Review: The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove

The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove by Lauren Kate

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



"Spoilt little rich girl" is the thought that comes to mind in the first few chapters of The Betrayal' but it doesn't take long to start relating to poor Natalie Hargrove and understanding the world from her point of view. The world is out to get her.

There are various points in the narrative that hint slightly towards something supernatural, this coupled with the overall dark theme help save the story from the cliché teeny-bopper genre. The "girl from the wrong side of the tracks now living with the upper class" theme is an important part of the back story but mercifully this reminder of The O.C. really only serves as a back drop to an otherwise respectfully dark insight to the human mind and how heavily certain priorities can influence decision making and where it can all can lead.

Although I could (kind of) see where it was heading the ending left me stunned, thinking of events in the plot where there could be so much more told, and ultimately wanting a sequel.



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Review: The Blood Countess

The Blood Countess by Tara Moss

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Remember the old Sega and Nintendo games that you just couldn't put down once you got home and started playing them? Remember how you got wisped away into to Video Game World and before you knew it you had finished the whole game, and how the feeling immediately after was a mix of wanting to play it all again and the anticipation and impatience of waiting for the sequel? Perhaps that's just me.
Either way that's what hit me when my eyes reached the last word of the last sentence of the last page of the last chapter of The Blood Countess.

So now, not only am I waiting eagerly for a certain Canadian Amazon Psycho Magnet, Makedde Vanderwall, to full on go postal in Assassin, I'm also busting to see what kind of Hairy Scary Hobgoblin jumps out at Pandora English in The Spider Goddess




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Review: Siren

Siren by Tara Moss

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



It's not often that I reach the end of a movie and think "Holy Crap! What just happened? That's one epically shocking finish that'll take a while to recover from. Bring on the sequel!"
Congrats to Tara Moss because I just got that from a book. I'm referring to the kind of event depicted on screen that in the first half hour of a movie or the end of a pilot episode that lets you know it's all action packed epic from this point on and the bad guys better run.

I'm only giving a 4 out 5 because I have a feeling that if I give it the 5 it deserves I'll want to give the next book a 6 out of 5.



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Review: Work Wonders: Feed Your Dog Raw Meaty Bones

Work Wonders: Feed Your Dog Raw Meaty Bones by Tom Lonsdale

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Work Wonders is a very easy to follow, and understand, explanation of what we should all be feeding our canine companions and the reasons why. Every other sub species of the Grey Wolf such as the Dingo, Arctic Wolf and Arabian Wolf seek out a diet very similar to that of the parent species Canus Lupus (the Grey Wolf) so why are we not all providing a similar diet to our dogs, Canus Lupus Familiaris? They are after all essentially modified house wolves.

Work Wonders is simplified for the layman. I, with my simple mind read it in a few hours and misunderstood nothing (as far as I know).
For those wanting more in depth scientific, mind blowing information, I recommend Raw Meaty Bones, also by Tom Lonsdale.



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Buddha on the RMB

Raw Meaty Bones

That's all my dogs, Ellie & Buddha, have been eating since September 14th, 2011. Prior to this they had always been fed chicken wings & drumsticks, the occasional lamb shank, and little lamb ribs when we first adopted them last year at the tender age of 8 weeks.
However, we were also feeding them kibble and other factory processed "dog food" (because that's what was recommended by the vet at the time so of course you do what you're led to believe is best for the puppies) and God only knows what cheap bottom shelf muck they were fed on at the pound having just been ripped from their canine mother's teats far too early.

Poor Buddha, the runt of the litter, 2.1 kg when first we weighed him, with tiny lumps on his tiny head from where his siblings had been having a good chew to relieve their teething discomfort as they had nothing else to chew on but each other. What's worse is he smelt like death. His tongue was constantly slimy and when his droppings weren't sloppy puddings they exploded out his back end with a vomit inducing stench.

Little Ellie, as outwardly healthy as she appeared, expelled a different unpleasant odour from her skin and her breath carried the smell of dog excrement because she kept eating it.

Unknown to us, it was not the Supercoat kibble or Tucker Time rolls, that were keeping our puppies' coats nice and shiny, it was the raw chicken they crunched away on every day and the fact we only bathed them twice in their lives instead of washing all the natural beneficial oils from the dogs' skin every week. The processed pet food was the culprit that made them sick.

Buddha's smell did improve gradually, as did the consistency of his droppings. Yet every 5 to 6 weeks he was back to the vet to get the same stomach bug treated again and again. In addition they both did their fair share of excrement eating of which no vet, breeder, or any other "expert" seemed to know the reason.

This pattern was the standard from mid July 2010 to mid September 2011 when we decided to try the new local vet as it's a few minutes away and Ellie gets car sick.
Dr Tom Lonsdale of Raw Meaty Bones fame (or infamy if you're a junk pet food company or Vet funded by one) suggested merely removing all the supermarket pet food from their diet and seeing what happens.

48 hours was all it took for the unpleasant odours to dissipate completely. Ellie was much happier now that she was being cuddled and not pushed away. A few days more and we noticed the dogs were no longer eating their own faeces, were more content, had more energy, and no longer tried to claw through a person's face just to get a cuddle.
Almost a month later, we are now noticing fur regrowing in the small patch on the chins of both dogs just below the bottom lip where for many months it had been bald.

Some of you may be squeamish at the thought of your dog eating big messy raw chunks of meat and bone such as chicken frames, lamb heads, lamb necks, ox gullet, ox heart, ox liver, ox stomach, cute fluffy bunny rabbits, etc. But what makes you more squeamish, that, or constantly spending a fortune on the cleverly disguised slow working poison that is kibble and tinned dog food and subsequently paying the vet a fortune because of the health problems caused by such so called food?

Here's a tip: Instead of looking at the dismembered rabbit, just look at the dog having a great time eating his natural diet.

Buddha & The Rabbit


Buddha & The Fish

Our new vet has been a real eye opener to the health problems caused by all the junk that is advertised as healthy for our pets and recommended by so many vets that "make a killing" by slowly poisoning our four legged family members in order to reap the profits of regular vet visits, check ups, and otherwise unnecessary surgeries.
He also answered the question no other vet could/would.

Why were they eating their own poop? Simply because the kibble and such does not contain what is needed by the dog until it has made its way near the end of the digestive system where it is infested with enzymes and other bits and pieces that the dog needs, therefore the dog picks it up the second time through.

It's not just a shame, it's essentially criminal that so many junk food companies pushing this poison as "healthy", "essential", and everything else that it isn't, and all the vets are along for the ride. It has even reached the stage where veterinary students are being falsely taught that these slow working poisons are essential for a dog's well being.

So, now what's making you squeamish?

Why animals are better than people.

My dog, Buddha, has a friend. His friend is a Schnauzer named Teddy. Teddy lives on a farm. This farm has lots of open space and there are chickens running around. My other dog, Ellie, isn't too fond of other dogs but she tolerates them for the most part and she loves running around as well.

Yesterday I took Ellie and Buddha to visit Teddy on the farm. Teddy's Mummy and Daddy are going away soon so they had their grumpy-bum house sitter there. He's an old grump who likes dogs that sit quiet and never bark, growl, or grizzle. So really he likes dogs that are more like broken in horses than actual dogs.
Anyway, Buddha remembered the grump from last year when we went to check on Teddy and discovered the poor puppy tied to the tractor (for barking) and being yelled at to shut up.

-- Congratulations!!! You are trying to stop a dog barking by essentially barking back at him. --

Thanks to where we had parked and the fact we left our dogs in the car, right in between Teddy and the grump, Buddha & Ellie no doubt thought they were being yelled at.
So on yesterday's visit upon seeing the grump Buddha immediately started to growl. "I remember you, fucker." would be the English translation. Ellie and Buddha jumped out of the car, Buddha grizzled a bit more at the grump before greeting a happily yapping Teddy with the customary sniff sniff and whatnot. We had to wait about half an hour for Teddy's Mummy to arrive home from shopping.
Of course, when Teddy decided it was necessary to bark to sound the alert to us all that he could hear his Mummy coming home in the distance (still miles away) the grump took it upon himself to grab poor Teddy by the collar & drag him inside to isolation for punishment, or more accurately, pointless confusion. Buddha took exception to this.
The grump grabbed Teddy by the collar and dragged him inside with Buddha not three steps behind. "Hold on a minute Fucker, just what do you think you're doing dragging my friend away from the watchful eyes of witnesses?" Satisfied that he had foiled any attempts of assault Buddha came back outside but only when he was sure the grump was coming out too and that Teddy was safe.
Once she had arrived home Teddy was allowed out to greet his Mum with much louder than usual barking too rub it into the grump that "I can bark and you can't stop me!"
Later in the day when we, dogs and all, were inside for coffee, the grump walked passed the door to the disapproving growls of Buddha. The second time he walked past both Buddha and Ellie growled at him. The third time he came to the door and the dogs growled he looked down at Buddha and said "Ya wanna get smacked in the head?" that was the straw that did it.
Woof Woof Grr Grr Woof Grizzle Grr!!!

The moral of the story?
Dogs will defend their friends and dogs will hold a grudge, but unlike humans they won't hide it or sugar coat it, and they will remind you of it at each opportunity even when the one they defend is ready to forgive and forget.

How is this different from people?
Some people simply don't get along. If a dog and a person don't get along it is because the person is at fault.

Raw Meaty Bones

A dog's a man's best friend. It's a phrase we still use commonly in this day and age, yet with the amount of dog's baited, abandoned, stolen and abused in more ways than one it would be no surprise to me if our K-9 companions decided to pack their chew toys and realigned their loyalties. Most of us don't like hearing it and many refuse to believe it but feeding our much loved four legged family members anything from the cheapest & nastiest Two-Dollar-Shop kibble to the top shelf highly expensive Vet Recommended brand name pet foods amounts to little more than an unintentional form of abuse from the hands of the owner. And it is unintentional, after all, most of us are only feeding our dogs what's been recommended and advertised as highly nutritional and essential for the well being of the animal. In fact we're constantly reassured we're doing the right thing in feeding this muck to our poor pooches. The fact however is that we've been pulled in hook, line & sinker by the con job that is Supermarket Pet Food.

Enter Dr Tom Lonsdale and the Raw Meaty Bones diet.

Tom has recently moved back into the Vet end of the Bligh Park Health Centre. Four days ago we walked our two bundles of energy down there to weigh them and check him out. We left over an hour later with our dogs committed to a new diet. We didn't have to add anything to their existing diet as they already had chicken wings and drumsticks regularly, we just had to stop feeding them the kibble and other factory processed "Pet Food" as it is made mostly of grain and other substances the canine system is not equipped for. Basically, the supermarket pet food is nothing more than junk food that slowly but surely poisons our pets.
Ellie & Buddha have been on the RMB diet for a total of four days and already are calmer, happier, and healthier, and they smell a lot better too. As I'm typing this they are both working their teeth and gums on a lamb head each and loving it, and I'm loving the money I'm saving on the much cheaper & healthier doggy diet.

I highly recommend doing your own research into the subject and here's a few good places to start:

http://www.rawmeatybones.com/

http://www.aussiermb.org.au/

Review: Sparklers

Sparklers by Pat Booth

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Well this one was rather dark & disturbing and sick & twisted. A good eye opener for those who think the world is full of wonderful kind-hearted beings and still think murderers, rapists and paedophiles don't exist.

A brilliant work of fiction that draws from some of the harshest realities of life. I found Sparklers to be a well paced, riveting thrill ride that plays on some of the more sordid fantasies and fears lurking in the depths of the mind.



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Trust the Pound

Last year we acquired two little black puppies from our local animal shelter, they were listed there as foxy crosses. They clearly were anything but.
After sending some photos and video clips to some breeders we were informed that they were most likely German Pointer X Labrador Retriever on one side and Greyhound X Border Collie on the other (Possibly with some Kelpie too). After tossing up which breeds to register them as, suddenly 12 months had gone by and they still weren't registered so we had a look through tonnes of photos online and decided we most likely had a Greyhound X Labrador and a Greyhound x Kelpie.
So a few days ago we trotted off to the pound to update them with the details. And after all of this the lady at the pound listed them as, simply, Labrador X & Kelpie X.

So much for attention to detail.

Review: Judgement of Tears: Anno Dracula 1959

Judgement of Tears: Anno Dracula 1959 by Kim Newman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I was unsure about whether or not to bother with this one as I started reading, but it didn't take long to become enthralled in it. Now I'll have to hunt around for the first two novels in the series.



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Review: Split

Split by Tara Moss

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



I read this novel a couple of years ago so it's not fresh in my mind but I will say this. I'm generally the type of reader who will pick a book from anywhere in a series, enjoy it, but then not bother with the rest of the set. Split changed that. The edge of the seat quality of this second part from Tara Moss's "psycho magnet" saga commissioned me to round up Fetish, Covet and Hit in order to follow the heroine, Makedde Vanderwall, from the Catwalk to the Crime Scene so to speak.
Split reminded me of scenes ranging from the 2000 Australian film Chopper to dark and intriguing BBC series Wire in the Blood, yet in a world where a truly original story is increasingly elusive Moss has succeeded in writing a body of work that is refreshingly far beyond just another rehashed "Who-Done-It."
Don't wait for a rainy day when the TV's on the blink to read this one. Do it now!




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Review: Keeper of the King

Keeper of the King by Nigel Bennett

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Without giving too much away, Keeper of the King is, to date, the only story I have come across that throws Vampires into the Arthurian Legend and it does so brilliantly. But don't expect too much about the knights of the round table as this is set in the 1990's.
As with all good modern tales of the Nosferatu Bennett throws in something extra to change the way the reader thinks about Vampires while maintaining a few blood sucking essentials to ensure the characters are still unmistakably our favourite undead creatures of the night. This combined with a bit of sex, romance, and a quest for a certain golden chalice keeps the reader's eyes adhered to the page long after the eyelids want to close for the night.



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Writing

I'd possibly be an accomplished well known novelist if it wasn't for the fact that every time I start to write something fictional I either deviate too far from the original idea, forget it completely, or simply read back over it, hate it, and lose interest followed by deleting it altogether. There was one rather short and depressing poem I wrote several years ago and submitted to website which published it in a book along with the other "winning" entries from their users. Alas, the website, book title and poem have all escaped the confines of my dark recess of a memory and I didn't at the time feel like paying for a copy of the book. Anyway, let's get back on track.

Sitting with my napping dogs, Ellie and Buddha, I had just finished Chapter Two of Tara Moss's Siren when the idea crept inside my head to about a dark mysterious fellow with thoughts of revenge and retribution to dish out. I flipped open my laptop, opened up OpenOffice Writer 2.0 and proceeded to type. What I typed was most definitely not dark nor was it mysterious.
The mysterious man had transformed within mere seconds and I found myself writing about a young woman enjoying the sun late one Spring day...

...so unless something dark and mysterious happens I don't know what's going on.

The Social Circle

Be objective and people will get offensive,
be offensive and people will get amused,
be amusing and people will get serious,
be serious and people will get defensive,
be defensive and people will get suspicious,
be suspicious and people will get paranoid,
be paranoid and people will get unsure,
be unsure and people will get religious,
be religious and people will get scientific,
be scientific and people will get intrigued,
be intrigued and people will get philosophical,
be philosophical and people will get political,
be political and people will get closed minded,
be closed minded and people will get objective...

You know it's true.

Politics and Politicians

The True Definition.
Politics: A process by which groups of people make collective decisions.
Politician: A person involved in influencing public policy and decision making.

The General Public's Definition.
Politics: The process of making policies more stupid and threatening.
Politician: A person who acts in a manipulative and devious way to gain advancement.

One of the main reasons for this is revealed in the second photo.

Malcolm Turnbull,
Former Liberal Party Leader.

A true conservative politician.

Tony Abbott,
Currant Liberal Party Leader
A true embarrassment on a global scale.

On A More Serious Note

What is wrong with people today? They don't want a carbon tax because they fear they might be a little out of pocket? They don't want a carbon tax because they are sceptical of the whole climate change issue? They don't want a carbon tax because the country hasn't voted on it in an official referendum?

Seriously, the world is full of retards who clearly don't understand the severity of the problem we have put ourselves in!

I don't mean people of mental disability when I use the word retards. I'm talking about the everyday normal people who went to school for at least 13 years, participated in some form of tertiary education, and can read, write, observe, assess, and make informed logical decisions in their day to day lives but for the life of them cannot make the indescribably minuscule mental step of using their own senses and memories of years gone by to come to the constantly proven and reinforced scientific fact that the climate of this planet we populate is messed up all over the place and global warming is not just a myth dreamed up for political propaganda and that the human race in its infinite wisdom greatly accelerated (if not caused) the process over the great many decades of the carbon era.

It couldn't be any simpler to understand.
The coal we burn to generate electricity & power steam trains, the oil, petrol, diesel & gas we run our vehicles on, the fires we light to keep warm in winter, etc, etc, etc all loads our atmosphere with constantly increasing amounts of carbon. What does all this mean? It's air pollution for a start and it's increasing the overall temperature of the planet. Polar ice caps are melting faster than they should, cyclones are increasing in both severity and occurrence, islands are being lost to the sea, weather patterns are altered, etc, etc, etc.

The faster we all agree that global warming and climate change are a real and present threat to more than just our way of life and that there is a genuine need to change our ways and then actually do it instead of talk about it the better off we'll all be. So utilise the canvas shopping bags, recycle as much as possible, filter your used cooking oil and run your diesel car on it, walk instead of drive the 5 minutes to the corner shop, plant a native tree in your back yard, unplug electronics if they're not in use and use the ceiling fans instead of the air conditioner.

I hear the same rubbish every day from people. "Say No to Carbon Tax", "It's going to cost people their jobs", "Carbon Tax is Bullshit"... the list goes on but not one has an opinion of their own as to how best to deal with climate change and global warming so until you have read on some facts and listened to the scientists and pulled your head from your backside and looked around you have no place spouting your misinformed opinions.

I could be polite and passive but nothing short of abrupt vulgarities seem to hold the attention of these dumb-shit spastics. We don't have another planet to go start afresh on so lets all do our bit to stop fucking up this one!

Fun Times

Oh, that's right! I have a blog I've left unattended for 3 months. Skipping back over it it seems to be half full of deep and meaningful heartfelt truth from the depths of my soul (yeah right) and the rest is just trivial non-important nonsensical dribble. I can't see any reason to change this either. Therefore I shall just put an update of my trivial, non-important and nonsensical life.

Let's see now...

My bottom left wisdom tooth - Number 38 - decided to poke it's head through and attempt to fuck Number 37 up the arse so the dentist decided to get an X-ray to catch the culprit in the act.


Those with a bit of dental understanding will notice the abscess beneath 38 and the fact that it's rooting the nerve beside it. Want a closer look?




Now, I must point out that the agony i was making with painkiller after painkiller was nothing compared to the actual extraction process.
i.e. I think there was a good reason for the bruise under the surgeon's eye.
Anyway, it's out now as you can see.

You can also see where he drilled into it, and, if you look really close you can see where he slipped with the drill several times.

Fun times.

...and in the world today...

The BIG news: Two people got married, a company got hacked, and a man got killed.

What does all this mean for the world in the big picture? It means there's nothing out of the ordinary really.

You know it's true.

Well that didn't take long.

Quote

"P2P Instructions - We do not support P2P file sharing applications and any threads requesting help for such will be closed. This includes Torrents, Kazaa, LimeWire, RapidShare, Pirate Bay, and the like. If you're interested in the topic, you are free to discuss it on our site (and please visit StealingIsIllegal.com), but information on how to use them will not be provided."

And as soon as I start to discuss it on the site the threat gets closed.

Fuck off back to the dark ages Tech Guy!

1 Infraction on The Tech Guy

Have a read of this.

I start out with a question about why a disc isn't working and as soon I mention it was a torrent the thread is closed and I am given an "Infraction" notice. For all they know the torrent could have been a legal back up from my PC in Timbuktu to my PC at home but because they don't support piracy they don't support torrents which are only viewed as being the anti-Christ because a lot of commercially available software is distributed for free over the torrent networks. But hey, this is just saving people money without funding piracy. Have your say here.

Now have a read of this.

I have an issue with not being able to write to blank media. It wouldn't matter what make or model of burner or dvd I had tried to use it simply wouldn't have worked because I needed a dual layer disc. But instead of helpful suggestions for fixing the problem with the stuff I have available some brain dead fuck-knuckle who believes everything he finds on Google tells me to go buy new shit. News Flash: Already fuckin' did!

To further show his stupidity after I had figured it out for myself he get hung up on a crossed wire saying the burner should burn to a single layer disc no worries. Not when what I'm burning is bigger than a single layer DVD Dick Head!

Thanks for all the useless fucking so called help!

The Tech Guy Here to further your frustration.

Free I.T.

Praise the Cyber Lord for Open Source, Freeware and GNU GPL.

About 6 or 7 years ago I played around with a fun little freebie called Ubuntu, which I acquired by logging onto the site and ordering the CD to be posted to me absolutely free. "Thank you, come again." as Apu Nahasapeemapetilon would say. So I installed it, had a fiddle, but the novelty soon wore off and Windows XP (which perfectly fits the definition of a virus) once again ravaged my PC.

Years of frustration later Windows XP is still here to torment. Luckily I've just installed Ubuntu 10.10 on my other hard drive... ***For Dual Boot to work with PATA/IDE in this situation the XP drive needs to be set as Slave and the drive Ubuntu is going on as Master when installing*** ...for the second time in a week.

There are pros and cons of both Commercial Software and Open Source Freeware. But the pros are fast stacking up in favour of the latter. For a start, those who have ever bothered to read the licence agreement of their Microsoft Windows would know that all that money spent on XP, Vista, 7, etc, only bought you the right to USE the software and Microsoft remains the proud smug bastard owner who wants to know exactly what you are doing with its software every step of the way.

Enter Linux. The Unix based open source operating system released under the GNU General Public Licence which allow users to not only view the source code, but to make changes to the source code and release their own distributions under the same Licence.

What's so great about being able to edit the source code? For a start, if you don't like the window buttons being on the default side you can move them to the other side with one simple line of code. Something went wrong and the top menu bar doesn't display correctly? No sweat, one simple line of code resets the bar.
Ok fair enough, not everyone is comfortable screwing around with the source code due to fear they may break it. This is the beauty of Ubuntu; you have the option of entering code in the terminal or using the GUI menu's, installation wizards, etc.

But what about all my office programs, are they going to work on Linux? Yes, most windows based software will work in Linux after installing Wine including your MMORPG fix of WoW.

For those of us who want to save money by not spending any there are open source alternatives to most commercial software. Can't afford Adobe Photoshop? Try using GIMP. What about all my saved office files? Don't stress! There's OpenOffice. While it has its own file format it will read, edit, and save in the Microsoft ones. I'm not sure it does the post 2007 MS Office file formats yet but due to the amount of people still on 2003 it's bad practice to be saving in the new format anyway.

The best thing about Linux from a consumer point of view? Variety. There are shit loads of free to download, install, use, and change, distros floating around cyber space. Just to name a few:

Ubuntu | Puppy Linux | Red Hat | Debian | Linux Mint | Ututo | Fedora | Chrunchbang Linux | FreeNAS | SuperGamer

Install Linux as a stand alone OS, Leave windows where it is and use a Live CD, Install Linux inside your currant OS, run it from a USB disk. Whichever option you chose, you should all chose Linux!

You know it's true.

PSN

Ok so I recently picked up a rather sleek and sexy Sony PSP 3002 after more than 6 months of snapping up games when I saw them cheap. Granted I've only got 9, but Smack Down vs Raw 2009 is taking up most of the game play hours anyway.
Ah, the memories of many wasted childhood hours spent going at it multiplayer in the royal rumble in good old WWF Attitude. There are certain games that every adult male console owner has no excuse for not playing almost constantly with his friends as a child. NBA Jam on the Sega Mega Drive, Tony Hawk's Skateboarding on the Sony PlayStation, the endless hours of Golden Eye, Perfect Dark, and Mario Cart on the Nintendo 64 just to name a few.

Single player was different. Alone time meant Tenchu, Sonic, Gran Turismo and breaking out the Atari for some Hero, Frogger, and good ol' Chopper Command.

Anyway, I jumped on the PlayStation Network site to register my PSP and PS2 to try win some stuff but I could only register the PSP as the PS2 model number was nowhere to be seen in the drop down list. Not happy Jan!

Waiting to see what the reply from my WTF? email will be.