Blogger to end FTP service Part 2

I have made a back up of this blog at srmcevoy.ca. That is the first in a few steps. Second I have created a hidden blogger blog with new templates and attempted to recreate the look and feel of this blog. I am about 99% satisfied with it (about 12 hours of design work). Next I will need to apply that template to this blog and redirect it to blogger hosting and test. If that goes well, there should be minimal disruption to this blog. What will take the longest is going through almost 700 posts and putting the book covers and other pictures back in. Thanks for your patience during the transition. New content is developed and should be reappearing soon.

Blogger to end FTP service

Yesterday I recieved and email from Google\Blogger stating they are ending the FTP service. The migration must take place by March 22nd. Not a lot of time in my opinion but I am just a simple blogger. I am currently looking at the different options:

1. Leave this blog where it is and start over again. (Not desirable I have been using this blog since 2005, first hosted at blogger, then migrated to UW, then custom domain becuase of trafic levels.)
2. Migrate to Blogger hosting and hope for the best.
3. Migrate to Wordpress and stay hosted but lose all my link backs, page url's and search rankings.
4. As of yet undertrmined.

I spent a lot of time over the last 5 years changing the look and feel of this blog. Getting it just the way I wanted. Hacked the layout to get three columns custom images and more. I will with a few exceptions stop posting new content here until I figure this out. I am playing in both blogger and wordpress to see if I can get a design and feel I like. But for now all is on hold!

Steven

Noah's Castle - John Rowe Townsend

Noah's Castle
John Rowe Townsend
October Mist Publishing
ISBN 9780978545710

I was offered an advanced reading copy of this book. The book poses many interesting questions, and even though written originally 35 years ago, it is very fitting for today's economical and social setting. The book poses the questions of: 'What if money became worthless?' England is descending into economic disaster. The rate of inflation is changing hourly. Prices are skyrocketing, there are riots and people are literally starving to death. But for Norman Mortimer and his family things are not so terrible. For Norman is a man with foresight. When he predicted what was about to happen to the nation, he started planning. He buys a house well hidden from the street and other houses. Then he starts to gather stores to see the family through the current troubles.

Unfortunately, soon the government makes hoarding illegal. The family begins to be under stress, and as they see friends suffering and without, they struggle with what their father has done and is doing. First, Nessie the oldest daughter leaves, then the mother and youngest child. Soon it is just a father and his two sons. As rumours of the Mortimer's stocks spread, they are first blackmailed by a mobster, and a social action group tries to persuade Norman to distribute the stock to the needy.

This is an amazing book, well-written and so fitting to what is happening in today's world. The story moves at a quick pace, and progresses well. I could not put the book down. The story was so well-written I am planning on tracking down more of John Rowe Townsend's books to read in the future.

Fire Truck To The Rescue - Lego City Adventures - Sonia Sander

Fire Truck To The Rescue
Lego City Adventures
Level 1 Reader
Sonia Sander
Scholastic
ISBN 9780545115438

Join the adventure and follow the Lego fire crew as they are called to a scene of a building on fire and respond, putting out the fire and even rescuing a cat. The Lego fire crew looks like the Lego men, and they even have a Dalmatian. The adventure includes fire trucks, danger and even a helicopter. A great little reader for young children.

The Leveled readers are great books for young children. There are hundreds of titles in these formats, even across different publishers. What makes this particular series, The Lego City Adventures, so good is that little boys will be attracted to them because of the format and styles of both the stories and artwork. They are bright colorful stories with fun illustrations. I can see young boys trying to make with Lego the scenes to act out from the books. As a Level 1 reader geared for Kindergarten to Grade 1, this book is intended to help with sight word recognition, sounding out simple words and sentences.

Fun With Opposites! Wipe Clean Activities

Fun With Opposites!
Wipe Clean Activities
Peter Haddock Publishing
ISBN 0710516819

My daughter received this book for Christmas, and it is wonderful. The dry erase marker, and activities on every page are fun, interesting and challenging. With flaps, and different activities on each page this book will provide hours of fun.

Iorich - Steven Brust

Iorich
Steven Brust
TOR
ISBN 9780765312082

There are a few things about this book that amaze me. First, Steven Brust is one of the few authors I read in high school 20 years ago that I still actively pursue; second, that this is the 12th book in a series and I still get very excited when a new book comes out and I finish it with regret, knowing I will have to wait an indefinite amount of time for the next one to be released. As the 12th book in this series and the 17th set in this reality, it contributes much to the storylines of both our hero, Vlad Taltos, and the Dragaeran world.

This book was a page-turner. Once I picked it up I just could not put it down. I believe this story can stand on its own, and I know people who have started this series at almost any place. Some recommend starting at the beginning, but then you can either read them chronologically or in order of publication. I have gone back and reread them both ways and prefer the order in which they were published. Vlad Taltos is a human living in a world of Dragaerans. The Dragaerans are a society ruled by houses and a cycle. There are 17 houses, and each takes a turn ruling the empire, depending on where a house is in the cycle. They have more or less power. This book goes more into that dynamic of house position than some of the others. Each house has dominant characteristics and predominant occupations. The order of the cycle is: Phoenix, Dragon, Lyorn, Tiassa, Hawk, Dzur, Issola, Tsalmoth, Vallista, Jhreg, Iorich, Chreotha, Yendi, Orca, Teckla, Jhegaala, Athyra, and then returns to Phoenix. Most houses you are born into, a few will sell titles, or can be earned. Vlad first bought a title in the Jhereg and moved up. The Jhereg are a mixed clan, and are known to be the criminal element in this world. Later Vlad earned an imperial title with estates and such.

But back to the specifics of Iorich. Vlad is on the run from the Jhereg and has been for a number of years now. During his journeys he finds out one of his friends is in serious trouble. So he returns to the capitol of the empire, Dragaeran City, to help an old friend out. However when he arrives it becomes clear he might have to choose between helping out his friend and helping the Empress (and though not a friend, is at least an acquaintance, and her majesty.) This only complicates Vlad's life - more when Aliera does not seem to want to defend herself for the same reasons of not hurting the Empress or the empire. Vlad, a former assassin and Jhereg boss once again, returns to help out a friend even with risk to his own life and limb and with threats against his family. The Jhereg at the bottom of the cycle and the Orca are trying to squeeze the Empress. This book has it all - intrigue, politics, problems to be solved and, though not as much as other Vlad adventures, some violence.

Brust is truly a wordsmith. I find it a delight to read his prose. He approaches each book in a unique and new way, yet remaining loyal to what has gone before. The writing is a pleasure to read, the story flows, and even though Vlad has all the faults one could expect to be truly human, you cannot but find yourself cheering for him and racing to find out how he will unravel this problem and then come up with a solution to it. Brust is one of my all-time favourite authors and this book contributes nicely to his canon of work.

The twelve books in this series are: Jhereg (1983), Yendi (1984),Teckla (1987), Taltos (1988), Phoenix (1990), Athyra (1993), Orca (1996),Dragon (1998), Issola (2001), Dzur (2007), Jhegaala (2008) and now Iorich (2010). Interestingly, all except one are named after Houses; Taltos which originally had a working title of Easterner is named after our hero. Brust is planning on writing one book named after each of the remaining houses in the cycle. The other books set in this world are: The Phoenix Guard, 500 Years After and The Viscount of Adrilankha told in three parts as The Paths of the Dead, The Lord of Castle Black and Sethra Lavode. These other books are of much greater length.

(First Published in Imprint 2010-02-05.)

If You Give a Pig a Party - Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond

If You Give a Pig a Party
Laura Numeroff (Author)
Felicia Bond (Illustrator)
Mouse Cookie Books
Harper Collins
ISBN 9780061921599

This book is one in the series of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie books. They are light, fun reads for young children. The stories are a little silly and the illustrations bright and fun. In this book, you will have a party, balloons, decorations, a fair, bumper cars, hide and seek and so much more. These are fun stories to read aloud to your children.