So I was looking for a new author and maybe a new series of books to start reading so I went through Amazon and drilled through the categories until I got to the spy category. These books (there are 6 of them) were all rated really high and had a common review of James Bond in the 21st century. Alex Hawke the main character here has a family lineage that goes back to a famous pirate in the Caribbean. He is a wealthy billionaire who owns a bunch of companies and has a strong military background. I found this book fun to read as it was a good mix of ocean and spy that I have become a fan of recently. I am also a fan of a writer who can keep his reader interested in the last few chapters of the book and this one is a huge page turner especially at the end. Also I think I have some weird British thing going on with all my books lately as they seem to all be British people, maybe it is because it makes for fun dialog. The basics of the story is that Cuba has decided it wants to be a global power player to it adds a few heavy duty weapons to its arsenal. I also think its funny that Fidel Castro has a part in this book which was entertaining! I would recommend this author and look forward to continuing the adventures of Alex Hawke. I typically break up a series with one book in between just to keep it a little more interesting then reading them back to back so I don’t get tired of the authors writing style.
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So this one has been on my list for a while and I finally got around to downloading it and reading it. James Rollins has become an author that I have really enjoyed reading and this book would fall in line as well. The main story here is that there is a secret sect trying to find history that has been lost for centuries. This group, the Dragons Court, prides themselves on knowing everything there is to know about the past as they feel this is where the true power comes from, knowledge. They have run across some old manuscripts they stole that allude to a power that has been lost for centuries and will do anything to get it. The Vatican is the main location for most of this story but it does revolve around the Mediterranean area. A special US forces team is brought in with the help of the Vatican to procure this information before the Dragon’s Court can get a hold of it. One thing I really like about this book is at the end James Rollins goes through the what is fact and what is fiction and also gives some references he had for the writing of the book. I am a big fan of these half true fictions and find them fun to read. I am also a big fan of how James Rollins ends his books as they are always page turners in the end and have a good conclusion. Of the James Rollins books I have read so far I would say this is my least favorite, but still a very good book. I just found the history a little hard to follow but I did enjoy the book.
This book came to me via a visit to Barnes and Noble as one of the new books to the market. It looked interesting so of course I downloaded it and went to my friendly Kindle for the read. The story with this book is writing in first person from a Sniper in the US Army that is working in Saudi Arabia. There is a huge coup going on and in the mists of it we find out that Saudi Arabia has 5 nuclear weapons. At the head of the coup is Kyle’s (the sniper) arch enemy that he tried to kill in previous battle. This book also brings in a few other countries to play in the game like China that might be interested in Saudi Arabia’s resources. It was a quick read and I thought well written, however the characters were not as multi-dimensional or developed as I would have liked I did enjoy this book and think if you are looking for a good sniper novel this might be a good choice for you. As I mentioned I enjoy books that boarder on reality with a little bit of fun in them. I found this book to be pretty predictive in its moves and characters.
Well not that I have started spending a lot more time at home and in my home office I decided that I needed to take a new look at the office chair I was using. Previously I had the Costco ‘sofa’ office chair. Actually that was a decent chair and held up over time very well. It’s a great chair for sitting in for about an hour, it is not a great chair for sitting in after a long period of time. I found that I would get a little sore and restless in the chair after a few hours. So I went around to all the stores checking out some mesh back type chairs, but came up empty as most of the chairs they had were super cheap looking. I am a fan of these ‘task’ or ‘executive’ chairs because they tend to me a little more comfortable and have more adjustments. With the Costco chair I was stuck with just the typical up and down adjustment to height. Being 6 foot 2 I wanted to be able to adjust the seat pan depth and move the back up and down and wanted an ability to adjust the arms.
Well one thing to consider when looking at chairs is the price. Most of these chairs with those adjustments are in the $1,000+ range, I was thinking about spending that but turned to Craigslist as I figured there would be someone who wanted to be getting rid of those chairs for a cheaper price. That is how I came on the Ergohuman chair. The chair is for sale on Amazon for $607 and I was able to get a hold of it for $300 and barely used. I find that this chair is way more comfortable and allows for much more breathing room than the Costco chair due to its mesh lining. The arm resets move up and down and also swivel to the inside which makes it comfortable for typing. Now that I can move them up and down I can actually sit close to my desk as I can put the armrests above the desk rather than below which make a nice rest for typing. The back has really nice support and is comfortable on the lower back. Also the chair is super heavy and feels very sturdy. I can adjust the seat pan depth which is nice so now my legs are a little more supported. And the height adjustment is great and lets me sit exactly where I want to with all my other adjustments.
Going into issues with the chair I have only one. It is that when you recline, when the recline is unlocked, it does feel a little bit fast like its going to tip over so you have to be careful with that one. At one of my offices I managed to flip over backwards in an Aeron Chair, which is one reason I refuse to get those chair mats I think it makes things way to slick. Other than that it’s a whole lot more comfortable to be sitting in this chair for many hours while working from home and I would suggest the chair with no reservations. Thanks to Craigslist I managed to get this at a reasonable price, with all the companies that are having issues now office furniture is pretty easy to find and I might have to keep an eye out for a new desk next!
This was an awesome book and a quick read as I had a big problem putting it down. This is my second James Rollins book and what can I say I am now a full fledged fan! The story line starts out with a solar eclipse that triggers a giant earthquake that levels multiple continents and Air Force One disappears into the Pacific Ocean. The main character Jack, a retired Navy Seal is brought in to help search for Air Force One with his salvage ship as he is retired and spends his time treasure hunting. Jack ends up getting dragged into a giant conspiracy and needs to find out the cause for the earth quakes. This book has some great character development and I am really a fan of the authors style of writing. It does end a little abruptly but I think it works in this case. I look forward to reading another James Rollins book in the near future!
These programs are always really helpful when you need to create a quick how to visual. Also this program is free. Microsoft Expression Encoder I have used these in the past but apparently this one is rated really high so I figured I would write it down before I forgot.
This is a pretty cool deal this will scan your email and let you know what your biggest email culprits are as far as size is concerned. Since I stopped deleting my email in Gmail my inbox was growing pretty large. Well this is a way to let you know where the big emails are and remove them. After running this service I went from 20% space use to 5% space use and that was just deleting the Ultra big emails. What it does is scans your emails and then adds labels to them so you can identify your big emails. This is a great way to clean out your inbox quickly. All you do is go to FindBigMail.com and let her rip!
I decided I wanted to pick up a jet book as it has been a while (HAWX) since I have read something in that genre. This was little interesting because it does fall on the serious side of being in the military and how it can weigh on a pilots mind. This book is about the Vietnam war and follows a squadron of A-6 Intruders (Navy) as they go on their nightly bombing runs. In the beginning of the book the main character’s bombardier dies in action, you do not really get to know this person and have no feelings for this man dieing and then the rest of the book is sort of based on that vendetta towards the Vietnamese for killing him. Perhaps if there was an extra chapter or two where you got to know the bombardier it would have been a little more impactful. The book really picks up on intensity towards the end and then it just ends, I cannot remember reading a book that just ends so quickly! It was a good break but a little too serious for me and a little depressing but still a good read. I just found out this was made into a movie and looked at the cast and had a laugh and thought they did a good job casting the roles.
Well you can never have too many websites for fonts and of course since websites come and go figured I should add another one to the list so I dont forget..
Well laura wanted to do some roll over effects on one of her sites so I had to figure out how to do that. Well after lots of searching this was the solution I came up with.
First download jquery.js and upload it to the server
Second add these lines of code to your header.php or scripts section of your site:
<script type='text/javascript' src='location of jquery script'></script>
<script type='text/javascript'>
$(document).ready(function(){
$("img.a").hover(
function() {
$(this).stop().animate({"opacity": "0"}, "slow");
},
function() {
$(this).stop().animate({"opacity": "1"}, "slow");
});
});
</script>
Then edit the CSS of your site and add these classes (styling may vary!):
div.fadehover {
position: relative;
height: 238px; /*this is to space your images*/
width: 360px;
}
img.a {
position: absolute;
left: 0;
top: 0;
z-index: 10;
border: 2px;
border-style:solid;
border-color: black;
padding: 5px 5px 5px 5px;
}
img.b {
position: absolute;
left: 0;
top: 0;
border: 2px;
border-style:solid;
border-color: black;
padding: 5px 5px 5px 5px;
}
Then you will just need to add these lines to your page:
<div class="fadehover"> <img src="startimage.jpg" class="a" alt="" /> <img src="endimage.jpg" class="b" alt="" /> </div>
After doing that you should have your achieved effect of the roll over and image swap
