Goods and bads for this book.

Goods: I learned a couple of neat new tricks. I’ve been using photoshop for a long time, and I decided I needed to figure out what the more recent versions could do that the old ones couldn’t.I got a bunch of books out of the library, and I can genuinely say this one is better written and had more unique examples than most of the others. I was also able to read through the tutorials and understand how to do them without having to sit down and work through them. (I never do tutorials, I’m not a step-by-step person; since I just wanted to learn new tricks, I wanted to pick them up without having to do the step-by-step on a picture I don’t care about.)

Bads: I really liked the fog and planets tutorials; the rest did nothing for me and to be very frank, I didn’t like the art. What made that really disappointing is that a number of those tutorials were sf/f in nature, which are some of my favorite kinds of art. But when I think the products of the tutorials are ugly, it makes me want to find techniques that will better fit what I want to do.

For intermediate users who don’t know where to start with photomanipulations, this will help; advanced users may pick up a couple of new tricks but probably won’t want to buy. It also doesn’t make much of a reference, if you prefer reference books (I do)—once you’ve worked through it, you won’t be getting it back off your shelf much.

Ok, I admit I started watching this because I couldn’t get enough of Julian McMahon as Dr. Doom. (I know, some people have just decided my judgment sucks, but hey, I thought he was the most interesting character.)

As I watch this show, I catch myself thinking from time to time…”they’re not going to go there. they can’t possibly go there.” And they go there. Threesomes, incest, drugs, murder, sex changes, stigmata, porn, sex toy dolls, you name it, they go there. And that’s just in this second season. So it’s kind of like watching a train wreck. With a lot more sex.

That’s not why I say the show is messy, though. I admire the actors for being willing and able to go some of the places they do. I say it’s messy because the emotional chaos that leads to all of these things is, as I read somewhere else, soap operatic. Everybody sleeps with everybody else’s former and current partners, not to mention the patients. Even one of the surgeon’s sons ends up in bed with two girls at the same time.

I also say it’s messy because you get to see the surgeries. I could live without those. And it sure doesn’t make liposuction look like something I’d volunteer for anytime soon.

What keeps me watching is that there is depth to the characters, and as I said, the show really does go places a lot of shows never would. I get frustrated with all of the main characters (McNamara got mad at his wife for cheating on him and trumped her a dozen times over…but nobody seems to see the problem with that; Troy [McMahon] is a womanizing jerk who never quite seems to catch hold of the goodness other characters swear is there; and Julia [McNamara’s wife] accepts the blame for something she did a long time ago as if she did it yesterday), but I think that’s intentional on the writers’ parts.

So…I enjoy watching it, sometimes more than others, but I confess that sometimes I feel a little sordid afterwards. I’d be interested in reading others’ reviews of the show!

I don’t exactly have a question - I’m writing this entry for another reason, and that’s to say - as good as this book is, it’s outdated. The most recent research is about 1998, and a lot has changed in 10 years. It’s a shame that things haven’t been updated, since I think as time goes on the information has only become more relevant.

I have a lot of trouble understanding why this is still in print when it hasn’t been updated. If it’s good enough to keep in print, why isn’t it good enough to update? Particularly since I’ve worked with publishers on book updates, and on books that need far fewer updates, this just seems odd to me….

I really enjoyed the book…right up until the last few pages. The end made little sense to me for two reasons. 1. In the end, the main character’s decision to help keep things as they were seemed misguided to me, given the repercussions and 2. If someone’s not divine, why maintain their legacy anyhow, especially at such cost? (I’m intentionally trying to be vague—I’m trying not to ruin the book for people who haven’t read it.

The Jewish history was magnificent, but I wondered if the author hadn’t done a bit too little research on Christian history.

I’d like to give this a 3.5 stars, please.

The good:

- Lots of illustrative stories. (After seeing 300, though, I admit to rushing home and being annoyed I couldn’t find anything…especially since I knew what [wouldn’t] happen to Xerxes because I was reading this at the time.)

- A good guide to different approaches to strategy and war.

The bad:

- Usually when people say a book is too long, I assume they’re used to reading magazine articles and are kind of lazy. (I know, that’s awful.) With this, though, I started to feel like he got paid more to write longer chapters. I started seeing the same stories in different parts of the book—maybe it’s being an editor, but things-are-blending-together redundancy is a cardinal sin in my book. I like clean and conscise. when I get 1/4 through the book and am seeing the same stories, I’m wondering how often I’m going to read them before I’m done.

- Greene’s books tend to be about getting something. In the right context, that’s okay with me, but I have read few books that feel so manipulative as his. (That includes the Seduction and Power books. Do his techniques work in the right hands? Absolutely. Is there danger in hollowing yourself out enough to use these things without feeling bad about those you’re affecting? Absolutely!) Referent power is when people do things because they like you and want to be like you, and Greene explains why this is important and “how” to do it…unfortunately, this isn’t one of those things that’s easy to fake.

- There’s not a lot of honor in many of the approaches. Granted, it’s war, and it works, but if you have issues with stabbing people in the back (sometimes literally), you will have issues with some of the approaches. As you read, you’ll see more and more value to stabbing people in the back…but I go back to my other points. Do you really want to be that cold? (BTW, I did read this as research of sorts rather than to Go to War with someone or something. So maybe I wasn’t feeling bitter enough.) I read The Art of War after this, because it’s referenced so much I started to wonder why I hadn’t just read that instead. The translation I read, at least, has the feel of “we do what is necessary,” rather than “we will rip their heads off and enjoy doing it, who needs friends you can’t trust them anyhow, mwah ha ha ha.”

- Even if you think the rest of my remarks are a little silly, this one may be the most important con. Many of the 33 strategies contradict themselves. There is an approach for everything, and any good warrior realizes that you play to the situation, but that is an art form rather than a connect-the-dots. If you’re a critical thinker who can see why you would use one strategy in one situation and the opposite (which may actually be called a bad move in another chapter) will get a lot more out of this than someone who’s looking for The Answers.

I’ll be interested to see how others review this!

Because I taped it on TV when it was on. And it’s not on DVD so this is the best I can do. Interesting idea, takes itself a bit too seriously at times, but entertaining scifi. Sometimes you just want to kick Cade into finding a little humor in life. And I don’t do well when aliens are named things like Gua (said gwah). It’s just not scary. But then, neither is Zod (Superman villain), so maybe it’s just me.