How to change your favicon (little picture next to the URL)

It's really simple but silly me, I missed this the first time around. So anyone else that missed it, here's how to change your favicon in the new blogger dashboard:

Go to you blog, hit the design tab in the right corner

Click the Layout Tab on the left side, here you can edit your favicon

Your favicon needs to be saved as a .jpg .ico (maybe a .gif?)

That’s it!

Miss Peregrine's home for peculiar children

4.5/5 Stars

Miss Peregrine's home for peculiar children

By Ransom Riggs

Quirk Books (June 7, 2011)

Genre: Supernatural, Suspense  

Is a mouth full that's what it is! No, no, it's an interesting and imaginative novel by Ransom Riggs. This was a story I just sort of stumbled upon, it was one of those 'if you like this book you may like this one also' type of dealeo's, and I'm glad I gave it a go!

The story follows a young boy named Jacob who grew up on his grand fathers unbelievable stories of children with special talents. His grandfather had fled from the Nazi's and taken refuge on a small island outside of England, where he attended a school filled with special children. He had left the magical school to fight in the second World War against the 'monsters' and later settled in America. Jacob's grandfather had shown him several pictures of these gifted children, which when Jacob was a child himself, had happily lapped up as real. Now a teenager his faith in these 'tales' begins to waver, and his father tells him that the people are most likely real but the stories are embellished and the photos manipulated. This is a far easier alternative than believing that gifted individuals exist. It's not until Jacob's grandfather calls him in a panic demanding the keys to his gun cabinet -which Jacobs father had confiscated afraid that the old man was showing signs of dementia- that he begins to question if in fact his grandfather's stories are indeed fallacious. Jacob eagerly flees his job at the family owned business to make sure his grandfather hasn't gotten himself into trouble, only to discover the house in complete disarray and his grandfather missing. Soon Jacob finds his grandfather mortally wounded in the wooded backyard, and his dying wish is for him to return to the school his grandfather had once attended and seek the answers his grandfather had foolishly never given him. If that isn't strange enough Jacob glimpses the ghoulish monsters his grandfather had described to him countless times lurking amongst the trees. Jacob ventures forth to the island with his father either to put to rest that he isn't crazy or rid himself of the nightmares plaguing him of the frightfully awful creature that he had witnessed.

It is very beautifully written, very creative and original with the story and characters and Riggs uses personification, similes, and analogies flawlessly. I actually have examples this time of some of the lovely descriptions he used. I read this book and it made me think 'this is what creative writing is all about'. Here are a few excepts:

'and I realised that leaving wouldn't be like I had imagined, like casting off a weight. Their memory was something tangible and heavy, and I would carry it with me.'

'"For a hundred generations he slept, curled like a fetus in the earth's mysterious womb, digested by roots, fermenting in the dark, summer fruits canned and forgotten in the larer until a farmer's spade bore him out, rough midwife to a strange harvest."'

'I strapped it{gas mask} over my face and followed her out onto the lawn, where the children stood scattered like chess pieces on an unmarked board, anonymous behind their upturned masks, watching billows of black smoke roll across the sky.'

'It{chest} hesitated for a moment, wobbling there on the edge of oblivion, and then pitched decisively forward and fell, tumbling end over end in beautiful balletic slow-motion.'

'It{path} ended abruptly at a forest of skeletal trees, branches spindling up like the tips of wet paintbrushes, and for a while the path became so lost beneath fallen trunks and carpets of ivy that navigating it was a matter of faith.'

'It was a crisp blustery day - the sun hiding behind giant cloundbanks only to burst out moments later and dapple hills with spectacular rays of light-'

I enjoyed this book much more than I expected to. My only complaints are, that its was rather predictable, and that when it ended - while it was in a good place- I felt that there was so much more that I wanted to know (which I'm not sure is the worst thing, but it leaves you with a sense of incompleteness and yearning for a sequel). Which thankfully seems like there will be one, at a currently undisclosed date, so hopefully I don't forget! I would really like to see what adventures Jacob and the peculiar children undertake. I would definitely recommend especially if you're in the mood for something different, it's somewhat similar to x-men, but darker. And I think it goes without saying that I am anticipating the release of the second novel. Another interesting aspect of the book is that it contains pictures of the key characters including their bizarre abilities, and at the end of the book it tells that the majority of the photos are real with very little doctoring, which makes you wonder how this was all possible without photoshop and with these supposed 'dark-room effects'??

Inhuman

3/5 Stars

Inhuman

By Danielle Q Lee

Self Published? (August 4th, 2010)

Genre: Sci-Fi, Adventure 

A free novel on kobo written by Danielle Q. Lee - is anyone else wondering what the Q is??- about a young women's horrible journey of self discovery.

Cassia is a archaeologist student struggling to make the last few hundred for her tuition, so she does the only logical thing for college students to do; volunteers to be a paid guinea pig!  For $250 a pop, why not?  She get's blood drawn for the first time, an x-ray, and the poor girl even subjects herself to a mammogram all in the name of her tuition! Shortly after beginning her tests she is greeted by a handsome Hawaiian stranger, and spends a few days developing a romantic relationship with him.  With the date for the tuition looming, she can no longer put off not paying it.  Back to the lab she goes, except this time everyone is not so friendly, actually they're rather fearful and awkward, hmmmm. Undeterred by this Cassia continues to her designated room for her next torture/test session, but instead of being welcomed by lab students there are several dangerous looking men in black suits.  This is of course, you guessed it, is when sh** hits the fan.  They probe her with unrelenting questions of where she is from/born, until they determine she is not going to co-operate.  They then drug her and transport her to a military compound, and it is here that she learns the disturbing truth about herself. She is not human.

I am sort of on the fence about this book.  I didn't hate it, but I didn't exactly love it either.  While the writing was good, I was left with a feeling of 'meh' when I was finished.  There really is nothing special about Cassia aside from some screwed up looking DNA and a strange star shaped birthmark right smack in between her boobies.  This definitely is not a feel good book, there are a lot of horrible things Cassia is subjected to once she becomes detained.  There was also a lot of alluding of things to come at the end of the chapters "little did she know" type stuff, I felt that this happened several times and that it made the writing seem amateurish-to me anyway.

Daniella did however paint some very nice word pictures. I highlighted some of the writing that I thought was phrased beautifully, and then I removed the book from my Kobo before I copied it off! I know, I'm soooo smart.  So please forgive me in my lapse of good judgement.

Though, I suppose this really isn't my favourite genre, it may be possible I'm being biased, but the book didn't really do much for me. I say, it's OK, and it's up to your discretion whether or not this sounds good.  It's not a bad story, it just isn't for me.  I must admit the except at the end for another novel 'Nightmara', looked worth being looked into, so I might give the author another go.

Available on Kobo: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Inhuman/book-8_-7iZ-WPEy0W5ZOjJkT5Q/page1.html?s=1T40BNH6qEWhh_G3kAtS7Q&r=1

Not free for Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Inhuman-ebook/dp/B003UV8ONQ/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1337971637&sr=8-6

How to Align Text to Pictures

You ever wonder how people get the cool effect of text next to pictures in their blog? And call you can do is that boring old text underneath.  Well you're in luck if you want to remedy this situation!

I’m sure there’s a bunch on junk code in here, but if you want to line up text next to your photo here is the code.  (it also lined up my other body text, so I’m sure this much code is NOT needed) Just copy and paste this to where you want a picture in your blog in the HTML editor. Play around with it, :).

Note: You can edit what your text says either in HTML or Compose editor

<img src="https://encrypted-tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSve8fLjG95uZd31Rrdk13OxRZ7dfisXvSnxEv1GS3r2A217xa0" style="float: left;" />  This is of course the link to the image, the easiest way to get this is to just paste it in, find the image, right click and copy url NOT image

<br />

<div style="float: left; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 10px; text-align: left; width: 300px;"> This will determined how wide and such your text is

<div style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 20px;">

5/5 Stars</div>

<div style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 20px;">

Hollowland</div>

<div style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 20px;">

Amanda Hockings</div>

<div style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 20px;">

First in The Hollows series</div>

<span style="line-height: 20px;"><b>Genre: Horror/Apocalypse</b></span></div>

<br /> 

<br /> <=--- this essentially means 'enter' make a space beneath

<div style="text-align: justify;">

</div>

<div style="text-align: justify;">

<br /></div>

<div style="text-align: justify;">

<br /> Not sure if you need this

Hollowmen

4/5 Stars

Hollowmen

By Amanda Hockings

Second in Hollows Series
Self Published?

Genre: zombie apocalypse

**If you haven't read the first book this is a bit of a spoiler***  When we first crack open this zombie apocalypse book we're a thrust into Remy's nightmare life of being a guinea pig for the remaining scientist -and it's very graphically described.  But we're in luck! Remy makes a somewhat triumphant escape -while awake on a operating table- when the base has been compromised by invading zombies, yey! Of the few people remaining at the compound - they've been evacuated due to the zombies getting smarter- Tataum had stayed behind to help her escape. They race to where the rest of the final group of people fleeing the compound are situated and campout in an army truck till daybreak.  Remy convinces the survivors that it's a better idea to go south instead of north because she had encountered people with guns and food at a base - also helps her on her never ending quest to save her brother who is located at this base!  So the group embarks on south none the wiser that sh** has hardcore hit the fan down there.

This book is definitely more vivid when it comes to people having their guts ripped out, for me not really a selling point by for others who aren't as squimish as me I'm sure it won't faze them.  I unfortunately have a very good imagination so when she starts talking about intestines I can see ALL of it in my head.  I felt there was something missing in the writing, while I still liked the book I didn't love it like the first one.  It could be because Remy didn't have as many good zingers, or maybe the character dynamics weren't as good as the first group of travellers, maybe Remy becomes a little too cut off emotionally, but something was lacking to me. The writing seemed a little bit sloppy - I'm don't think this is the case for the first book, but I think reading Blindspot is partially to blame since the writing in it was so well done making Hockings look not as advanced.

Would I recommend a read?  If you really liked the first one and you're dying to see what happens to Remy, yes, I don't regret reading it, I still killed the book in a matter or 2 or 3 days. The chapters are short and suspenseful so it's easy to blow through it.  Heck, if she writes a third one, (which doesn't seem to be in the works yet - but Hollowmen was just released) I'd read it.  Though I must admit I'm intrigued about the graphic novel being released I think some time this year.

Blindspot

4/5 Stars

Bindspot

By Nancy Bush

Zebra (July 1/2010)

Genre: suspense

A free suspense novel offered at Kobo by Nancy Bush. I must say I'm a sucker for 'best selling' author which was exactly what was plastered across the cover of this book. I hadn't heard of her, but then again I haven't heard of the vast maority of authors pumping out books these days. It looked good, she had to be doing something right to get the recognition, and so the "add to my library" button was promptly pushed by moi. 

The writing was well done, the character's were well developed even if most of them weren't likeable. I enjoyed the pace, but the book was a lot longer than I expected it to be (about 750 on my kobo) so be prepared to devote some time to this. I enjoyed reading it and it definitely had an interesting premise and a good twist at the end; but I did find it a bit predictable at times. She definitely did her research on mental disorders and though there was a pinch of fantasy, everything was pretty believable. Though at some parts I was getting annoid with Tasha's inability to make a good decision. You're left scratching your head wondering, why is she doing this? But by the end of the book you sort of get clued into her thought process; I still felt myself questioning even knowing more about her though...

The story follows around a series of characters: Dr Claire Norris (the heroine), Langdon Stone (a detective), Tasha (a catotonic pregnant girl), and the crazed person who tried to steal Tasha's baby. The book opens with Tasha and Rafe (the baby daddy) on the run. When they stop at a gas station to fill up and 'drain their tanks' the young couple is attacked, luckily a trucker interveins but it's too late for Rafe. The young girl lapses into a coma and is taken to the hospital. Dr Claire Norris (a psychologist) wants to take charge of the patient expecting her to have mental anguish due to the attack, she wants to be the doctor there when prego wakes up. Unfortuately Claire is superseeded by an arrogant staff member who cares more about the patients notoriety than her well being. Ex Detective Langdon Stone interested is piqued by the attack of the young couple and he agrees with his old partner's request to look into the case. It is the first case to interested him since 'the incident' with his sister. Stone is unaware that the girl has been tranfered into the care of Halo Valley Mental Hospital where Dr Norris works; their paths had previously becomed intertwined but far from in a good way. Now Claire is forced to deal an disgruntled detective, untrusting co-workers, an imenant confrontation with a patient she fears, and a catotonic prego -who can't tell who she is or who attacked her- all while the attacker circles closer and closer.

Would I recommend this book? Sure, it's a long read, but it's still good. If you like a thriller with mental disorders, pregnant teens, and a cult-like grouping of strange and mysterious women with a dash of romance this is a book for you! Would I read another one of her books? I probably would. If I was running low on material and spotted her name on a cover I'd most likely pick it up and give it a go.

Link to Kobo book: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Blind-Spot/book-rHnEKf3QhU6kNFptjXWx6w/page1.html?s=1LRGN8wy4E-gS0or7Zx3pg&r=6

Not free for Kindle.

How to add blogs to multiple pages

Let me explain, this is a tab, that’s not really actually a tab, so why do I want this? Because it gives the illusion of blog categories, so it’s like you have multiple blog pages.  You will notice I have one called ‘Tutorials’ and it will link to all my tutorial blog posts. I find this handy!

How to set this up:

1.       Go to your design tab in the top right corner

2.       Click the ‘Layout’ tab in the left side column

3.       Click ‘Add a Gadget’ and select the Labels one

4.       Create a label (you can create multiple labels by separating them with comma’s IE Example1, Example 2, Example 3)

5.       Unclick the ‘Show number of posts’ (something like that) box to get rid of the little numbers

6.       Grab and drag your new gadget so that it’s under your ‘Page’ box

7.       You will notice the labels haven’t shown up yet, they will once you create a Label for you Post

8.       To create a label for your posts, make a new one or edit and old one, and you will notice on the right side there’s a bar that says ‘Labels’, click it

9.       It will open and write your label name in here

10.   Save and then test it out on your main blog page!