The Cool Nguni by Maryanne Bester

The Cool Nguni is a 20-page, well-written, richly illustrated story dealing with issues of identity, self-esteem and self-appreciation. The main character, the Little Nguni Calf, is a uniquely South African cow, but the issues the book raises are universal.The little calf is unhappy because he's doesn't think he's cool enough. He compares himself to cattle from other countries and in every case, he comes off short.The cattle he compares himself to include Longhorn Cattle from the "wild, wild west," Highland Cattle from Scotland and the Brahman Cattle from India. "Those cattle from over the sea- they're cool," he says to his mother.Eventually, the little Nguni Calf learns that he has a number of qualities that make him special. In his own way, he is cool too, just like those cows from across the sea.The Cool Nguni is a good, fun tool to explain to a child why being different is not a bad thing. The book also deals with the concern children the world have, and that's of being cool enough/good enough when compared to other people.Having grown up in South African society during an era when Black children were taught that it's not okay to be themselves, I can certainly appreciate why there is an acute need for The Cool Nguni.My daughter nine-year old daughter also enjoyed the book, and is still paging through to look at the colourful illustrations. I also hope the message that everyone has their own unique beauty helps her develop a strong self-image and self-appreciation. dr seuss cat in hat quotes

Blogging To The Bank Review - Is Blogging To The Bank The Best Computer Home Based Business Guide

Blogging To The Bank by Rob Benwell is a guide to making money through the use of free blogs but is it really the best computer home based business that you could try and if it is, is Blogging To The Bank the best guide to show you how to do this?Firstly I do believe that making money from blogs is the best way to work from home and start your home business. There is little you cannot do on a free blog that others do on an expensive website and that includes making money.Surprisingly Rob Benwell, the author, hasn't actually been in internet marketing too long but he is one of the few people that took a chance on doing things differently and it paid off and now he's helping others to learn the methods that made him succeed.Rob Benwell found a way to make over $500 a day just from using free blogs and you could achieve the same with the help of Blogging To The Bank.The ebook guide is in truth fairly short at just 39 pages but this just means all the filler material that is included in other similar guides has been removed. The guide is well written and easy to follow with plenty of screenshots to make it even simpler. Unlike many guides this one actually shows you the exact steps you need to follow to set up your free money making blog.Blogging To The Bank shows all the techniques required to optimize your blogs including what to name them, what settings to use, which templates to use, money making hot spots on your blogs, where to put adsense, and most importantly how to drive massive amounts of traffic ( visitors) to your blog.Two of the techniques are a little on the risky site and many may not wish to use them but even without these methods you will be able to make money from free blogs with the other techniques in the guide.Blogging To The Bank is an excellent guide to the best computer home based business opportunity around and for the price it is amazing value especially considering it features techniques not shown anywhere else. Without hesitation Blogging To The Bank is highly recommended. dr seuss cat in hat history

Review of "Why We Buy - The Science of Shopping"

Paco Underhill published his book "Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping" in 1999. Today it remains a modern classic for understanding the psychology of consumer purchasing behavior.Here is a summary and critique the book's main points:1. Purchasing behaviors can be studied: Underhill and his team opened the eyes of CEO and retail managers everywhere with their unique approach of meticulously observing people as they shopped. They brought techniques from anthropology and merged them with economics to create a new science.2. Retailers still have much to learn about why people buy: Most CEOs that Underhill spoke with knew a whole lot about how store revenues but very little about what actually made customer purchase. For example, one CEO he spoke with believed that about 99% of people who visited their stores made purchase. When Underhill revealed that the correct statistic was only 48%, the CEO was needless to say enthralled with the possibilities.3. Sellers can benefit from understanding buyer behavior: Buyers have a certain way of walking through a store. A specific way of using their hands, looking at signs, taking breaks while shopping. Sellers who understand these behaviors can gain a huge competitive advantage. 4. You can always sell more: Your best customers are your current customers. Find ways to upsell. Entice them to the back of the store. Keep them in the store longer.5. Women and men shop differently: For example, men tend to go into a store, look at a large shelf of items, pick one, and quickly leave. Meanwhile, women are actually more information-intensive, reading the label for each possibility before making a purchase.6. People use all five senses to decide on a purchase: The more of the five senses to which a seller can appeal, the better. People want verification with their whole body before buying a product.7. Shopping on the Internet is different: Okay, this one is a "well, duhhh, Mr. Underhill" today, but remember this book was written in the late 1990s. Underhill does list some truisms about the advantages of shopping on the Internet which are helpful reminders. Underhill's book certainly opened my eyes to what retailers know and do not know about what makes people buy. My only problem with his book is the writing format. Underhill's writing is actually pretty good, but it lacks periodic summaries of main points to really drive home the reader's understanding.By reading "Why We Buy," you will get an informative, if sometimes wandering, read through the psychology of buying. dr seuss cat in hat book

The Whole World Over - by Julia Glass

Any story that begins in Manhattan and has a pastry chef as its main character has a sweet appeal to me, and The Whole World Over has been just that. Except for a slightly startling tense change at the end of the book, I found the book delightful and easy to read, so much so that I promised myself to read everything that springs out of the pen of its wonderful author, Julia Glass.The story is about personal commitments explored through love, betrayal, forgiveness, and understanding. When the chance of a profitable job presents itself, Greenie Duquette who is a pastry chef in West Village grabs the opportunity and leaves her life, which has become monotonous, to work in the house of the governor of New Mexico. Alan, her psychiatrist husband, opposes this move especially because Greenie is taking their young son George with her, although Greenie asks Alan to come with them to New Mexico. After a year and many twists and turns that also include the 9/11 disaster, all loose ends are tied.The anticipatory lines to Greenie's decision shows up in the first chapter as, "Is That All There Is? Greenie did not know what to do about this. She would have attacked the problem head on if the sufferer had been one of her girlfriends, but Alan was a man, chronically resentful of direction..." Even if the backgrounds of the numerous characters seem to be so different from each other, the plot connects them in a way that their unrelatedness becomes indiscernible. Most of the characters in the story are unique and richly developed with their quirks, foibles, backstories, and humanly sides--even the governor Ray who, in the beginning of the book, feels like a cartoon character, and at times, acts like a clown. Although Greenie's character appears to be selfish at first, the eventual display of her husband's internal life and his past make the reader absolve her actions and understand her predicament. Just as Greenie cooks and experiments with her cooking, the different kinds of love and relationships are also explored for the reader.The writer creates various settings with much charm, clarity, and brilliance--from West Village in Manhattan to Santa Fe, to Berkeley, to Connecticut, and to an island in Maine. Glass has a good eye for making the different settings influence the personalities and lifestyles of her characters.The Whole World Over has 576 pages, three parts with many chapters, and ISBN-10: 1400075769 and
ISBN-13: 978-1400075768.Julia Glass is a New Yorker, living in Masschusetts. After graduating from Yale University with an art degree, she received a fellowship to study figurative painting in Paris, and afterwards settled in New York City. Her first novel, Three Junes won the 2002 National book Award. Her talent as a writer has won her the Tobias Wolff Award, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, three Nelson Algren Fiction Awards, and the Pirate's Alley Faulkner Society Medal for Best Novella. Her second book, The Whole World Over, was published in May, 2006.The Whole World Over reads like a fairy tale, playful, rich, complex, and with taste and texture akin to the cakes Greenie creates. It is a book one should not miss reading. dr seuss book collection

Book Review - Songbirds Are Free by PM Terrell

Historical History at Its Best"Songbirds are Free" is the story of Mary Neely. Mary was abducted and taken into captivity by a group of Shawnee Indians. Suspense, Thriller author P. M. Terrell transported me to another time and place as she drew me into this story. I experienced, with Mary, the hardships of survival, of daily crisis. I was challenged to understand in a new light those confusing issues faced by the colonists, the Indians, and the British in the setting of the Revolutionary War era.I received a whole new picture of the culture, traditions, and savagery of the Indian as they were forced to migrate in hopes of finding new placed to settle. The Indian battles depicted in the Saturday matinees of the Western movies of my childhood were replaced with a new reality. I became immersed in the insight regarding beliefs, customs, and survival techniques of the military, the settlers, and the Indians, as principles were replaced with bigotry, cruelty, abuse, and revenge.Mary became accepted and her life was spared because of her songs. The Indians gave her the name "Songbird" because of her lilting voice and melodies. She sang hymns and composed poems as she planned her escape during a two year period of captivity.The story parallels Mary's movements and those of Lieutenant Jim Hawkins as they traveled the rivers and the frontiers of what we now know to be Tennessee, Ohio, Illinois, and Michigan to Canada, east to New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia.This is a book for readers of historical fiction and those who enjoy suspense, action and romance. Terrell's writing is strong, her research impeccable. The dialog helps the reader get into the story. Selected pictures showing highlights of the locations from the book add a dimension of appreciation for the credibility of this heroic story of perseverance and hope in the face of adversity. Mary Neely was truly a remarkable woman. seuss book collection sets cat hat

Burn The Fat Reviews

"There is no substitute for exercise" Have you heard that before?. I am sure that we all have. If we remember that fact in life it will help as we strive to evaluate weight loss programs. The shocking truth about Tom Venuto's burn the fat feed the muscle ebook, is that he is right on track in the 4 ways to beat obesity. With the right food, at the right time, in the right amount, with the right exercise. In burn the fat feed the muscle it comes with some great valuable information in the form of several ebooks the one entitled "Food that turn to Fat " is an eyeopener which discloses why the average person is overweight. He also disclose in his ebook entitled "Food that burn fat" that there are foods that can awaken our metabolism and begin to burn fat.Some are critics to this program who pass this off as another weight loss scam. The truth of the matter is that you really have nothing to lose. Some quibble over the price of $39.95 however the determination is quite easy to make because burn the fat feed the muscle comes with a 100% money back guarantee. The success and failure of this program depends on us the individuals. We must remember that there is no substitute for exercise which this program does not omit.The vast misconception comes from person who want a miracle cure. Many have tried liquid diets, runners jog, walkers walk, some even use drastic measures of having their jaws wired, or digestive surgery. (Not Recommend) However fat cells are resilient they always come storming back. Pound lost often come storming back with a vengeance.Please remember when evaluating any weight loss program such as burn the fat feed the muscle it all depends on the person. Thus in reality although this is complex subject when it comes to investment for some it will work to their benefit for other it will not. However if you are skeptic think of it this way. What to I have to lose? If it is not working I will send it back and exercise the 100% Money back guarantee. In summary this program is well worth the effort because it comes with the money back guarantee. So with the right food, at right time, in the right amount, with right amount of exercise can lead to a reduction in our weight. Burn the fat feed the muscle is an ebook that is a must read for all. That is why I recommend that you try it, because you have nothing to lose but the weight. dr seuss cat in hat quotes

Suspended Animation In "An Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Bierce

The story depicts the last moments Peyton Fahrquhar's life during the American Civil Wars. Being "a well to do planter, of an old and highly respected Alabama family", he was fervently committed to the "Southern cause". Due to some circumstances which are not mentioned in the story, he was hindered from taking part in the war, however he strived like an audacious soldier to satiate his own inner heroic demands. One evening he was visited by a thirsty soldier and while his wife was fetching some water, Peyton inquired the soldier for news from the front. Being a Federal (Nourthern) spy,the soldier had disguised himself as a Confederate (Southern) horseman and ignited the zest in Peyton to meddle with the reconstruction of the Owl Creek Bridge. The repercussion of any sort of tamper would be hanging. The soldier succeeded and Peyton was caught and hanged in an attempt to explode the bridge.Part 1The story is divided into three section, each section with it's own unique narrative techniques. The first part commences with the depiction of "a man", whose name not divulged till the second part,waiting to be hanged. However the picture is not illuminated forthwith, The very first sentence of the story: "a man stood upon a railroad bridge in northern Alabama, looking down into the swift water twenty feet below" presents no morbid image in mind but step by step the reader is led to put the pieces of the puzzle together and grasp the fact that the man being described is going to be executed. Also the repetition of " man" instills a military shrillness into the mind while the delineation of the protagonist is outweighed by the depiction of the "sergeant who in civil life might have been a deputy sheriff", the two sentinels "who did not know what was occurring at the center of the bridge" and were "statues to adorn the bridge" or the captain for whom "death is a dignitary". Bierce's obsessions with the brutality of war and it's nugatoriness are inculcated more palpabily in this part of the story, signifying petiness of human beings when a war is fought and also the fact that executing civilians can be a run_of_the_mill routine during the wars. After stirring the reader by such a mockery in tone and the macabre portraying of the man with a rope round his neck, Bierce puts forward the image of the forest and the stream as starkly juxtaposed to the stockade loopholed for rifles,the muzzle of a brass cannon or the company of infantry in line as the spectators of the execution. The soothing effect of the natural imagery is utterly shattered by the metallic and inhuman armor or the soldiers in the line but later in the story such natural imageries will regain their crucial significance and the overwhelming forces of the war and termination will surrender to the power and freedom inculcated by nature.Now having created a vivid picture of the setting that is a bridge located within a forest during the American Civil Wars, Bierce gradually sets aside the social dimensions of the story and casts more light on the protagonist, however with an apparent laconicism and terseness. The fact that he is a gentleman, not a vulgar assassin and is executed according to "liberal military code" is another ironic attack against the absurdity of war. Even the mere procedure through which the execution is carried out, though "simple and effective", culminates to callousness and ruthlessness of the military codes. The uncovered eyes of the convict, a kind of torture impelled upon him by the Federals ironically is a symbolic loophole for him at the excruciating moment of death, allows him to take last glimpse of the world which serve as significant elements throughout the narrative. From this point the trend of the story alters and the reader is taken deep into Peyton's thoughts and introspections and the horrid picture of the hanging is shattered by visual and the auditory imageries that magnify his disturbed state of mind. Of these imageries the swirling water of the stearm represents his perplexed and distraught mind which later by the remembrance of his beloved ones, wife and children, forfeits it's nervous osilliations and turnes out to be be "sluggish stream" and is no more a mad one but "touched to gold by the early sun". In his last moments of life he has acquired a sharper appreciation of his surroundings which could have been without any distinction in his life and the auditory imageries of this part contribute to this notion, the ticking of his watch (symbol of death) heard as "the stroke of a blacksmith's hammer upon the anvil" or the roar of the stream all augment the tension and inevitability of the situationThe first part of the story terminates with his last wish to free himself and last reassurance about his family that they are beyond the invader's reach and the sergeant's stepping aside from the plank serves as a transition between the two parts of the story. The end of the first part could be considered an early suspenseful climax for the story but as we read on the whole climatic features of this part is exhausted though it's abrupt ending and the imageries trigger many anticipations on the reader's. The third person limited point of view which mainly mirrors Peyton's observations demonstrates a proper pliability in description of various elements throughout the story, it becomes detached, denotative, demotive, factual and shrill with short sentences like that of the military discourse. However once coming out of the military zone and reflecting the human realm, it is embellished with descriptive passages, stirring imageries and human impulse, as if easily floating like the stream. The whole story is patterned through the forementioned style of narration and contributes to Bierce's artistic creativity as the writer of macabre and black satire.Therefore the first part ends with presenting a nebulous picture of the protagonist and his origins. The second part of the narrative provides a direct access to his idiosyncrasies and the impetus for his execution.Part 2The second part of the story acts as a direct interposed biography of the main character, whose name as the very first word of this part (Peyton Fahrquhar) obliterates any suspensions and speculations about him. He is an oppulant slave owner, brave enough to devote himself to the "Southern cause" and being instigated by the Federal scout, he broods over destroying the Owl Creek Bridge in order to gain heroic immortality among the other Southerners. Hence the prospects of becoming a hero subjugate his vows to the family, though their reminiscence never ceases haunting his mind and is the only refuge at the moment of death. His children are never described throughout the story and the only facts about his wife are the whiteness of her hands (that symbolizes purity) and her satisfaction with serving the soldiers whish suffice for her momentous role in the story, in other words a full_scale depiction of the family could have ruined the inevitability and pithiness of the narrative for which Bierce is master. Even by some critics he is accused of ruining the whole effect of a story by his impelled conciseness but in this story his style is an overwhelming rejoinder to such critics and the laconic narration adds up to the implacability of Peyton's destiny.The second section of the narrative serves as a flashback between two phases of Peyton's last moment of life that is between falling off the plank and being strangled. In this part the narrator stops the story, relates Peyton's background and then returns to him while hanging from the bridge, hence such cinematic qualities of this story has led to many movie adaptation and t.v series. This shortcut to his life at the moment of death reinforces the fact that death is always shadowed by the desire of returning to life which is utterly magnified in the third part of the story.Part 3This part is utterly dedicated to Peyton's thought and introspections at the moment of departure. After the flashback, the narrator takes the reader back to the bridge where he is awakened by the pain upon his throat and with a feeling of congestion. His power of thought is restored when he hears the splash of the water. The neatly_woven auditory, thermal and visual imageries of this part of the story such as the image of the pendulum, the fire, the light or the sound of the splash and ripples, make any empathy plausible, that is while reading, the reader cannot help identifying with Peyton and seeing himself/herself drowning, struggling, tearing away the noose and all the actions on the part of Peyton. Here the narrator directly puts into words his thoughts in a way that his own presence is totally effaced and the reader feels that Peyton himself is the narrator, even he has a sense of humor when he says:"To be hanged and drowned, that is not so bad" or struggling to release himself he thinks:"What magnificent, what superhuman strength! Ah, that was a fine endeavor! Bravo!". His sense of humour is sharply juxtaposed with the appalling image of the hanging.Now coming to the surface of the water, he is bestowed with a new cognizance and appreciation of his surroundings and his "organic system" has become so "exalted and refined". He can see every single leaf of a tree and the insects upon them, flies, spiders and different colors or the humming of the gnats along with other insects sounds like a music for him. Even he can see the grey eye of the markman on the bridge who is trying to shoot him. He has gained a vigor beyond human conditions, he can dodge a volley and is not wounded by the bullets and they just "touch him on the face and hands and continue their descent". Getting released from a vortex, he reaches the Southern bank of the stream. Again he sees the world differently, the gravels are "diamonds, rubies, emeralds", even he notices the symmetrical arrangement of the trees and hears the "wind making in their branches the music of Aeolian harps". Eventually he is touched by the newly_gained epiphany which is accompanied by his love of wife. As walking towards his home during the night, he notices the "strange constellations" and in the climatic part of the story, he finds himself in front of his house in the morning. Rushing to embrace his wife, he is overwhelmed by "darkness and silence" and the story ends with Peyton's body swinging from the bridge.Peyton's whole quest in the last part of the story embodies his last wish to be with his family or in other words the desire of living on. Narrated in four pages, this interior journy did not last more than the time needed for taking the last breath and the breaking of his neck was the resolution and the late climax shatters the reader's expectations of his freedom and redemption. So the setting of the whole story can be concluded from this part, that is on the Owl Creek Bridge and the last moment of Peyton's life and plot is nothing than a brutal hanging. But Bierce surpasses the boundaries of narrative techniques and represents the depth of human experience through not conscious action but unconscious thought. Water as the universally_accepted archetype for the unconscious, brings into light Peyton's unconscious yearnings which are never materialized. So the last part of the story from the point that he is awakened after hanging to the moment that he is veiled by darkness, occurs in his unconscious mind and that is why his experiences in this part are quite vital, vivid and are expressed through a poetic language such as describing Peyton as "fatigued, footsore, famished". This kind of expression is quite apart from the factual and demotic language of the first part. In this newly_defamiliarized world he sees "the prismatic colors in all the dewdrops upon a million blades of grass", he hears the "audible music" of the nature and the other cases which are mentioned in the previous paragraph. However, the ghostly and superhuman features of Peyton such as not being wounded by the bullets, foreshadow the unreliability of the narrator but in the same respect, he provides the reader with some clues to doubt the veracity of the quest, for instance the sense of suffocation or congestion and protruding his tongue because he is thirsty all substantiate the fact that he has not survived the hanging. However, the quest encompasses all microcosmic and macrocosmic features of human life that are not easily reconciled in ordinary organic conditions and such metaphysical experience is only attainable at the moment of death as testified by many other people throughout the world. This metaphysical realm is symbolized by the "untraveled avenue" in the forest which he chooses as a path towards his home, also his domicile symbolizes every human's desire for everlasting salvation. Therefore all the experiences in the last part of the story epitomize each phase of his death. His moment of death is not that of torture, disappointment or ordeal, it is a time for awakening from mundane slumber, for seeing the real world and a time for revelation.The third part with all it's suspense and climatic peculiarities frustrates reader expectations. These expectations were formed by the abrupt ending of the first part which assumes a loophole for Peyton and also the romantic narrative of the last part that to the very end of the story keeps the reader alert and hopeful. Ironically the poetic language of this part contributes more to shatter all the illusions because it takes the reader deeper into the exposed experience, therefore the shock at the end is more devastating and dazzling. The title itself with it's horrid understatement adds up to the coldness of the first and ironic qualities of the last part. Knowledge in army tactics and map reading gained there would aid him in the Civil War, into which he enlisted in 1861, at nineteen years of age. As biographer Richard O'Conner wrote, "War was the making of Bierce as a man and a writer." Surely this cannot be disputed, for it was in the war that Bierce was surrounded by the dead and the dying. From this grim experience Bierce would emerge -- at twenty-three -- a young man with a true understand of death and a destined writer truly capable of transferring the bloody, headless bodies and boar-eaten corpses of the battlefield onto paper (along with other, less gruesome qualities of war). Bierce's war tales are considered by many to be the best writing on war, outranking his contemporary Stephen Crane (author of The Red Badge of Courage) and even Ernest Hemingway. dr seuss cat in hat history