Aces High - Review & Giveaway

So here we go, my first review and giveaway. I was sent this book, Aces High by Bill Yenne to read and review. I was so thrilled for many reasons, it was my first chance to do a reveiw, it was on a good subject, and I have a sorta military background which I had hoped meant I wouldn't have too many confusing parts to read.

Aces High is is the story of the two top aces of World War II, Richard Bong and Thomas McGuire. It starts with an introduction to what an ace is and how as the times changed, so did the role of our heroes. From midevil knights to fighter pilots. I enjoyed the opening quite a bit, the comparison of the old versus the new. It was a great start. Then it begins the story of the two men, again, I was enjoying the book. As the book progressed, however, it seemed to jump all over the timeline as well as jump from the two main characters to technical info about the planes that were being built at the time. I had a very hard time keeping up with 'when' it was in the story and I felt the details of the planes was a little much. I have yet to finish the book as I have a hard time getting through one chapter with the way it is written. I think the idea for this book is excellent, I just don't personally care for the presentation. I would love to get to the end to find out which of the two men was actually the top ace and find out what all happened to them. Perhaps I will in time.

I'm not trying to say that the book is bad, it's just not written for someone like me. I hope that whoever wins the copy of this book can read it and enjoy it.

This review was sponsored by The Penguin Group. All opinions are 100% mine and no compensation was given for the review of this item.

Now for the giveaway part!! I'm going to make this simple. To win, you must leave a comment telling me what you want to be when you grow up. (OK...so most of you are grown, it can be what you wanted to be when you were a kid.) That's it. I will run the contest for 2 weeks. On the 21st of April I will use a random number generator to determine the winner.

In case you're wondering why I'm not offering additional entries, here's why:
     1)I would love for you to follow my blog, facebook, twitter etc, but not just to gain an entry. I would like the people following me to actually be interested in my blog and not just the giveaway.
     2)If you're a busy person, sometimes it's just too much to ask to create a post or tweet about the giveaway every day and I find that gives some people an unfair advantage in winning.

I'm looking forward to reading your comments!!

Where Are You From?

I work with the public and some people will hear me speak and say "You're not from around here, are you?" To which I answer, "No." The resonse to my answer varies at times but it usually amounts to "Where are you from?" I hate being asked this question, because it usually involves a long explanation. My answer to the question is "Which year?" Which makes people automatically say "You must be a military brat." Here comes the explanation. "Yes, my father was in the Air Force for 22 years before he retired, however, my mom and dad divorced when I was 8. I went to 16 different schools (that I can remember) from Kindergarten through my Senior year. The longest I was in one school was 3 years, which was the school I graduated from. And oddly enough, that was when I was living with my dad. I was born in Japan, then we moved back to the states in Maryland. A few years later, my dad was shipped to Italy, it was during this time that he and my mother divorced. He was in italy for 4 years, then went to Germany for 4 years. Then he returned to the states and was stationed in Florida for a couple of years, then in New York. Looking back, I would have moved LESS, if I'd have lived with my father."

I hunted down a map of Japan that actually had the town I was born shown, but for some reason it's not showing up on here right.

Anyway, here is my list of places I've lived:

Japan

Maryland

Massachusetts

Ohio

Texas (all over the place here)

Florida

New York

I think I got it all, maybe. That's just the states I've lived in and not the individual towns. So, I have moved a lot. I always swore that I would not move my children around all over the place like my mother did and I have done well so far. They have been in this one town at the same school for 6 years now. Much longer than I ever was in one place.

What brings on a post like this? Well, I have my very first review item on the way and I am very excited. It is in some way related to something I have said in this post. Are you curious? You'll just have to wait and see what is coming. Be sure to keep your eyes open, because there will be a giveaway involved as well!

So...where are YOU from?

Giveaway Winners

I went to random.org today and it generated 2 numbers for me, #4 which was Lynette from Crazed Mind, and #11 was Nessa from Ramblings of a Texas Housewife. I have already notified both of these wonderful ladies and they have picked their winning images. If you didn't win here, then be sure to check out their givaways of the 2nd 4X6.

Lynette chose Tree Series 1

Nessa chose Farm Life Series 2

Thanks to everyone who entered. As I stated above, keep an eye out on the above ladies blogs to get a second chance at winning. Or feel free to visit my Shop and order some prints!

DON'T MISS YOUR CHANCE!

Only a few days left to enter my giveaway for two 4X6 prints of you choice of my photograhy. Click HERE to go enter!

Double ~ Double Giveaway

Free things are good, and double free is even better! Right?! I am starting to try to sell my images to make a little extra cash. I would love to be able at some point to do this for a living, but for now, I'm happy just to know that people like what I do.

So now you are wondering what the giveaway is right? I am offering 2 winners to receive 2 free 4X6 prints of any of the images I have on Jayde's Little Corner Shop . One is for the winner to keep and the other is for the winner to host their own giveaway. (Note: each of the two winners will be able to select their choice of images from Jayde's Little Corner Shop. The image you list in the original entry does not have to be the one you choose in the end as I am continuously adding new images. Only one image may be selected per winner.) I will keep this giveaway open until January 31st.

RULES TO ENTER:
First, and mandatory, visit Jayde's Little Corner Shop and tell me which image you would choose if you won the free 4X6 prints. (FYI- after the winners are announced I will allow up to 2 full days for them to get me their mailing information. Once mailing information is recieved I will have the two free 4X6 prints shipped to the two winners. It will be your responsiblility to mail the second 4X6 to your own giveaway winners. It should only take a large greeting card and a single stamp.)

Additional entries: (Please leave separate comments for each additional entry.)
Follow my blog.
Follow Jayde's Little Corner Shop blog.
Follow me on twitter.
Follow me on facebook.
Refer a friend. (They must post that you referred them.)
Put a listing, widget, post on your blog linking back to this giveaway, leave a link.

Digital Photo Alteration Contest

Have you ever had that almost perfect picture and wished there was some way to remove just one little bit from it? How about loving the way someone looks in a picture, just wishing they were in a different setting? Or have you ever seen your daughter as a magical fairy princess and just not been able to create that magic look in a photo? Here is your chance to win a photo alteration of your own.

Here is a little bit of background info:
I do not use Photoshop. I know, shocker right? I used it a very long time ago, but found a full version program on a disk my mother had for her scanner called Ulead PhotoImpact and began using that. (I just followed the link and saw that they are offering this program for download for only $19.99! Great price!) I used it for years, verion 4. I now own verion X3 which is much more advanced with a lot more editing options. I am self taught with this program, picking up hints from different sites here and there and of course the Help option in the program itself.

How to Enter:
First, I would like for you to visit my Flickr account and take a look at some of the photo alterations I have done in the past. Then post a comment telling me which image you liked the best. There are quite a few on there and I will understand if you don't look through them all. This will be mandatory for entry.

Additional Entries (please enter seperate comments for each of these):
Post a blog of your own telling about this contest.
Add me on Facebook. (Link available to the left)
Add me on Twitter. (Link available to the left)
Become a Follower of my blog.

Contest Details:
I will run the contest for a week. All comments must be posted by midnight Sunday, December 13th to be eligible for the drawing. I am making this a short one in case someone is looking to use their winning image for a Christmas gift. Once I announce the winner (be sure I have your e-mail address so I can notify you) you will have 2 days to e-mail me the image you want altered with a brief desciption of what you would like done with it. I will then take the photo and alter it to your specifications to the best of my ability. I will also create a couple of extra altered images and e-mail them back to you for approval. You may then choose the one you like best and I will email you the full size image of the alteration you chose. At that point, the image is yours to do with as you see fit. I will post the altered image in a later post on my blog and would love for you to do the same. With any luck this will all be accomplished before the 20th, plenty of time for you to have a print or multiple prints made. Personally I have used Wal-Mart's online photo printing with great success. You can upload your photo, choose your sizes, and send them to the 1 hour photo printing to be processed. Of course larger prints and actual gift items may take longer, see their website for details.

What I can't do:
I can't sharpen an image that is really blurry. To some extent I can enhance the edges, but it does not always come out like a crisp focused image.
I can't brighten a super dark photo. I can add brightness, but any details that were lost by the darkness of the original image will still be lost.
I can't do photo costmetic 'surgery'. I have seen some YouTube videos of people who are able to change people's looks completely, make them thinner, longer hair, add makeup, etc. I have not really tried to do that so please don't ask it of me.

What I can do:
I can remove an unwanted item from the background.
I can totally replace a background.
I can remove minor blemishes and the appearance of wrinkles.
I can change the color of items in the image without losing detail.
I can turn a photo into a work of art.

If you have something you want done that I have not listed in the cans and can'ts then just ask me. I don't have room here to list everything that I can and can not do. I guess that about sums it up then, let the comments begin!!!

Contest? Of sorts...

Ok, I keep seeing and hearing about all these giveaways and contests on other people's blogs. So I'm thinking to myself, I love contests (having them, not being in them cause I never win anything usually). How am I going to have a contest when I have only just started this blog, and I don't have the followers and the resources to get the 'free items' to give away. So I had this idea, I can't afford to buy anything to give away so what if I made something. Actually, it would be more like altering something. Some of my few readers are good friends of mine and are familiar with my love of altering photos. I can change a photo a little or a lot depending on how I feel it needs to be changed. for instance, something as simple as making a B&W photo out of a color photo and re-entering one accent color for punch.

Or do a lot of color saturation and other techniques to turn a regular fairy into a bright and intense fairy.

Or how about introducing the main subject onto a different background.

and another example...

I have also had some success in the past with making old photos that had turned red, if not totally original color, at least less red and with some color replaced. I can also remove simple unwanted objects from the original background, like the window blinds from this one.

Sorry, I did not keep the original image on this one.

So here's the deal... I need to know if anyone would be interested in something like this as a giveaway contest. Basically I would have you post a comment to enter, telling me what photo you want 'altered' and how. After a length of time I will pick a winner and alter thier photo how they wish (or to the best of my ability). Catches...of course there is a catch. The image needs to be digital to start with, as large as possible. And I will return the altered image to you as a digital file. You will have the opportunity to print as many as you want, the cost will be your responsibility. To make sure there is enough interest, I would like to see at least 10 different people comment that they are interested. So those of you who read my blog already, if you like the idea, post a link about this on your blog.

Thanks for reading!!