this drink doesnt have a lot of caffeine (the green tea, where the most, if not all, of the caffeine lays, appears in the middle-ish of the ingredients list), it was more likea kind of Russian roulette as to whether it would affect me or notand how much it would.",
"I appreciate how this is a natural energy drink, and I appreciate, too, that this pack can last almost a month.",
"Granted, I only drank one can a morning maybe some would want/need/choose multiple but I wouldnt suggest more than twoand even then, Im not sure even that is the greatest/best idea.",
":/\n\nIn any caseoverall:\n - its okay\n - taste is fine\n - effectiveness.",
"TBD varies from person to person, but as for meit just didn't make a black and white difference.",
"Does it have potential to be effective?",
"Yes.",
"How effective?",
"varies.",
"- price/cost: well, I think it is okay price, but it really is up to each to determine if it is worth it based on its effectiveness"
] |
shame on me after reading 5 of your books to take you seriously and believe this one could give me some kind of insight into the self-publishing business, or at least an incentive to keep on writing...Writing will never be an easy task, there are no miracle recipe, no magic trick, it is a journey traveled alone, and talent doesn't grow on trees... or ebooks for that matter!
but the joking style you used demystified many self help books, and you remind me of my best friend who keeps telling me: "Why do you buy those books, they can't teach you nothing you don't already know, they distract you from the pure act of writing and spilling your guts on the page, the only people who will be rich are the ones authoring these books!"
And also: "you could have written that one..."
your joke was on me, but I'm a good player, so i scanned through "How to sell a gazillion eBooks", which in itself was a pure exercise in editing-so no time lost really.
the reader's reviews at the beginning of the book are bizarre, one describing you like the guru of publishing, another evil personified... Americans will never cease to amaze me!
No hard feeling... but I'm a little bit skeptic now about buying more books from you, didn't appreciate this con one!
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"shame on me after reading 5 of your books to take you seriously and believe this one could give me some kind of insight into the self-publishing business, or at least an incentive to keep on writing...",
"Writing will never be an easy task, there are no miracle recipe, no magic trick, it is a journey traveled alone, and talent doesn't grow on trees...",
"or ebooks for that matter!",
"but the joking style you used demystified many self help books, and you remind me of my best friend who keeps telling me: \"Why do you buy those books, they can't teach you nothing you don't already know, they distract you from the pure act of writing and spilling your guts on the page, the only people who will be rich are the ones authoring these books!",
"\"\nAnd also: \"you could have written that one...",
"\"\nyour joke was on me, but I'm a good player, so i scanned through \"How to sell a gazillion eBooks\", which in itself was a pure exercise in editing-so no time lost really.",
"the reader's reviews at the beginning of the book are bizarre, one describing you like the guru of publishing, another evil personified...",
"Americans will never cease to amaze me!",
"No hard feeling...",
"but I'm a little bit skeptic now about buying more books from you, didn't appreciate this con one!"
] |
Just about everything bad and good has been said about this album. 50 Cent's major debut was a decent album in 2003 that was highly blown out of proportion on how good it was (sort of like Nelly's "Country Grammar") but there are some good parts to it and some bad parts to it. 50 Cent's gangsta attitude would be shown all over the album, mostly about guns, sex, drugs, and money. The 2003 rap song of the year "In Da Club" was overrated to me, but it was a decent track at best. The second single "21 ?'s" I hated because of it's pop style and lack luster beat that it carries. The third single "Many Men" was one of my favorite tracks that was dedicated to more violence. The fourth single "P.I.M.P." was a medicore song about pimping on the origonal version, although the remix that features Snoop Dogg and G-Unit that doesn't appear on here is better. The rest of the tracks range from decent to good that will make your head nod, some I enjoyed and some that I hated. "Patiently Waiting" featuring Eminem is possibly one of the best songs on the album, as both of them have above average verses. The track "If I Can't" has a fast paced piano beat, that makes the song gangsta and listenable. "What Up Gangsta" will have little kids thinking they're hardcore repeating that song, because of it's catchy hook. 50 Cent's slurred vocals could get a liitle annoying at some parts of the CD, because he was shot in the jaw when he took those nine bullets.
Production is done by Dr. Dre, Eminem, and more.
It sold about 9 million copies, so I'm pretty sure that most rap and alternative listener has at least taken a listen.
Lyrics: C+
Production: B
Guest Appearances: B-
Musical Vibes: C+
Overall: C+
Favorite Tracks: Patiently Waiting, Many Men, If I Can't, Life's On The Line, Wanksta
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"Just about everything bad and good has been said about this album.",
"50 Cent's major debut was a decent album in 2003 that was highly blown out of proportion on how good it was (sort of like Nelly's \"Country Grammar\") but there are some good parts to it and some bad parts to it.",
"50 Cent's gangsta attitude would be shown all over the album, mostly about guns, sex, drugs, and money.",
"The 2003 rap song of the year \"In Da Club\" was overrated to me, but it was a decent track at best.",
"The second single \"21?",
"'s\" I hated because of it's pop style and lack luster beat that it carries.",
"The third single \"Many Men\" was one of my favorite tracks that was dedicated to more violence.",
"The fourth single \"P.",
"I.M.P.\" was a medicore song about pimping on the origonal version, although the remix that features Snoop Dogg and G-Unit that doesn't appear on here is better.",
"The rest of the tracks range from decent to good that will make your head nod, some I enjoyed and some that I hated.",
"\"Patiently Waiting\" featuring Eminem is possibly one of the best songs on the album, as both of them have above average verses.",
"The track \"If I Can't\" has a fast paced piano beat, that makes the song gangsta and listenable.",
"\"What Up Gangsta\" will have little kids thinking they're hardcore repeating that song, because of it's catchy hook.",
"50 Cent's slurred vocals could get a liitle annoying at some parts of the CD, because he was shot in the jaw when he took those nine bullets.",
"Production is done by Dr.",
"Dre, Eminem, and more.",
"It sold about 9 million copies, so I'm pretty sure that most rap and alternative listener has at least taken a listen.",
"Lyrics: C+\nProduction: B\nGuest Appearances: B-\nMusical Vibes: C+\nOverall: C+\n\nFavorite Tracks: Patiently Waiting, Many Men, If I Can't, Life's On The Line, Wanksta"
] |
I started looking for one of these for my son when he was, I think, somewhere between six months and a year. And at that point they were nowhere to be had - maybe that was when they were changing the top ring from all red to half red, half clear with beads inside?
At any rate it was hard to find and I think the effort involved in tracking one down compared to how much my son actually used/liked it made it seem to fall a little flat.
If you can find one easily and if you can find one cheaply - why are the Fisher Price basics seeming to sell for twice their store price on this site??? - it's not a bad toy to get at all, especially for the 1 and under set.
My biggest complaint about this toy is it is NOT like it was when I was little. I remember it being taller and having more rings, and that's not just one of those memories where things seemed bigger because you were smaller. I have seen old ones - alas, not with all the rings present - and they were taller and clearly originally had more rings. There are gaps when all the rings aren't present, due to how the center tower gets bigger as you go down it so as to coax the child into stacking correctly - that's how I know it was supposed to have more rings.
In the end we got more play out of a Melissa and Doug wooden stacker. I think my son liked the bigger range of colors and the fact that it didn't force you to stack in any order, since the pole and the inner holes of the rings were all the same diameter.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"I started looking for one of these for my son when he was, I think, somewhere between six months and a year.",
"And at that point they were nowhere to be had - maybe that was when they were changing the top ring from all red to half red, half clear with beads inside?",
"At any rate it was hard to find and I think the effort involved in tracking one down compared to how much my son actually used/liked it made it seem to fall a little flat.",
"If you can find one easily and if you can find one cheaply - why are the Fisher Price basics seeming to sell for twice their store price on this site???",
"- it's not a bad toy to get at all, especially for the 1 and under set.",
"My biggest complaint about this toy is it is NOT like it was when I was little.",
"I remember it being taller and having more rings, and that's not just one of those memories where things seemed bigger because you were smaller.",
"I have seen old ones - alas, not with all the rings present - and they were taller and clearly originally had more rings.",
"There are gaps when all the rings aren't present, due to how the center tower gets bigger as you go down it so as to coax the child into stacking correctly - that's how I know it was supposed to have more rings.",
"In the end we got more play out of a Melissa and Doug wooden stacker.",
"I think my son liked the bigger range of colors and the fact that it didn't force you to stack in any order, since the pole and the inner holes of the rings were all the same diameter."
] |
Pompeo has already been preparing to take over the State Department
From left CIA Director Mike Pompeo and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson . ( Photos by Bill O ’ Leary / The Washington Post and Jabin Botsford / The Washington Post ) Since well before the White House plan to replace Secretary of State Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo became public Thursday Pompeo had been informally preparing to take over in Foggy Bottom reaching out to potential candidates for positions and collecting ideas . “ Pompeo is quietly looking at staff and figuring out how the department could be reorganized to be effective again ” a White House official told me . A CIA spokesman declined to comment . Pompeo has been calling around to friends and top Republican foreign policy hands and asking them to help him get ready to be America ’ s top diplomat if he is ultimately chosen two GOP foreign policy sources who are familiar with the calls said . The Trump administration denied Thursday that the White House has drawn up plans to replace Tillerson with Pompeo and then appoint Sen . Tom Cotton ( R - Ark .) to be CIA director as first reported by the New York Times . But White House officials confirmed to me that such a plan does exist drawn up by Chief of Staff John F . Kelly . It is still unclear if President Trump has personally approved the plan officials said and the timing is also uncertain . In this clip from The Washington Post ' s weekly Opinions roundup " It ' s Only Thursday " opinion writers Jonathan Capehart Jo - Ann Armao and Ruth Marcus weigh in on reports that the White House is planning to replace Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo . ( The Washington Post ) State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Kelly called Tillerson ’ s chief of staff Margaret Peterlin Thursday morning to dispute the reports . Tillerson is going about his normal business she said and was not rattled . “ The White House statement confirmed there will be no personnel changes ” she said . “ Secretary Tillerson enjoys this job he has a lot of work to do .” Tillerson and Trump met twice Thursday . In a pool meeting with reporters Trump answered questions about Tillerson simply by saying “ He ’ s here . Rex is here .” Several State Department officials said Thursday they were happy that Tillerson was leaving and hopeful that Pompeo if selected would give them a fresh start with the Trump administration . Morale is low in Foggy Bottom amid budget and staffing cuts hiring freezes a departure of top talent and scores of vacant top - level positions . Tillerson ’ s support on Capitol Hill has also deteriorated in recent weeks as lawmakers in both parties openly criticized his ongoing reorganization initiative . The main State Department official in charge of that effort Maliz Beams quit her job earlier this week . Tillerson has consistently denied reports he is considering leaving or anticipating being pushed out . This week he pushed back against reports the diplomatic core is in trouble . Last month he denied being aware of the low morale and overall discontent with his leadership at the State Department . “ If it ’ s as bad as it seems to be described I ’ m not seeing it I ’ m not getting it ” he said . If Pompeo does become secretary of state his first task should be to repair the Trump administration ’ s relationship with the thousands of State Department employees who are ready to follow him if he is ready to lead them .
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"Pompeo has already been preparing to take over the State Department\nFrom left CIA Director Mike Pompeo and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.",
"( Photos by Bill O ’ Leary / The Washington Post and Jabin Botsford / The Washington Post ) Since well before the White House plan to replace Secretary of State Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo became public Thursday Pompeo had been informally preparing to take over in Foggy Bottom reaching out to potential candidates for positions and collecting ideas.",
"“ Pompeo is quietly looking at staff and figuring out how the department could be reorganized to be effective again ” a White House official told me.",
"A CIA spokesman declined to comment.",
"Pompeo has been calling around to friends and top Republican foreign policy hands and asking them to help him get ready to be America ’ s top diplomat if he is ultimately chosen two GOP foreign policy sources who are familiar with the calls said.",
"The Trump administration denied Thursday that the White House has drawn up plans to replace Tillerson with Pompeo and then appoint Sen.",
"Tom Cotton ( R - Ark.",
") to be CIA director as first reported by the New York Times.",
"But White House officials confirmed to me that such a plan does exist drawn up by Chief of Staff John F.",
"Kelly.",
"It is still unclear if President Trump has personally approved the plan officials said and the timing is also uncertain.",
"In this clip from The Washington Post ' s weekly Opinions roundup \" It ' s Only Thursday \" opinion writers Jonathan Capehart Jo - Ann Armao and Ruth Marcus weigh in on reports that the White House is planning to replace Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo.",
"( The Washington Post ) State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Kelly called Tillerson ’ s chief of staff Margaret Peterlin Thursday morning to dispute the reports.",
"Tillerson is going about his normal business she said and was not rattled.",
"“ The White House statement confirmed there will be no personnel changes ” she said.",
"“ Secretary Tillerson enjoys this job he has a lot of work to do.",
"” Tillerson and Trump met twice Thursday.",
"In a pool meeting with reporters Trump answered questions about Tillerson simply by saying “ He ’ s here.",
"Rex is here.",
"” Several State Department officials said Thursday they were happy that Tillerson was leaving and hopeful that Pompeo if selected would give them a fresh start with the Trump administration.",
"Morale is low in Foggy Bottom amid budget and staffing cuts hiring freezes a departure of top talent and scores of vacant top - level positions.",
"Tillerson ’ s support on Capitol Hill has also deteriorated in recent weeks as lawmakers in both parties openly criticized his ongoing reorganization initiative.",
"The main State Department official in charge of that effort Maliz Beams quit her job earlier this week.",
"Tillerson has consistently denied reports he is considering leaving or anticipating being pushed out.",
"This week he pushed back against reports the diplomatic core is in trouble.",
"Last month he denied being aware of the low morale and overall discontent with his leadership at the State Department.",
"“ If it ’ s as bad as it seems to be described I ’ m not seeing it I ’ m not getting it ” he said.",
"If Pompeo does become secretary of state his first task should be to repair the Trump administration ’ s relationship with the thousands of State Department employees who are ready to follow him if he is ready to lead them."
] |
Having read most of the reviews here I can see various points.
There have been high hopes for Splinter Cell and I think, generally, Ubi Soft have delivered. The graphics are spectacular, the sound is intense and the various movements and controls of Sam Fisher or intuitive and very easy to execute, for PC gamers anyway! However, this is not the in depth experience I was hoping to get into. A reviewer earlier talks about the whole thing being a stage and you the actor that tries to get the performance right. To be honest, that's not an unfair assessment, if a little harsh. Indeed, the point this reviewer is probably making is the fact that when HQ tell you to follow someone/get somewhere/defuse bomb etc. really quickly, their words are quite hollow. To explain this I will detail one of the levels. You are on an oil rig swinging from pipe to pipe to get to the main platform. Your CO shouts on the intercom that you must get to a certain point quickly before the whole thing blows. Well, I hung around for about 5 mins deciding where to go and then when I finally got there the whole thing did blow in what I can only describe as a pre-scripted marker. Unfortunately, this theme runs throughout the game. The CO says it's urgent, you run like a headless chicken to solve problem and get blasted. You quick save then load and take a bit longer. You then discover that it doesn't matter how long you take to reach a certain point, the action will only happen when you get there. This is an extremely weak point in the game and really dissolves any sense of tension. Games like Thief and Hitman 2 in particular do not contain any of this pre-srcipted scene setting and (not to sound too much like a snob) PC gamers will notice this very early on. Compared to many games out there Splinter is a class above in terms of graphics, sound and character control, but sadly the story, which is loosely influenced by the current political climate, is boring and the scenarios quite predictable and at times monotonous. The problem with Splinter is that it has suffered from excessive hype and has revealed itself as being a very good game, not a brilliant game.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"Having read most of the reviews here I can see various points.",
"There have been high hopes for Splinter Cell and I think, generally, Ubi Soft have delivered.",
"The graphics are spectacular, the sound is intense and the various movements and controls of Sam Fisher or intuitive and very easy to execute, for PC gamers anyway!",
"However, this is not the in depth experience I was hoping to get into.",
"A reviewer earlier talks about the whole thing being a stage and you the actor that tries to get the performance right.",
"To be honest, that's not an unfair assessment, if a little harsh.",
"Indeed, the point this reviewer is probably making is the fact that when HQ tell you to follow someone/get somewhere/defuse bomb etc.",
"really quickly, their words are quite hollow.",
"To explain this I will detail one of the levels.",
"You are on an oil rig swinging from pipe to pipe to get to the main platform.",
"Your CO shouts on the intercom that you must get to a certain point quickly before the whole thing blows.",
"Well, I hung around for about 5 mins deciding where to go and then when I finally got there the whole thing did blow in what I can only describe as a pre-scripted marker.",
"Unfortunately, this theme runs throughout the game.",
"The CO says it's urgent, you run like a headless chicken to solve problem and get blasted.",
"You quick save then load and take a bit longer.",
"You then discover that it doesn't matter how long you take to reach a certain point, the action will only happen when you get there.",
"This is an extremely weak point in the game and really dissolves any sense of tension.",
"Games like Thief and Hitman 2 in particular do not contain any of this pre-srcipted scene setting and (not to sound too much like a snob) PC gamers will notice this very early on.",
"Compared to many games out there Splinter is a class above in terms of graphics, sound and character control, but sadly the story, which is loosely influenced by the current political climate, is boring and the scenarios quite predictable and at times monotonous.",
"The problem with Splinter is that it has suffered from excessive hype and has revealed itself as being a very good game, not a brilliant game."
] |
I tried very hard to set aside the original movie and watch this as its own individual film. I was doing well until the damn thing reminding me that there was one! Several quotes were reused. or at least paraphrased. Some of the original locations were used as well. Many would call this a "homage" to the original. Whatever.
I have read the book that all the films were based from and this film departs from it almost from the start.
Few surprises, muffled actors, and laughable (not to mention confusing) plot twists. All and all, not good.
The DVD tries to pack in a few extras, most of them pretty typical. For the really bored viewer, you can see the character makeup and costume tests! Wow!
Final suggestion. Buy the original films in the box set and check out "Behind the Planet of the Apes" Very good.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"I tried very hard to set aside the original movie and watch this as its own individual film.",
"I was doing well until the damn thing reminding me that there was one!",
"Several quotes were reused.",
"or at least paraphrased.",
"Some of the original locations were used as well.",
"Many would call this a \"homage\" to the original.",
"Whatever.",
"I have read the book that all the films were based from and this film departs from it almost from the start.",
"Few surprises, muffled actors, and laughable (not to mention confusing) plot twists.",
"All and all, not good.",
"The DVD tries to pack in a few extras, most of them pretty typical.",
"For the really bored viewer, you can see the character makeup and costume tests!",
"Wow!",
"Final suggestion.",
"Buy the original films in the box set and check out \"Behind the Planet of the Apes\" Very good."
] |
Book Excerpt: Trump 'Horrified' After Election Win Melania Cried
President Donald Trump was "horrified" after winning the 2016 election and his wife Melania was upset to the point of tears according to a newly released book excerpt.
A portion of Michael Wolff's "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House" was published by New York Magazine Wednesday. In it Wolff wrote that Trump expected to lose and never even wanted to be president.
"Shortly after 8 p.m. on Election Night when the unexpected trend â Trump might actually win â seemed confirmed Don Jr. told a friend that his father or DJT as he calls him looked as if he had seen a ghost. Melania was in tears â and not of joy " Wolff wrote.
"There was in the space of little more than an hour in Steve Bannon's not unamused observation a befuddled Trump morphing into a disbelieving Trump and then into a horrified Trump . But still to come was the final transformation: Suddenly Donald Trump became a man who believed that he deserved to be and was wholly capable of being the president of the United States."
Bannon reportedly bashed Trump and people around him on several occasions. Trump and the White House responded Wednesday by trying to talk down Bannon's role on the campaign and in the White House where he worked until last August.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"Book Excerpt: Trump 'Horrified' After Election Win Melania Cried\nPresident Donald Trump was \"horrified\" after winning the 2016 election and his wife Melania was upset to the point of tears according to a newly released book excerpt.",
"A portion of Michael Wolff's \"Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House\" was published by New York Magazine Wednesday.",
"In it Wolff wrote that Trump expected to lose and never even wanted to be president.",
"\"Shortly after 8 p.",
"m. on Election Night when the unexpected trend â Trump might actually win â seemed confirmed Don Jr.",
"told a friend that his father or DJT as he calls him looked as if he had seen a ghost.",
"Melania was in tears â and not of joy \" Wolff wrote.",
"\"There was in the space of little more than an hour in Steve Bannon's not unamused observation a befuddled Trump morphing into a disbelieving Trump and then into a horrified Trump.",
"But still to come was the final transformation: Suddenly Donald Trump became a man who believed that he deserved to be and was wholly capable of being the president of the United States.",
"\"\nBannon reportedly bashed Trump and people around him on several occasions.",
"Trump and the White House responded Wednesday by trying to talk down Bannon's role on the campaign and in the White House where he worked until last August."
] |
Despite the failure of "Torn Curtain", Hitchcock decided to make another Cold War spy thriller. Based on the Leon Uris novel of the same name, "Topaz" is meant to be an exciting and suspenseful spy drama. However, it comes off as poor excuse for a James Bond movie.
If that last comment seemed harsh, don't take it to heart. "Topaz" has actually aged fairly well. It isn't a masterpiece and pales in comparison to even "Torn Curtain", but it sill makes for an entertainign film.
The film's plot involves a CIA agent (John Forsythe) who has French operative by the name of Deveraux (Frederick Stafford) go to Cuba and intercept Russian missile rumors and a Nato spy named Topaz. While in Havana, Deveraux's investigation becomes riskier with each move. People are double crossed, mudered and comitting suicide. When he returns home to Paris, the danger builds, leading up to a predictable but overall satisfying end.
The film does have some good things going for it. It is far from Hitch's best work, but some of the scenes are fantastic. The acting is top notch as well, especially Stafford, John Vernon and Forsythe. The extras are cool, especially the three alternate endings. I don't highly recommend "Topaz", but it certainly won't be a waste if you buy it.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"Despite the failure of \"Torn Curtain\", Hitchcock decided to make another Cold War spy thriller.",
"Based on the Leon Uris novel of the same name, \"Topaz\" is meant to be an exciting and suspenseful spy drama.",
"However, it comes off as poor excuse for a James Bond movie.",
"If that last comment seemed harsh, don't take it to heart.",
"\"Topaz\" has actually aged fairly well.",
"It isn't a masterpiece and pales in comparison to even \"Torn Curtain\", but it sill makes for an entertainign film.",
"The film's plot involves a CIA agent (John Forsythe) who has French operative by the name of Deveraux (Frederick Stafford) go to Cuba and intercept Russian missile rumors and a Nato spy named Topaz.",
"While in Havana, Deveraux's investigation becomes riskier with each move.",
"People are double crossed, mudered and comitting suicide.",
"When he returns home to Paris, the danger builds, leading up to a predictable but overall satisfying end.",
"The film does have some good things going for it.",
"It is far from Hitch's best work, but some of the scenes are fantastic.",
"The acting is top notch as well, especially Stafford, John Vernon and Forsythe.",
"The extras are cool, especially the three alternate endings.",
"I don't highly recommend \"Topaz\", but it certainly won't be a waste if you buy it."
] |
"Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?" Gandalf
Oh yeah Gandalf is hilarious. Though I've never read Lord of the Rings but in the movie all characters are so serious. Most of the time. The Hobbit as a book and "the movies" was hilarious. Full of adventure. However Tolkien's style in writing did not appeal to me. Now before you go throwing stones let me explain. Most people read this when they were 12 or even younger. I wish I did. But I read it at 29. And it was written for middle graders after all. The story, the adventure and the friendship/comradely felt between the characters was very enjoyable. But Bilbo in the book was a weak person. He is nothing like the Bilbo in the movies. I liked him much more in the movies. He didn't do much in the book other than complain about coming along and dream of his Hobbit Hole and the second breakfast he could've had. Sure he did a few good things and helped the dwarfs a couple of times, thanks to the ring. Even then he felt so full of himself for doing it. He just didn't seem much of a hero. The movies shows us some parts of Bilbo being selfish and weak but mostly he is shown to be honorable and courageous. I can't get passed the fact that Bilbo failed. In fact most of the characters failed in the book.
I do not know how to explain more. But I would still recommend it. It was a good adventure and could've been even better if the style was different and the characters were less whiny.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"\"Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?",
"\" Gandalf\n\nOh yeah Gandalf is hilarious.",
"Though I've never read Lord of the Rings but in the movie all characters are so serious.",
"Most of the time.",
"The Hobbit as a book and \"the movies\" was hilarious.",
"Full of adventure.",
"However Tolkien's style in writing did not appeal to me.",
"Now before you go throwing stones let me explain.",
"Most people read this when they were 12 or even younger.",
"I wish I did.",
"But I read it at 29.",
"And it was written for middle graders after all.",
"The story, the adventure and the friendship/comradely felt between the characters was very enjoyable.",
"But Bilbo in the book was a weak person.",
"He is nothing like the Bilbo in the movies.",
"I liked him much more in the movies.",
"He didn't do much in the book other than complain about coming along and dream of his Hobbit Hole and the second breakfast he could've had.",
"Sure he did a few good things and helped the dwarfs a couple of times, thanks to the ring.",
"Even then he felt so full of himself for doing it.",
"He just didn't seem much of a hero.",
"The movies shows us some parts of Bilbo being selfish and weak but mostly he is shown to be honorable and courageous.",
"I can't get passed the fact that Bilbo failed.",
"In fact most of the characters failed in the book.",
"I do not know how to explain more.",
"But I would still recommend it.",
"It was a good adventure and could've been even better if the style was different and the characters were less whiny."
] |
The Demon Lover is about a woman names Callie who just earned her dream job. She has just been hired as a professor at Fairwick College. The town is great and almost magical. It will be a great chance for her to work on her book. She soon stumbles on a house owned by an author who people thought were crazy. There was talk of a mysterious man who found its way into her room and she wrote of her experience of it. Callie thinks its crazy until she thinks that same man wants her. Callie soon finds out that not only does the house hold many secrets, but the entire town does as well.
I finished this book a few months back actually. I wasn't kidding about how behind I am on reviews. And even now, there is something bugging me about this book. I haven't figured it out yet. Not completely anyway. It is a mixture of things. This wasn't a bad read mind you, I really enjoyed this story. But little things were bugging me and the ending result was a tad bit depressing.
We have very interesting characters to follow. We have Callie. I think she was an okay lead. She isn't bad, but there were times she came off as a b****. Even before things actually took place with the mystery man, she does and say things that made me want to punch her. I am sorry, but it is true. She is a rich city girl and judges people like the snob she is. She wasn't cold or heartless, but she has her shallow moments.
And we had Liam, the sexy professor/poet who comes to work at the school after a teacher named Phoenix suddenly goes nuts. Callie had plenty to say about him even before she met him. But he was a good character who definitely has some secrets. I won't lie, he was a tad mushy for me, but very interesting. Even some of Callie's students like Mara and Nicky. They play interesting roles in this book and I would have liked to learn more about them. I loved. Ralph the mouse. He doesn't talk, but knows more than you would think and watches over Callie.
I like how the plot develops in the book. We know Callie will be in for a surprise, but you have no idea to what extent. She finds out that a lot of people in town are supernatural. I love the variety. We have faeries, witches, demons, supernatural mice (adorable!) and more. It really thickens the plot because you aren't sure who are there to help or destroy. The story gets really interesting when Callie is with the side characters, not so much when she is with Liam. The side characters all have very interesting secrets, that they help move the story a lot.
Now for my issues. This book was a little predictable. I had suspicions about the demon and I was correct. But the true villain did take me surprise and was pretty disturbing. My problem, as I said, is the ending. I know books don't always have the HEA, but after what he did, I was fuming. This isn't as big on the Paranormal Romance as you would think. This was more Urban Fantasy than anything. But even with this issue, I am curious about what will become of Callie. She makes a decision to join her snobby, racist grandmother at her exclusive club to learn more about herself. Callie has her moments, but I am happy she is not like her grandmother. The next book will be very interesting.
But even with its issues, I enjoyed this. I wasn't bored and it did keep me on the edge of my seat. After going over it all, I was satisfied except for that ending. Words can't express how happy I am this is a series. This means we will have a chance to get the HEA we have been screaming for. I would recommend this book, but be cautious, there might be some bumps and bruises along the way.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"The Demon Lover is about a woman names Callie who just earned her dream job.",
"She has just been hired as a professor at Fairwick College.",
"The town is great and almost magical.",
"It will be a great chance for her to work on her book.",
"She soon stumbles on a house owned by an author who people thought were crazy.",
"There was talk of a mysterious man who found its way into her room and she wrote of her experience of it.",
"Callie thinks its crazy until she thinks that same man wants her.",
"Callie soon finds out that not only does the house hold many secrets, but the entire town does as well.",
"I finished this book a few months back actually.",
"I wasn't kidding about how behind I am on reviews.",
"And even now, there is something bugging me about this book.",
"I haven't figured it out yet.",
"Not completely anyway.",
"It is a mixture of things.",
"This wasn't a bad read mind you, I really enjoyed this story.",
"But little things were bugging me and the ending result was a tad bit depressing.",
"We have very interesting characters to follow.",
"We have Callie.",
"I think she was an okay lead.",
"She isn't bad, but there were times she came off as a b****.",
"Even before things actually took place with the mystery man, she does and say things that made me want to punch her.",
"I am sorry, but it is true.",
"She is a rich city girl and judges people like the snob she is.",
"She wasn't cold or heartless, but she has her shallow moments.",
"And we had Liam, the sexy professor/poet who comes to work at the school after a teacher named Phoenix suddenly goes nuts.",
"Callie had plenty to say about him even before she met him.",
"But he was a good character who definitely has some secrets.",
"I won't lie, he was a tad mushy for me, but very interesting.",
"Even some of Callie's students like Mara and Nicky.",
"They play interesting roles in this book and I would have liked to learn more about them.",
"I loved.",
"Ralph the mouse.",
"He doesn't talk, but knows more than you would think and watches over Callie.",
"I like how the plot develops in the book.",
"We know Callie will be in for a surprise, but you have no idea to what extent.",
"She finds out that a lot of people in town are supernatural.",
"I love the variety.",
"We have faeries, witches, demons, supernatural mice (adorable!",
") and more.",
"It really thickens the plot because you aren't sure who are there to help or destroy.",
"The story gets really interesting when Callie is with the side characters, not so much when she is with Liam.",
"The side characters all have very interesting secrets, that they help move the story a lot.",
"Now for my issues.",
"This book was a little predictable.",
"I had suspicions about the demon and I was correct.",
"But the true villain did take me surprise and was pretty disturbing.",
"My problem, as I said, is the ending.",
"I know books don't always have the HEA, but after what he did, I was fuming.",
"This isn't as big on the Paranormal Romance as you would think.",
"This was more Urban Fantasy than anything.",
"But even with this issue, I am curious about what will become of Callie.",
"She makes a decision to join her snobby, racist grandmother at her exclusive club to learn more about herself.",
"Callie has her moments, but I am happy she is not like her grandmother.",
"The next book will be very interesting.",
"But even with its issues, I enjoyed this.",
"I wasn't bored and it did keep me on the edge of my seat.",
"After going over it all, I was satisfied except for that ending.",
"Words can't express how happy I am this is a series.",
"This means we will have a chance to get the HEA we have been screaming for.",
"I would recommend this book, but be cautious, there might be some bumps and bruises along the way."
] |
this is a fine fat piggy of a book ... I'm sure GRRM laughed all the way to the bank ... it is an incredible 346 pages stretched into 1016 pages. Tons of cliff hangars and Tyrion emerges as a real favorite ... Liked it and alternated between suffering through it and racing through it. It is a book in desperate need of editing. True fans and members of the cult will enjoy it. I have mixed feelings about it even though I enjoyed oh say 400 pages or so of it. Ah, it's time to stop introducing new characters and to find a way to end it. And, therein lies the rub. I am not sure GRRM knows how he will end ths thing. More than anything I hope he will spare us the wights err zombies err frozen dead.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"this is a fine fat piggy of a book...",
"I'm sure GRRM laughed all the way to the bank...",
"it is an incredible 346 pages stretched into 1016 pages.",
"Tons of cliff hangars and Tyrion emerges as a real favorite...",
"Liked it and alternated between suffering through it and racing through it.",
"It is a book in desperate need of editing.",
"True fans and members of the cult will enjoy it.",
"I have mixed feelings about it even though I enjoyed oh say 400 pages or so of it.",
"Ah, it's time to stop introducing new characters and to find a way to end it.",
"And, therein lies the rub.",
"I am not sure GRRM knows how he will end ths thing.",
"More than anything I hope he will spare us the wights err zombies err frozen dead."
] |
I do a lot of pruning and was excited to splurge on what I thought was a top notch pruner.
The Felco F-2 Classic Manual Hand Pruner is a pain to maintain and use. I did oil it first before use. It works fine just after being oiled and cleaned. However, it does not take long to start sticking and not springing back to a full open position. I am not talking about the next day. I am talking about 1/2 hour to an hour of pruning. Mind you, I am not cutting anything exotic or sticky. If I clean it and oil it again, it work fine for a while and starts sticking again. I have never experienced this with any pruner before. The performance is fine but nothing to write home about and it does not compensate for the finicky behavior. I am sorry I bought this pruner. It is not worth the price.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"I do a lot of pruning and was excited to splurge on what I thought was a top notch pruner.",
"The Felco F-2 Classic Manual Hand Pruner is a pain to maintain and use.",
"I did oil it first before use.",
"It works fine just after being oiled and cleaned.",
"However, it does not take long to start sticking and not springing back to a full open position.",
"I am not talking about the next day.",
"I am talking about 1/2 hour to an hour of pruning.",
"Mind you, I am not cutting anything exotic or sticky.",
"If I clean it and oil it again, it work fine for a while and starts sticking again.",
"I have never experienced this with any pruner before.",
"The performance is fine but nothing to write home about and it does not compensate for the finicky behavior.",
"I am sorry I bought this pruner.",
"It is not worth the price."
] |
I've seen so many negative reviews of Tetris Worlds for the GBA, and it is unfortunate that a lot of people have been unhappy with the game. However, I think that much of the unhappiness stems from the fact that so many Tetris fans hold the game in such high regard that even tampering with it for the better seems to offend them. I am not a hardcore Tetris fan, and indeed up until a few years ago I did not enjoy the game at all. I think I can offer a bit of middle ground perspective on Tetris Worlds, and hopefully this will prove useful to people.
First, the good. I really enjoy three of the new game modes, namely Cascade, Fusion, and Hot-Line Tetris. They all feature gravity (pieces fall into gaps below when you clear lines), and offer many opportunities for strategic planning. The original Tetris is also rather enjoyable, although I don't care much for Sticky Tetris or the pretty much useless Square Tetris. I do, however, find the new features (which apply to all the game modes) to be rather useful: the ghost piece that shows you where your piece will land, the ability to see the next three pieces, and the ability to hold a piece and recall it later. Not everybody will care for these features, but I think they add a lot of opportunities to plan ahead and make for longer games.
Now, the bad: the "3D" backgrounds are pretty lame. I'd just as soon have the cartoony backdrops of Tetris Attack. I don't find them as distracting as a lot of other reviewers here have, though. Perhaps that's because early reviews of the game were on the original GBA, and the clearer screen on the GBA SP makes the backgrounds less annoying.
Also, there's the mattery of the battery save. There isn't one! This game came out in 2001, and I think everyone will agree that no Game Boy game should have ever seen the light of day in 2001 (or after) without a battery save feature. This has two unfortunate consequences for Tetris Worlds: there's no high score table, and no way to save your preferences. The latter is particularly unfortunate if you decide you hate some of the new features and wish to turn them off - you'll have to do so every time you fire up the game.
Ultimately, what it comes down to is this: if you like Tetris, and want some variety, Tetris Worlds will most likely satisfy you. Is it the greatest Tetris game ever? No, but it is a good one. I originally bought it just for the Cascade Tetris mode, but I've found the other variations growing on me as well. I've sunk far too many hours into this game that could have otherwise been spent being productive, and in that regard, this is indeed a good Tetris game.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"I've seen so many negative reviews of Tetris Worlds for the GBA, and it is unfortunate that a lot of people have been unhappy with the game.",
"However, I think that much of the unhappiness stems from the fact that so many Tetris fans hold the game in such high regard that even tampering with it for the better seems to offend them.",
"I am not a hardcore Tetris fan, and indeed up until a few years ago I did not enjoy the game at all.",
"I think I can offer a bit of middle ground perspective on Tetris Worlds, and hopefully this will prove useful to people.",
"First, the good.",
"I really enjoy three of the new game modes, namely Cascade, Fusion, and Hot-Line Tetris.",
"They all feature gravity (pieces fall into gaps below when you clear lines), and offer many opportunities for strategic planning.",
"The original Tetris is also rather enjoyable, although I don't care much for Sticky Tetris or the pretty much useless Square Tetris.",
"I do, however, find the new features (which apply to all the game modes) to be rather useful: the ghost piece that shows you where your piece will land, the ability to see the next three pieces, and the ability to hold a piece and recall it later.",
"Not everybody will care for these features, but I think they add a lot of opportunities to plan ahead and make for longer games.",
"Now, the bad: the \"3D\" backgrounds are pretty lame.",
"I'd just as soon have the cartoony backdrops of Tetris Attack.",
"I don't find them as distracting as a lot of other reviewers here have, though.",
"Perhaps that's because early reviews of the game were on the original GBA, and the clearer screen on the GBA SP makes the backgrounds less annoying.",
"Also, there's the mattery of the battery save.",
"There isn't one!",
"This game came out in 2001, and I think everyone will agree that no Game Boy game should have ever seen the light of day in 2001 (or after) without a battery save feature.",
"This has two unfortunate consequences for Tetris Worlds: there's no high score table, and no way to save your preferences.",
"The latter is particularly unfortunate if you decide you hate some of the new features and wish to turn them off - you'll have to do so every time you fire up the game.",
"Ultimately, what it comes down to is this: if you like Tetris, and want some variety, Tetris Worlds will most likely satisfy you.",
"Is it the greatest Tetris game ever?",
"No, but it is a good one.",
"I originally bought it just for the Cascade Tetris mode, but I've found the other variations growing on me as well.",
"I've sunk far too many hours into this game that could have otherwise been spent being productive, and in that regard, this is indeed a good Tetris game."
] |
I got this game with the purchase of my SECOND gamecube. The first one kept freezing up or not starting the game at all, and I am very careful with my games. Anyways, I rented this game on my first gamecube and I was blown away by the graphics, the sound, everything. I felt like i was in a different world completely, and nothing anyone said was going to take me away from that world. Then the game froze. I played again, and it froze. I was really pissed off.
Then I got a new gamecube after about six months later, and it came with Metroid Prime. I had never played the game until today, just because I was bored with all the other games that I have beaten to death. About 1 to 1 and a half hours into the game, it FROZE! It was a completely different copy of the game and a different game system. Maybe I just have bad luck...
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"I got this game with the purchase of my SECOND gamecube.",
"The first one kept freezing up or not starting the game at all, and I am very careful with my games.",
"Anyways, I rented this game on my first gamecube and I was blown away by the graphics, the sound, everything.",
"I felt like i was in a different world completely, and nothing anyone said was going to take me away from that world.",
"Then the game froze.",
"I played again, and it froze.",
"I was really pissed off.",
"Then I got a new gamecube after about six months later, and it came with Metroid Prime.",
"I had never played the game until today, just because I was bored with all the other games that I have beaten to death.",
"About 1 to 1 and a half hours into the game, it FROZE!",
"It was a completely different copy of the game and a different game system.",
"Maybe I just have bad luck..."
] |
I bought this feeder after my old one (10+ years of use) <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Homestead-Super-Stop-A-Squirrel-Bird-Feeder-Green-River-Texture-3201S/dp/B00005OU5Y/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Homestead Super Stop-A-Squirrel Bird Feeder (Green River Texture) - 3201S</a> finally fell apart. It would take about a day and a half for the birds to empty the old feeder. I bought the Squirrel Be Gone feeder because it was less expensive than one like my old feeder. The new feeder hung on the same hook as the old one for nearly 3 weeks and the birds didn't touch a single seed. I thought that maybe the birds were scared away by the bright silver roof of the feeder. So, I spray painted the roof green like the old feeder. Sure enough, after I rehung the feeder the birds immediately began to feast. Problem solved? Well not quite! After about 3 more weeks, the squirrels figured out how to unlock the roof by turning the weather vane on the top of the feeder roof. They would then push the roof onto the ground and all of their buddies could feast on the seed in the feeder. I watched one squirrel accomplish the task in less than 15 minutes. So, now I have wrapped a bungee cord over the feeder roof. Its been a week now. And so far so good. Hopefully, the squirrels won't figure out that they can chew through the bungee cord and knock the roof off. Wishing that I had spent the extra dollars and bought the feeder like my old one that served me well.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"I bought this feeder after my old one (10+ years of use) <a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/Homestead-Super-Stop-A-Squirrel-Bird-Feeder-Green-River-Texture-3201S/dp/B00005OU5Y/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?",
"ie=UTF8\">Homestead Super Stop-A-Squirrel Bird Feeder (Green River Texture) - 3201S</a> finally fell apart.",
"It would take about a day and a half for the birds to empty the old feeder.",
"I bought the Squirrel Be Gone feeder because it was less expensive than one like my old feeder.",
"The new feeder hung on the same hook as the old one for nearly 3 weeks and the birds didn't touch a single seed.",
"I thought that maybe the birds were scared away by the bright silver roof of the feeder.",
"So, I spray painted the roof green like the old feeder.",
"Sure enough, after I rehung the feeder the birds immediately began to feast.",
"Problem solved?",
"Well not quite!",
"After about 3 more weeks, the squirrels figured out how to unlock the roof by turning the weather vane on the top of the feeder roof.",
"They would then push the roof onto the ground and all of their buddies could feast on the seed in the feeder.",
"I watched one squirrel accomplish the task in less than 15 minutes.",
"So, now I have wrapped a bungee cord over the feeder roof.",
"Its been a week now.",
"And so far so good.",
"Hopefully, the squirrels won't figure out that they can chew through the bungee cord and knock the roof off.",
"Wishing that I had spent the extra dollars and bought the feeder like my old one that served me well."
] |
Compared to some of the other reviewers, we had a dream experience. Santa delivered the gift, but I waited to order the ant until May (we live in MN). We received our tube and all but one ant was alive. I followed the instructions, and helped the ants move in. They were dopey for a while, but started to dig along the wall. I wondered at that but after a day or two they started going horizontal and diagonally, connected all the tunnels and creating their own. My boys loved watching them an we were amazed at how fast they dug tunnels. We also had no problem seeing the different tunnels, and didn't mind the green color.
Call this insect cruelty, but I would periodically blow air into the holes. I know I was giving them CO2 and not O2, but man it got them moving like crazy. It was like a little tornado was coming through town. I actually think this helped them live longer because even today, about 3 months later, I still have one survivor, which I didn't realize I had until just now. I might set him/her free, I'm so proud of him/her.
My 3 year old did drop this on the hardwood floor and little green pellets flew and ants started to wander about. But with the help of my kids, we rounded them up, reloaded them into the house, threw out the dead ones and it was fine. Yes, it would be nice if the top wouldn't fly off, but frankly, it was far from the worst thing in the world.
The reason why I only gave this product three stars is that now, well, once this last guy dies, what do I do with it? I guess I will just throw it out, but golly this is bad for the environment. Even if I took out the batteries and reused them, I'm rather embarrassed that I have contributed this much plastic and mystery gell to the dump. For that reason, I won't buy it again. I wish they could produce this in a more biodegradable way since we only use it one time for the lifecycle of one group of ants. That is, unless I tried to empty my little cemetary of it's bodies and bought a new batch, but I doubt I'm going to go there.
In the end, we really enjoyed this experience, but feel bad for our contribution to the environment.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"Compared to some of the other reviewers, we had a dream experience.",
"Santa delivered the gift, but I waited to order the ant until May (we live in MN).",
"We received our tube and all but one ant was alive.",
"I followed the instructions, and helped the ants move in.",
"They were dopey for a while, but started to dig along the wall.",
"I wondered at that but after a day or two they started going horizontal and diagonally, connected all the tunnels and creating their own.",
"My boys loved watching them an we were amazed at how fast they dug tunnels.",
"We also had no problem seeing the different tunnels, and didn't mind the green color.",
"Call this insect cruelty, but I would periodically blow air into the holes.",
"I know I was giving them CO2 and not O2, but man it got them moving like crazy.",
"It was like a little tornado was coming through town.",
"I actually think this helped them live longer because even today, about 3 months later, I still have one survivor, which I didn't realize I had until just now.",
"I might set him/her free, I'm so proud of him/her.",
"My 3 year old did drop this on the hardwood floor and little green pellets flew and ants started to wander about.",
"But with the help of my kids, we rounded them up, reloaded them into the house, threw out the dead ones and it was fine.",
"Yes, it would be nice if the top wouldn't fly off, but frankly, it was far from the worst thing in the world.",
"The reason why I only gave this product three stars is that now, well, once this last guy dies, what do I do with it?",
"I guess I will just throw it out, but golly this is bad for the environment.",
"Even if I took out the batteries and reused them, I'm rather embarrassed that I have contributed this much plastic and mystery gell to the dump.",
"For that reason, I won't buy it again.",
"I wish they could produce this in a more biodegradable way since we only use it one time for the lifecycle of one group of ants.",
"That is, unless I tried to empty my little cemetary of it's bodies and bought a new batch, but I doubt I'm going to go there.",
"In the end, we really enjoyed this experience, but feel bad for our contribution to the environment."
] |
Most movie-license games fall short of their goals, and in the past that has been especially true of Star Wars games. Well at least, those that were based directly on the new trilogy films. Phantom Menace left us yawning, Attack of the Clones didn't quite cut it, but Revenge of the Sith manages to do what the previous games did not: hold interest and provide a fun, if later too much of a challenging time.
Following the events of Episode III with a bit of liberty on the designer's part, this action game puts you in control of Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi as they battle against the CIS and try to restore peace and order to the galaxy. Along the way, they both will acquire new abilities, and face deadly enemies both familiar and new.
Each character plays surprisingly differently. Obi-Wan is slower but more precise, but Anakin is faster and more powerful with his hits. Though they both learn the same force powers (until Anakin turns to the Dark Side, at which point he learns Sith Lightning), they will learn different combat abilities that set them apart from one another. Anakin is skilled at delivering instantly fatal finishing moves, whereas Obi-Wan has powerful, hard-hitting combos that do a number on bosses on strong enemies, where Anakin's intstant kill moves would be useless.
There are a mere 15 levels in the game, so you can blow through it pretty quickly. The levels start out easy enough, but as with any Lucas licensed game, suddenly become frustratingly difficult. You may revisit levels in an attempt to earn more experience out of them, but what is perhaps the most annoying aspect is that revisiting levels, despite all your new powers, may sometimes prove to be more challenging than the levels you currently play on! For example, when you battle General Grievous the first time, he shouldn't be all that difficult to beat. However, if you revisit the level in an attempt to find the secrets or gain a higher level of experience, you may find him so difficult to beat that you just want to put down the controller and stop playing. Aside form the main game there are bonus missions that often put you in the shoes of other characters. One mission allows you to romp around as General Grievous! Unfortunately these missions are basic and are usually nothing more than 'kill as many enemies as you can before you die' missions.
The targeting system in the game is undoubtedly one of the worst target-finding systems I have ever seen, period. Instead of focusing on the largest, most imminent threat around you, the targeting system will often center on an inanimate object all the way on the otherside of the level, or on an enemy that is so far away it doesn't even realize that you're there. This leads to many frustrating deaths and cheap hits from the enemies. Other problems inclue the abysmal camera, which will often times swing around in such a position that you can't even see the action going on around you, and thus will get blasted to the next dimension by enemies you can't target and can't see.
As you progress, many enemies become just too difficult to contend with. Somehow, I can't see a frail nemoidian stopping a lightsaber with his barehands, or Darth Vader succumbing to a group of nemoidian wimps with cattle prods...but you'll find it here. Even your combat abilities become so useless that you might as well just let them kill your character.
Furthermore, the controls are awkward, unresponsive and clunky. Many of the special moves listed in the command list just cannot be pulled off, simply because the directions become so jumbled, should the camera shift a centimeter or two. You are usually reduced to the same button mashing combo over and over in a frantic attempt to defeat your enemies. In the rare event you can pull off one of these confusing special moves, they are often deflected or rendered useless against the enemy. Sometimes a button press will take up to 3 seconds to repond...other times there will be no response at all. Make note of this before you try the game.
It does have its good points however...the boss battles, particularly with those featuring Dooku and Grievous are intense. The cinematic experience during gameplay is outstanding, and there is even footage that was cut from the movie inserted into the game! Furthermore, some sequences that were intended to be in the movie, but were cut out completely, have been re-envisioned in the game, such as a battle with Grievous and his bodyguards on the Nemoidian battlecruiser, while it is tipped over sideways!
There are other game modes, including a co-operative mode. The co-op mode is nothing spectacular but it is fun to play with a friend. There is also a lightsaber duel mode which is one of the game's highlights. As you progress, you will unlock certain characters to play as, including Grievous, Dooku, Mace Windu, and others. Sorry Dark Side fans, there is no Sidious here. Instead of giving us what we want by adding Yoda and Sidious, we get two generic, unoriginal and boring Jedi characters that are blatant rip offs of Qui-Gon Jinn and other characters from the films. However, there are 2 other characters, whom I will not spoil, that are well worth the price of admission! Each character has an alternate look, but as usual with games of this type, you cannot choose the often times better alternate design, as it is left only for duplicate player battles.
Overall the game is fun, but the unbeleivably frustrating difficulty as you advance higher, or even when you try to replay some levels, drags the game down. The abysmal controls and camera work also hurt what would have been one of the best SW games to date.
Huge fans of Star Wars, such as myself, will probably dig it. Casual SW fans will find little redeeming quality. The casual gamer will probably not like the game at all. Try before you buy. I'm still feeling a bit cheated at the lack of Sidious and Yoda as playable characters...
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"Most movie-license games fall short of their goals, and in the past that has been especially true of Star Wars games.",
"Well at least, those that were based directly on the new trilogy films.",
"Phantom Menace left us yawning, Attack of the Clones didn't quite cut it, but Revenge of the Sith manages to do what the previous games did not: hold interest and provide a fun, if later too much of a challenging time.",
"Following the events of Episode III with a bit of liberty on the designer's part, this action game puts you in control of Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi as they battle against the CIS and try to restore peace and order to the galaxy.",
"Along the way, they both will acquire new abilities, and face deadly enemies both familiar and new.",
"Each character plays surprisingly differently.",
"Obi-Wan is slower but more precise, but Anakin is faster and more powerful with his hits.",
"Though they both learn the same force powers (until Anakin turns to the Dark Side, at which point he learns Sith Lightning), they will learn different combat abilities that set them apart from one another.",
"Anakin is skilled at delivering instantly fatal finishing moves, whereas Obi-Wan has powerful, hard-hitting combos that do a number on bosses on strong enemies, where Anakin's intstant kill moves would be useless.",
"There are a mere 15 levels in the game, so you can blow through it pretty quickly.",
"The levels start out easy enough, but as with any Lucas licensed game, suddenly become frustratingly difficult.",
"You may revisit levels in an attempt to earn more experience out of them, but what is perhaps the most annoying aspect is that revisiting levels, despite all your new powers, may sometimes prove to be more challenging than the levels you currently play on!",
"For example, when you battle General Grievous the first time, he shouldn't be all that difficult to beat.",
"However, if you revisit the level in an attempt to find the secrets or gain a higher level of experience, you may find him so difficult to beat that you just want to put down the controller and stop playing.",
"Aside form the main game there are bonus missions that often put you in the shoes of other characters.",
"One mission allows you to romp around as General Grievous!",
"Unfortunately these missions are basic and are usually nothing more than 'kill as many enemies as you can before you die' missions.",
"The targeting system in the game is undoubtedly one of the worst target-finding systems I have ever seen, period.",
"Instead of focusing on the largest, most imminent threat around you, the targeting system will often center on an inanimate object all the way on the otherside of the level, or on an enemy that is so far away it doesn't even realize that you're there.",
"This leads to many frustrating deaths and cheap hits from the enemies.",
"Other problems inclue the abysmal camera, which will often times swing around in such a position that you can't even see the action going on around you, and thus will get blasted to the next dimension by enemies you can't target and can't see.",
"As you progress, many enemies become just too difficult to contend with.",
"Somehow, I can't see a frail nemoidian stopping a lightsaber with his barehands, or Darth Vader succumbing to a group of nemoidian wimps with cattle prods...",
"but you'll find it here.",
"Even your combat abilities become so useless that you might as well just let them kill your character.",
"Furthermore, the controls are awkward, unresponsive and clunky.",
"Many of the special moves listed in the command list just cannot be pulled off, simply because the directions become so jumbled, should the camera shift a centimeter or two.",
"You are usually reduced to the same button mashing combo over and over in a frantic attempt to defeat your enemies.",
"In the rare event you can pull off one of these confusing special moves, they are often deflected or rendered useless against the enemy.",
"Sometimes a button press will take up to 3 seconds to repond...",
"other times there will be no response at all.",
"Make note of this before you try the game.",
"It does have its good points however...",
"the boss battles, particularly with those featuring Dooku and Grievous are intense.",
"The cinematic experience during gameplay is outstanding, and there is even footage that was cut from the movie inserted into the game!",
"Furthermore, some sequences that were intended to be in the movie, but were cut out completely, have been re-envisioned in the game, such as a battle with Grievous and his bodyguards on the Nemoidian battlecruiser, while it is tipped over sideways!",
"There are other game modes, including a co-operative mode.",
"The co-op mode is nothing spectacular but it is fun to play with a friend.",
"There is also a lightsaber duel mode which is one of the game's highlights.",
"As you progress, you will unlock certain characters to play as, including Grievous, Dooku, Mace Windu, and others.",
"Sorry Dark Side fans, there is no Sidious here.",
"Instead of giving us what we want by adding Yoda and Sidious, we get two generic, unoriginal and boring Jedi characters that are blatant rip offs of Qui-Gon Jinn and other characters from the films.",
"However, there are 2 other characters, whom I will not spoil, that are well worth the price of admission!",
"Each character has an alternate look, but as usual with games of this type, you cannot choose the often times better alternate design, as it is left only for duplicate player battles.",
"Overall the game is fun, but the unbeleivably frustrating difficulty as you advance higher, or even when you try to replay some levels, drags the game down.",
"The abysmal controls and camera work also hurt what would have been one of the best SW games to date.",
"Huge fans of Star Wars, such as myself, will probably dig it.",
"Casual SW fans will find little redeeming quality.",
"The casual gamer will probably not like the game at all.",
"Try before you buy.",
"I'm still feeling a bit cheated at the lack of Sidious and Yoda as playable characters..."
] |
BEFORE YOU UPGRADE: stop by the Microsoft website and run the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant (link in the comments). This program will comb through your system and offer you detailed analysis of what will and won't upgrade. It offers links to articles that explain in detail what you may need to do, and it can save you a lot of headaches. For example, I have a laptop with no USB drivers--yet! I now have a link to the manufacturer's website that I've bookmarked and when drivers become available I'll upgrade that machine too.
Windows 7 has been a well-received OS, so the case for upgrading to Windows 8 has been difficult for Microsoft to make. I've been using Windows 8 for a while now, and it truly is a mixed bag. The easiest way to explain the difference is to say, "Your Start Menu is now full-screen": we have a "Modern UI" (formerly called "Metro") that's designed to give you a splash of tiles, each of which represents a program on your machine. When you want to find a specific program or setting, you just start typing and the results filter themselves accordingly right before your eyes. Icons are now displayed as tiles of varying widths across your field of view and you scroll left-to-right to look through them. Some of this makes sense in that some of today's programs are more like the Windows Desktop Gadgets we've seen in Vista and 7: rather than needing to be launched, they idly stream information to you, and need a bit more room to be easy to read than the older Start Menu could have allowed for. If you've used Windows Media Center, Office 2010, or an XBox 360, you've already been interacting with similar interfaces. This sort of UI has been slowly making its way into Microsoft's products for a while now.
The Windows 8 desktop looks exactly like it did in Windows 7 and Vista, except there's no Start Button: you're expected to press the Windows key or move your mouse to the bottom corner of the screen to launch the tile dashboard. The desktop has the tray of running programs you're used to in earlier versions, shows you wallpaper, and offers access to the Windows Explorer for looking through the files on your hard drive. All programs can be launched directly off the tile screen, and while Windows 8 apps always run in full-screen, older programs run from within the Desktop and can be resized. We have a version of Internet Explorer accessible from the desktop that looks just like IE 9 did in Windows 7, then we have a version of Internet Explorer in the tile screen that looks entirely different. Some parts of the Control Panel have the tile look and feel and the options cascade left-to-right like the Home screen in any MS Office 2010 or 2013 product. Other parts of the Control Panel look exactly like they did in Windows 7 and before. Unfortunately, I haven't found a good pattern for this yet: you may flip from one side to the other in order to do something like troubleshoot a network problem.
This is really the heart of Windows 8's problems: its identity crisis. It can be jarring to flip back and forth between Modern and Desktop views, but Microsoft can't let completely go of everything that came before without driving people even crazier, so there will be times you're trying to do a thing--like manage users or configure a network connection--and you might be in Modern's full-screen left-to-right only to find yourself dumped into the desktop and shown a dialog box you may remember from earlier versions...and then you need to head back to Modern to take another step. If you're doing everyday computing, like reading documents or checking mail, you don't run across this too often, but the moment you need to take step outside of the ordinary, good luck figuring out which path you should start from, or which you'll end up on.
Performance-wise, Windows had been slowly moving away from always-running programs that drain performance to background services that would launch programs as needed...but this too started to get unwieldy. Microsoft have stripped several services out of Windows 8 which by default makes the OS more efficient than 7. Any machine that could run 7 can also run 8. Programs that used to run, shut down, then have to be fully re-launched to run again are instead put in a standby mode so they can launch faster when called again. The Windows Vista and 7 "Aero effects" that gave your windows a glassy sheen and rounded corners used graphics and CPU to run, so they've been stripped out of the tile UI in favor of simple color schemes and blocky edges (though you can still see a subdued glassy effect on the Desktop). Interaction with Windows in this new look and feel is easier if you have a touchscreen or you're using a tablet, and if you're a Windows Phone user the territory is already pretty familiar. The downside for mouse users is that you occasionally spend time hunting along the edges of the screen for scrollbars and dragging screens around to be able to interact with everything. Sometimes you can use the wheel to scroll and sometimes you can't. My chief complaint with Windows 8 hasn't been with the Tile layout so much as the fact that the scroll bars are too skinny.
For some features, time will tell. I've found the Tile UI version of the browser to be less compatible and more cranky with websites, but I expect that to change given time. I like the fact that security/antivirus are rolled into the OS without me having to take care of them or be interrupted with update notifications. The OS runs Windows Updates on a schedule that's far less aggressive than previous versions and won't nag you about rebooting when it needs to. I've been told that the performance for gaming is supposed to be greater simply by virtue of a cleaner codebase, but I haven't seen anything substantially different on the PC apart from faster boot-up and shut-down times (I did benchmark my machine with 3DMark11 and, after some adjusting, noticed a higher score). The basic applications like Weather, Photos, Stocks, Mail, and more are very user-friendly, but solely within the context of the new look & feel: expect little familar ground and a lot of new territory, and the assumption that you should be using a touchscreen. If you have a Windows Live account and/or SkyDrive, these can integrate fully into the OS: so much so that you would sign in to the computer with your Windows Live/Hotmail account and everything you do would be synced to Microsoft's cloud if your account has SkyDrive.
Windows 8 requires you to purchase a license for Windows Media Center separately; you still have Windows Media Player, but the Center is a separate application now, available for sale in the Microsoft Store.
UPDATE, 11/2013: Microsoft has now released Windows 8.1, a minor update to the OS that mostly attempts to make the user experience better. If you purhcase this copy of Windows 8, you will be offered the ability to update it to 8.1 at no additional cost. The upgrade is pushed through the Windows Store that is part of Windows 8. Personally, I've done clean installs of 8.1 from the MSDN media and done an in-place upgrade via the store, on both my desktop and laptop, and have not had good experiences. I don't personally recommend the update at this time for that reason. Perhaps with time it will get better.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"BEFORE YOU UPGRADE: stop by the Microsoft website and run the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant (link in the comments).",
"This program will comb through your system and offer you detailed analysis of what will and won't upgrade.",
"It offers links to articles that explain in detail what you may need to do, and it can save you a lot of headaches.",
"For example, I have a laptop with no USB drivers--yet!",
"I now have a link to the manufacturer's website that I've bookmarked and when drivers become available I'll upgrade that machine too.",
"Windows 7 has been a well-received OS, so the case for upgrading to Windows 8 has been difficult for Microsoft to make.",
"I've been using Windows 8 for a while now, and it truly is a mixed bag.",
"The easiest way to explain the difference is to say, \"Your Start Menu is now full-screen\": we have a \"Modern UI\" (formerly called \"Metro\") that's designed to give you a splash of tiles, each of which represents a program on your machine.",
"When you want to find a specific program or setting, you just start typing and the results filter themselves accordingly right before your eyes.",
"Icons are now displayed as tiles of varying widths across your field of view and you scroll left-to-right to look through them.",
"Some of this makes sense in that some of today's programs are more like the Windows Desktop Gadgets we've seen in Vista and 7: rather than needing to be launched, they idly stream information to you, and need a bit more room to be easy to read than the older Start Menu could have allowed for.",
"If you've used Windows Media Center, Office 2010, or an XBox 360, you've already been interacting with similar interfaces.",
"This sort of UI has been slowly making its way into Microsoft's products for a while now.",
"The Windows 8 desktop looks exactly like it did in Windows 7 and Vista, except there's no Start Button: you're expected to press the Windows key or move your mouse to the bottom corner of the screen to launch the tile dashboard.",
"The desktop has the tray of running programs you're used to in earlier versions, shows you wallpaper, and offers access to the Windows Explorer for looking through the files on your hard drive.",
"All programs can be launched directly off the tile screen, and while Windows 8 apps always run in full-screen, older programs run from within the Desktop and can be resized.",
"We have a version of Internet Explorer accessible from the desktop that looks just like IE 9 did in Windows 7, then we have a version of Internet Explorer in the tile screen that looks entirely different.",
"Some parts of the Control Panel have the tile look and feel and the options cascade left-to-right like the Home screen in any MS Office 2010 or 2013 product.",
"Other parts of the Control Panel look exactly like they did in Windows 7 and before.",
"Unfortunately, I haven't found a good pattern for this yet: you may flip from one side to the other in order to do something like troubleshoot a network problem.",
"This is really the heart of Windows 8's problems: its identity crisis.",
"It can be jarring to flip back and forth between Modern and Desktop views, but Microsoft can't let completely go of everything that came before without driving people even crazier, so there will be times you're trying to do a thing--like manage users or configure a network connection--and you might be in Modern's full-screen left-to-right only to find yourself dumped into the desktop and shown a dialog box you may remember from earlier versions...",
"and then you need to head back to Modern to take another step.",
"If you're doing everyday computing, like reading documents or checking mail, you don't run across this too often, but the moment you need to take step outside of the ordinary, good luck figuring out which path you should start from, or which you'll end up on.",
"Performance-wise, Windows had been slowly moving away from always-running programs that drain performance to background services that would launch programs as needed...",
"but this too started to get unwieldy.",
"Microsoft have stripped several services out of Windows 8 which by default makes the OS more efficient than 7.",
"Any machine that could run 7 can also run 8.",
"Programs that used to run, shut down, then have to be fully re-launched to run again are instead put in a standby mode so they can launch faster when called again.",
"The Windows Vista and 7 \"Aero effects\" that gave your windows a glassy sheen and rounded corners used graphics and CPU to run, so they've been stripped out of the tile UI in favor of simple color schemes and blocky edges (though you can still see a subdued glassy effect on the Desktop).",
"Interaction with Windows in this new look and feel is easier if you have a touchscreen or you're using a tablet, and if you're a Windows Phone user the territory is already pretty familiar.",
"The downside for mouse users is that you occasionally spend time hunting along the edges of the screen for scrollbars and dragging screens around to be able to interact with everything.",
"Sometimes you can use the wheel to scroll and sometimes you can't.",
"My chief complaint with Windows 8 hasn't been with the Tile layout so much as the fact that the scroll bars are too skinny.",
"For some features, time will tell.",
"I've found the Tile UI version of the browser to be less compatible and more cranky with websites, but I expect that to change given time.",
"I like the fact that security/antivirus are rolled into the OS without me having to take care of them or be interrupted with update notifications.",
"The OS runs Windows Updates on a schedule that's far less aggressive than previous versions and won't nag you about rebooting when it needs to.",
"I've been told that the performance for gaming is supposed to be greater simply by virtue of a cleaner codebase, but I haven't seen anything substantially different on the PC apart from faster boot-up and shut-down times (I did benchmark my machine with 3DMark11 and, after some adjusting, noticed a higher score).",
"The basic applications like Weather, Photos, Stocks, Mail, and more are very user-friendly, but solely within the context of the new look & feel: expect little familar ground and a lot of new territory, and the assumption that you should be using a touchscreen.",
"If you have a Windows Live account and/or SkyDrive, these can integrate fully into the OS: so much so that you would sign in to the computer with your Windows Live/Hotmail account and everything you do would be synced to Microsoft's cloud if your account has SkyDrive.",
"Windows 8 requires you to purchase a license for Windows Media Center separately; you still have Windows Media Player, but the Center is a separate application now, available for sale in the Microsoft Store.",
"UPDATE, 11/2013: Microsoft has now released Windows 8.",
"1, a minor update to the OS that mostly attempts to make the user experience better.",
"If you purhcase this copy of Windows 8, you will be offered the ability to update it to 8.",
"1 at no additional cost.",
"The upgrade is pushed through the Windows Store that is part of Windows 8.",
"Personally, I've done clean installs of 8.",
"1 from the MSDN media and done an in-place upgrade via the store, on both my desktop and laptop, and have not had good experiences.",
"I don't personally recommend the update at this time for that reason.",
"Perhaps with time it will get better."
] |
I purchased this product along with a <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Delta-Da-Vinci-Bicycle-Tire-Tray/dp/B000FGVJE0/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Delta Da Vinci Bicycle Tire Tray</a> and I recommend you purchase the tire tray as well if you want to reduce wall scuffs.
The install of this rack in my apartment was straight forward but only because I have a stud finder in my toolbox and that allowed me to accurately determine the location of a stud in to which I would mount it. If you are installing with in a location where wood studs are visible, you will have no problem.
I do have a sense of buyer's remorse because I don't particularly like the amount of visual space my bike now takes up in my office. Sure - the bike is off the floor, but it's blatantly 'intrusive' in the room. I subsequently found a better, though more expensive, product, <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Cycloc-Popsicle-Wall-Mounted-Bike-Rack-Orange/dp/B004DCAUH4/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Cycloc Popsicle Wall Mounted Bike Rack: Orange</a>. Bikes hung on the Cycloc rack 'fit' better visually and are more aesthetically attractive.
If you can afford the more expensive Cycloc product, I would recommend you go that route.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"I purchased this product along with a <a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/Delta-Da-Vinci-Bicycle-Tire-Tray/dp/B000FGVJE0/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?",
"ie=UTF8\">Delta Da Vinci Bicycle Tire Tray</a> and I recommend you purchase the tire tray as well if you want to reduce wall scuffs.",
"The install of this rack in my apartment was straight forward but only because I have a stud finder in my toolbox and that allowed me to accurately determine the location of a stud in to which I would mount it.",
"If you are installing with in a location where wood studs are visible, you will have no problem.",
"I do have a sense of buyer's remorse because I don't particularly like the amount of visual space my bike now takes up in my office.",
"Sure - the bike is off the floor, but it's blatantly 'intrusive' in the room.",
"I subsequently found a better, though more expensive, product, <a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/Cycloc-Popsicle-Wall-Mounted-Bike-Rack-Orange/dp/B004DCAUH4/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?",
"ie=UTF8\">Cycloc Popsicle Wall Mounted Bike Rack: Orange</a>.",
"Bikes hung on the Cycloc rack 'fit' better visually and are more aesthetically attractive.",
"If you can afford the more expensive Cycloc product, I would recommend you go that route."
] |
Literature can both reflect societal moods and create them. This book may be an example of this cliche, as it is a jump start on a particular area of technology that is the subject of intense research at the present time: nanotechnology. There is talk about the possibility of self-replicating nanoscale robots, and with also the possibility that these entities could be intelligent, many individuals, scientists and non-scientists alike, feel apprehensive about this technology. The technology is not yet here, but developments in the 21st century are accelerating at an unprecedented rate.
The book starts off well, at least after the introduction, which the author has felt the need to insert. The presence of the introduction is a distraction from the story line, at least for me personally, for I want to start the story without any biases or prejudices. The author's opinions in the introduction are somewhat negative about the future and character of humankind. A reader disagreeing with the author's opinions may be tempted to read the book with a hostile frame of mind. The author therefore should have kept his opinions to himself, and have spoken them through the characters in the book. He is clearly very worried about the developments in nanotechnology, and does not trust the scientific community to deal with it responsibly. The author though is bound by the constraint of making the story interesting, and that is hard to do without interjecting a large degree of malevolence in the technologies he is using in his story. Friendly, helpful nanobots are not going to hold anyone's attention for long.
The first 150 pages or so of the book were very exhilirating: the tension building in the mind of Jack, the main character, and his doubts regarding his wife's behavior kept my attention. The author does a fine job of capturing his introspection, and in the meantime the reader gets a kind of crash introduction to terminology of evolutionary algorithms and artificial intelligence. Indeed, the reader gets exposed to talk of distributed parallel processing, or "agent-based programs", artificial life, ant routing, genetic algorithms, and protein folding, to name a few.
As soon as Jack enters the desert though, the story gets less credible. Since this book has only been released for a few weeks, I could only say why I believe this by revealing the plot, which I don't want to do for the sake of new readers. I was surprised actually that the author took the move he did, as I was expecting the behavior of the nanobots to be much more subtle, as well as their detection. Instead though their behavior was very extreme, and this led me to think of how easy they would be to combat. The behavior of the nanobots would be much more believable if they would have acted in more mischevious ways, and such behavior would follow I think more naturally from the first part of the book.
As the story nears its end, the events become more and more unbelievable. In addition, the characters seem to be almost juvenile in their behavior, and the author has the annoying habit of having them constantly using the "F-word". This is supposed to (I guess) make them more realistic, but instead they come across like they are playing nothing more than a difficult video game. In addition, obvious countermeasures to the nano-swarms make the story less believable. One could for example program a collection of swarms to engage in battle with the malevolent ones.
Hence in general this is a disappointing book, which again is too bad considering the first part, which was written very well. I did not walk away with a feeling of foreboding that I did when reading the author's "Andromeda Strain" way back when. And if the book was meant to frighten the reader about the perils of nanotechnology, it missed its mark, considerably. But even if it did succeed in instilling fear about the possibility of nanotechnology, the research in this area will continue, and hopefully will be realized very soon.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"Literature can both reflect societal moods and create them.",
"This book may be an example of this cliche, as it is a jump start on a particular area of technology that is the subject of intense research at the present time: nanotechnology.",
"There is talk about the possibility of self-replicating nanoscale robots, and with also the possibility that these entities could be intelligent, many individuals, scientists and non-scientists alike, feel apprehensive about this technology.",
"The technology is not yet here, but developments in the 21st century are accelerating at an unprecedented rate.",
"The book starts off well, at least after the introduction, which the author has felt the need to insert.",
"The presence of the introduction is a distraction from the story line, at least for me personally, for I want to start the story without any biases or prejudices.",
"The author's opinions in the introduction are somewhat negative about the future and character of humankind.",
"A reader disagreeing with the author's opinions may be tempted to read the book with a hostile frame of mind.",
"The author therefore should have kept his opinions to himself, and have spoken them through the characters in the book.",
"He is clearly very worried about the developments in nanotechnology, and does not trust the scientific community to deal with it responsibly.",
"The author though is bound by the constraint of making the story interesting, and that is hard to do without interjecting a large degree of malevolence in the technologies he is using in his story.",
"Friendly, helpful nanobots are not going to hold anyone's attention for long.",
"The first 150 pages or so of the book were very exhilirating: the tension building in the mind of Jack, the main character, and his doubts regarding his wife's behavior kept my attention.",
"The author does a fine job of capturing his introspection, and in the meantime the reader gets a kind of crash introduction to terminology of evolutionary algorithms and artificial intelligence.",
"Indeed, the reader gets exposed to talk of distributed parallel processing, or \"agent-based programs\", artificial life, ant routing, genetic algorithms, and protein folding, to name a few.",
"As soon as Jack enters the desert though, the story gets less credible.",
"Since this book has only been released for a few weeks, I could only say why I believe this by revealing the plot, which I don't want to do for the sake of new readers.",
"I was surprised actually that the author took the move he did, as I was expecting the behavior of the nanobots to be much more subtle, as well as their detection.",
"Instead though their behavior was very extreme, and this led me to think of how easy they would be to combat.",
"The behavior of the nanobots would be much more believable if they would have acted in more mischevious ways, and such behavior would follow I think more naturally from the first part of the book.",
"As the story nears its end, the events become more and more unbelievable.",
"In addition, the characters seem to be almost juvenile in their behavior, and the author has the annoying habit of having them constantly using the \"F-word\".",
"This is supposed to (I guess) make them more realistic, but instead they come across like they are playing nothing more than a difficult video game.",
"In addition, obvious countermeasures to the nano-swarms make the story less believable.",
"One could for example program a collection of swarms to engage in battle with the malevolent ones.",
"Hence in general this is a disappointing book, which again is too bad considering the first part, which was written very well.",
"I did not walk away with a feeling of foreboding that I did when reading the author's \"Andromeda Strain\" way back when.",
"And if the book was meant to frighten the reader about the perils of nanotechnology, it missed its mark, considerably.",
"But even if it did succeed in instilling fear about the possibility of nanotechnology, the research in this area will continue, and hopefully will be realized very soon."
] |
They sent me the wrong scent. Which I was not very happy about because I swear the one they sent me was some how taken out of an old lady's house. Not trying to be rude but if you were to smell it, it reminds me on an old lady perfume or something. Besides that, the smell really does not last long at all. I would have to re spray her twice a day for me to even still get the scent. I don't know if maybe its just the scent I was sent or if its all of them. I am still going to order another can just to test it out once I am done with this one.
Edit:
The one that is listed under " Fresh Clean Scent" is the one that I picked and they sent me " Fresh Floral Scent". I guess it is my fault because I did not click on the picture on the side that zooms in on the picture and actually says Fresh Floral Scent. I think they need to switch that on the website though so it doesn't say Fresh Clean Scent. Big difference to me!
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"They sent me the wrong scent.",
"Which I was not very happy about because I swear the one they sent me was some how taken out of an old lady's house.",
"Not trying to be rude but if you were to smell it, it reminds me on an old lady perfume or something.",
"Besides that, the smell really does not last long at all.",
"I would have to re spray her twice a day for me to even still get the scent.",
"I don't know if maybe its just the scent I was sent or if its all of them.",
"I am still going to order another can just to test it out once I am done with this one.",
"Edit:\nThe one that is listed under \" Fresh Clean Scent\" is the one that I picked and they sent me \" Fresh Floral Scent\".",
"I guess it is my fault because I did not click on the picture on the side that zooms in on the picture and actually says Fresh Floral Scent.",
"I think they need to switch that on the website though so it doesn't say Fresh Clean Scent.",
"Big difference to me!"
] |
I am having a hard time with this one. I love the tales of Oz! However, I was disappointed to find that this Kindle version is so poorly edited that it became difficult to read. Not only did it appear to have typos, but the are multiple spacing issues. I have read other reviews and noticed that some readers claim that they did not have these issues. I have this item downloaded on my Kindle Fire and have experienced many frustrating issues with formatting.
I was also a little disappointed at the lack of illustrations. As a child, I enjoyed that aspect of the stories almost as well as I did the actual books. I can say though that my rating was not based on this.
I love these tales. I also feel that at just 95 cents to download, I should not complain too much. So I will just state that the formatting issues made it difficult and frustrating for me to try to read this on my Kindle. It just did not flow for me. However, if you enjoyed the stories as much as I did growing up and can overlook a few issues then this may be a perfect purchase for you.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"I am having a hard time with this one.",
"I love the tales of Oz!",
"However, I was disappointed to find that this Kindle version is so poorly edited that it became difficult to read.",
"Not only did it appear to have typos, but the are multiple spacing issues.",
"I have read other reviews and noticed that some readers claim that they did not have these issues.",
"I have this item downloaded on my Kindle Fire and have experienced many frustrating issues with formatting.",
"I was also a little disappointed at the lack of illustrations.",
"As a child, I enjoyed that aspect of the stories almost as well as I did the actual books.",
"I can say though that my rating was not based on this.",
"I love these tales.",
"I also feel that at just 95 cents to download, I should not complain too much.",
"So I will just state that the formatting issues made it difficult and frustrating for me to try to read this on my Kindle.",
"It just did not flow for me.",
"However, if you enjoyed the stories as much as I did growing up and can overlook a few issues then this may be a perfect purchase for you."
] |
EDIT: I've found that this tea is much more enjoyable if I drink it cold. What I simply do is just brew a cup as I'd normally do but let it cool. I then dump it in my water jug that has one packet of True Lime and one slice of lemon already in it.
Like others have already said, I'd strongly prefer Bigelow Earl Grey than to this one from Twinings. If it wasn't due to my curiosity, I'd never have tried this one as there is nothing wrong with the Bigelow Earl Grey. Twinings Earl Grey here is much, much milder. Technically, I'm sure that would be considered a positive for some tea drinks that prefer a weaker Earl Grey but if not, stay away from this one. I've learned my lesson. I will forever stick with Bigelow Earl Grey after I'm out of this one.
Also, I found nothing wrong with the packaging. The box was sealed when it arrived and all tea bags are perfectly sealed individually. There was only a very tiny amount of smell that leaked through.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"EDIT: I've found that this tea is much more enjoyable if I drink it cold.",
"What I simply do is just brew a cup as I'd normally do but let it cool.",
"I then dump it in my water jug that has one packet of True Lime and one slice of lemon already in it.",
"Like others have already said, I'd strongly prefer Bigelow Earl Grey than to this one from Twinings.",
"If it wasn't due to my curiosity, I'd never have tried this one as there is nothing wrong with the Bigelow Earl Grey.",
"Twinings Earl Grey here is much, much milder.",
"Technically, I'm sure that would be considered a positive for some tea drinks that prefer a weaker Earl Grey but if not, stay away from this one.",
"I've learned my lesson.",
"I will forever stick with Bigelow Earl Grey after I'm out of this one.",
"Also, I found nothing wrong with the packaging.",
"The box was sealed when it arrived and all tea bags are perfectly sealed individually.",
"There was only a very tiny amount of smell that leaked through."
] |
I have used the eyeko Fat Eyeliner before and loved it so I was excited when the Black Magic Mascara popped up in my Birchbox.
I have thin, fine lashes that are spread apart, they are not close together, so I am very picky with my mascara. I need a big, thick, fat brush with lots of bristles and a thick formula. The eyeko Black Magic Mascara claims to do that; creating drama, volume and curl, but for me, it just fell flat.
The brush was curved, which I don't like. I prefer straight brushes. There didn't seem to be much mascara on the brush at all and even though I applied 2 coats, including a coat of fiber extensions in between, I just didn't get any volume or thickness whatsoever. I also curled my eyelashes before applying. The formula seemed dry to me.
Once it was completely applied and dried (which didn't take long since it was dry to begin with), I had to go back in with my Smashbox mascara to thicken my lashes up.
This is not a mascara I would recommend.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"I have used the eyeko Fat Eyeliner before and loved it so I was excited when the Black Magic Mascara popped up in my Birchbox.",
"I have thin, fine lashes that are spread apart, they are not close together, so I am very picky with my mascara.",
"I need a big, thick, fat brush with lots of bristles and a thick formula.",
"The eyeko Black Magic Mascara claims to do that; creating drama, volume and curl, but for me, it just fell flat.",
"The brush was curved, which I don't like.",
"I prefer straight brushes.",
"There didn't seem to be much mascara on the brush at all and even though I applied 2 coats, including a coat of fiber extensions in between, I just didn't get any volume or thickness whatsoever.",
"I also curled my eyelashes before applying.",
"The formula seemed dry to me.",
"Once it was completely applied and dried (which didn't take long since it was dry to begin with), I had to go back in with my Smashbox mascara to thicken my lashes up.",
"This is not a mascara I would recommend."
] |
I bought a set of these for an inexpensive H&R Pardner 20 ga. pump that came with a bead front sight. Of the four sizes (widths) included, I ended up using the second widest. This one had a red pipe in it, but I really preferred the green. Anyway, as I was trying to snap it on the vent rib, the pipe popped out. So I used similar pressure on one of the other sights and popped a green pipe out. It easily snapped into the proper size mount for my gun and I locked it in place with a little super glue. I oiled the vent rib just behind the bead sight as recommended and with a thin flat-bladed screwdriver got one end (both sides) on. Then I gradually ran my finger down it and it snapped firmly into place. The green pipe is certainly easier to pick up in good light, but it would be better if its diameter was larger. Next, I went into a totally dark room and switched on the fore end mounted Streamlight. There was no light coming thru the pipe, no doubt because the front was right behind the factory bead sight. So in conclusion, I took a chance on this but think next time I'll opt for a screw-in Hi-Viz sight to replace the bead. Hope this helps in your decision making.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"I bought a set of these for an inexpensive H&R Pardner 20 ga.",
"pump that came with a bead front sight.",
"Of the four sizes (widths) included, I ended up using the second widest.",
"This one had a red pipe in it, but I really preferred the green.",
"Anyway, as I was trying to snap it on the vent rib, the pipe popped out.",
"So I used similar pressure on one of the other sights and popped a green pipe out.",
"It easily snapped into the proper size mount for my gun and I locked it in place with a little super glue.",
"I oiled the vent rib just behind the bead sight as recommended and with a thin flat-bladed screwdriver got one end (both sides) on.",
"Then I gradually ran my finger down it and it snapped firmly into place.",
"The green pipe is certainly easier to pick up in good light, but it would be better if its diameter was larger.",
"Next, I went into a totally dark room and switched on the fore end mounted Streamlight.",
"There was no light coming thru the pipe, no doubt because the front was right behind the factory bead sight.",
"So in conclusion, I took a chance on this but think next time I'll opt for a screw-in Hi-Viz sight to replace the bead.",
"Hope this helps in your decision making."
] |
I am currently re-playing SOFII and wanted to throw out a few more comments. I still stand by my initial assessment that the A.I is horrible and predictable like before. The graphics are very much improved though thanks to the excellent Q3 engine used this time. I did find the game to be a bit more buggy than I have been accustomed to seeing from the Q3 engine in other games that utilized it as well. I got frustrated on several levels of the game that required stealth. You don't have any silent weapons that I have seen except the knife and a pistol with a silencer on it. The problem I have run into though is that any little action or movement you do sets off the alarms even if the soldiers don't know you're there so it makes it near impossible to complete these levels. The first time I played the game it took me 20-30 times each to finally finish the stealth oriented levels. It just boils down to poor organization in parts of the game. Overall though it was a great game. It has a great plot and an engrossing storyline. That combined with the great graphics made it an excellent game to play. I hope there is a SOF III to come.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"I am currently re-playing SOFII and wanted to throw out a few more comments.",
"I still stand by my initial assessment that the A.",
"I is horrible and predictable like before.",
"The graphics are very much improved though thanks to the excellent Q3 engine used this time.",
"I did find the game to be a bit more buggy than I have been accustomed to seeing from the Q3 engine in other games that utilized it as well.",
"I got frustrated on several levels of the game that required stealth.",
"You don't have any silent weapons that I have seen except the knife and a pistol with a silencer on it.",
"The problem I have run into though is that any little action or movement you do sets off the alarms even if the soldiers don't know you're there so it makes it near impossible to complete these levels.",
"The first time I played the game it took me 20-30 times each to finally finish the stealth oriented levels.",
"It just boils down to poor organization in parts of the game.",
"Overall though it was a great game.",
"It has a great plot and an engrossing storyline.",
"That combined with the great graphics made it an excellent game to play.",
"I hope there is a SOF III to come."
] |
Donkey Kong Country was a big deal when it came out in late 1994. It was -the- game to get, and sold out everywhere in no time. I remember reading game magazines that had screen shots, and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. This was a GAME?? It looked like a movie or something! They say graphics don't make a game, but they sure as heck didn't hurt DKC. The game was, and still is beautiful to look at. Essentially, DKC is a Super Mario World clone, but with so much more style. You could have two players play co-operatively, or competitively. There were 101 hidden areas, many of which required you to drop off of platforms to find them or go behind the beginning of a level- something not many people figured out for a while. It also has what I consider the greatest soundtrack of any game. Yeah, I played this for hours and hours, and was excited to get the GBA version for my daughter since she's pretty big on the main Nintendo guys now too. While she likes playing it, as a veteran of the original, I find this "enhanced port" very disappointing. If you still have your SNES, track down the cart. If you have a Wii, I'm pretty sure you can get the DKC games on the Virtual Console.
Playing the game is simple- you play as Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong, as they go after the Kremlings (big nasty reptile dudes) and other henchmen of King K. Rool. Kong's bananas were stolen by them, and he wants 'em back. You run, jump, slam, roll, cartwheel, and barrel your way through level after level, finding hidden areas as you progress. If you've played a Mario game, or even an older Sonic one, that's what DKC plays like, and it's great fun. Just like the old Donkey Kong- DK throws barrels at enemies. Some are regular barrels that keep rolling until they fall off a ledge, some break upon impact, and some are TNT barrels that can blow up walls and multiple enemies. There are also a couple of friends to help the Kongs, like Rambi the rhino who hauls ass and rams through anything in his path. Winky, the frog who can jump high and even take out the spiked Zinger enemies. Expresso the ostrich floats gently after jumping, and can run pretty fast too. And Enguarde, a swordfish for the water levels, that lunges at any baddies who come your way.
So if the game's so much fun, what happened when it was ported to the GBA? While most people complain about the graphics and music getting toned down ('kinda expected considering just how much this game pushed the SNES when it came out compared to Super Mario World and others), that's not my problem...though it does suck that the perfect soundtrack is missing a lot of the magic it originally had. No, my problem is a bunch of little things. Donkey Kong can now either jump higher, or a lot of the levels were shortened. This is apparent right off the bat in the first level, where you can go back into the tree house to get a 1-up balloon. Originally, you had to bounce on the tire in there to get it, but now, DK can just jump up on his own and nab it. This hurts him more than it helps in some levels, since there are enemies on platforms above here and there, and you can now easily jump into them, losing DK. Hit detection is also very weird. There'd be times where I swore I jumped on an enemy, only to have Diddy Kong take the hit and run away. Hey, if I jump on a Kremling's head, I expect him to be taken out, not have Diddy somehow fall through it, then get hit by him. They also added a couple of very, very stupid mini-games, a fishing one and a dancing one which I'm sure you'll play for all of 2 minutes, then never touch again. There are also pictures/cameras to collect, but I found it to be more tacked on than a cool extra feature. This port just screams lazy, and by taking time to add extra things that are dumb and pointless, I don't get why they could've just given us a straight port and save some hassle.
The one pro though? Boss fights are much harder, and I loved this. It was a big surprise when I fought the Zinger boss, and had to throw barrels at smaller Zingers that surrounded it after each hit. The Master Necky Sr. fight is good too, since you now have to fight the original Necky at the same time, having two bosses at once. 'added some good extra challenge.
I know it might seem nitpicky to dock stars because of what might be harmless additions, but the hit detection ruined a lot of the fun for me. I swear, there was one level that I never had trouble with on the SNES, yet died 32 times on in this version. Also, when you're riding an animal with both Kongs, instead of having the other Kong trail behind, both ride the animal, and when you attack, it looks like your partner is...well, a partner in more ways than one. 'could've done without that too, though it never fails to make me laugh. Still, if you've never played DKC and a GBA or DS is your only system, you should pick it up. Just know that the game is much better in regular form.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"Donkey Kong Country was a big deal when it came out in late 1994.",
"It was -the- game to get, and sold out everywhere in no time.",
"I remember reading game magazines that had screen shots, and I couldn't believe what I was seeing.",
"This was a GAME??",
"It looked like a movie or something!",
"They say graphics don't make a game, but they sure as heck didn't hurt DKC.",
"The game was, and still is beautiful to look at.",
"Essentially, DKC is a Super Mario World clone, but with so much more style.",
"You could have two players play co-operatively, or competitively.",
"There were 101 hidden areas, many of which required you to drop off of platforms to find them or go behind the beginning of a level- something not many people figured out for a while.",
"It also has what I consider the greatest soundtrack of any game.",
"Yeah, I played this for hours and hours, and was excited to get the GBA version for my daughter since she's pretty big on the main Nintendo guys now too.",
"While she likes playing it, as a veteran of the original, I find this \"enhanced port\" very disappointing.",
"If you still have your SNES, track down the cart.",
"If you have a Wii, I'm pretty sure you can get the DKC games on the Virtual Console.",
"Playing the game is simple- you play as Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong, as they go after the Kremlings (big nasty reptile dudes) and other henchmen of King K.",
"Rool.",
"Kong's bananas were stolen by them, and he wants 'em back.",
"You run, jump, slam, roll, cartwheel, and barrel your way through level after level, finding hidden areas as you progress.",
"If you've played a Mario game, or even an older Sonic one, that's what DKC plays like, and it's great fun.",
"Just like the old Donkey Kong- DK throws barrels at enemies.",
"Some are regular barrels that keep rolling until they fall off a ledge, some break upon impact, and some are TNT barrels that can blow up walls and multiple enemies.",
"There are also a couple of friends to help the Kongs, like Rambi the rhino who hauls ass and rams through anything in his path.",
"Winky, the frog who can jump high and even take out the spiked Zinger enemies.",
"Expresso the ostrich floats gently after jumping, and can run pretty fast too.",
"And Enguarde, a swordfish for the water levels, that lunges at any baddies who come your way.",
"So if the game's so much fun, what happened when it was ported to the GBA?",
"While most people complain about the graphics and music getting toned down ('kinda expected considering just how much this game pushed the SNES when it came out compared to Super Mario World and others), that's not my problem...",
"though it does suck that the perfect soundtrack is missing a lot of the magic it originally had.",
"No, my problem is a bunch of little things.",
"Donkey Kong can now either jump higher, or a lot of the levels were shortened.",
"This is apparent right off the bat in the first level, where you can go back into the tree house to get a 1-up balloon.",
"Originally, you had to bounce on the tire in there to get it, but now, DK can just jump up on his own and nab it.",
"This hurts him more than it helps in some levels, since there are enemies on platforms above here and there, and you can now easily jump into them, losing DK.",
"Hit detection is also very weird.",
"There'd be times where I swore I jumped on an enemy, only to have Diddy Kong take the hit and run away.",
"Hey, if I jump on a Kremling's head, I expect him to be taken out, not have Diddy somehow fall through it, then get hit by him.",
"They also added a couple of very, very stupid mini-games, a fishing one and a dancing one which I'm sure you'll play for all of 2 minutes, then never touch again.",
"There are also pictures/cameras to collect, but I found it to be more tacked on than a cool extra feature.",
"This port just screams lazy, and by taking time to add extra things that are dumb and pointless, I don't get why they could've just given us a straight port and save some hassle.",
"The one pro though?",
"Boss fights are much harder, and I loved this.",
"It was a big surprise when I fought the Zinger boss, and had to throw barrels at smaller Zingers that surrounded it after each hit.",
"The Master Necky Sr.",
"fight is good too, since you now have to fight the original Necky at the same time, having two bosses at once.",
"'added some good extra challenge.",
"I know it might seem nitpicky to dock stars because of what might be harmless additions, but the hit detection ruined a lot of the fun for me.",
"I swear, there was one level that I never had trouble with on the SNES, yet died 32 times on in this version.",
"Also, when you're riding an animal with both Kongs, instead of having the other Kong trail behind, both ride the animal, and when you attack, it looks like your partner is...",
"well, a partner in more ways than one.",
"'could've done without that too, though it never fails to make me laugh.",
"Still, if you've never played DKC and a GBA or DS is your only system, you should pick it up.",
"Just know that the game is much better in regular form."
] |
I like Jouer matte moisture tints and was eager to try another jouer product. For the price, I wasn't impressed. This feels like vaseline on my lips - thick and sticky. It isn't tinted and if I'm going to pay that much for a lip balm, it ought to have a tint. For tinted lip balm, I find the Fresh lip treatments to be more comfortable and even the Maybelline Baby Lips are serviceable (if you can get past the packaging). For stickier treatments, I like cheap Blistex that comes in a tub. It works wonders for really chapped lips. For a basic lip balm in a tube, the $6 rose lip balm from Sephora is good.
I didn't really notice plumping with the Jouer Essential Lip Enhancer, but of course the package recommends that you apply 3x a day for a full month to notice that benefit. I just can't be THAT consistent.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"I like Jouer matte moisture tints and was eager to try another jouer product.",
"For the price, I wasn't impressed.",
"This feels like vaseline on my lips - thick and sticky.",
"It isn't tinted and if I'm going to pay that much for a lip balm, it ought to have a tint.",
"For tinted lip balm, I find the Fresh lip treatments to be more comfortable and even the Maybelline Baby Lips are serviceable (if you can get past the packaging).",
"For stickier treatments, I like cheap Blistex that comes in a tub.",
"It works wonders for really chapped lips.",
"For a basic lip balm in a tube, the $6 rose lip balm from Sephora is good.",
"I didn't really notice plumping with the Jouer Essential Lip Enhancer, but of course the package recommends that you apply 3x a day for a full month to notice that benefit.",
"I just can't be THAT consistent."
] |
I bought this game at a Thrift Store for one dollar. It looked brand new making me think it might not be so fun. But, my husband and I play it and think it's okay. No thinking involved and no property cards to keep track of! The board is WAY to small, though. I think with small hands not being so careful it could be a big problem. Everything is crowded together. The Chance cards are very small and thin making it very hard to pick them up. The movable princesses are just printed on cardboard that don't stay in their plastic stands. Those are way too big, also. A slimmer plastic version of the princesses, even if not painted, would have been a big improvement. Overall this is a fun game to play and not too complicated.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"I bought this game at a Thrift Store for one dollar.",
"It looked brand new making me think it might not be so fun.",
"But, my husband and I play it and think it's okay.",
"No thinking involved and no property cards to keep track of!",
"The board is WAY to small, though.",
"I think with small hands not being so careful it could be a big problem.",
"Everything is crowded together.",
"The Chance cards are very small and thin making it very hard to pick them up.",
"The movable princesses are just printed on cardboard that don't stay in their plastic stands.",
"Those are way too big, also.",
"A slimmer plastic version of the princesses, even if not painted, would have been a big improvement.",
"Overall this is a fun game to play and not too complicated."
] |
The music on Pat Metheny's Secret Story is indeed rich in textures. Each song has unique stylings. Some are a little more keyboard focused, some emphasize the guitar, others are more orchestral focused. The pleasing new age feel that exists from track to track is a definite plus.
Where the above CD is quite pleasing on atmosphereics, it is slightly lacking in song structure. Nearly half the tracks excede six minutes in length and several of them just are not too memorable particularly the nearly ten minute epic Finding and Believing. The chanting vocal effect is even a bit overdone.
None the less, Facing West and Antonia are indeed two beautiful songs. Not To Be Forgotten is nice closing mood piece. And there are some pretty moments in many of the other tracks. However, the feeling here for this newbie to Pat Metheny is that there are other recordings that better represent his work.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"The music on Pat Metheny's Secret Story is indeed rich in textures.",
"Each song has unique stylings.",
"Some are a little more keyboard focused, some emphasize the guitar, others are more orchestral focused.",
"The pleasing new age feel that exists from track to track is a definite plus.",
"Where the above CD is quite pleasing on atmosphereics, it is slightly lacking in song structure.",
"Nearly half the tracks excede six minutes in length and several of them just are not too memorable particularly the nearly ten minute epic Finding and Believing.",
"The chanting vocal effect is even a bit overdone.",
"None the less, Facing West and Antonia are indeed two beautiful songs.",
"Not To Be Forgotten is nice closing mood piece.",
"And there are some pretty moments in many of the other tracks.",
"However, the feeling here for this newbie to Pat Metheny is that there are other recordings that better represent his work."
] |
A friend of mine once remarked that CR seesm like a great magazine "until they write about something you actually know a bit about..." and that's the problem with CR. They're great when it comes to quantifiable things like repair frequency, reliability, warranty information and so forth. They're much less useful when it comes to reporting on subjective things, or on technical matters.
That's a problem with trying to review every possible consumer item; you can't be an expert on everything. Sure, CR has their own labs and testers, but they're as likely as not, when confronted with something they can't quantify, to come up with some arbitrary measure and then rate products on that. For example, I've read some hilarious HiFi reviews that never involved actually *listening* to units. Instead, they take some statistic they consider to be critical and rate all units on that. Computer reviews often are very superficial- you'd do far, far better with PC or a similar magazine. And some of their financial advice on life insurance, mortgages and investment has been rather narrow, preaching single solutions for all.
So yeah, read CR when you're buying that next vacuum cleaner, or toaster, or popcorn popper, but before making any major purchasers or investments I'd look a bit further than the pages of CR.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"A friend of mine once remarked that CR seesm like a great magazine \"until they write about something you actually know a bit about...",
"\" and that's the problem with CR.",
"They're great when it comes to quantifiable things like repair frequency, reliability, warranty information and so forth.",
"They're much less useful when it comes to reporting on subjective things, or on technical matters.",
"That's a problem with trying to review every possible consumer item; you can't be an expert on everything.",
"Sure, CR has their own labs and testers, but they're as likely as not, when confronted with something they can't quantify, to come up with some arbitrary measure and then rate products on that.",
"For example, I've read some hilarious HiFi reviews that never involved actually *listening* to units.",
"Instead, they take some statistic they consider to be critical and rate all units on that.",
"Computer reviews often are very superficial- you'd do far, far better with PC or a similar magazine.",
"And some of their financial advice on life insurance, mortgages and investment has been rather narrow, preaching single solutions for all.",
"So yeah, read CR when you're buying that next vacuum cleaner, or toaster, or popcorn popper, but before making any major purchasers or investments I'd look a bit further than the pages of CR."
] |
While I would agree with the other reviewers that this performance is excellent, there are definitely some issues with it. Let me preface this with that I am a classical sound engineer, and have much experience with this repertoire in the recording environment.
To begin, there are some real dynamics problems with this recording. Its as if the orchestra was recorded using overzealous compression while the soloist was placed front and center with artificially exaggerated levels. I am sure the other reviewers would have to admit that Mr. Shaham was placed way to forward in this recording. His violin sounds enormous!
Second, and this is very curious considering this was a studio recording, Mr Shaham's violin begins to go out of tune in the second movement. It is only the lower strings, but it is very evident to my ears-this resolves itself as the music climbs higher, but I am shocked that no one stopped the recording session to address this.
I will say that the performance is excellent, particularly the conducting, as the dynamics in the score, especially at the end of the second movement, are very well articulated by Mr. Previn. While Mr. Shaham is excellent, I feel the emotions of this piece, for whatever reason, are better served by a female player. I have seen Hilary Hahn perform this piece live, and I believe she understands the intentions of Barber to the letter.
All in all, a very good effort by the performers, a seriously questionable effort by the recording company and especially those overseeing this recording session.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"While I would agree with the other reviewers that this performance is excellent, there are definitely some issues with it.",
"Let me preface this with that I am a classical sound engineer, and have much experience with this repertoire in the recording environment.",
"To begin, there are some real dynamics problems with this recording.",
"Its as if the orchestra was recorded using overzealous compression while the soloist was placed front and center with artificially exaggerated levels.",
"I am sure the other reviewers would have to admit that Mr.",
"Shaham was placed way to forward in this recording.",
"His violin sounds enormous!",
"Second, and this is very curious considering this was a studio recording, Mr Shaham's violin begins to go out of tune in the second movement.",
"It is only the lower strings, but it is very evident to my ears-this resolves itself as the music climbs higher, but I am shocked that no one stopped the recording session to address this.",
"I will say that the performance is excellent, particularly the conducting, as the dynamics in the score, especially at the end of the second movement, are very well articulated by Mr.",
"Previn.",
"While Mr.",
"Shaham is excellent, I feel the emotions of this piece, for whatever reason, are better served by a female player.",
"I have seen Hilary Hahn perform this piece live, and I believe she understands the intentions of Barber to the letter.",
"All in all, a very good effort by the performers, a seriously questionable effort by the recording company and especially those overseeing this recording session."
] |
Actually 3 1/2 stars .The Clash' third album London Calling is possibly the most overated album of all time . I understand if you're into punk you want a claim in rock and roll history , but most of the songs on this album are hardly punk . The bulk of the album is reggae or reggae influenced . The title song is great , Brand New Cadillac ( a cover of a Vince Taylor song ) is great too . Ditto for Lost In A Supermarket , a song that sounds like something from Genesis' Duke period . Spanish Bombs , Hateful and Clampdown are good too . There are 18 tracks on this album .What are the other standout songs ? I don't hear 'em . I would think that " one of the great albums of all time " would be solid from top to bottom . The bulk of this album is mediocre pop/ reggae songs . Where's the edge ? I don't hear it . This is one of those albums like Exile On Main Street that's cool too like ... possibly because the critics say so ?
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"Actually 3 1/2 stars.",
"The Clash' third album London Calling is possibly the most overated album of all time.",
"I understand if you're into punk you want a claim in rock and roll history , but most of the songs on this album are hardly punk.",
"The bulk of the album is reggae or reggae influenced.",
"The title song is great , Brand New Cadillac ( a cover of a Vince Taylor song ) is great too.",
"Ditto for Lost In A Supermarket , a song that sounds like something from Genesis' Duke period.",
"Spanish Bombs , Hateful and Clampdown are good too.",
"There are 18 tracks on this album.",
"What are the other standout songs?",
"I don't hear 'em.",
"I would think that \" one of the great albums of all time \" would be solid from top to bottom.",
"The bulk of this album is mediocre pop/ reggae songs.",
"Where's the edge?",
"I don't hear it.",
"This is one of those albums like Exile On Main Street that's cool too like...",
"possibly because the critics say so?"
] |
I wanted to find an alternative to the string cutter because I go through a lot of line and don't like the idea of all that plastic spread around my property. I think this cutter is a good idea but I have two problems with it. It says it fits my Stihl but the only way I could make it work was to use a bushing under it so it would clear the spline part of the shaft. The hole in it is to small for it to seat all the way otherwise. The other issue I have with it is that in the first hour I used it, I broke two of the blades. Admittedly I was using it in some heavy tall brushy grass and I found a couple of old stumps. I had ordered extra blades. It does cut fast and I like that I'm not spreading plastic all over my property. The blades are stamped out and not sharpened but cut pretty good anyway. I sharpened them and it improved their performance a little. I think I'll stick to using it for grass and use a blade for the heavier woody stuff.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"I wanted to find an alternative to the string cutter because I go through a lot of line and don't like the idea of all that plastic spread around my property.",
"I think this cutter is a good idea but I have two problems with it.",
"It says it fits my Stihl but the only way I could make it work was to use a bushing under it so it would clear the spline part of the shaft.",
"The hole in it is to small for it to seat all the way otherwise.",
"The other issue I have with it is that in the first hour I used it, I broke two of the blades.",
"Admittedly I was using it in some heavy tall brushy grass and I found a couple of old stumps.",
"I had ordered extra blades.",
"It does cut fast and I like that I'm not spreading plastic all over my property.",
"The blades are stamped out and not sharpened but cut pretty good anyway.",
"I sharpened them and it improved their performance a little.",
"I think I'll stick to using it for grass and use a blade for the heavier woody stuff."
] |
Pretty good in the first half, since it gives a lot of information about premodern religions (and also, of course, because I'm not knowledgeable enough to spot whatever factual errors there are). She doesn't tie it all together in one neat theoretical pile; but her discussion is interesting enough to camouflage that.
Her distinction between mythos (narratives which are of moral value regardless of their factual accuracy) and logos (pure reason) makes sense to me, even though I question her assertion that it made sense to adherents of premodern religion.
In the last half, this book weakens quite a bit: she has a strong bias in favor of moral equivalence that doesn't hold up real well after 9/11. As a result, she gives every benefit of the doubt to Islam, and is less generous to Christianity and Judaism.
For example, in describing Islamic pogroms in the 1920s, she writes: "On August 24, 1929, during a period of great tension between Arabs and Zionists in Palestine, fifty-nine Jewish men, women and children had been massacred in Hebron." The reference to "great tension between Arabs and Zionists" implies moral equivalency- its not just random murder, it was just "tension" manifesting itself. And note that she doesn't say who did the massacring. I wouldn't describe this as conscious bias; to be fair, I don't think Hamas types would use the term "massacre." But nevertheless I get the sense she is trying a little too hard to be fair to the Arabs.
And in describing 1980s Arab terrorism: "Surrounded by 46,000 militant Jewish settlers, the Arabs became frightened and some resorted to violence." Given that there are, oh, two dozen Arab nations surrounding Israel and trying to wipe it out, the notion that the poor terrorists became "frightened" of Israel seems hard to believe.. In addition, her grasp of Judaism (the religion with which I am most familiar) is none too sure.
A couple of factual errors that I noticed:
*"traditional, conservative faith ... took it for granted that reason could not demonstrate the truth of the kind of myths found in the scriptures." In fact, the Kuzari (13th c. or so) purports to demonstrate the proof of the relevation at Sinai, and thus of Judaism. (Just google "kuzari proof" for lots of arguments pro and con).
*"Before a Jew attends a synagogue service, he bathes in the mikveh, a ritual bath." This may occasionally be true of Hasidim; but the notion that this is the norm for even Orthodox Jews is flat out wrong. (I have more or less regularly attended Orthodox congregations for four of the past five years, and have only heard the word "mikveh" in reference to (a) women or (b) purifying cookware and silverware).
A look at the hostile reviews shows some polarization among readers. Liberal Christians and secularists seem to like this book; religious Jews, conservatives (especially Christian conservatives) and even secular hawks tend to dislike it.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"Pretty good in the first half, since it gives a lot of information about premodern religions (and also, of course, because I'm not knowledgeable enough to spot whatever factual errors there are).",
"She doesn't tie it all together in one neat theoretical pile; but her discussion is interesting enough to camouflage that.",
"Her distinction between mythos (narratives which are of moral value regardless of their factual accuracy) and logos (pure reason) makes sense to me, even though I question her assertion that it made sense to adherents of premodern religion.",
"In the last half, this book weakens quite a bit: she has a strong bias in favor of moral equivalence that doesn't hold up real well after 9/11.",
"As a result, she gives every benefit of the doubt to Islam, and is less generous to Christianity and Judaism.",
"For example, in describing Islamic pogroms in the 1920s, she writes: \"On August 24, 1929, during a period of great tension between Arabs and Zionists in Palestine, fifty-nine Jewish men, women and children had been massacred in Hebron.",
"\" The reference to \"great tension between Arabs and Zionists\" implies moral equivalency- its not just random murder, it was just \"tension\" manifesting itself.",
"And note that she doesn't say who did the massacring.",
"I wouldn't describe this as conscious bias; to be fair, I don't think Hamas types would use the term \"massacre.",
"\" But nevertheless I get the sense she is trying a little too hard to be fair to the Arabs.",
"And in describing 1980s Arab terrorism: \"Surrounded by 46,000 militant Jewish settlers, the Arabs became frightened and some resorted to violence.",
"\" Given that there are, oh, two dozen Arab nations surrounding Israel and trying to wipe it out, the notion that the poor terrorists became \"frightened\" of Israel seems hard to believe..",
"In addition, her grasp of Judaism (the religion with which I am most familiar) is none too sure.",
"A couple of factual errors that I noticed:\n\n*\"traditional, conservative faith...",
"took it for granted that reason could not demonstrate the truth of the kind of myths found in the scriptures.",
"\" In fact, the Kuzari (13th c.",
"or so) purports to demonstrate the proof of the relevation at Sinai, and thus of Judaism.",
"(Just google \"kuzari proof\" for lots of arguments pro and con).",
"*\"Before a Jew attends a synagogue service, he bathes in the mikveh, a ritual bath.",
"\" This may occasionally be true of Hasidim; but the notion that this is the norm for even Orthodox Jews is flat out wrong.",
"(I have more or less regularly attended Orthodox congregations for four of the past five years, and have only heard the word \"mikveh\" in reference to (a) women or (b) purifying cookware and silverware).",
"A look at the hostile reviews shows some polarization among readers.",
"Liberal Christians and secularists seem to like this book; religious Jews, conservatives (especially Christian conservatives) and even secular hawks tend to dislike it."
] |
I was hoping for something catchy, revealing, but the novel is more an imaginative exercise without too much substance to fire up your interest or to help you in the imaginative process. For the '30s this must have been a work of art, but reading it I felt that it almost fails in connecting you to the characters.
Why is an average writing? In my opinion taking reality and twisting it is not imagination. Writing that the world is a "non"world in the years 632 a. F. is not creating a new world all together.
The most important thing that the novel stirred in me was the refusal to grasp the reality described and to "buy" the story.
There is no reason to compare Brave New World to 1984. Making the comparison would not do justice for 1984, we would talk about Epsilons (Brave New World) and Alphas (1984).
If you didn't read any of the two, and insist on reading both, start with Brave New World and than read a masterpiece, 1984.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"I was hoping for something catchy, revealing, but the novel is more an imaginative exercise without too much substance to fire up your interest or to help you in the imaginative process.",
"For the '30s this must have been a work of art, but reading it I felt that it almost fails in connecting you to the characters.",
"Why is an average writing?",
"In my opinion taking reality and twisting it is not imagination.",
"Writing that the world is a \"non\"world in the years 632 a.",
"F.",
"is not creating a new world all together.",
"The most important thing that the novel stirred in me was the refusal to grasp the reality described and to \"buy\" the story.",
"There is no reason to compare Brave New World to 1984.",
"Making the comparison would not do justice for 1984, we would talk about Epsilons (Brave New World) and Alphas (1984).",
"If you didn't read any of the two, and insist on reading both, start with Brave New World and than read a masterpiece, 1984."
] |
Not all the items shown loosely in photo are actually in the set. Missing are the small car and the truck with the stairs. There are variations in the accessories as well. See photo of actual box set that I received at:
[...]
I have not opened the box yet, so I cannot comment on the quality of pieces. Vehicles are 1/64 scale like the Matchbox or Hot Wheels cars. The plane is a smaller scale, as you can see in the picture. The missing 2 vehicles are part of a different larger box set also by Daron Worldwide Trading Inc. Made in China. Says 2012 on box, but one Amazon review from Feb 2010. Makes me wonder if company re-released product after removing 2 vehicles and changing some accessories.
Recommended age 3 and up on packaging. Choking hazards are the included 2 small pieces of luggage, which can fit into a child's mouth.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"Not all the items shown loosely in photo are actually in the set.",
"Missing are the small car and the truck with the stairs.",
"There are variations in the accessories as well.",
"See photo of actual box set that I received at:\n\n[...",
"]\n\nI have not opened the box yet, so I cannot comment on the quality of pieces.",
"Vehicles are 1/64 scale like the Matchbox or Hot Wheels cars.",
"The plane is a smaller scale, as you can see in the picture.",
"The missing 2 vehicles are part of a different larger box set also by Daron Worldwide Trading Inc.",
"Made in China.",
"Says 2012 on box, but one Amazon review from Feb 2010.",
"Makes me wonder if company re-released product after removing 2 vehicles and changing some accessories.",
"Recommended age 3 and up on packaging.",
"Choking hazards are the included 2 small pieces of luggage, which can fit into a child's mouth."
] |
In my weird curious quest to see disturbing kids films I was draw to one of the most gruelling 'Plague Dogs'. This one begins in an animal lab where dogs are being experimented on and we are immediately greeted with a drowning dog meeting its maker, or does he? The film diverges into many compelling moments but it is very bizarre watching animated dogs talking in a cute way but with a bleak atmosphere. It all seems so unsettling and ominous with morbid music and gore throughout.
The scenes are often nightmarish and at times far too strong for children. One of the strongest, and infamous scenes, shows a hunter going after an escaped dog and shooting himself in the face. The scene actually shows the blood pouring out of his face and subsequently dying. We cheer on the actions as the dogs are now free to escape, but the humans as usual are painted in a bad light as the real enemies. This has psychological ramifications that must impact a young child's mind.
Not for kids? John Hurt voices one of the dogs, Snitter, and he seems to love these gory animations as he was also voicing a rabbit in Watership Down. Martin Rosen was the main mind behind the film as he was also with Watership Down so he also seems to revel in kids movies with tons of gore. Richard Adams was also responsible for the novle of both this and Watership Down so easily it can be seen that it is a specific type of film. An animation for teens or adults. It could be argued it is not a kids film but the animated talking animals would be a drawcard so how do you police this type of film? I wonder how many kids have been traumatised by these types of films.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"In my weird curious quest to see disturbing kids films I was draw to one of the most gruelling 'Plague Dogs'.",
"This one begins in an animal lab where dogs are being experimented on and we are immediately greeted with a drowning dog meeting its maker, or does he?",
"The film diverges into many compelling moments but it is very bizarre watching animated dogs talking in a cute way but with a bleak atmosphere.",
"It all seems so unsettling and ominous with morbid music and gore throughout.",
"The scenes are often nightmarish and at times far too strong for children.",
"One of the strongest, and infamous scenes, shows a hunter going after an escaped dog and shooting himself in the face.",
"The scene actually shows the blood pouring out of his face and subsequently dying.",
"We cheer on the actions as the dogs are now free to escape, but the humans as usual are painted in a bad light as the real enemies.",
"This has psychological ramifications that must impact a young child's mind.",
"Not for kids?",
"John Hurt voices one of the dogs, Snitter, and he seems to love these gory animations as he was also voicing a rabbit in Watership Down.",
"Martin Rosen was the main mind behind the film as he was also with Watership Down so he also seems to revel in kids movies with tons of gore.",
"Richard Adams was also responsible for the novle of both this and Watership Down so easily it can be seen that it is a specific type of film.",
"An animation for teens or adults.",
"It could be argued it is not a kids film but the animated talking animals would be a drawcard so how do you police this type of film?",
"I wonder how many kids have been traumatised by these types of films."
] |
While I am a huge fan of Crowe's... this was NOT one of his better performances.
There is plenty of action, more than average suspense but the dialogue is lacking greatly.
Phrases and sentences that just don't make a lot of sense permeate the entire script. More specifically, I found myself saying "would they REALLY say that in this situation???".
Russell drops in and out of his "American" accent, which is a painful reminder of the fact that this is one of the earlier films in his now stalwartly coral of films.
STILL, that all being said... if you are collecting the lot of them... it is worth the purchase if not for anything other than to be able to see just how far he has come.
Enjoy!
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"While I am a huge fan of Crowe's...",
"this was NOT one of his better performances.",
"There is plenty of action, more than average suspense but the dialogue is lacking greatly.",
"Phrases and sentences that just don't make a lot of sense permeate the entire script.",
"More specifically, I found myself saying \"would they REALLY say that in this situation???",
"\".",
"Russell drops in and out of his \"American\" accent, which is a painful reminder of the fact that this is one of the earlier films in his now stalwartly coral of films.",
"STILL, that all being said...",
"if you are collecting the lot of them...",
"it is worth the purchase if not for anything other than to be able to see just how far he has come.",
"Enjoy!"
] |
Pros: Works as it should. Easy connection to the phone. Good talk time. Comfortable fit on the ear. Easy to use.
One Con: I could use this headset without any problems. My wife would get bad echo issues where the person she was talking with heard themselves as an echo. Guess it has to do with the fit to the ear. In my case the path from the earpiece to the mike was blocked but open in her case. She had the same issue with a Motorola H500 earpiece and i can use the same Motorola earpiece fine.
Purchased a Plantronics 510 which works for her. No reports of echo from the person she is talking with.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"Pros: Works as it should.",
"Easy connection to the phone.",
"Good talk time.",
"Comfortable fit on the ear.",
"Easy to use.",
"One Con: I could use this headset without any problems.",
"My wife would get bad echo issues where the person she was talking with heard themselves as an echo.",
"Guess it has to do with the fit to the ear.",
"In my case the path from the earpiece to the mike was blocked but open in her case.",
"She had the same issue with a Motorola H500 earpiece and i can use the same Motorola earpiece fine.",
"Purchased a Plantronics 510 which works for her.",
"No reports of echo from the person she is talking with."
] |
First, I never owned the original album which was Michael Jackson's first album as a solo performer. This album only hints at his genius with his sound and the disco dancing of the time. If this was his first album, it could be seen as a potential of what came with Thriller.
Anyway, this is a must for Michael Jackson fans. I have to say I was disappointed because it's not his best work but most artists don't give their best up at first. Anyway, I was troubled by the fact that my computer Itunes needed the album information such as songs and artist and album name. Also, I was disappointed because the last tracks of the compact disc (the so-called extras) didn't have a name not even on the Compact disc. I know a couple of them are other versions of the same song and interviews with Quincy Jones. I found the interviews to be just bits and pieces and not explained enough for me. I still have listed as the track numbers and I wished that they did name them after the song listings. That's my one pet peeve about this compact disc.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"First, I never owned the original album which was Michael Jackson's first album as a solo performer.",
"This album only hints at his genius with his sound and the disco dancing of the time.",
"If this was his first album, it could be seen as a potential of what came with Thriller.",
"Anyway, this is a must for Michael Jackson fans.",
"I have to say I was disappointed because it's not his best work but most artists don't give their best up at first.",
"Anyway, I was troubled by the fact that my computer Itunes needed the album information such as songs and artist and album name.",
"Also, I was disappointed because the last tracks of the compact disc (the so-called extras) didn't have a name not even on the Compact disc.",
"I know a couple of them are other versions of the same song and interviews with Quincy Jones.",
"I found the interviews to be just bits and pieces and not explained enough for me.",
"I still have listed as the track numbers and I wished that they did name them after the song listings.",
"That's my one pet peeve about this compact disc."
] |
The Seduction of Sophie Seacrest follows a stereotypical romance plot with a few minor variations that don't really distinguish it or make up for its shortcomings. Overall, the story is pleasant and comes to the expected happy ending. For some, the gratuitous sexual interludes will be the high points, but I found most of them to be repetitive and not really necessary to the plot beyond the initial 2 encounters.
The story leaves a wealth of unanswered questions with regard to Holt's murky past and the fires at Langdon shipping. And frankly, I didn't much like the arrogant way Holt behaved. He leaves her without a word because he thinks he loves her???! And he pulls the same cruel stunt TWICE??!!
Mechanically, the writing is sound and devoid of the spelling or grammatical errors which drive me batty. So, the story itself is actually an enjoyable read, as long as you don't think too long about the plot because most of those niggling questions behind the characters' motivations are never answered.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"The Seduction of Sophie Seacrest follows a stereotypical romance plot with a few minor variations that don't really distinguish it or make up for its shortcomings.",
"Overall, the story is pleasant and comes to the expected happy ending.",
"For some, the gratuitous sexual interludes will be the high points, but I found most of them to be repetitive and not really necessary to the plot beyond the initial 2 encounters.",
"The story leaves a wealth of unanswered questions with regard to Holt's murky past and the fires at Langdon shipping.",
"And frankly, I didn't much like the arrogant way Holt behaved.",
"He leaves her without a word because he thinks he loves her???",
"!",
"And he pulls the same cruel stunt TWICE??",
"!!",
"Mechanically, the writing is sound and devoid of the spelling or grammatical errors which drive me batty.",
"So, the story itself is actually an enjoyable read, as long as you don't think too long about the plot because most of those niggling questions behind the characters' motivations are never answered."
] |
This cover for the iPhone 5 snaps on easily to the back of your phone and provides unlimited access to all the functions. The color I chose (Topaz) is far darker in person that the photo; it is more like a deep turquoise than the lighter color in the photo. There is no cover for the work surface but I use screen protectors. I like that this cover is slim and allows me to fit my phone easily into even a small handbag.
My caution is that if you have needs to really protect your phone from harsh handling, I can't see how this cover will do the job. I never drop my phone nor have any children or pets who might damage it. My phone goes from my desk to my purse and back. I need a cover for color and to prevent accidental scratches. This case will do that just fine.
Just think about what you need in a phone cover. There are amazing products on the market if you need more protection. This case seems mostly cosmetic.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"This cover for the iPhone 5 snaps on easily to the back of your phone and provides unlimited access to all the functions.",
"The color I chose (Topaz) is far darker in person that the photo; it is more like a deep turquoise than the lighter color in the photo.",
"There is no cover for the work surface but I use screen protectors.",
"I like that this cover is slim and allows me to fit my phone easily into even a small handbag.",
"My caution is that if you have needs to really protect your phone from harsh handling, I can't see how this cover will do the job.",
"I never drop my phone nor have any children or pets who might damage it.",
"My phone goes from my desk to my purse and back.",
"I need a cover for color and to prevent accidental scratches.",
"This case will do that just fine.",
"Just think about what you need in a phone cover.",
"There are amazing products on the market if you need more protection.",
"This case seems mostly cosmetic."
] |
First, let's be clear: this album was recorded in 1987, not 1997. (There's either a mistake on Amazon, or they're referring to a newly remastered edition, I'm not sure.)
I'm listening to this music from the perspective of 2012, and the passage of time changes things. For example, some of Russel Ferrante's keyboard textures will sound dated to many listeners. And David Hentschel's gauzy production makes clear the direction this music is headed in: jazz fusion is here on its way to turning into smooth jazz. And I'm sorry, I just don't like smooth jazz, not because it isn't hip, but because I need music to be interesting to listen to, not just a pleasant background for cocktail parties.
Having said all that, I hasten to add that this music is a far cry from Kenny G. There is substance to this music. Yes, it is striving to be accessible and commercial, but it isn't leaving the jazz audience behind the way Kenny G's music does. The compositions are generally interesting, and there's both skill and passion in the playing.
Will I end up playing this CD a lot? Probably not. I prefer the version of Yellowjackets that began with the addition of Bob Mintzer. At that point, their music didn't sound "commercial" to me any more. It was the sound of master musicians playing the music they wanted to play, happy to have you along for the ride, but not willing to water things down for mass consumption. Although I am not condemning this music by any means, I would recommend just about any album by the Mintzer unit over this one, for true jazz enthusiasts. (By the way, the first album to feature Mintzer's playing was 1990's "Greenhouse." Many excellent albums were to follow.)
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"First, let's be clear: this album was recorded in 1987, not 1997.",
"(There's either a mistake on Amazon, or they're referring to a newly remastered edition, I'm not sure.",
")\n\nI'm listening to this music from the perspective of 2012, and the passage of time changes things.",
"For example, some of Russel Ferrante's keyboard textures will sound dated to many listeners.",
"And David Hentschel's gauzy production makes clear the direction this music is headed in: jazz fusion is here on its way to turning into smooth jazz.",
"And I'm sorry, I just don't like smooth jazz, not because it isn't hip, but because I need music to be interesting to listen to, not just a pleasant background for cocktail parties.",
"Having said all that, I hasten to add that this music is a far cry from Kenny G.",
"There is substance to this music.",
"Yes, it is striving to be accessible and commercial, but it isn't leaving the jazz audience behind the way Kenny G's music does.",
"The compositions are generally interesting, and there's both skill and passion in the playing.",
"Will I end up playing this CD a lot?",
"Probably not.",
"I prefer the version of Yellowjackets that began with the addition of Bob Mintzer.",
"At that point, their music didn't sound \"commercial\" to me any more.",
"It was the sound of master musicians playing the music they wanted to play, happy to have you along for the ride, but not willing to water things down for mass consumption.",
"Although I am not condemning this music by any means, I would recommend just about any album by the Mintzer unit over this one, for true jazz enthusiasts.",
"(By the way, the first album to feature Mintzer's playing was 1990's \"Greenhouse.",
"\" Many excellent albums were to follow.",
")"
] |
Mr. Fantasy was an exception to the marketing ploy used by US record companies during the 60's. Most companies would repackage albums (a la the original US releases of both The Beatles and the Stones back catalog)and try to get more from less by loping off songs to create "new albums" (which is how the famous butcher cover came to be on The Beatles' Yesterday and Today). When Mr. Fantasy was finally released in the US (a month or so after its UK appearence)most of the weaker tunes by Dave Mason were cut in favor of the band's strong selection of singles. The net result was an album with 12 tracks instead of 10 and a rearranged running order that markedly improved the album.
The Mr. Fantasy CD shares the same basic flaws as the original album. Bill Levenson opted to release both the mono UK original and stereo US original albums separately. His decision makes sense as both albums sound remarkable different after their "plastic" surgery. Heaven Is In Your Mind (the US version of Mr. Fantasy) is the stronger of the two. The running order evens out the tone of the original album. The inclusion of Paper Sun and Smiling Phases only improves the album as both songs were catchy material. They probably would have made the original album if they hadn't been released as singles.
The sound quality on both these albums is spectacular and a surprising improvement on the the UK CD (which combined both the stereo Mr. Fantasy and mono release for Heaven is in Your Mind). While that CD benefited from 24 bit sound, the use of Sonic Solutions No Noise process homogenized the album. The result was an album that sacrificed the original album's sound for a technological sheen. Reissue Producer Levenson wisely chose to have this remastered and resequenced.
So you do get more for less although in this case it's an improvement unless you're on a budget. Levenson has added the mono tracks from the film soundtrack Here We Go Round The Mulbury Bush and the mono single mixes for both Paper Sun and Smiling Phases. The two albums have minor differences for example some of the mono tracks run a bit longer and feature slightly different mixes from the stereo ones (similiar to the Beatles' catalog up to and including the White Album). In fact, Mr. Fantasy runs longer than Heaven even though it has one less song on it.
I'd recommend picking up both for hardcore Traffic fans and those not on a budget. The only complain I have is with the liner notes; they are still full of mistakes (some of them unintentionally hilarous). I'm surprised they weren't corrected from the UK notes. They are still pretty informative without resulting to overkill but it would have been nicer to have an explanation as to why the UK and US versions of this album ended up so remarkably different (aside from the fact that Dave Mason had left the band by the time this was released).
Levenson made the wise choice of splitting these distinctive albums up and adding the bonus tracks. Levenson has also done an outstanding job on the band's second album (Traffic). The UK edition had some important bonus tracks (kept for the US release although they are the US mono single mixes)but the producers saw fit to include the Mulberry Bush tracks as bonus selections. While that was a nice extra (especially since they weren't on the Mr. Fantasy UK CD)they were out of context (as they were recorded prior to the first album)and don't quite fit. Levenson and his staff have done a terrific job in a very difficult field.
I'd still recommend HIIYM over MF as it is the stronger of the two albums.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"Mr.",
"Fantasy was an exception to the marketing ploy used by US record companies during the 60's.",
"Most companies would repackage albums (a la the original US releases of both The Beatles and the Stones back catalog)and try to get more from less by loping off songs to create \"new albums\" (which is how the famous butcher cover came to be on The Beatles' Yesterday and Today).",
"When Mr.",
"Fantasy was finally released in the US (a month or so after its UK appearence)most of the weaker tunes by Dave Mason were cut in favor of the band's strong selection of singles.",
"The net result was an album with 12 tracks instead of 10 and a rearranged running order that markedly improved the album.",
"The Mr.",
"Fantasy CD shares the same basic flaws as the original album.",
"Bill Levenson opted to release both the mono UK original and stereo US original albums separately.",
"His decision makes sense as both albums sound remarkable different after their \"plastic\" surgery.",
"Heaven Is In Your Mind (the US version of Mr.",
"Fantasy) is the stronger of the two.",
"The running order evens out the tone of the original album.",
"The inclusion of Paper Sun and Smiling Phases only improves the album as both songs were catchy material.",
"They probably would have made the original album if they hadn't been released as singles.",
"The sound quality on both these albums is spectacular and a surprising improvement on the the UK CD (which combined both the stereo Mr.",
"Fantasy and mono release for Heaven is in Your Mind).",
"While that CD benefited from 24 bit sound, the use of Sonic Solutions No Noise process homogenized the album.",
"The result was an album that sacrificed the original album's sound for a technological sheen.",
"Reissue Producer Levenson wisely chose to have this remastered and resequenced.",
"So you do get more for less although in this case it's an improvement unless you're on a budget.",
"Levenson has added the mono tracks from the film soundtrack Here We Go Round The Mulbury Bush and the mono single mixes for both Paper Sun and Smiling Phases.",
"The two albums have minor differences for example some of the mono tracks run a bit longer and feature slightly different mixes from the stereo ones (similiar to the Beatles' catalog up to and including the White Album).",
"In fact, Mr.",
"Fantasy runs longer than Heaven even though it has one less song on it.",
"I'd recommend picking up both for hardcore Traffic fans and those not on a budget.",
"The only complain I have is with the liner notes; they are still full of mistakes (some of them unintentionally hilarous).",
"I'm surprised they weren't corrected from the UK notes.",
"They are still pretty informative without resulting to overkill but it would have been nicer to have an explanation as to why the UK and US versions of this album ended up so remarkably different (aside from the fact that Dave Mason had left the band by the time this was released).",
"Levenson made the wise choice of splitting these distinctive albums up and adding the bonus tracks.",
"Levenson has also done an outstanding job on the band's second album (Traffic).",
"The UK edition had some important bonus tracks (kept for the US release although they are the US mono single mixes)but the producers saw fit to include the Mulberry Bush tracks as bonus selections.",
"While that was a nice extra (especially since they weren't on the Mr.",
"Fantasy UK CD)they were out of context (as they were recorded prior to the first album)and don't quite fit.",
"Levenson and his staff have done a terrific job in a very difficult field.",
"I'd still recommend HIIYM over MF as it is the stronger of the two albums."
] |
My heart sunk to get this gift from well-meaning grandparents. It was love at first sight for my 19 m. old though.
I disliked it because the size (yikes), the shade of green (vomity), and the idea that it probably would fall during the night shortly after hanging (how can those little strips hold all that junk in a wet shower?). Well, the size is so-so in the bathtub, the color is still yuck, and of course it fell, and of course, at night. It fell in about 1 weeks time. I am giving it three stars because my son adores it and I will try the other reviewers recommendations to getting the darn thing to stick.
And I am stuck with it - Grandma offered to throw out the packaging to make traveling home easier. Yippee...
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"My heart sunk to get this gift from well-meaning grandparents.",
"It was love at first sight for my 19 m.",
"old though.",
"I disliked it because the size (yikes), the shade of green (vomity), and the idea that it probably would fall during the night shortly after hanging (how can those little strips hold all that junk in a wet shower?",
").",
"Well, the size is so-so in the bathtub, the color is still yuck, and of course it fell, and of course, at night.",
"It fell in about 1 weeks time.",
"I am giving it three stars because my son adores it and I will try the other reviewers recommendations to getting the darn thing to stick.",
"And I am stuck with it - Grandma offered to throw out the packaging to make traveling home easier.",
"Yippee..."
] |
Three Stars/It's Okay pretty accurately reflects how I feel about this book. This is 8th/9th grade level writing (obviously with a little bit more profantiy), and it's more of an essay than it is a book (calling this book is a joke, it's much too short to be a real book). It reads more like the ramblings of a person than it is an organized text, which is fine. It didn't bother me, but I also didn't care too much for it. Basically: if you've smoked weed with your friends and talked about the vastness of the Universe, you've already heard everything in this book. You might've even heard it verbatim. Not "giving a rip" about anything is a nice, idealistic way to live, but the author never once acknowledged any of the drawbacks (which, IMO, makes for a poor argument). I wouldn't say that I regret reading this, but it also didn't make my life better because it rephrases the same arguments I've heard a million times about "grabbing life by the horns" and "Carpe Diem!". If you're into the kind of books that motivate you to yell "YOLO", by all means, this is the book for you. But as others have said, if you're an adult with a very basic level of education, this isn't really for you. This might be better suited to a "wanna-be edgy" 14 year old who needs some help to motivate him to ditch the videogames in favor of something more fulfilling.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"Three Stars/It's Okay pretty accurately reflects how I feel about this book.",
"This is 8th/9th grade level writing (obviously with a little bit more profantiy), and it's more of an essay than it is a book (calling this book is a joke, it's much too short to be a real book).",
"It reads more like the ramblings of a person than it is an organized text, which is fine.",
"It didn't bother me, but I also didn't care too much for it.",
"Basically: if you've smoked weed with your friends and talked about the vastness of the Universe, you've already heard everything in this book.",
"You might've even heard it verbatim.",
"Not \"giving a rip\" about anything is a nice, idealistic way to live, but the author never once acknowledged any of the drawbacks (which, IMO, makes for a poor argument).",
"I wouldn't say that I regret reading this, but it also didn't make my life better because it rephrases the same arguments I've heard a million times about \"grabbing life by the horns\" and \"Carpe Diem!",
"\".",
"If you're into the kind of books that motivate you to yell \"YOLO\", by all means, this is the book for you.",
"But as others have said, if you're an adult with a very basic level of education, this isn't really for you.",
"This might be better suited to a \"wanna-be edgy\" 14 year old who needs some help to motivate him to ditch the videogames in favor of something more fulfilling."
] |
OK, I own all 3 "next gen" systems (Wii, xbox 360, and PS3), and the PS3 ranks at the bottom of the totem pole. It drives me crazy how a system with everything the PS3 boasts (outstanding graffix, HDMI, Blu Ray Player, etc), and it seems like there are only a couple great games for it. Ninja Gaiden is awesome, but the overall roster of games just flat out isn't getting it done. Maybe I just had too high of expectations, but PS3- exclusive titles seem to be disappearing as well. There have already been a couple games that were hyped to be great, but they turned out to be anything but great. Hopefully Sony will get things together soon. Im playing more 360 than I would have liked.
Bottomline, the Wii also struggles with a shallow roster of great games, but the Wii DOES have a lot of good games- especially for my children. The Xbox 360 is a beast- it has a ton of great games, Xbox Live, outstanding graffix, and it just went on sale (price cut). The 360 does have hardware malfunctions, but Microsoft has stepped up to the plate and extended the warranty AND fixed the problem in new consoles manufactured (from what I gather). If your buying a console for younger kids- look at the Wii first. If your buying a console for a teenager or adult- look at the Xbox 360. I would wait on the PS3. Wait and see if the games improve, and while your waiting, the price will get smaller- as a bonus. Im only being honest.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"OK, I own all 3 \"next gen\" systems (Wii, xbox 360, and PS3), and the PS3 ranks at the bottom of the totem pole.",
"It drives me crazy how a system with everything the PS3 boasts (outstanding graffix, HDMI, Blu Ray Player, etc), and it seems like there are only a couple great games for it.",
"Ninja Gaiden is awesome, but the overall roster of games just flat out isn't getting it done.",
"Maybe I just had too high of expectations, but PS3- exclusive titles seem to be disappearing as well.",
"There have already been a couple games that were hyped to be great, but they turned out to be anything but great.",
"Hopefully Sony will get things together soon.",
"Im playing more 360 than I would have liked.",
"Bottomline, the Wii also struggles with a shallow roster of great games, but the Wii DOES have a lot of good games- especially for my children.",
"The Xbox 360 is a beast- it has a ton of great games, Xbox Live, outstanding graffix, and it just went on sale (price cut).",
"The 360 does have hardware malfunctions, but Microsoft has stepped up to the plate and extended the warranty AND fixed the problem in new consoles manufactured (from what I gather).",
"If your buying a console for younger kids- look at the Wii first.",
"If your buying a console for a teenager or adult- look at the Xbox 360.",
"I would wait on the PS3.",
"Wait and see if the games improve, and while your waiting, the price will get smaller- as a bonus.",
"Im only being honest."
] |
Ehh, the light is bright but the mounting system needs redesigned. I bought one to use on my lengthy 50-100 mile rides thinking it would be the perfect light when teamed up with another on my seat post. I got about 65 miles into a 100 mile ride and a follow rider noticed the light come of and land in the road. The light came out of its mounting assembly and fell into several pieces. I was unable to keep the lens/battery cover snapped in place. Had to toss it in my pocket. Note that I ride an average of 5000 miles per year on varying conditions of road surface. None of my other lights fell apart like this one did! Especially on the first ride with the light.
Long story short, I got home and examined the light and the clips that hold the lens to the body of the light aren't sufficient to keep the assembly together. Took photos, and emailed requesting replacement from Planet Bike. They were quick to apologize and sent me out a replacement which arrived in a couple of days. Unfortunate for me is that I lost any confidence that I had for this light. I might try it again some day but only as a second light. Meanwhile the unopened replacement sits on a shelf in my bike room.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"Ehh, the light is bright but the mounting system needs redesigned.",
"I bought one to use on my lengthy 50-100 mile rides thinking it would be the perfect light when teamed up with another on my seat post.",
"I got about 65 miles into a 100 mile ride and a follow rider noticed the light come of and land in the road.",
"The light came out of its mounting assembly and fell into several pieces.",
"I was unable to keep the lens/battery cover snapped in place.",
"Had to toss it in my pocket.",
"Note that I ride an average of 5000 miles per year on varying conditions of road surface.",
"None of my other lights fell apart like this one did!",
"Especially on the first ride with the light.",
"Long story short, I got home and examined the light and the clips that hold the lens to the body of the light aren't sufficient to keep the assembly together.",
"Took photos, and emailed requesting replacement from Planet Bike.",
"They were quick to apologize and sent me out a replacement which arrived in a couple of days.",
"Unfortunate for me is that I lost any confidence that I had for this light.",
"I might try it again some day but only as a second light.",
"Meanwhile the unopened replacement sits on a shelf in my bike room."
] |
When Lord Bernard meets Lady Joanna, he is immediately entranced by & curious about her. He soon discovers that she is trapped in a horrible marriage & vows that he will not only rescue her, but he will also wed & protect her. Of course, he doesn't know how, short of outright murder. What's a lord to do?
This novella made for a nice little read on a slow night. I like books with a medieval setting, which is what first caught my eye with this. I also really liked the story, which was a little different than the norm. However, though I liked the characters, I didn't think they were developed enough. The resolution of the conflict was too quick & easy, too. Though I wouldn't have wanted Joanna to have been trapped by her husband too long (& who would?), the ending still seemed too easy. Obviously, b/c this is a novella, many things had to be glossed over, but I think Gleason would have done better to go for a full-length novel with this.
The dialogue was ok, although some word choices didn't click for me. The prose was also ok, but it was stronger in some areas than others. I enjoyed reading about the jousting tournament. Gleason had a good idea here, but I think she short-changed herself by limiting it to a novella. I don't know that I'll read the rest of the books in the series, but I'm not opposed to the idea.
Bottom line is that this is an ok novella at an ok price. It was nice, but I think Gleason could do better.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"When Lord Bernard meets Lady Joanna, he is immediately entranced by & curious about her.",
"He soon discovers that she is trapped in a horrible marriage & vows that he will not only rescue her, but he will also wed & protect her.",
"Of course, he doesn't know how, short of outright murder.",
"What's a lord to do?",
"This novella made for a nice little read on a slow night.",
"I like books with a medieval setting, which is what first caught my eye with this.",
"I also really liked the story, which was a little different than the norm.",
"However, though I liked the characters, I didn't think they were developed enough.",
"The resolution of the conflict was too quick & easy, too.",
"Though I wouldn't have wanted Joanna to have been trapped by her husband too long (& who would?",
"), the ending still seemed too easy.",
"Obviously, b/c this is a novella, many things had to be glossed over, but I think Gleason would have done better to go for a full-length novel with this.",
"The dialogue was ok, although some word choices didn't click for me.",
"The prose was also ok, but it was stronger in some areas than others.",
"I enjoyed reading about the jousting tournament.",
"Gleason had a good idea here, but I think she short-changed herself by limiting it to a novella.",
"I don't know that I'll read the rest of the books in the series, but I'm not opposed to the idea.",
"Bottom line is that this is an ok novella at an ok price.",
"It was nice, but I think Gleason could do better."
] |
The problem with Boys Like Girls' 2006 self-titled debut was that the group sounded like a mid-decade answer to earlier bands such as Simple Plan or Good Charlotte. It was easy to imagine putting various CDs into a stereo and hitting the shuffle button only to guess which group was blaring through the speakers. A few tracks share this on new sophomore set "Love Drunk," but the majority retain distinct flavor.
The verses surrounding the chorus of the Top 40 title track are probing and intriguing, and the jagged, fluctuating ear candy chorus of opening cut "Heart Heart Heartbreak," another potential hit single, indicates that the band has grown stronger. "The Real Thing," which smacks of Bon Jovi (in this case, a good thing) has an awesome lyric which works in all the right spots - relatable sans cliches, stream-of-conscious without being offbeat - as well as a winning, bombastic melody and awesome guitar riffs.
These are the kinds of songs that stick around in the minds of listeners upon repeated plays without wearing out their welcome prematurely, and they make merely adequate tracks like "Shot Heard 'Round the World" and the cute but less interesting "Contagious" sound better by rubbing against them.
Of particular interest are the ballads, the best of which find the band hitting a particular stride and threshold of quality. It is a lyrically banal coming-of-age tune, but "Someone Like You," with its solid, memorable melody and soul-searching, emotionally sincere vocal performance from frontman Martin Johnson elevate it to a stone cold winner. The lo-fi closer "Go" has beauty and bite, and "Two Is Better Than One," which is aided more by Taylor Swift's big-thing-of-the-moment star power than quality vocals (she does fine, but technically she is not ideal), is a potential monster hit with its sweeping arrangements and over-the-top romantic idealism. It is precision-tooled to win over legions of young women and annoy their boyfriends for extended lengths of time.
"Love Drunk" is a sturdy collection of tunes that avoids the sophomore slump. Boys Like Girls up their ante considerably. This record is bound to spin off hits for at least a year.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"The problem with Boys Like Girls' 2006 self-titled debut was that the group sounded like a mid-decade answer to earlier bands such as Simple Plan or Good Charlotte.",
"It was easy to imagine putting various CDs into a stereo and hitting the shuffle button only to guess which group was blaring through the speakers.",
"A few tracks share this on new sophomore set \"Love Drunk,\" but the majority retain distinct flavor.",
"The verses surrounding the chorus of the Top 40 title track are probing and intriguing, and the jagged, fluctuating ear candy chorus of opening cut \"Heart Heart Heartbreak,\" another potential hit single, indicates that the band has grown stronger.",
"\"The Real Thing,\" which smacks of Bon Jovi (in this case, a good thing) has an awesome lyric which works in all the right spots - relatable sans cliches, stream-of-conscious without being offbeat - as well as a winning, bombastic melody and awesome guitar riffs.",
"These are the kinds of songs that stick around in the minds of listeners upon repeated plays without wearing out their welcome prematurely, and they make merely adequate tracks like \"Shot Heard 'Round the World\" and the cute but less interesting \"Contagious\" sound better by rubbing against them.",
"Of particular interest are the ballads, the best of which find the band hitting a particular stride and threshold of quality.",
"It is a lyrically banal coming-of-age tune, but \"Someone Like You,\" with its solid, memorable melody and soul-searching, emotionally sincere vocal performance from frontman Martin Johnson elevate it to a stone cold winner.",
"The lo-fi closer \"Go\" has beauty and bite, and \"Two Is Better Than One,\" which is aided more by Taylor Swift's big-thing-of-the-moment star power than quality vocals (she does fine, but technically she is not ideal), is a potential monster hit with its sweeping arrangements and over-the-top romantic idealism.",
"It is precision-tooled to win over legions of young women and annoy their boyfriends for extended lengths of time.",
"\"Love Drunk\" is a sturdy collection of tunes that avoids the sophomore slump.",
"Boys Like Girls up their ante considerably.",
"This record is bound to spin off hits for at least a year."
] |
these speakers look sharp, especially alongside a black flat-screen monitor. connecting the speakers is a breeze and only takes a couple of minutes.
the sound is average, and at least part of this can be attributed to the 3" drivers on the satellites being pointed down at the desk instead of out towards the listener. the satellites distort fairly easily as volume increases, and they don't deliver much in the way of midrange. the bass is clean and strong at low-to-medium volume levels, but the subwoofer struggles occasionally at higher volume and lower frequencies. these speakers do not fare well with classical or jazz, but will suit most pop/rock listeners just fine.
people claim to be "audiophiles," but the term is overused and usually not warranted. if you want to know how any speakers sound, listen for yourself either in a store or [preferably] your room. if they sound good to you, then great. if they don't, then find something else and don't rely on the opinions of five reviewers when trying to choose the right speakers.
i had these ATP3's, but their tinny sound and lack of midrange led me to other speaker manufacturers. i ended up obtaining the klipsch promedia 2.1 speakers. while they are dramatically more expensive, their sound is unparalleled for a 2.1 setup. if money is no object, go with klipsch. otherwise, the altec ATP3s do an adequate job of filling a small room with decent sound at a reasonable price.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"these speakers look sharp, especially alongside a black flat-screen monitor.",
"connecting the speakers is a breeze and only takes a couple of minutes.",
"the sound is average, and at least part of this can be attributed to the 3\" drivers on the satellites being pointed down at the desk instead of out towards the listener.",
"the satellites distort fairly easily as volume increases, and they don't deliver much in the way of midrange.",
"the bass is clean and strong at low-to-medium volume levels, but the subwoofer struggles occasionally at higher volume and lower frequencies.",
"these speakers do not fare well with classical or jazz, but will suit most pop/rock listeners just fine.",
"people claim to be \"audiophiles,\" but the term is overused and usually not warranted.",
"if you want to know how any speakers sound, listen for yourself either in a store or [preferably] your room.",
"if they sound good to you, then great.",
"if they don't, then find something else and don't rely on the opinions of five reviewers when trying to choose the right speakers.",
"i had these ATP3's, but their tinny sound and lack of midrange led me to other speaker manufacturers.",
"i ended up obtaining the klipsch promedia 2.",
"1 speakers.",
"while they are dramatically more expensive, their sound is unparalleled for a 2.",
"1 setup.",
"if money is no object, go with klipsch.",
"otherwise, the altec ATP3s do an adequate job of filling a small room with decent sound at a reasonable price."
] |
Microsoft MapPoint 2009 seems like overkill when it comes to personal use. I know you can get directions using it, but you can just as easily do that with MapQuest, Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, etc. I know you can use it as a GPS program with the proper GPS hardware, but that's a fairly expensive solution when there are much more user-friendly, less expensive (and often more up-to-date) solutions readily available at any store that sells electronics. No, for personal use, MapPoint 2009 is very nearly extreme overkill.
What MapPoint 2009 will enable you to do from a business perspective is more useful. The data mapping features are welcome and well-implemented (even though the overall interface is a bit clunky, not exactly surprising for a Microsoft product, but it does work). The ability to pull and import your own statistical data could be useful to someone in a corporate environment, but again, is largely useless for a personal user. Being able to import data into MS Office applications is relatively smooth, which is probably one of the biggest strengths the software has for business users (who are already intimately familiar with MS Office; web-based mapping software is often not as obliging).
MapPoint 2009 is a decent program, if you're in the business demographic that it obviously seems to be catering too. If you're just looking for something to get driving directions, stick to Google Maps or invest in an inexpensive GPS unit. If you're looking for a way to incorporate mapping data into reports or documents, then you might want to give MapPoint 2009 (or now 2010) a closer look.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"Microsoft MapPoint 2009 seems like overkill when it comes to personal use.",
"I know you can get directions using it, but you can just as easily do that with MapQuest, Google Maps, Yahoo!",
"Maps, etc.",
"I know you can use it as a GPS program with the proper GPS hardware, but that's a fairly expensive solution when there are much more user-friendly, less expensive (and often more up-to-date) solutions readily available at any store that sells electronics.",
"No, for personal use, MapPoint 2009 is very nearly extreme overkill.",
"What MapPoint 2009 will enable you to do from a business perspective is more useful.",
"The data mapping features are welcome and well-implemented (even though the overall interface is a bit clunky, not exactly surprising for a Microsoft product, but it does work).",
"The ability to pull and import your own statistical data could be useful to someone in a corporate environment, but again, is largely useless for a personal user.",
"Being able to import data into MS Office applications is relatively smooth, which is probably one of the biggest strengths the software has for business users (who are already intimately familiar with MS Office; web-based mapping software is often not as obliging).",
"MapPoint 2009 is a decent program, if you're in the business demographic that it obviously seems to be catering too.",
"If you're just looking for something to get driving directions, stick to Google Maps or invest in an inexpensive GPS unit.",
"If you're looking for a way to incorporate mapping data into reports or documents, then you might want to give MapPoint 2009 (or now 2010) a closer look."
] |
I love this game, but sometimes it shuts down on me suddenly and I have to replay an entire scenario over again. I'm running this game on Windows 8.1 Pro and it works great except for the shutting down part. Installation was fairly easy and straight forward though.
Another problem I have with it sometimes is the screen gets locked into an infinite rotation. It would just spin round and round. I would have to save the game and restart it for it to stop doing that.
Other than those 2 issues I have with it I can spend hours at a time playing this game. I have all the graphics options turned up to maximum and the game is just beautiful. Runs smoothly and no lagging even with millions of things going on at once on the screen. I would have given 5 stars if it weren't for the bugs that need patching. Patch please???
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"I love this game, but sometimes it shuts down on me suddenly and I have to replay an entire scenario over again.",
"I'm running this game on Windows 8.",
"1 Pro and it works great except for the shutting down part.",
"Installation was fairly easy and straight forward though.",
"Another problem I have with it sometimes is the screen gets locked into an infinite rotation.",
"It would just spin round and round.",
"I would have to save the game and restart it for it to stop doing that.",
"Other than those 2 issues I have with it I can spend hours at a time playing this game.",
"I have all the graphics options turned up to maximum and the game is just beautiful.",
"Runs smoothly and no lagging even with millions of things going on at once on the screen.",
"I would have given 5 stars if it weren't for the bugs that need patching.",
"Patch please???"
] |
Have worn this lacy style (or the 'plain' style) for many years, same size, 6. This order contained the lacy style in Nude and Mocha Mist colors. The Mocha Mist briefs fit as usual. But the Nude briefs looked smaller than usual and after washing and wearing those briefs I can say for sure that they are smaller, close to one size smaller. Not as comfortable as if they were the same size as other size 6's.
Have noticed, as have other reviewers, that the quality of these briefs has declined over the years. The elastic used to be soft and smooth. Now the elastic is rougher and scratchy and some pairs stretch out immediately. And the seams often rip out too. But when I can find ones that are apparently better-made I buy them as these are comfy briefs!
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"Have worn this lacy style (or the 'plain' style) for many years, same size, 6.",
"This order contained the lacy style in Nude and Mocha Mist colors.",
"The Mocha Mist briefs fit as usual.",
"But the Nude briefs looked smaller than usual and after washing and wearing those briefs I can say for sure that they are smaller, close to one size smaller.",
"Not as comfortable as if they were the same size as other size 6's.",
"Have noticed, as have other reviewers, that the quality of these briefs has declined over the years.",
"The elastic used to be soft and smooth.",
"Now the elastic is rougher and scratchy and some pairs stretch out immediately.",
"And the seams often rip out too.",
"But when I can find ones that are apparently better-made I buy them as these are comfy briefs!"
] |
3.5 stars
** short story - about 53 pages **
Geez Loueeeeez. W.T.F. is up with some of these f/f book covers?!?! It's bad enough so many of my lesfic publishers put pictures of trees and hospitals on the covers and are afraid of getting too sexy... but these publishers who cater to the f/f pool of readers (mostly men, I gather) are afraid of putting butches on the cover. Or they SERIOUSLY never look like the leads inside. Or it looks like the cover of Penthouse. Is there no honesty or a happy medium??? pfft.
Okay. Got that off my chest. I like Paisley Smith but I never bothered ever reading the synopsis of this one due to the cover until I got REALLY interested in her work, lol. Glad I did. This is definitely one of my favorite Paisley couples.
In this one we meet an early 20something boyish lesbian in boots and jeans.... who falls for her very mature and widowed 30something piano teacher. Emily Granger is beautiful, wealthy, and blonde. I love the classy way she is described and the fact that she hasn't been sexually fulfilled before. Love an author who doesn't forget to give me a visual of her lovely legs. Or her lovely skirt. Or the way her hair falls about her shoulders. I love these visuals. Emily's femininity emanates right off the page... my favorite thing about Paisley's femmes. They are genuinely feminine and delicate... and just passive enough to create a very delicious dynamic with a butch who knows how to take control.
I can't get enough of her butch / femme couples when they are like these two. It's what I liked about her story Beguiled. And Beauty and the Butch. Unfortunately, it's not a long story and won't take too long to read at 50ish pages. Even so, I'd of probably rated it 4 stars if the stupid drunken brother-in-law hadn't cut in on this story with the lame conflict. The last bit of the story was... meh. But I liked the epilogue.
The sex is very hot. I'm not sure why this butch didn't show up packing to those lustful piano lessons at LEAST once... that no-harness dildo scene just didn't cut it, Paisley. The butch shoulda been packing!!!!. lol. Other than that... loved the sex scenes. Very, very sexy couple. Loved them both.
I would love to see this one as an erotic-romance novel. It's the perfect draft for such a better story.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"3.",
"5 stars\n\n** short story - about 53 pages **\n\nGeez Loueeeeez.",
"W.",
"T.F. is up with some of these f/f book covers?!",
"?!",
"It's bad enough so many of my lesfic publishers put pictures of trees and hospitals on the covers and are afraid of getting too sexy...",
"but these publishers who cater to the f/f pool of readers (mostly men, I gather) are afraid of putting butches on the cover.",
"Or they SERIOUSLY never look like the leads inside.",
"Or it looks like the cover of Penthouse.",
"Is there no honesty or a happy medium???",
"pfft.",
"Okay.",
"Got that off my chest.",
"I like Paisley Smith but I never bothered ever reading the synopsis of this one due to the cover until I got REALLY interested in her work, lol.",
"Glad I did.",
"This is definitely one of my favorite Paisley couples.",
"In this one we meet an early 20something boyish lesbian in boots and jeans....",
"who falls for her very mature and widowed 30something piano teacher.",
"Emily Granger is beautiful, wealthy, and blonde.",
"I love the classy way she is described and the fact that she hasn't been sexually fulfilled before.",
"Love an author who doesn't forget to give me a visual of her lovely legs.",
"Or her lovely skirt.",
"Or the way her hair falls about her shoulders.",
"I love these visuals.",
"Emily's femininity emanates right off the page...",
"my favorite thing about Paisley's femmes.",
"They are genuinely feminine and delicate...",
"and just passive enough to create a very delicious dynamic with a butch who knows how to take control.",
"I can't get enough of her butch / femme couples when they are like these two.",
"It's what I liked about her story Beguiled.",
"And Beauty and the Butch.",
"Unfortunately, it's not a long story and won't take too long to read at 50ish pages.",
"Even so, I'd of probably rated it 4 stars if the stupid drunken brother-in-law hadn't cut in on this story with the lame conflict.",
"The last bit of the story was...",
"meh.",
"But I liked the epilogue.",
"The sex is very hot.",
"I'm not sure why this butch didn't show up packing to those lustful piano lessons at LEAST once...",
"that no-harness dildo scene just didn't cut it, Paisley.",
"The butch shoulda been packing!!!!",
".",
"lol.",
"Other than that...",
"loved the sex scenes.",
"Very, very sexy couple.",
"Loved them both.",
"I would love to see this one as an erotic-romance novel.",
"It's the perfect draft for such a better story."
] |
I like citrus fragrances & I like white flowers so this should be a scent I adore. I like it fine but the mango & dried fruits make it a bit too fruity for me. This is not over-the-top fruit, the jasmine & neroli keep it in check but I'm really OVER the frooty tooty scents. This one is not fake and cloying but just not my taste anymore. If you like fruit scents but not too sweet, you may like this one.
This starts out with blood orange; a nice fresh & not-too-sweet blood orange but then the mango comes on a little stronger. It's not too sweet, it has a bit of pepper note but I just don't care for it; the mango ruins this for me. Luckily, bergamot & jasmine save the day, bringing a lemony, fresh flower note. This is not the lush jasmine of Arabian scents but a fresh/light jasmine. Underneath it all but not too heavy, is the musk & powdery note of orris. It is not a dirty musk but more of a white musk.
The sillage is not huge & it lasts about 3 hours on my skin. It is a well made and inoffensive/generic fragrance. Much better than many other fragrances of this type. I prefer the Rochas fragrance "Tocade" - it's more serious & adult. Or if you like a more light/fresh Eau de Rochas, the "Fraiche" flanker version has no sweet fruits.
A bit of trivia: Rochas is now owned by Procter & Gamble (2003).
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"I like citrus fragrances & I like white flowers so this should be a scent I adore.",
"I like it fine but the mango & dried fruits make it a bit too fruity for me.",
"This is not over-the-top fruit, the jasmine & neroli keep it in check but I'm really OVER the frooty tooty scents.",
"This one is not fake and cloying but just not my taste anymore.",
"If you like fruit scents but not too sweet, you may like this one.",
"This starts out with blood orange; a nice fresh & not-too-sweet blood orange but then the mango comes on a little stronger.",
"It's not too sweet, it has a bit of pepper note but I just don't care for it; the mango ruins this for me.",
"Luckily, bergamot & jasmine save the day, bringing a lemony, fresh flower note.",
"This is not the lush jasmine of Arabian scents but a fresh/light jasmine.",
"Underneath it all but not too heavy, is the musk & powdery note of orris.",
"It is not a dirty musk but more of a white musk.",
"The sillage is not huge & it lasts about 3 hours on my skin.",
"It is a well made and inoffensive/generic fragrance.",
"Much better than many other fragrances of this type.",
"I prefer the Rochas fragrance \"Tocade\" - it's more serious & adult.",
"Or if you like a more light/fresh Eau de Rochas, the \"Fraiche\" flanker version has no sweet fruits.",
"A bit of trivia: Rochas is now owned by Procter & Gamble (2003)."
] |
This game was reviewed on a 1Gig Pentium III with ATI Rage 128 video and 256Meg memory - full installation on a Windows 2000 Pro OS.
This game has an interesting twist. I liked the fact that I can play three different characters with very different strengths and weaknesses. This was worth a star. Unfortunately, the execution does not live up to the concept.
I start by noting how buggy this game is. It aborted three times with error messages, froze once, and the color palette kept getting screwed up so that text became invisible or blurred and the alternative vision mode for the alien character became a black screen. I had to exit and reload the game to fix the last problem which takes quite a while.
This brings me to another issue. The time required to load the games was far too long, especially considering how short the segments are.
The game scores well in terms of playability and is right up there with Half-Life and is far better than Blade of Darkness. Characters move the way you expect and handle well. You don't walk through your opponent or jump off ledges while trying to edge up to them.
Some of the missions are quite boring, consisting of mazes with occasional bad guys. I liked the objective lists (like Quake II, but they need to be more detailed). For example, for half the Alien missions, the sole objective is to find the Hive. Not very useful.
I got stuck at a couple of places and couldn't figure out how to open doors. I was glad the cheats are easy to use so I could walk right through the doors in question. (Hit return then <cheat> mpsixthsense)
Overall, it's probably worth the money but it doesn't capture your imagination like Half-Life does and doesn't have the visual richness of Blade of Darkness.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"This game was reviewed on a 1Gig Pentium III with ATI Rage 128 video and 256Meg memory - full installation on a Windows 2000 Pro OS.",
"This game has an interesting twist.",
"I liked the fact that I can play three different characters with very different strengths and weaknesses.",
"This was worth a star.",
"Unfortunately, the execution does not live up to the concept.",
"I start by noting how buggy this game is.",
"It aborted three times with error messages, froze once, and the color palette kept getting screwed up so that text became invisible or blurred and the alternative vision mode for the alien character became a black screen.",
"I had to exit and reload the game to fix the last problem which takes quite a while.",
"This brings me to another issue.",
"The time required to load the games was far too long, especially considering how short the segments are.",
"The game scores well in terms of playability and is right up there with Half-Life and is far better than Blade of Darkness.",
"Characters move the way you expect and handle well.",
"You don't walk through your opponent or jump off ledges while trying to edge up to them.",
"Some of the missions are quite boring, consisting of mazes with occasional bad guys.",
"I liked the objective lists (like Quake II, but they need to be more detailed).",
"For example, for half the Alien missions, the sole objective is to find the Hive.",
"Not very useful.",
"I got stuck at a couple of places and couldn't figure out how to open doors.",
"I was glad the cheats are easy to use so I could walk right through the doors in question.",
"(Hit return then <cheat> mpsixthsense)\nOverall, it's probably worth the money but it doesn't capture your imagination like Half-Life does and doesn't have the visual richness of Blade of Darkness."
] |
Once upon a time there was an arcade game in the 1980's called Ghosts and Goblins. This game was later ported over to the original Nintendo system. It was a fun game, but one of the most difficult games i have ever played in 15 years of gaming. Maximo is reminiscent of Ghosts and Goblins, and this is not a bad thing. This is a three dimensional hack and slash game. It takes skill to stay alive. A similar game would be Medieval.
The difference between Maximo and Medieval would simply be the amount of fun each game is to play. While overly easy, Medieval was a lot of fun. Maximo is just not that fun to play. I'm a fairly patient gamer, being a fan of RPG's, but i could not muster up enough interest to keep playing Maximo.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"Once upon a time there was an arcade game in the 1980's called Ghosts and Goblins.",
"This game was later ported over to the original Nintendo system.",
"It was a fun game, but one of the most difficult games i have ever played in 15 years of gaming.",
"Maximo is reminiscent of Ghosts and Goblins, and this is not a bad thing.",
"This is a three dimensional hack and slash game.",
"It takes skill to stay alive.",
"A similar game would be Medieval.",
"The difference between Maximo and Medieval would simply be the amount of fun each game is to play.",
"While overly easy, Medieval was a lot of fun.",
"Maximo is just not that fun to play.",
"I'm a fairly patient gamer, being a fan of RPG's, but i could not muster up enough interest to keep playing Maximo."
] |
I usually like Liz Carlyle's romances and expected to enjoy this one too. But lots of people will probably love it so I will try to explain why I didn't so readers can tell which side they'll likely be on.
This is the second book in a series about a secret society that exists to protect people who have "the Gift" (various types of paranormal abilities). Membership, like the Gift, seems to run in families, with one person being marked and trained to take responsibilities. The English branch of the society is called the St. James Society and they have been asked to rescue a young girl from Brussels.
The hero of this book, Lord Bessett, is a member of the St. James Society. The heroine is Anais. Typically the members of the society have all been male but Anais's great-grandmother concludes from reading tarot cards that Anais, not her twin brother, will be the next member from their family. The St. James Society, especially Bessett, does not want to break tradition and accept a female member. However, they need a woman to pose as Bessett's wife to be successful so she goes with Bessett to Belgium.
I have a limited tolerance for "woo woo" in romances and didn't like the tarot card thread through the plot. If you are at all uncomfortable with those things, you should stay away from this book in particular and probably the whole trilogy (though I am guessing only this book has the tarot cards).
I love strong heroines, so Anais with all her sword fighting and unwillingness to blindly follow Bessett's orders should have been one of my favorites. But her strengths were overbalanced by allowing a tarot card reading from when she was young to be the obstacle that kept her from loving Bessett. That soured me on Anais.
Even more than the "woo woo," the adventure and series parts of the story got in the way of the romance. A good portion of the book was taken up in setting up the story of what I assume will be the couple in the next book and that was distracting. All the intrigue and action involved in the rescue seemed to come at the expense of developing a real relationship between Bessett and Anais. There were a few glimpses of romances but not enough for me to care if they ended up together.
It was a chore to finish the book. I haven't read the first book in the series, <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/One-Touch-of-Scandal-Avon/dp/0061965758/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">One Touch of Scandal (Avon)</a> and do not intend to read either it or the next book <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Bride-Wore-Pearls/dp/0061965774/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Bride Wore Pearls</a>.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"I usually like Liz Carlyle's romances and expected to enjoy this one too.",
"But lots of people will probably love it so I will try to explain why I didn't so readers can tell which side they'll likely be on.",
"This is the second book in a series about a secret society that exists to protect people who have \"the Gift\" (various types of paranormal abilities).",
"Membership, like the Gift, seems to run in families, with one person being marked and trained to take responsibilities.",
"The English branch of the society is called the St.",
"James Society and they have been asked to rescue a young girl from Brussels.",
"The hero of this book, Lord Bessett, is a member of the St.",
"James Society.",
"The heroine is Anais.",
"Typically the members of the society have all been male but Anais's great-grandmother concludes from reading tarot cards that Anais, not her twin brother, will be the next member from their family.",
"The St.",
"James Society, especially Bessett, does not want to break tradition and accept a female member.",
"However, they need a woman to pose as Bessett's wife to be successful so she goes with Bessett to Belgium.",
"I have a limited tolerance for \"woo woo\" in romances and didn't like the tarot card thread through the plot.",
"If you are at all uncomfortable with those things, you should stay away from this book in particular and probably the whole trilogy (though I am guessing only this book has the tarot cards).",
"I love strong heroines, so Anais with all her sword fighting and unwillingness to blindly follow Bessett's orders should have been one of my favorites.",
"But her strengths were overbalanced by allowing a tarot card reading from when she was young to be the obstacle that kept her from loving Bessett.",
"That soured me on Anais.",
"Even more than the \"woo woo,\" the adventure and series parts of the story got in the way of the romance.",
"A good portion of the book was taken up in setting up the story of what I assume will be the couple in the next book and that was distracting.",
"All the intrigue and action involved in the rescue seemed to come at the expense of developing a real relationship between Bessett and Anais.",
"There were a few glimpses of romances but not enough for me to care if they ended up together.",
"It was a chore to finish the book.",
"I haven't read the first book in the series, <a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/One-Touch-of-Scandal-Avon/dp/0061965758/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?",
"ie=UTF8\">One Touch of Scandal (Avon)</a> and do not intend to read either it or the next book <a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/The-Bride-Wore-Pearls/dp/0061965774/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?",
"ie=UTF8\">The Bride Wore Pearls</a>."
] |
I purchased this case after I returned the <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Incipio-SA-241-Samsung-Galaxy-Nexus-NGP-Semi-Rigid-Soft-Shell-Case-1-Pack-Retail-Packaging-Black/dp/B006O3M1RW/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Incipio SA-241 Samsung Galaxy Nexus NGP Semi-Rigid Soft Shell Case - 1 Pack - Retail Packaging - Black</a> due to that case not fitting properly with my GSM GN with a stock batttery. I can also say that, although this case performs slightly better than the NGP, it is also evident that it's not meant for the GSM GN. Although the silicone skin fits without any problems onto the phone, there is a gap between the silicone and the hard outer shell. This is due the fact that the Verizon/CDMA GN is a few millimeters thicker than the International/GSM GN. Although the case will function properly, the gap between the hard shell and silicone will case lint and debris to accumulate over time. It is especially noticeable when one looks at the cutout for the Incipio logo on the back. The GSM version of the GN causes the silicone plug to be recessed into the hard shell, even when all cutouts/corners are properly fitted into place. I ended up returning this case as well.
I loved Incipio on my old HTC Sensation, but it looks like the new line of products for the GN are geared specifically towards those with the Verizon model of the phone. Until I find a durable case for my GSM GN, I'm using the <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/SGP-Samsung-Galaxy-Nexus-Case-Ultra-Hybrid-Series-Eclipse-White/dp/B0073HUBEI/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">SGP Samsung Galaxy Nexus Case Ultra Hybrid Series [Eclipse White</a>], which is precisely fitted for the GSM GN with a stock battery.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"I purchased this case after I returned the <a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/Incipio-SA-241-Samsung-Galaxy-Nexus-NGP-Semi-Rigid-Soft-Shell-Case-1-Pack-Retail-Packaging-Black/dp/B006O3M1RW/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?",
"ie=UTF8\">Incipio SA-241 Samsung Galaxy Nexus NGP Semi-Rigid Soft Shell Case - 1 Pack - Retail Packaging - Black</a> due to that case not fitting properly with my GSM GN with a stock batttery.",
"I can also say that, although this case performs slightly better than the NGP, it is also evident that it's not meant for the GSM GN.",
"Although the silicone skin fits without any problems onto the phone, there is a gap between the silicone and the hard outer shell.",
"This is due the fact that the Verizon/CDMA GN is a few millimeters thicker than the International/GSM GN.",
"Although the case will function properly, the gap between the hard shell and silicone will case lint and debris to accumulate over time.",
"It is especially noticeable when one looks at the cutout for the Incipio logo on the back.",
"The GSM version of the GN causes the silicone plug to be recessed into the hard shell, even when all cutouts/corners are properly fitted into place.",
"I ended up returning this case as well.",
"I loved Incipio on my old HTC Sensation, but it looks like the new line of products for the GN are geared specifically towards those with the Verizon model of the phone.",
"Until I find a durable case for my GSM GN, I'm using the <a data-hook=\"product-link-linked\" class=\"a-link-normal\" href=\"/SGP-Samsung-Galaxy-Nexus-Case-Ultra-Hybrid-Series-Eclipse-White/dp/B0073HUBEI/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?",
"ie=UTF8\">SGP Samsung Galaxy Nexus Case Ultra Hybrid Series [Eclipse White</a>], which is precisely fitted for the GSM GN with a stock battery."
] |
"Barabajagal" was Donovan's last album to be released in the 1960's and his fifth produced by Mickie Most.
Compared to his previous albums this is probably the most versatile, partly due to the fact that it was recorded during several sessions, featuring different musicians.
The three hit singles "Atlantis"; "To Susan on the West Coast" and "Barabajagal" are good examples of the album's great variety. "Atlantis" is a fine folky tune with an ecstatic ending ending much like the Beatles' "Hey Jude". "To Susan on the West Coast" is an acoustic anti-war song and "Barabajagal" is an almost riff-based rocker with solid backing by Jeff Beck Group.
Among the tracks I like "Happines Runs" and "Superlungs My Supergirl", but the rest are mostly sub-par tracks. The original album had a very short playing time, a little more than thirty minutes. Fortunately a lot of relevant bonus-tracks have been added to the album.
Interesting to hear "Stromberg Twins", another track with backing from Jeff Beck and his band; and song that ought have been included originally. But the strongest material are found among the last seven tracks, which are just demos; but all sounding great.
"Marjorie" and "Palais Girl" are really great songs that finally get a deserved release.
The booklet contains the final chapter of the Mickie Most Years ( part 4, Nov. 68 to Dec. 1969 ), which is great read; and although the album is not quite up to the standards of its predecessors, it's still a quite fine album.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"\"Barabajagal\" was Donovan's last album to be released in the 1960's and his fifth produced by Mickie Most.",
"Compared to his previous albums this is probably the most versatile, partly due to the fact that it was recorded during several sessions, featuring different musicians.",
"The three hit singles \"Atlantis\"; \"To Susan on the West Coast\" and \"Barabajagal\" are good examples of the album's great variety.",
"\"Atlantis\" is a fine folky tune with an ecstatic ending ending much like the Beatles' \"Hey Jude\".",
"\"To Susan on the West Coast\" is an acoustic anti-war song and \"Barabajagal\" is an almost riff-based rocker with solid backing by Jeff Beck Group.",
"Among the tracks I like \"Happines Runs\" and \"Superlungs My Supergirl\", but the rest are mostly sub-par tracks.",
"The original album had a very short playing time, a little more than thirty minutes.",
"Fortunately a lot of relevant bonus-tracks have been added to the album.",
"Interesting to hear \"Stromberg Twins\", another track with backing from Jeff Beck and his band; and song that ought have been included originally.",
"But the strongest material are found among the last seven tracks, which are just demos; but all sounding great.",
"\"Marjorie\" and \"Palais Girl\" are really great songs that finally get a deserved release.",
"The booklet contains the final chapter of the Mickie Most Years ( part 4, Nov.",
"68 to Dec.",
"1969 ), which is great read; and although the album is not quite up to the standards of its predecessors, it's still a quite fine album."
] |
There is something funny going on here. Here we have an opera which has been largely ignored for the last hundred years, has received only one decent recording (this one, in 1976) which has remained un-re-issued (excuse the word) since its only incarnation on CD in 1989 and is hence currently on sale on Amazon Marketplace for truly astronomical prices. Why? I am further flummoxed when I read almost hysterically enthusiastic reviews, some dating back ten years, by monumentally satisfied customers on Amazon.com - and yet when I turn to an authority such as J. B. Steane in "Gramophone", he is decidedly sniffy about both this performance and the music. Knowing only snippets - which is about all one does hear these days of Meyerbeer - I found myself a copy for far more than I would normally pay but still a great deal less than current market places, listened to it once and put it back on my shelves where it has since languished.
Now, we all know that the venerable "Gramophone" can get it wrong and that sometimes recordings take a while to grow on you, but I have not found a second listening much more amenable than the first. It is not that I dislike anything much about the cast or Lewis's direction: Marylin Horne remains a tower of strength, I enjoy the heft of McCracken's idiosyncratic timbre, it is good to hear the resonant, under-recorded bass of Jerome Hines, and although I tend to flinch at anything Scotto does by this stage of her career, her wild vocalisation is by no means inappropriate to the bonkers Berthe. Nor do I balk at the ridiculous plot, being used to equally absurd story-lines in much-loved operas. No, it's the music which bores me. I hesitate to trot out the old accusations about Meyerbeer, but there is something stolidly formulaic, uninspired and "old-fashioned" about his writing. There are highlights - which is why, as I said earlier, that is how one usually hears Meyerbeer today - and there is a certain showy brilliance to some numbers, but you seek in vain for many glimpses into the human soul of the kind which even early Verdi can provide. The characters are ciphers. Then, of course, we have the bugbear of all great 19C composers when encountering Grand Opera in Paris: the obligatory and interminable ballet, which might be good music, but just holds up the (admittedly absurd) action.
I am not unfamiliar with other Meyerbeer operas and listen with some pleasure to good belters like "Les Huguenots" (preferably in the despised Italian translation with hopeless French stylists like Corelli) or even the problematic "L'Africaine" but I am rarely swept along as I am with any of the operas produced contemporaneously by Verdi or Donizetti. The best thing of all here is Marylin Horne's spectacular vocalisation in " prtres de Baal", although she is even better in her 1964 recital album.
I shall no doubt have another go at some point in the future but meanwhile I think I know why this opera has slipped down the back of the sock drawer.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"There is something funny going on here.",
"Here we have an opera which has been largely ignored for the last hundred years, has received only one decent recording (this one, in 1976) which has remained un-re-issued (excuse the word) since its only incarnation on CD in 1989 and is hence currently on sale on Amazon Marketplace for truly astronomical prices.",
"Why?",
"I am further flummoxed when I read almost hysterically enthusiastic reviews, some dating back ten years, by monumentally satisfied customers on Amazon.",
"com - and yet when I turn to an authority such as J.",
"B.",
"Steane in \"Gramophone\", he is decidedly sniffy about both this performance and the music.",
"Knowing only snippets - which is about all one does hear these days of Meyerbeer - I found myself a copy for far more than I would normally pay but still a great deal less than current market places, listened to it once and put it back on my shelves where it has since languished.",
"Now, we all know that the venerable \"Gramophone\" can get it wrong and that sometimes recordings take a while to grow on you, but I have not found a second listening much more amenable than the first.",
"It is not that I dislike anything much about the cast or Lewis's direction: Marylin Horne remains a tower of strength, I enjoy the heft of McCracken's idiosyncratic timbre, it is good to hear the resonant, under-recorded bass of Jerome Hines, and although I tend to flinch at anything Scotto does by this stage of her career, her wild vocalisation is by no means inappropriate to the bonkers Berthe.",
"Nor do I balk at the ridiculous plot, being used to equally absurd story-lines in much-loved operas.",
"No, it's the music which bores me.",
"I hesitate to trot out the old accusations about Meyerbeer, but there is something stolidly formulaic, uninspired and \"old-fashioned\" about his writing.",
"There are highlights - which is why, as I said earlier, that is how one usually hears Meyerbeer today - and there is a certain showy brilliance to some numbers, but you seek in vain for many glimpses into the human soul of the kind which even early Verdi can provide.",
"The characters are ciphers.",
"Then, of course, we have the bugbear of all great 19C composers when encountering Grand Opera in Paris: the obligatory and interminable ballet, which might be good music, but just holds up the (admittedly absurd) action.",
"I am not unfamiliar with other Meyerbeer operas and listen with some pleasure to good belters like \"Les Huguenots\" (preferably in the despised Italian translation with hopeless French stylists like Corelli) or even the problematic \"L'Africaine\" but I am rarely swept along as I am with any of the operas produced contemporaneously by Verdi or Donizetti.",
"The best thing of all here is Marylin Horne's spectacular vocalisation in \" prtres de Baal\", although she is even better in her 1964 recital album.",
"I shall no doubt have another go at some point in the future but meanwhile I think I know why this opera has slipped down the back of the sock drawer."
] |
I was without my usual compactflash/smartmedia reader for a little while and figured I'd get this inexpensive reader and then sell it when I got my microtech cameramate back. The Sandisk is easy to set up, I had a few glitches with my HP 700mhz system and finally uninstalled the software, plugged the thing in and followed the prompts. It worked fine. You do get what you pay for though. This is just a chunk of thick plastic on the end of a USB cable. It's got some kind of fish eye looking design on the top and a little green LED to let you know when your card is being used. The mouth of the unit is where you stick your card in and you have to be careful to line it up, it doesn't just slide in. I had to force my card the first couple of times. Getting the card out is just the reverse, yank it out. Not nearly as nice as my Microtech with it's push to eject button, but it's also half the cost. I use both CF and SM so the microtech is really the best solution for me, but if you need a cheap USB CF reader, this one is as good as any. I have had no compatibility problems and have used it with an off brand CF card and 2 name brand with no trouble.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"I was without my usual compactflash/smartmedia reader for a little while and figured I'd get this inexpensive reader and then sell it when I got my microtech cameramate back.",
"The Sandisk is easy to set up, I had a few glitches with my HP 700mhz system and finally uninstalled the software, plugged the thing in and followed the prompts.",
"It worked fine.",
"You do get what you pay for though.",
"This is just a chunk of thick plastic on the end of a USB cable.",
"It's got some kind of fish eye looking design on the top and a little green LED to let you know when your card is being used.",
"The mouth of the unit is where you stick your card in and you have to be careful to line it up, it doesn't just slide in.",
"I had to force my card the first couple of times.",
"Getting the card out is just the reverse, yank it out.",
"Not nearly as nice as my Microtech with it's push to eject button, but it's also half the cost.",
"I use both CF and SM so the microtech is really the best solution for me, but if you need a cheap USB CF reader, this one is as good as any.",
"I have had no compatibility problems and have used it with an off brand CF card and 2 name brand with no trouble."
] |
Don't get me wrong I am a HUGE Metallica fan! The quality of this DVD is unmatched when compared with other music DVD's. The picture is phenominal. The sound is incredible. The camera work and behind the scenes footage makes this a fun DVD, but 5 stars? Too often Hetfield sounds strained when doing earlier material. He has lost that edgy sound in his voice. He can no longer pull it off live. Buy this DVD. It's awesome! Just don't expect the Hetfield of old. It becomes difficult to watch the DVD in one sitting, listening to Hetfield strain. That's why I give it 3 stars. Jason and Lars will bow your mind in this DVD. Enjoy.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"Don't get me wrong I am a HUGE Metallica fan!",
"The quality of this DVD is unmatched when compared with other music DVD's.",
"The picture is phenominal.",
"The sound is incredible.",
"The camera work and behind the scenes footage makes this a fun DVD, but 5 stars?",
"Too often Hetfield sounds strained when doing earlier material.",
"He has lost that edgy sound in his voice.",
"He can no longer pull it off live.",
"Buy this DVD.",
"It's awesome!",
"Just don't expect the Hetfield of old.",
"It becomes difficult to watch the DVD in one sitting, listening to Hetfield strain.",
"That's why I give it 3 stars.",
"Jason and Lars will bow your mind in this DVD.",
"Enjoy."
] |
Everybody has something that they enjoy and just can't explain. They might even be a little embarassed to admit that they like it. Well, I'm not embarassed to admit that the Spice Girls are one of my guilty pleasures. Granted, their music may be a little hokey, but they sure are fun to listen to. In "Spice World," the girls take on a world tour with Bond-esque style. This movie isn't fantastic, but it is fun enough for the whole family to watch. It's silly, it's goofy, and, at times, it is brilliant. You get a feel of what these ladies had to put up with on a daily basis, albeit in a grand and over-the-top style. There are cameos abound in this flick as well. The acting isn't that bad and the girls seemed to enjoy making the movie.
Funny moments abound in this flick, but some of my personal favorites are when the girls first get on their tour bus and they complain about how hot it is. They say that they could use a fan and, in perfect British comedic style, a young, pre-teen girl comes through the door screaming with glee and then runs back out the door. The girls sigh with comfortable relief. Another funny moment is the expensive, special-effects laden tour-bus jumping a draw-bridge with Posh behind the wheel scene. Finally, in the end credits, the girls "interact" with the audience. They remark on people making out, wonder why folks watching their video can't find anything good on the "telly" and audience member clothes. The entire movie is just a fun little trip.
Alan Cumming(X-Men 2, Josey and the Pussycats) takes a turn as a reporter attempting to document the lives of these ladies. George Wendt(Norm, of 'Cheers' fame)is a movie producer looking for a film to put the girls in and cash in on their fame. Meatloaf is the bus driver for the girls. Some of the better-known cameos that American audiences will recognize are Elton John, Bob Hoskins and Roger Moore. If you're a die-hard fan of British film and television, you'll recognize many of the other cameos as well.
The only reason I'm giving this movie three stars is because,obviously, this movie isn't for everyone. In fact, many people might think that this movie is just too silly to watch. On my personal scale, I would give this flick four stars for the simple fact that I love to watch it and because the Spice Girls don't take themselves too seriously in the movie.
Overall, this is a silly, blatantly cheesy movie that lets you laugh at and with the Spice Girls. They poke fun at themselves and have a good time doing it. A good movie to watch when you have a little time to kill or just want to forget about the world(but not the 'Spice World') for awhile.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"Everybody has something that they enjoy and just can't explain.",
"They might even be a little embarassed to admit that they like it.",
"Well, I'm not embarassed to admit that the Spice Girls are one of my guilty pleasures.",
"Granted, their music may be a little hokey, but they sure are fun to listen to.",
"In \"Spice World,\" the girls take on a world tour with Bond-esque style.",
"This movie isn't fantastic, but it is fun enough for the whole family to watch.",
"It's silly, it's goofy, and, at times, it is brilliant.",
"You get a feel of what these ladies had to put up with on a daily basis, albeit in a grand and over-the-top style.",
"There are cameos abound in this flick as well.",
"The acting isn't that bad and the girls seemed to enjoy making the movie.",
"Funny moments abound in this flick, but some of my personal favorites are when the girls first get on their tour bus and they complain about how hot it is.",
"They say that they could use a fan and, in perfect British comedic style, a young, pre-teen girl comes through the door screaming with glee and then runs back out the door.",
"The girls sigh with comfortable relief.",
"Another funny moment is the expensive, special-effects laden tour-bus jumping a draw-bridge with Posh behind the wheel scene.",
"Finally, in the end credits, the girls \"interact\" with the audience.",
"They remark on people making out, wonder why folks watching their video can't find anything good on the \"telly\" and audience member clothes.",
"The entire movie is just a fun little trip.",
"Alan Cumming(X-Men 2, Josey and the Pussycats) takes a turn as a reporter attempting to document the lives of these ladies.",
"George Wendt(Norm, of 'Cheers' fame)is a movie producer looking for a film to put the girls in and cash in on their fame.",
"Meatloaf is the bus driver for the girls.",
"Some of the better-known cameos that American audiences will recognize are Elton John, Bob Hoskins and Roger Moore.",
"If you're a die-hard fan of British film and television, you'll recognize many of the other cameos as well.",
"The only reason I'm giving this movie three stars is because,obviously, this movie isn't for everyone.",
"In fact, many people might think that this movie is just too silly to watch.",
"On my personal scale, I would give this flick four stars for the simple fact that I love to watch it and because the Spice Girls don't take themselves too seriously in the movie.",
"Overall, this is a silly, blatantly cheesy movie that lets you laugh at and with the Spice Girls.",
"They poke fun at themselves and have a good time doing it.",
"A good movie to watch when you have a little time to kill or just want to forget about the world(but not the 'Spice World') for awhile."
] |
This book is my least favorite Rock Chick book, mainly because Ava got on my last nerve thru 2/3 of the book. I understood she had low self esteem from being teased for being overweight as a child and from being deserted by her dad and from having 3 bad relationships but her insecurities and vacillating between staying in a relationship with Luke and then needing to run away 5 minutes later was really ridiculous. There was a LOT of redundancy in the book; the Ava does something dumb (which happened a lot, even for a Rock Chick book) and then Luke becoming enraged happened so often that I began skipping parts, something I never do in a Kristen Ashley book! I began to wonder how much further would I have to read to get to the end. I also was disappointed because I really loved Luke in the earlier books but he was a little too domineering and Neanderthal in this book. I felt the handcuffing of Ava to the bed was completely unacceptable; that would have ended the relationship for me! At times I kept checking on the ages of Ava and Luke; it was hard to believe they were 29 and 33; they acted like they were in the 5th grade. I really didn't like the book until I was 70% thru; the only reason I didn't give it 2 stars was because the last 30% of the book was pretty good. I won't give up on reading the series bc in general, I love KA books and you can't hit a home run every tiime at bat. I do hope the next book is much better!
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"This book is my least favorite Rock Chick book, mainly because Ava got on my last nerve thru 2/3 of the book.",
"I understood she had low self esteem from being teased for being overweight as a child and from being deserted by her dad and from having 3 bad relationships but her insecurities and vacillating between staying in a relationship with Luke and then needing to run away 5 minutes later was really ridiculous.",
"There was a LOT of redundancy in the book; the Ava does something dumb (which happened a lot, even for a Rock Chick book) and then Luke becoming enraged happened so often that I began skipping parts, something I never do in a Kristen Ashley book!",
"I began to wonder how much further would I have to read to get to the end.",
"I also was disappointed because I really loved Luke in the earlier books but he was a little too domineering and Neanderthal in this book.",
"I felt the handcuffing of Ava to the bed was completely unacceptable; that would have ended the relationship for me!",
"At times I kept checking on the ages of Ava and Luke; it was hard to believe they were 29 and 33; they acted like they were in the 5th grade.",
"I really didn't like the book until I was 70% thru; the only reason I didn't give it 2 stars was because the last 30% of the book was pretty good.",
"I won't give up on reading the series bc in general, I love KA books and you can't hit a home run every tiime at bat.",
"I do hope the next book is much better!"
] |
Despite the good and bad reviews, I decided to purchase this game and make my own judgement as to how good/bad it really is. My conclusion is that if you do not learn to controll the sixxaxis, you will not like this game. And in my opinion, I think the patch did little to help the gameplay, I still preffer the original motion sensing.
One thing I do want to point out is that this game can be played on your PSP, by using the Remote Play function. This I think is the only game so far that utilizes this option and is a pretty cool one at that. The graphics will suffer on gameplay, but is not terribly bad to play on the psp nonetheless. Also the controls actually work pretty good.
I do have to say that the cutscenes where more like cutplayscenes cause everytime I was getting into the action my play time was cut by them. This can get a bit annoying because they give you breaks in gameplay more than often.
I would tell anyone who wants to get this game and is afraid to shell the money to rent it first.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"Despite the good and bad reviews, I decided to purchase this game and make my own judgement as to how good/bad it really is.",
"My conclusion is that if you do not learn to controll the sixxaxis, you will not like this game.",
"And in my opinion, I think the patch did little to help the gameplay, I still preffer the original motion sensing.",
"One thing I do want to point out is that this game can be played on your PSP, by using the Remote Play function.",
"This I think is the only game so far that utilizes this option and is a pretty cool one at that.",
"The graphics will suffer on gameplay, but is not terribly bad to play on the psp nonetheless.",
"Also the controls actually work pretty good.",
"I do have to say that the cutscenes where more like cutplayscenes cause everytime I was getting into the action my play time was cut by them.",
"This can get a bit annoying because they give you breaks in gameplay more than often.",
"I would tell anyone who wants to get this game and is afraid to shell the money to rent it first."
] |
TT - My best opportunity to have run a mara would have been 2005 (I know it's not "when I were a lad", but it's still long enough ago for me to get misty eyed about it). I'd had 3 months at 90+mpw, an HM of 79:05, but no long runs over 18m so I reckon I would have breezed it to 20m, thereafter I'm not sure. Now I've got several dodgy bits that just can't cope with the pounding - to the extent that yesterdays 15m has given reason for concern. My September stats are. Miles 238. Ave pace 7:14. Max week: 57 miles. Min week: 52 miles. Rest days: 0. Races: 1. Wins: 1 - well sort of, if you exclude the 21 under 60's in front of me.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"TT - My best opportunity to have run a mara would have been 2005 (I know it's not \"when I were a lad\", but it's still long enough ago for me to get misty eyed about it).",
"I'd had 3 months at 90+mpw, an HM of 79:05, but no long runs over 18m so I reckon I would have breezed it to 20m, thereafter I'm not sure.",
"Now I've got several dodgy bits that just can't cope with the pounding - to the extent that yesterdays 15m has given reason for concern.",
"My September stats are.",
"Miles 238.",
"Ave pace 7:14.",
"Max week: 57 miles.",
"Min week: 52 miles.",
"Rest days: 0.",
"Races: 1.",
"Wins: 1 - well sort of, if you exclude the 21 under 60's in front of me."
] |
For years I have been urged by many different people, lists, guides and store recommendations, to read Robin Hobb. Finally I got down to it but rather than starting at the beginning with her first trilogy (since I understood they were non sequential even if they were in the same world) I opted for the second "Live ship Traders" books because they were in third person.
And I have to say the people who urged me were right. This woman is an amazing author, right up there in terms of technical skill and world building with Kate Forsyth. Still, I had an extremely hard time sticking with the first novel in the series "Ship of Magic."
Plot first. "Live ships" are ships which are made out of wizard wood and come to life after absorbing the life experiences and deaths of three generations of captains related by blood. The ships are owned by a family, cost an immense amount and a long time to pay off (think multiple generations) but they give you access to the rain wild river from which come magical trade goods and water so dangerous that no ship made of dead wood could possibly navigate it. Thus, only the original trader families of Bingtown own these coveted ships, which are faster, smarter, can talk, and won't work for anyone but one of the family (thus making them pirate proof.) But Bingtown is changing from when the original families moved to the cursed shores and made them their own. Slavers are moving in, along with new people who have no respect for the ways (and no knowledge of the many secrets which keep Bingtown and the Live ship trade running.)
"Ship of Magic" basically begins with the death of the third captain of the Vivica, making her ready for quickening. But unlike everyone in Bingtown thought he would do, Ephron Vestritts has not left the ship to his youngest daughter Althea who was practically raised aboard but to his elder daughter, leaving her husband Kyle Haven (a man with no real idea of what Bingtown is) in charge of the ship. And he wants Althea gone and his eldest son Wintrow (who was trained as a priest and perfectly happy doing that) on board the ship to keep it happy.
Add in a pirate determined to have a live ship and be king and the many secrets that surround wizard wood and Bingtown and you have a great plot. But....
Basically this book is about family betrayals (a lot of them) conflict, people trying to right what their family has done, get what they want in life, or just be the worst father in living memory. And it's all written so well that the distress of the characters is unbearable at times which leads to a much needed reading break of a month or so.
Basically: wonderful premis, wonderful writing, but because it is written so well, if you have empathy it gets hard to read. I don't consider myself a wussy reader-I'll get through war, famine, cruelty of all kinds, but this book struck a blow. Maybe you should be happy when you read it. Three stars.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"For years I have been urged by many different people, lists, guides and store recommendations, to read Robin Hobb.",
"Finally I got down to it but rather than starting at the beginning with her first trilogy (since I understood they were non sequential even if they were in the same world) I opted for the second \"Live ship Traders\" books because they were in third person.",
"And I have to say the people who urged me were right.",
"This woman is an amazing author, right up there in terms of technical skill and world building with Kate Forsyth.",
"Still, I had an extremely hard time sticking with the first novel in the series \"Ship of Magic.",
"\"\n\nPlot first.",
"\"Live ships\" are ships which are made out of wizard wood and come to life after absorbing the life experiences and deaths of three generations of captains related by blood.",
"The ships are owned by a family, cost an immense amount and a long time to pay off (think multiple generations) but they give you access to the rain wild river from which come magical trade goods and water so dangerous that no ship made of dead wood could possibly navigate it.",
"Thus, only the original trader families of Bingtown own these coveted ships, which are faster, smarter, can talk, and won't work for anyone but one of the family (thus making them pirate proof.",
") But Bingtown is changing from when the original families moved to the cursed shores and made them their own.",
"Slavers are moving in, along with new people who have no respect for the ways (and no knowledge of the many secrets which keep Bingtown and the Live ship trade running.",
")\n\n\"Ship of Magic\" basically begins with the death of the third captain of the Vivica, making her ready for quickening.",
"But unlike everyone in Bingtown thought he would do, Ephron Vestritts has not left the ship to his youngest daughter Althea who was practically raised aboard but to his elder daughter, leaving her husband Kyle Haven (a man with no real idea of what Bingtown is) in charge of the ship.",
"And he wants Althea gone and his eldest son Wintrow (who was trained as a priest and perfectly happy doing that) on board the ship to keep it happy.",
"Add in a pirate determined to have a live ship and be king and the many secrets that surround wizard wood and Bingtown and you have a great plot.",
"But....",
"Basically this book is about family betrayals (a lot of them) conflict, people trying to right what their family has done, get what they want in life, or just be the worst father in living memory.",
"And it's all written so well that the distress of the characters is unbearable at times which leads to a much needed reading break of a month or so.",
"Basically: wonderful premis, wonderful writing, but because it is written so well, if you have empathy it gets hard to read.",
"I don't consider myself a wussy reader-I'll get through war, famine, cruelty of all kinds, but this book struck a blow.",
"Maybe you should be happy when you read it.",
"Three stars."
] |
I've owned the nearly identical version of this case for several years for my iPhone 3GS, and it rendered that phone virtually indestructible. I got it very cheaply too as this was just before Otterbox became the big name in iPhone cases. So I when I upgraded to the 4S I searched for this case specifically. Well... it's not like the case is much different. The one for the 3 model had thick rubber bumpers on the corners, whereas this one is designed a little differently, but still seems durable. The issue I have is with is the new iPhone design, which is a lot more delicate than the old one with glass on both sides and a thicker body. I just didn't feel like this silicon-only case would provide enough shock protection for my 4S, so I ended up getting a more "hard core" case from another manufacturer with thicker rubber on the outside over a plastic shell that is itself insulated with rubber. It cost twice as much (and makes my phone twice as large) but I suppose that's better than spending $600 on another iPhone. Ended up selling this case on that auction site in like new condition since I never actually used it.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"I've owned the nearly identical version of this case for several years for my iPhone 3GS, and it rendered that phone virtually indestructible.",
"I got it very cheaply too as this was just before Otterbox became the big name in iPhone cases.",
"So I when I upgraded to the 4S I searched for this case specifically.",
"Well...",
"it's not like the case is much different.",
"The one for the 3 model had thick rubber bumpers on the corners, whereas this one is designed a little differently, but still seems durable.",
"The issue I have is with is the new iPhone design, which is a lot more delicate than the old one with glass on both sides and a thicker body.",
"I just didn't feel like this silicon-only case would provide enough shock protection for my 4S, so I ended up getting a more \"hard core\" case from another manufacturer with thicker rubber on the outside over a plastic shell that is itself insulated with rubber.",
"It cost twice as much (and makes my phone twice as large) but I suppose that's better than spending $600 on another iPhone.",
"Ended up selling this case on that auction site in like new condition since I never actually used it."
] |
My generic snow tires from a national tire store chain have evenly spaced studs and consequently make a deafening harmonic scream. I took out the seats, trim and carpeting and insulated half the car with Dynamat. I used two layers over the wheel wells. According to my sound meter and my ears, it made no difference. I then did the other half of the car with the brand that costs half as much and seems to be identical in terms of installation and sound. It also did not help reduce the harmonic scream of my tires. I hope both brands will help with road noise in the summer. It takes two packages to do a recent model Subaru Forester which by the way is perhaps the loudest car I recall owning, terrible road noise summer and winter. If I were to do it again, I would only use the cheaper version that has a quilted aluminum layer. I was installing at room temperature, about 68 F and found that sometimes both brands were so sticky that when installing in tight places the goo would stick to my fingers and the surroundings before I could place it. To avoid this, I dampened my hands with a wet paper towel and sometimes also dampened the soundproofing to keep it from sticking until I had it placed. That worked well and saved a lot of time and frustration. I hope it helps with road noise in the summer because otherwise it is pointless in my car.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"My generic snow tires from a national tire store chain have evenly spaced studs and consequently make a deafening harmonic scream.",
"I took out the seats, trim and carpeting and insulated half the car with Dynamat.",
"I used two layers over the wheel wells.",
"According to my sound meter and my ears, it made no difference.",
"I then did the other half of the car with the brand that costs half as much and seems to be identical in terms of installation and sound.",
"It also did not help reduce the harmonic scream of my tires.",
"I hope both brands will help with road noise in the summer.",
"It takes two packages to do a recent model Subaru Forester which by the way is perhaps the loudest car I recall owning, terrible road noise summer and winter.",
"If I were to do it again, I would only use the cheaper version that has a quilted aluminum layer.",
"I was installing at room temperature, about 68 F and found that sometimes both brands were so sticky that when installing in tight places the goo would stick to my fingers and the surroundings before I could place it.",
"To avoid this, I dampened my hands with a wet paper towel and sometimes also dampened the soundproofing to keep it from sticking until I had it placed.",
"That worked well and saved a lot of time and frustration.",
"I hope it helps with road noise in the summer because otherwise it is pointless in my car."
] |
I've used this filter for 1.5 years now. I can't tell if it actually improves my Lexus 2005 RX330's performance or not, but I can say that I've had tough times installing it in my car. I compared a disposable filter and this filter side by side and even superimposed, and they seems to be about the same dimensions and all the grooves/ridges seemed to match. I don't know why I can't close the air filter compartment's lid as easy as the disposable one! It always took me around 45 minutes just to eventually get it in (by luck)! And it's a 45 minutes of fighting and sweating! By comparison, I can put a disposable filter in in about 15 seconds.
I like the idea of saving money in the long run for reusing the filter, but after the 2nd time cleaning and trying to put it in I think my patience has run out (also, I lost the bolts that hold the air filter compartments together 2 times because of all the banging/wrestling with the filter. They just got loose and dropped down to the engine area and never been found). So I gave up and go back to disposable filter to avoid the hassle putting it in (which I still don't understand why somehow it prevents the lid from closing).
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"I've used this filter for 1.",
"5 years now.",
"I can't tell if it actually improves my Lexus 2005 RX330's performance or not, but I can say that I've had tough times installing it in my car.",
"I compared a disposable filter and this filter side by side and even superimposed, and they seems to be about the same dimensions and all the grooves/ridges seemed to match.",
"I don't know why I can't close the air filter compartment's lid as easy as the disposable one!",
"It always took me around 45 minutes just to eventually get it in (by luck)!",
"And it's a 45 minutes of fighting and sweating!",
"By comparison, I can put a disposable filter in in about 15 seconds.",
"I like the idea of saving money in the long run for reusing the filter, but after the 2nd time cleaning and trying to put it in I think my patience has run out (also, I lost the bolts that hold the air filter compartments together 2 times because of all the banging/wrestling with the filter.",
"They just got loose and dropped down to the engine area and never been found).",
"So I gave up and go back to disposable filter to avoid the hassle putting it in (which I still don't understand why somehow it prevents the lid from closing)."
] |
I am a huge fan of the originial Dawn of War, and have played the table-top Warhammer 40K miniatures game for a while now. What I loved about the original game, was the sheer fun of playing. Unlike most recent RTS games that tend towards the zoomed-out, over-economized style of Age of Empires, Warhammer delivered something closer to StarCraft, where squads move quickly enough to respond to things and do actual lightning attacks in and out, rather than spend most of their time slowly trecking over tiny terrain features to get to an enemy city, then die from attrition before getting there.
I'll admit, I never played the original multiplayer, but the single-player campaign and a skirmish every now and then were wonderful.
When I first heard about the expansion, I was very excited, hoping for more of the same Warhammer fun that the first game delivered. Expecially a new race, I am not a big fan of Imperial Guard, but hey, a new race to stop if they're that bad, right? So I got a copy, and was even more excited at first by the new style of the single-player campaign, and then almost fell asleep.
While it is an ok story, it doesn't compare at all with the original. Bad premise, ok levels and missions, some good characters, where the original had all of these traits above average. The new units don't add very much, and as much as I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the imperial guard, they weren't worth it. The new and prettier levels are new and prettier, but there are clipping issues where units, masses of orc units in particular, either can't find their way up hills or around obstacles, or multiple squads get all mixed together until none of them can move. At all. With imperial guard you have to start executing units with the comissar to get the force moving again, with the others just have attack forces wail away on themselves. Not sure if that's the map, or some tweak in AI, or what, but I never had that problem in the original. The story, like I said, is weak, as is the character and script writing (in some cases). Some of the new ways of giving open-ended options in single-player were cool, like switching between the two armies of good or evil in the middle of a mission to decide which you would bring on to the next mission.
I'll come to a close soon here, my biggest problems were things like emphasizing the femininity of the Eldar in the plot, making it seem like more than half of the Eldar soldiers were women (not so) and completely unnescessary changes, such as some unit art and upgrade options were altered for all of the old races just for the hell of it, or to make it more "authentically Warhammer" while less balanced. Such as the "chaos projectiles" upgrade for Chaos marines. Also, the new Fire Dragon eldar units have god-awful AI, and never seem to work quite right in combat.
My overall opinion was that there weren't too many glaring flaws, but some little thing was wrong with every single part of the game after the expansion.
This is a case of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" and if you liked the original single-player campaign, stick with the original.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"I am a huge fan of the originial Dawn of War, and have played the table-top Warhammer 40K miniatures game for a while now.",
"What I loved about the original game, was the sheer fun of playing.",
"Unlike most recent RTS games that tend towards the zoomed-out, over-economized style of Age of Empires, Warhammer delivered something closer to StarCraft, where squads move quickly enough to respond to things and do actual lightning attacks in and out, rather than spend most of their time slowly trecking over tiny terrain features to get to an enemy city, then die from attrition before getting there.",
"I'll admit, I never played the original multiplayer, but the single-player campaign and a skirmish every now and then were wonderful.",
"When I first heard about the expansion, I was very excited, hoping for more of the same Warhammer fun that the first game delivered.",
"Expecially a new race, I am not a big fan of Imperial Guard, but hey, a new race to stop if they're that bad, right?",
"So I got a copy, and was even more excited at first by the new style of the single-player campaign, and then almost fell asleep.",
"While it is an ok story, it doesn't compare at all with the original.",
"Bad premise, ok levels and missions, some good characters, where the original had all of these traits above average.",
"The new units don't add very much, and as much as I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the imperial guard, they weren't worth it.",
"The new and prettier levels are new and prettier, but there are clipping issues where units, masses of orc units in particular, either can't find their way up hills or around obstacles, or multiple squads get all mixed together until none of them can move.",
"At all.",
"With imperial guard you have to start executing units with the comissar to get the force moving again, with the others just have attack forces wail away on themselves.",
"Not sure if that's the map, or some tweak in AI, or what, but I never had that problem in the original.",
"The story, like I said, is weak, as is the character and script writing (in some cases).",
"Some of the new ways of giving open-ended options in single-player were cool, like switching between the two armies of good or evil in the middle of a mission to decide which you would bring on to the next mission.",
"I'll come to a close soon here, my biggest problems were things like emphasizing the femininity of the Eldar in the plot, making it seem like more than half of the Eldar soldiers were women (not so) and completely unnescessary changes, such as some unit art and upgrade options were altered for all of the old races just for the hell of it, or to make it more \"authentically Warhammer\" while less balanced.",
"Such as the \"chaos projectiles\" upgrade for Chaos marines.",
"Also, the new Fire Dragon eldar units have god-awful AI, and never seem to work quite right in combat.",
"My overall opinion was that there weren't too many glaring flaws, but some little thing was wrong with every single part of the game after the expansion.",
"This is a case of \"if it ain't broke, don't fix it\" and if you liked the original single-player campaign, stick with the original."
] |
Pros:
1. It does work as advertised, collecting most of the dust in the water in the bucket
2. It stopped the shrill whistle after about 5 minutes of sanding
Cons:
1. It did not fit my ShopVac. I did find a flexible fitting at one of the big box stores and made it work.
2. The sanding pad is hard and has sharp edges. It caught and tore the sheet rock paper sever times.
Overall, I'm glad I bought it. If the OD of your shop vac hose is 2.5" as mine is, you need to buy the additional adapter.
| 1 |
neutral
|
[
"Pros:\n1.",
"It does work as advertised, collecting most of the dust in the water in the bucket\n2.",
"It stopped the shrill whistle after about 5 minutes of sanding\nCons:\n1.",
"It did not fit my ShopVac.",
"I did find a flexible fitting at one of the big box stores and made it work.",
"2.",
"The sanding pad is hard and has sharp edges.",
"It caught and tore the sheet rock paper sever times.",
"Overall, I'm glad I bought it.",
"If the OD of your shop vac hose is 2.",
"5\" as mine is, you need to buy the additional adapter."
] |
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