Friday, January 1, 2010
Twilight Series
The one thing I have noticed that I do not like except for the blood is that no one smiles in these movies, except Edward the Vampire once in a while. That is sad....But it is still enjoyable. Stephanie Meyer did a great job at writing. I have read articles that moms and their daughters are reading these books. I have not yet had time to read them.
Literature Genre
Even though I love reading literature from the 1700's and 1800's or other literature for English, I also struggle at times to understand the hidden meanings of what the author is trying to convey to the reader during certain scenes.
I know if I, someone who desires to be an English major, is having a problem understanding what I read, I know there is a good chance you are having a problem, too.
Luckily, I have some tips for you to follow when reading literature genre. Here they are:
1. After every chapter of a book, look online to find a chapter summary or criticism for the book you're reading. I guarantee you that there will be something out there for your novel.
Another option you have is buying Spark Notes for the novel you're reading. Reading these will help you understand what is going on in the chapter/novel. It might reveal to you the hidden message behind the scenes in a novel, or it will help you to better decipher the meanings.
Cautiously, I do advise you that you don't just read chapter summaries for a novel. It will get you nowhere, and if you have assessments in your English class over literature, like I have in mine, you will most likely fail them. So read the book and the chapter summary.
2. Buy helpful books that will help you with studying how to read literature. For example, right now I'm reading "How To Read Literature Like A Professor," by Thomas L. Foster. It really is helpful in giving insight detail of what certain scenes, actions, or events that happen really mean. I encourage you to buy the novel or something similar to it to help you as well. Just make sure you grab something that will keep your attention, and not make you dread reading it!
3.Ask a friend or your English teacher about the things you don't understand. Your friends might have more insight to the novel than you do. They might be able to help you understand the meaning of a certain scene in a book.
Form a study group with your friends so all of you can help each other out. If your friends are confused as well, then ask your teacher for help. Of course, your English teacher will be able to decipher meanings for you because they have to know how to do assignments they've given you. Don't be nervous about it. Your English teacher will more than likely love helping you with the literature genre.
4. Don't get stressed out while reading literature. It's important that you relax while reading so you don't miss important events or happenings in a novel. If you feel slightly overwhelmed, take a break from reading literature, and read something you enjoy. Even I take breaks from reading the literature genre sometimes to read something else I find enjoyable and easier to read.
When I mean take a break, I mean a few days or so. Just remember, you do have a deadline to read your assignments by.
5. Know the due date for when you must have your novel completely read, and make a timeline for how many pages/chapters you will read of your novel daily. I know it's hard following a set schedule, but trust me, it makes all the difference. If you're reading a novel at the last minute, you'll be in such a hurry that you might miss out on important information, you'll be overwhelmed, and the book will be less enjoyable for you.
6. Take notes in your book. Use sticky tabs, highlighters, and writing materials to make notes in the margins of the material you are reading, but only if the book belongs to you. If the book is school property, take notes in a small notebook that you keep handy while you are reading books in the literature genre.
If you have questions about certain scenes, highlight them or write them down so you can later ask your teacher about it. Take care to note things in a novel that might show up on a test.
7. Remember, everyone gets something different from a novel. Most books have numerous meanings, so keep an open mind about other people's opinions on novels.
Hopefully these seven tips will be of help to you on reading the literature genre. If you have anymore opinions or ideas on how to read literature genres, please feel free to leave them on my comments page.
I wish you the best of luck on your literature reading adventures. Try to enjoy! Make fun out of reading in your own way if you have to. Whatever you do, read!
Reuben Welch's Books
His classes were always too full and he used to ask for volunteers to drop his Old and New Testament classes because they were too full, while the other professors had plenty of space. There was a good reason for that. He was a genius at relating to young people. He has a gift of explaining profound things to you easily. Of course, he works hard at it and just makes it seem easy.
Reuben Welch is the author of many wonderful books about Jesus and others in the Bible. He writes and speaks in an easy-to-understand style and he really knows his subjects. The amount of study and research he does is phenomenal. He taught me a lot. Reuben, if you read this, I love you. You will always be very special to me. Thank you for all of the wonderful books, videos, and life-lessons you have shared with students and congregations alike.
I first heard Reuben Welch speak at First Church of the Nazarene in El Paso, Texas back in 1976. He flew in from San Diego for a couple of weekends to fill in as our pastor had left. I was so impressed and amazed. In this series, Reuben said that Jesus is the very road we walk on. He had imaginary signs up all over the sanctuary. I was a junior in high school who had just moved to El Paso from Poughkeepsie, New York and I had never heard a pastor speak the way Reuben did. I was born and raised in the Church of the Nazarene, yet I had grown up with stuffy and dry-as-dust preaching. From then on, I wanted to go to Point Loma College where he was the chaplain.
Point Loma College started out as Pasadena College. Then someone got the bright idea to move to San Diego, uprooting all of the professors. Pasadena College became Point Loma College. Then it changed to Point Loma Nazarene College. Now it is Point Loma Nazarene University and the cost to go there is totally insane. It was bad enough when I went but now it is unaffordable unless your parents are rich or you stupidly take out student loans. Too bad because it is a great school and the location is so beautiful.
Reuben would write and deliver a series of sermons to the student body and faculty and then compile them and turn them into a book. He did this over and over and the results were always profound truths put together in an easy and quick-to-read book that you could finish in just a few hours. These books each have a life-changing message if you will apply it to your life.
We Really Do Need Each Other
It all started back in 1973 when Reuben Welch wrote We Really Do Need Each Other. In humor and love, Reuben Welch shows the modern-day church how to love and care for each other based on the love found in the Bible, mainly in I John.
The church is a place where everyone should feel and receive the love of God. However, human beings to to church and sometimes they are not so loving and kind so we get things less than perfect from the people who go to church.
Take it from me. I was raised in church and I thought everything went well up until the time my husband became a pastor and we got our first church. There, my family and I learned about the wrath of church people when they get angry and upset over just about anything. The pastor and his family usually get the brunt of it.
Like I said, I never knew this until I experienced it firsthand. In his book, Reuben shows the church the right way to act. He talks about how to love your family, church friends and members, and even the pastor and his family. He talks about how some people are left all alone, out of the church cliques and how it isn't right. This is not how Jesus meant for it to be.
By reading and applying this book to your life, you will see that God wants his church to be a loving place, a great place to bring friends who will find him because of the love of the Christians in the church. We Really Do Need Each Other is an easy to read book with a life-changing message that should be found and passed around in every Christian church so Christians can remember what church is all about.
When You Run Out Of Fantastic Persevere
When You Run Out Of Fantastic Persevere was written by Reuben Welch at a time of great loss in his life. His father and his nephew, who suffered from muscular dystrophy both passed away during this time.
This book explains how the book of Hebrews can help us when life is not great and wonderful. Times of great difficulty happen to all of us sooner or later and when they do, the writer of Hebrews has a message for us. That message is to keep going, to be faithful to God, to keep living for him, and he will see us through it all. We must trust God and he will give us the strength to live the way he wants us to live. He will take care of us and help us as we go through our pain.
Reuben Welch explains to us that Jesus is both our brother and our great high priest, the only one who can approach the father because he is sinless. He goes to the Father on our behalf. Because we trust Jesus to save us, God accepts us and helps us. If you are going through difficulties in your life and you want to grow spiritually, When You Run Out Of Fantastic Persevere is a great book to help you through it.
We Really Do Need To Listen
Reuben Welch wrote We Really Do Need To Listen back in 1978, my freshman year at Point Loma College. He later did a rewrite in 1987, the year I was married, of the same book, calling it Let's Listen To Jesus. The wording is different in the second book, more for adults doing a Bible study with questions for each chapter at the end of the book. His classes were always too full and he used to ask for volunteers to drop his Old and New Testament classes because they were too full, while the other professors had plenty of space. There was a good reason for that. is written in Reuben's easy-to-read-quick style. The second book is great as well. The style is just a little different. the book of John, chapters 13-17. Reuben takes the discourse apart, examining it and showing us how to apply it to our lives. What a great concept, to apply the very words of Jesus to our lives. Reuben does it as only he can.If you want a quick read pick up We Really Do Need To Listen. If you would like to lead a Bible study with excellent material and questions, get Let's Listen To Jesus.
The Temptations Of Jesus
The Temptations Of Jesus: His Victory And Ours was originally a series of talks given by author Reuben Welch to youth ministers at a retreat in Colorado. It was published in 1983 as a book and I remember buying it as soon as it came out. It is a great book that makes you understand how Jesus must have felt and thought. Reuben talks about the way that Jesus was able to obtain victory over temptation and his message to us is that we can do the same.
Remember that Jesus is the only one who ever who was without sin.Reuben starts out this book exploring when Jesus first discovered that he was the Son of God. No, he did not lie in a manger and think to himself that this is what it is like to be a baby as Reuben puts it.
I had never thought about that until I read this book.He talks about how Jesus had to live an ordinary life for his first 30 years. Nothing out of the ordinary. No miracles. It was not yet his time. Jesus could have changed stones into food when he was out in the desert for 40 days without eating, but he obeyed the Father and God sent angels to minister to him before sending out to build his kingdom.
This book teaches us how to live our ordinary lives and overcome temptation and sin. It was written back in 1983 so it is You can find it as well as all of the others on Amazon.
Come As You Are
Come As You Are - An Invitation To Meet Jesus Just Where You Are is a beautiful compilation of Reuben Welch's books with comments by Dean Nelson. They worked on this together and published it in 1999.
As a teenager, I used to read a monthly column by Dean Nelson in a Nazarene magazine for teens called Bread and I enjoyed his work, so I was excited to read a book put together by Reuben Welch and Dean Nelson. Dean Nelson is now a professor out at Point Loma Nazarene University. I have to say that so many of the things Dean writes about in this book take me right back to San Diego and the classroom, and chapel times of listening to all of the great and special things Reuben Welch would say.
At the beginning of each chapter Dean Nelson talks about Reuben Welch and his teachings and about talks they have had and then a portion of one of Reuben's books is printed. I loved reading Dean Nelson's insights into Reuben's thinking because I used to see and hear those things, too, and I miss it!
If you have not yet read one of Reuben Welch's books, make your first one Come As You Are. The message throughout this book is to come to Jesus just the way you are and he will accept you, forgive you, love you, and be with you until you are with him one day in Heaven.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Going Rogue By Sarah Palin
May I suggest that you pick up a copy of Going Rogue today, curl up with a soft blanket and a cup of hot coffee and enjoy getting to know your next president. She has my vote!
Saturday, June 6, 2009
SBI Website Business Sale Now!
While they are home for the summer, give your high school students, high school graduates, college students, and college graduates something they can work on during the summer months--a real business of their very own. No kidding. They can build a business that will continue to earn real income for years to come. Yes, I own four profitable web sites by using SBI to build them and I started three years ago. My income goes up each month. They can build their own sites on whatever they love, sharing their knowledge and love of the topic with others. You, too, can take advantage of this great sale. Buy one for yourself and one for your teen or young adult student.

Saturday, May 23, 2009
Tiffany Is Busy
Occasionally, Tiff will write some posts as well. So take our advice and read the books we review. If you want to build your own site, click on the title above to go to a link for SBI and buy your own website. Site Build It is a great way for you to build your own site and make some extra cash.
Build A Hobby Site
Reading is my favorite hobby so I built this site. You can build a hobby site on whatever you love to do.
Are you familiar with Site Build It!? It's an all-in-one hosting, site-building, and online-success-making system that can possibly change a life. SiteSell, the manufacturer, actually guarantees online success if you follow the proven system.
Here's a short video that explains the product...
Over 100,000 customers have already used it to create real online businesses that let them work-from-home or wherever they want (it's a Web based system). They've got plenty of testimonials to prove it too.
Take a look at their Case Studies page...
Or this page of videos that were actually done by their customers...
You can buy one site anytime for $299 for one year and this is a great bargain considering all that you get for your money.
But, SBI! runs specials all throughout the year. You can buy one for $299 and buy a second one, for you or as a gift for a friend or family member for just $100 more. These specials usually happen around Valentine's Day, Memorial Day, the 4th of July, Labor Day, and Halloween.
The absolute best time of the year to buy Site Build It! is about halfway through December until New Year's Day when they have a Holiday Special going on where you can buy-one-site and get-one-free. It ends up being about $150 per site.
I know what you're saying. Why do I need more than one site?
You don't! You can always give the other one away as a New Year's gift. Or sell it. Or find a friend who wants to build a hobby site, too.
But you might want to keep it. Did you know that the majority of people making a full-time living online have more than one site. You just might double your pleasure... and income.
And did I mention they guarantee your success. Yup! You can get your money-back if you don't feel that it will help you build a successful online business. There's really no risk involved.
But once you understand their process you'll be hooked.
Most people think that all you need is hosting and site-builder software to make a web site. That's technically true. But getting people to find that web site is the key to building a long-term business that actually makes real money. Without traffic your site will be lost in the wilderness.
Their system helps you build a site that people are looking for. There C-T-P-M system teaches you how to create a site that's in-demand. Once you have traffic then you can choose many ways to turn that traffic into revenue. Here's a page that explains their proven process...
Doesn't it just make sense?
But I don't know anything about the Internet you say. Or HTML. I'm no computer geek, you say.
Can you send email? Have you used a word processor? Then you can build a Site Build It! site. It's really a simple process that is doable by anyone. All you need is the motivation and commitment to follow the process.
If you can't do that then Site Build It! is not for you. It's not "Get Rich Quick." There's really no such thing. But if you have the motivation and a little brains you CAN do it.
After all, your success to build a hobby site is guaranteed. What have you got to lose?
And maybe use your new web site business to build a hobby site and start a whole new life.