Misc. Ramblings

I love sci-fi/fantasy. It's been a favorite genre of mine for years. It hasn't been till lately that I fell in love with paranormal romance. I fear I have strayed away too long from my beloved fantasy. When Author Marketing Experts told me that the book Anjan was available for review, I jumped on it.

I expected it to be a good read and for me to enjoy the book, but I wasn't prepared to be pulled into a fairytale life of a boy named Anjan. Life for Anjan was magical from the very time he was born. His life was so important that Kata left one world and went to another in order to find the child that would save the world she loved.

Though Anjan didn't understand what his purpose in life was, but fate, love, and magic lead him down the perfect path to enable him to do the nearly impossible.

This book was very good. I was shocked that Mr. Einarsson was able to have this book translated (from Icelandic) so wonderfully. I was expecting it to be a difficult to understand and not nearly as literary as it was. I can see readers young and old in years to come sitting down to Mr. Einarsson's book, and enjoying it as much as I did.

I did have a problem with the first couple of chapters. They didn't seem to fit in with the rest of the story. Anjan being picked on by kids he went to school with, it just didn't seem to fit. But besides this small indiscretion, the book was beyond reproach!

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I'd like to thank Author Marketing Experts for the chance to review this wonderful book.

Please read the disclosure statement at the bottom of my blog.

Those who know me, know that my fiance's name is Rob. Those who don't know me know it now!  :) Rob is the love of my life, the man of my dreams.....OK, quit making the gagging noises, I'm stopping now.

When I got the opportunity to review the book What Would Rob Do by Rob Sachs, I was so excited. This Sachs dude must be pretty cool. He's got a GREAT name! I'm almost ready to start the book, so I wanted to get you excited by reading this article by Rob....no, not mine....Mr. Sachs.

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Forget Someone's Name? What Would Rob Do?
By Rob Sachs,
Author of What Would Rob Do?: An Irreverent Guide to Surviving Life's Daily Indignities


When nobody else has been around to help out, I've also tried getting someone to talk about her own name. I'd say something like, "I used to get made fun of all the time when I was little because people would call me names like 'Saxophone' or 'Sexy Sachs' or 'Rob my sacks of cats.'" (Okay, nobody ever used the last one.) After sharing my story, I'd ask if she ever got teased, hoping she will give me a funny story that I can use to remember her name. Or sometimes I'd inquire, "What did your family call you when you were little?" Hopefully, it won't be Princess.

If you're not so good at face-to-face reconnaissance, there are less invasive methods for procuring names. In college I used to peek in backpacks, binders, notebooks, or anything that might have a name written on it. Now you can use social Web sites like Facebook or MySpace to see if you can figure out who somebody is through your circle of friends. You can also befriend someone who is really good with names and have him act as your personal Rolodex. Another "more advanced" technique is to challenge a person to a rap battle. The trick is to begin your rhyme with the words, "My name is . . .  " Mine goes something like this:

My name is Rob,
I'm on the job
And though I eat with my hands,
I ain't no slob.

Then tell her it's her turn and she needs to follow the same format. Sit back and wait for her to give up the goods.

These tricks don't always fly in a work setting (though it would be fun to rap battle with some of my coworkers). There are times when the easiest thing to do is to come clean about forgetting someone's name. Within the first thirty seconds of talking to someone, it's okay to say, "I'm an idiot and I've forgotten your name." If you're not feeling self-deprecating, a simple "Oh, remind me of your name again?" will do as well. Letting a conversation go longer than five minutes without saying that makes you not only an idiot but a jerk, since the person you're talking to thinks you've been duping him the whole conversation.

My career at NPR has taken me from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles and back to D.C. I knew there would be a lot of people I'd recognize but whose names I'd forget. To get some new tricks for the workplace, I called memory expert Harry Lorayne. He holds memory seminars all the time and has a full line of memory-related products. He was at first reluctant to talk to me, since people usually pay a lot of money to get the information he gives. Fortunately, I got him to open up on my specific problem of forgetting names, and he gave me a few hints.

He said that most of the names we forget are ones we never heard in the first place. Many times when people tell us their names, we're not really paying attention. When you hear someone say his or her name, you have to flag it in your brain as a vital piece of information. Lorayne recommended repeating the name right away to try to commit it to memory.

Let's say you're meeting me. I'll say, "Hi, my name is Rob Sachs." You can first verify that you heard it being pronounced the right way. Say it back to me. "Rob Sachs, is that correct?" Second, you can make a quick association with the name, or start talking about it in the conversation. Ask if Sachs has any relation to Saks Fifth Avenue or Goldman Sachs. (There is none, by the way.) The more you talk about the name right away, the more likely you are to remember it.

Another possibility is to try to associate someone's name with one of his physical characteristics. For instance, if you meet someone named Ben Green and you notice he has green eyes, you can repeat that in your head. Ben Green with the green eyes. Ben who has eyes that are green. Ben's last name is Green. My trick for remembering a name like Mikhail Gorbachev would be to think of the red splotch on his head as being gory. "Gory splotch" sounds like "Gorbachev." This might be a stretch, but it can work. The idea is to have a visual cue that correlates to the name.

Lorayne said another great thing to do is to use the name as often as you can over the course of your conversation. Try to eliminate all pronouns and just say the person's name instead, while always being careful not to say the name too much, since that can be a little creepy. "So Rob, what do you think about the weather? How about those Phillies, Rob? Rob, what brings you here?" I've tried this out, and to my amazement, it works. People also appreciate hearing their own name, because it makes them feel you care about them, or are a thoughtful person.

Harry Lorayne is a pro at this. He can repeat the names of a whole roomful of people he's just met. He told me that if you practice a lot and work on it, over time you will get better at it. These techniques have already started to help me in the office, though I still have one more trick. If I didn't catch someone's name or have forgotten it, I now go to the new searchable online database of NPR employees that contains everyone's picture from their photo ID. It's my own little office facebook, and I've lost more than a few hours of productivity studying it.
The above is an adapted excerpt from the book What Would Rob Do?: An Irreverent Guide to Surviving Life's Daily Indignities by Rob Sachs. The above excerpt is a digitally scanned reproduction of text from print. Although this excerpt has been proofread, occasional errors may appear due to the scanning process. Please refer to the finished book for accuracy.

Copyright © 2010 Rob Sachs, author of What Would Rob Do?: An Irreverent Guide to Surviving Life's Daily Indignities

Author Bio
Rob Sachs, author of What Would Rob Do?: An Irreverent Guide to Surviving Life's Daily Indignities, has spent the last ten years as a producer, reporter, and director for NPR shows, including Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Tell Me More. He created the podcast What Would Rob Do? in 2006 and serves as its host.

For more information, please visit www.WhatWouldRobDo.com
Follow the author on Twitter: @robsachs
Follow the author on Facebook: facebook.com/whatwouldrobdo
Click here to subscribe to Rob's podcast

Ok I'll admit I got into this game. It did take me a bit to fiure out how to shoot (pulling back with finger and releasing; think pinball ball launch type action.) the soundtrack of this game was excellent.

It put me in the mood to listen to The One movie soundtrack. I wish the grapics weren't so black and red only, but it was still pretty flippin' awesome.

Here's what AppGiveaway.com had to say about this game:


An addictive game that captivates from the first moments of playing in it. The bride of Our hero - young magician was killed and he goes to hell to save her soul Monsters: The rocket - is flying on an arbitrary trajectory into the hero's island Lavamover - its moving just over the hero. Flying up to him it throws lava on him. Shooter - moves on a chaotic trajectory, shoots with fireballs through hero's island.
A big thank you to AppGiveaway and the developer for the ability to review this app.

Please see the bottom of my blog for my disclosure statement.

I'm not much for the beat the other guy to a pulp type of games, but I did find this interesting for a while.

Our 10 year old liked it pretty well though. He would have like for the action to move a little more, but all games can't be COD.

I will say though that this game has great graphics, sound effects and blood splatter on the screen! Not my personal cup of tea, but if you like whooping up on someone in a simulated (yes I put that in there for you) situation you may be well rewarded by purchasing this game.

I would like to thank AppGiveaway and the developer for the opportunity to review this app.

Please see the disclosure statement at the bottom of this blog.

Seriously? What were these guys thinking?

I could never figure out how to handle the raft and get it to go where I wanted/ needed it to go!

I am glad that i never had to pay for this app, I would have been sorely disappointed.

I'm not able to put much more into this review, so here's what they had to say on AppGiveaway.com.
And while I'm thinking about it, thank you to AppGiveaway and the developer for the ability to review this application.

You are going to transform from a newbie floating in a raft into a professional defying ruthless currents. You are going to have to withstand the power of the river one second and learn to trust it the next, letting your boat float downstream. You are seconds away form subduing the elements and reaching the shore. Still want to try? You decide.... At the end of each level you'll be able to pick your own boat and your own river.

Please see the disclosure statement at the bottom of my blog.