The Dao of Dragon Ball (manga, TV)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: The Dao of Dragon Ball

WEB ADDRESS: thedaoofdragonball.com/blog/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: The true history and connections between Dragon Ball and ancient cultures, divine beliefs and the martial arts of the spiritual warrior have never been unveiled. Until now.

Finally, a blog that reveals the secrets of Dragon Ball.

MY REVIEW: If you like Dragon Ball, you'll love this blog. For those of you who have never heard of Dragon Ball:

Dragon Ball is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama. It was originally serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1984 to 1995; later the 519 individual chapters were published into 42 tankōbon volumes by Shueisha. Dragon Ball was inspired by the classical Chinese novel Journey to the West. It follows the adventures of Son Goku from his childhood through adulthood as he trains in martial arts and explores the world in search of the seven mystical orbs known as the Dragon Balls, which can summon a wish-granting dragon when gathered. Along his journey, Goku makes several friends and battles a wide variety of villains, many of whom also seek the Dragon Balls for their own desires.

Since its release, Dragon Ball has become one of the most successful manga and anime series of all time. The manga's 42 volumes have sold over 152 million copies in Japan and more than 200 million copies worldwide. Reviewers have praised the art, characterization, and humor of the story. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest manga series ever made, with many manga artists citing Dragon Ball as a source of inspiration for their own now popular works. The anime, particularly Dragon Ball Z, is also highly popular in various countries and was arguably one of the most influential in greatly boosting the popularity of Japanese animation in Western culture.

The author of this blog is something of an experton the subject, and indeed is working on a book on the subject, also called The Dao of Dragon Ball.

Here's a bit more of the author's bio:

Padula is a website developer, private Shaolin Gong Fu martial arts instructor, video game designer and owner of Young Forest Games, where he creates "Games with Meaning" for PC and consoles, and is also a journalist for the Epoch Times Newspaper.

Derek has been a fan of Dragon Ball since the first two seasons of Dragon Ball Z aired on television in America over a decade ago (1997), and has been watching the anime and reading the manga ever since. He majored in East Asian Studies and saw a lot of correlations between Buddhism, Daoism, and Japanese culture within Dragon Ball and his daily life. This led him to write The Dao of Dragon Ball.

Derek is also a Falun Dafa practitioner and believes strongly in it's Fa (Law).

He holds a B.A. in East Asian Studies with a minor in Chinese from Western Michigan University.

He has contributed to the following video games:
-"Tony Hawk Under Ground (T.H.U.G.)"
-"Pitfall: The Lost Expedition"
-"James Bond: 007: From Russia With Love"
-"The SIMS 2: Holiday Pack"
-"Puzzles of Life"
-"The Sopranos"
He is a board member of the Westwood College Student Advisory Board Game Design Curriculum of Los Angeles and is on standby at ITT Technical Institute Torrance campus as an Adjunct Professor of Multimedia.

Check out this blog!

Sample post:


Goku’s Simple Life
Goku lives a simple life.

Like a wandering pilgrim, Goku’s only possessions are a martial arts uniform and occasionally the nyoi bo staff.

Goku is almost single mindedly focused on his martial arts cultivation.

Chi-Chi handles all of the domestic affairs, including the caring of their house, the monetary concerns, and the raising of children.

This reminded me of my own life and how it is a bit too complicated.

By an average person’s standard my life may seem rather simple: An average guy with an apartment and some stuff. There are also career, family, social relationships, time, personal projects, and trying to achieve many things simultaneously. Perhaps too many.

In regard to physical stuff in particular, at times all of the external content can feel a little heavy, because each one of those items is connected to my emotions. Each material item, when picked up, transports my memory back 5, 10, in some cases even 15 years. They all carry emotional weight. An outsider cannot see or feel this.

I recently read a book called The Power of Less, by Leo Babauta, and it emphasized the importance of simplifying our lives.

I also read a blog post on Man vs. Debt that presented the idea of taking inventory of all the items in your possession, one by one, and the benefit of the process.

So that’s what I did.

Taking Stock and Letting Go
I counted every single item in my home and car: Every spoon, every pencil, every piece of clothing, and every game, miniature and cable.

They were recorded by hand and then entered into a spreadsheet (here). It was an exhausting process.

The end result was 1,706 items.

The number was surprising. How could I own so much?

When I looked at the spreadsheet of all the items from a zoomed out perspective, it seemed to almost amount to the culmination of my external worth. As if this was the entirety of my life.

But I knew this wasn’t true.

What would I be without all of these things? Would I still be me?

Yes. And perhaps even more so.

During the taking of inventory I threw some items away and designated others for donation. I donated three bags of clothes, electronics, and other items to Goodwill.

As time goes on, unwanted books and other items will be sold or donated. Why keep what has already been utilized?

There’s a story from Buddhism that states that once you’ve ridden your hand crafted boat to the other shore of nirvana, it is important to remember not to be attached to the boat. It was a beautiful boat and served you well. It was the vehicle that made your journey across the ocean possible. But now that you’ve made it this far, it’s time to let that vehicle go. Otherwise you cannot move forward.

Some items were easy to let go, while others were difficult. For example, my DBZ t-shirts, which I had worn since high school.

It was hard to look at each item practically, and ask if I really needed it or would use it in the future. Often I discovered that the item had been with me all these years for purely sentimental reasons.

Ultimately it is the attachment to the items that matter. Not the physical items themselves. Without attachments, anything can be let go if it’s no longer needed. Likewise, without attachments, the amount or value of material items isn’t important. Ideally, everything we own can be made of gold, yet we are not attached.

The entire process was liberating, as it allowed me to take stock of life, internally as well as externally. It was empowering to realize what I have available, and to control things, rather than have things control me.

To gain, one must lose. Because there is more empty space, I feel freed up and lighter in spirit.

Imagine how it must feel to be like Goku, as described in the final episode of Dragon Ball GT:

Full of joy and care free.

Gentle, with a good heart.

I recommend that you try this activity for yourself. Begin with a single section of a room and expand from there.

Tackle life with as much energy as Goku, and you’ll be sure to succeed.

SAMPLE POSTS:
--Gen Fukunaga Hints at More DBZ
--Dragon Ball Cosplay at Anime Expo 2011
--Dragonball Book Review – The Dragonball Z Legend: The Quest Continues
--Dragonball Book Review – Pojo’s Unofficial Dragonball Z Cards Simplified: A Player’s Guide
--Dragonball Book Review – Dragonball Z: An Unauthorized Guide
--Dragonball Book Review – Dragonball Z Extreme
--Dragonball Book Review – Pojo’s Unofficial Total Dragonball Z


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Reviews published every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
___________________________
Check out my kindle BOOKS!:
Whose Body, by Dorothy Sayers (the Annotated Edition)The Coldest Equations (science fiction)
The Lady and the Tiger...Moth

The Thing on the Fourble Board (arts and entertainment, OTR, audio books reviews)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: The Thing on the Fourble Board

WEB ADDRESS: http://thefourbleboard.blogspot.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: eviews of audio books in the mystery and science fiction genres, and in nonfiction - historical, biographical, scientific. I review the quality of the narrator(s), as well as the books.

I also review and synopsize old time radio programs - The Shadow, The Saint, The Jack Benny Show, Dragnet, X Minus One.

I also review soundtracks to selected theatre productions and motion pictures.

If you're a fan of the theatre of the mind, I think you'll enjoy this blog.

Updated twice a week.

MY REVIEW: When I was young, I scoffed at the idea of listening to books on tape. I could (and can) read a book in three hours that it would take a narrator eight hours to get through.

But I hadn't fully thought my criticisms through. I now listen to audio books in the car, and make time for at least half an hour before lights out. With a good book and, just as importantly, a good narrator, audio books are fun to listen to.

My OTR experience is limited to The Shadow - and I'm still waiting for those synopsis to show up on the blog, but it's a relatively new blog, we've been promised the Shadow, so I'm sure it will come.

Highly recommended.

Sample post:
The Art Thief, by Noah Charney, 2007

8 Audio CDs (about 8 hours listening time)
Interestingly, if you look on Amazon.com, The Art Thief, by Noah Charney, has only a 2-annd-a-half out of 5 star rating. A lot of people (at least, a lot of people who post their opinions on Amazon) don't seem to like it.

I do.

When listening to an audio book, it doesn't matter how good the book itself is, if the narrator is lousy. A few weeks ago I checked out a Clive Cussler audio book. Can't remember the title now, or the name of the narrator, but in any event I could only listen to a couple of minutes of it before I gave up on it - the narrator's reading was that bad. No attempt to change voices depending on what character was talking, no intonation changes at all, just a dull monotone.

Simon Vance has all this stuff down pat. The Art Thief is a bit wordy, but because Vance uses intonation and inflection all the time, it's not hard to listen to - it's easy to concentrate on it.

He also does various voices...although I did find it distracting that the voices his characters use when speaking, and the voices he used when that same character was just internalizing thought, were not the same.

Anyway...what you get with The Art Thief is a very complex story, and a lot of information on art. Some of the negative reviewers on Amazon got tired of all that art info (especially since several characters would have their own point of view on the same piece of art, so we'd hear the same information several times, just articulated differently. But, the way I looked at, hearing it repeated so many times allowed me to learn and remember what was being said - and since I'm interested in art as well as in a good mystery, I enjoyed it.

This book isn't a howdunit, more of a whodunit and eventually a whydunit. (In other words, we never learn exactly how all the artwork managed to be stolen, but we learn who did it and why they did it.)

If you're interested in art at all - how it affects the human psyche - and mystery, and like listening to a good narrator, I think you'll enjoy this book.

The characters may be stereotypical, and there isn't much character development, but they're interesting and sympathetic. ANd the author has a good sense of dialog and sense of humor.

So give it a listen. You may turn it off...but I guarantee it won't be in the first five minutes!

Noah Charney bio from Wikipedia:
Noah Charney (born November 27, 1979) is an American art historian and novelist. He is the author of The Art Thief, a mystery novel about a series of thefts from European museums and churches, and is the founder of the Association for Research into Crimes against Art.

Early life and education
Charney was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1979. His parents, a psychiatrist and a professor of French Literature at Yale University were, in his words, “of the class of Americans who idealize Europe”, and as a youth he spent most of his summers in France.

He attended Choate Rosemary Hall, and received his undergraduate education at Colby College in Maine, where he majored in Art History and English Literature. During this period, he spent two years on exchange programs in Paris and London. Also while at Colby, he founded the Colby Film Society and wrote several plays, one of which won the Horizons New Young Playwrights Competition in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2002, the year of his graduation.

After graduating, he moved to London, where he studied at the Courtauld Institute and received a Masters for his work on seventeenth century sculpture in Rome. He subsequently attended Cambridge University, St. John's College, where he received a second Masters in History of Art writing on Bronzino's London Allegory, and began a PhD.

Current and Recent Projects
In 2006 Charney took a leave of absence from his studies at Cambridge to focus on other projects. Notable among these was writing. During the previous year he had written his first novel, The Art Thief which was published by Atria, a division of Simon and Schuster, New York,in September 2007. It has been published in 13 languages and was a best seller in Spain, Slovenia, Canada and The Netherlands. As he researched his novel he found that there was little scholarly material on the subject of art crime.

So he organized a conference on the subject in Cambridge in 2006, which attracted the heads of the art crime divisions of the FBI, Scotland Yard, and the Italian Carabinieri and was the subject of an article in the New York Times Magazine. In 2007 he joined with them, along with academics and others interested in the field, to form the Association for Research into Crimes against Art (ARCA). ARCA is a non-profit think tank based in Rome, dedicated to helping to prevent and prosecute art thefts, and to establishing the study of art crime as an academic subject.

Mr. Charney taught at Cambridge University's summer program and at Miami Dade College's program in Florence. In 2009 he taught a seminar on Art Crime at Yale University, New Haven. He is currently Adjunct Professor of Art History at the American University in Rome. He has also been a visiting scholar at the Institute of Criminology in Ljubljana, Slovenia .

He is the editor of Art and Crime, a collection of original essays by experts in the field, published by Praeger Press in the Spring of 2009[11]. In February 2010, geoPlaneta published a series of four museum guidebooks by Charney in Spanish and English. Called "Museum Time" (De Museos) the first books in the series provide guided tours to highlights of the collections of the leading museums of Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, and the Basque Country.

His non-fiction work on the many thefts of the Ghent Altarpiece, called Stealing the Mystic Lamb, was published in October 2010 by Public Affairs. He is currently working on a second novel and other non-fiction projects.

ARCA offered its first Masters level course in art crime and security in the summer of 2009—a 12 week course in the town of Amelia, Italy. The program has been quite successful and was featured in the New York Times. Mr. Charney also edits The Journal of Art Crime, a scholarly publication on Art Crime and Security that comes out twice a year.

RECENT POSTS:
--Paul Temple Radio Serials: An Overview
--Theatre Music: The 39 Steps
--Audio Book: The Art Thief, narrated by Simon Vance
--OTR: The Shadow
--The Joy Of Audio Books
--Manifesto


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Reviews published every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
___________________________
Check out my kindle BOOKS!:
Whose Body, by Dorothy Sayers (the Annotated Edition)
The Coldest Equations (science fiction)
The Lady and the Tiger...Moth

Gearzap - Kindle covers and more!

There's a company in the UK that offers all kinds of covers for the Kindle, as well as IPads, for tablets and for Macbooks

http://www.gearzap.com/

They've got more stuff than you can shake a stick at.

The only caveat is that the descriptions of the products don't give dimensions - I ordered a Kindle cover for the "latest generation of Kindle" - only to find out it didn't fit (The "latest generation" are those ones without keyboards, mine has a keyboard but its a year or two old). That's my fault - if I'd taken a closer look at the Kindle in the illustration I would have seen that it didn't match my Kindle - it's the newer grey version rather than my older white one - and my doesn't it look clunky!

But since the Kindle isn't backlit, a cover with a light works nice!

They have a variety of clip on lights for the Kindle, for example (my major interest!,) so that if you already have a Kindle cover , you can just clip on with the light without having to buy a new cover.

Check 'em out today - you'll be surprised at how much stuff there is to make your Kindle experience more enjoyable! They are located in the UK but in this day and age of computers, you can order from them with no problem if you live in the US.

So check out their Kindle covers today.

Faith-FilledFood For Moms and Grandmothers (parenting, Christian life)

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: N/A

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.faithfilledfoodformoms.com

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Hi,my name is Shari Lynne! I am a stay at home faith filled Christian midlife wife,Mom,Step Mom,Grandma! Whew,that’s a mouthful.

I am so excited to share my experience,strength and hope with you! I have been married for 24 years and am a stay at home Mom of 7 (3 still at home). I also have 3 beautiful grandchildren. One of which I get to babysit everyday:) Yeah,for me! (that is my only claim to fame:)

..We are a blended family. When my husband and I got married,24 years ago,he had two children and I had two children. Ages 9,10,11,12.

Well when our older children were almost all grown and out of the house (all except one) my husband began to suggest that we have children together.

I was pretty young,36,So with much more prayer I gave in to God and my Husband. And as Martha Stewart would say “It’s a Good Thing”

Another part of my journey that I feel compelled to share and encourage others about is that I have been in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction for 27 years. I feel very called to share that there can be joy and real life in sobriety. That God does indeed restore the years the locusts have eaten away!

Whether you have come to this blog seeking positive encouragement, laughter or spiritual insights you have come to the right place!

Or maybe you’ve come for some great parenting and homemaking tidbits to add to your toolbox…you’ve come to the right place!

Possibly you have come out of frustration and desperation, even despair…you’ve come to the right place!

May Faith Filled Food For Moms be a daily resting place where you find the “Food”you need to be the best you can be. Let’s encourage one another and build each other up!

MY REVIEW: This blog will be of interest to parents - and grandparents, in particular those who are Christians. The author has led - and leads - a fascinating life, and shows how to overcome problems in one's life.

Check it out!

RECENT POSTS:
-- Guessing Game
-- Red Lights–Give Thanks
-- Wife,Mom,Step Mom,Grandma ….I’m just me!
-- Easy Pumpkin Muffins
-- Listen To The Children –Giving Our Full Attention
-- Step Parenting–An Investment in the Future
-- Taking Time To Relax!
-- Have a Plan!
-- Buying in Bulk
-- Book Review –Bible Stories for Preschoolers

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Reviews published every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
___________________________
Check out my kindle BOOKS!:
Whose Body, by Dorothy Sayers (the Annotated Edition)
The Coldest Equations (science fiction)
The Lady and the Tiger...Moth

Repost: Stay At Home Dad - now available on Kindle!

REVIEWED BY: Marguerite Zelle

MY RECOMMENDATION: YES

AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: AMAZON SUBSCRIPTION LINK: Stay At Home Dad

WEB ADDRESS: http://www.stayathomedadblog.com/

BLOG DESCRIPTION: Information for Stay at Home Dads from the CDO, Chief Domestic Officer

MY REVIEW: Too often in today's society, the Dad as parent has been ignored or marginalized. (The stereotypical dad spends all his time at work, comes home to pat his kids on the head and send them off to bed, while he relaxes in front of the TV.) In actual fact, Dads are very important to the development of a child or children.

So it's nice to see a parenting blog written by a dad (there are a few of them out there.) This blog is written from the perspective of a stay-at-home dad, and its interesting to see the "stay at home" type stuff written from the dad's perspective.

Both moms and dads can benefit from reading this blog.

Sample post:

Media Challenge: Add a Dad Advise Column/Blog (or at least include us)
With more and more dads choosing to stay home to raise their children I am surprised that media outlet have yet to embrace dads for blogs, parenting advise columns, guest writers and the like. At the very least, rename the “mom” columns and blogs to “parents” and have both moms and dads input. Whether a major news network site, national parenting magazine or advertiser, each blatantly lacks advise or input from dads.

The days of the hands-off dad are vanish quickly. More and more dads are playing an active role in raising their children and sharing duties around the house, not to mention being the primary care giver while mom works.

As a stay at home dad, I do everything a stay at home mom does. Primarily, raise my son, teach him life skills, love and nurture him. After that comes, all of the cooking, cleaning, laundry, shopping, home repairs, appointments, scheduling, transporting, bill paying, chaperoning, school involvement, and making a little money on the side consulting. I list these tasks not as a badge on my sleeve, but to eliminate the forthcoming questions from the nay-sayers that think stay at home dads play with their kids all day and leave the chores for mom to do on the weekend or evenings after a full day of work. It is a stereotype that I am frankly tired of hearing and reading about. The only way to eliminate the stereotype, just like any other, is through education. So here in lies the challenge:

Affiliates with ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, Parenting Magazine, Parents Magazine – seek out and include dads in your blogs, ads, guest columns, articles, advise columns and features to help quash the stereotypes of the stay at home dad. You may be surprised at how much we know about parenting and how much help and advise we can offer from a slightly different perspective.

RECENT POSTS:
--Part 1 – The Bully Debate: Is all bullying bad?
--Stay at Home Dads Are Quickly Being Noticed By Savvy Retailers
--The Cut-off Date. “Red Shirting” – Trending Towards Later Kindergarten
--Have You Become A Talking Head When Correcting Behavior? Passive vs. Active Interaction.
--Daddy, That Lady is Big! – How to Handle the Not-so-subtle Questions
--Start of Fall: Wild Mushroom Risotto
--Moment of Reality: The first family vacation
--Simple (and inexpensive) Home Improvement
--Media Challenge: Add a Dad Advise Column/Blog (or at least include us)
--Make Your Own Pizza Night

_______________
Reviews published every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
___________________________
Check out my kindle BOOKS!:
Whose Body, by Dorothy Sayers (the Annotated Edition)
The Coldest Equations (science fiction)
Volcano Seven: Treasure and Treasure Hunters
The Lady and the Tiger...Moth