http://www.viewpoints.com/aboutme/tivawallon Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:22:05 GMT Reviews by tivawallon http://www.viewpoints.com/My-Books-review-bce84 This is not a review but I thought I would post this here and see what readers think. — Would it be ok to post blurbs about my books? I am not trying to go against the rules here but I am just trying to let readers know about my books. — So, anyone reading this, what do you think? — ... Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:22:05 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/My-Books-review-bce84 tivawallon 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Nintendo-Wii-Fit-review-f5521 3 days ago I purchased the Wii Fit unit for about $89.00 from a local Wal-Mart. I have to admit that when I first watched the demo, I thought it was going to be baby-ish and stupid. — Well let me tell you...I WAS WRONG! Yes, I admit it. As a non-fitness guru I thought I was going to be able to do the workouts with no issues. I thought they looked simple and don't get me wrong, they were. But the thing really makes you work and do them right. — It takes a little time to set the unit up..to answer the questions like your height and age and so on. Don't bother putting your weight in or lying about it because it will weigh you! It will also tell you what your BMI is and help you set your goal for losing weight and lowering your BMI. — Balance is the key factor with this thing. If you don't have good posture or balance, it will tell you. It will measure you and put it on the screen so you can see how to adjust how you stand. — You have several options to... Tue, 03 Jun 2008 20:39:42 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Nintendo-Wii-Fit-review-f5521 tivawallon 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Iron-Man-review-82963 Iron Man...hum...I have to be honest here folks, I wasn't that impressed with the movie. I don't mean to sound nasty here but I actually found the first part of the movie pretty boring. The movie starts out with Stark, (Robert Downey) who looks absolutely horrible! Did I mention how horrible he looks??? I guess all that wild Hollywood life has turned a once nice looking man into eeewwwwww!!!!!!  Sorry, I got a little side-tracked.  Anyway as I was saying, in the movie it shows Stark in a Hummer, being escorted by the military to some undisclosed place, (all we know at this point is that it's someplace in hostile territory)  for some sort of meeting. I guess that's supposed to be the suspenseful part. — In the next scene you see bombs exploding, shots fired, soldiers getting killed and blown to bits. Stark realizes he's all alone in the Hummer and decides to make a run for it. As he makes it to a rock pile, a bomb is dropped and lands a few feet away from him. In... Mon, 26 May 2008 22:08:04 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Iron-Man-review-82963 tivawallon 3 http://www.viewpoints.com/Family-Secrets-Lies-and-Alibis-review-26f54 Review for Family Secrets Lies and Alibis Nanette B. Buchanan — If you enjoy reading about deep family dirt then this book would satisfy your reading needs. It's chock filled with everything it's title implies, Family secrets, lies and alibis. I found this book to be filled with drama, lots and lots of drama. It also includes Adultry, abuse and incest. This book is definitely not about your average everyday family, yet it is believeable because drama like this happens. Just watch the Jerry Springer show and you'll see what I mean! — Many times characters names just appeared, leaving me, the reader, confused. I thought I had missed something and had to go back and reread, which was very irritating. These characters seemed to just pop in, to fill the pages. — Often throughout the book I found characters speaking and I had no idea who was saying what. Once again I had to go back and reread pages and paragraphs just to clear this irritating issue. — Also with this... Tue, 25 Mar 2008 19:50:37 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Family-Secrets-Lies-and-Alibis-review-26f54 tivawallon 2 http://www.viewpoints.com/Coming-Home-review-30e20 Coming Home by Kay Hall Beckman The story itself was much better than the writing. The author knew exactly what story she wanted to tell and told it fully and completely, no loose ends or unfinished situations. It was also a very positive story; a young woman is duty bound to return to her unhappy childhood home and what begins as an onerous task becomes a chance for her to mend the broken places in her heart. Love lost is regained, family is reunited and, when she discovers she is financially blessed, she is determined to do what she can to make her world a better place. — Let me be blunt, the writing is awful. — "...Her grandmother really didn't want her to live with her, but there was nowhere else for her to go, except to put her in an orphanage. She was sure her grandmother would have did that but for the way the town would have gossiped about her, made her rethink her decision. ..." — What this book desperately needs is an editor and what the author needs is... Tue, 25 Mar 2008 19:09:18 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Coming-Home-review-30e20 tivawallon 3 http://www.viewpoints.com/Forged-from-Shadows-review-ffd43 Review for Forged from Shadows — By Ariel J Schaub — Shortly after I began reading this book I became convinced the author didn't much like her characters and didn't really know what to do with them. The main female was so bloodless she was more ghost than living, showing emotion only on three occasions, one of which was in mortal delirium. Her decission to marry an unlettered blackman, no matter her Union sympathies, should have been preceded by deep contemplation and statement of conviction. Instead it was more, "oh, ok I guess so." Her husband, despite being a free man, was way too agressive to survive the society he lived in. It would have taken so little effort for some white man to have him arrested or sold back into slavery; or hanged. — The Confederate officer, while slimey, was the most complex, too devious and controlling to settle for ownership by rape, he wanted body and mind. He was disliked by his peers and subordinates but there's no real explanation... Tue, 25 Mar 2008 19:06:35 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Forged-from-Shadows-review-ffd43 tivawallon 4 http://www.viewpoints.com/A-Small-Harvest-of-Pretty-Days-review-012c1 Review for A Small harvest of Pretty Days By Larry Kimport — Reading this book was like sitting next to an elderly aunt as she recounted some pirotal event from her "early days." The story wanders a bit and flashbacks to side events that pop up because if you don't have the information, the story won't make sense. There aren't a lot of descriptions as a rule, countryside is "real pretty or real rough" people are "fine looking or hard or upstanding." The specifics come only at particular moments: "Chinese lanterns on the lawn, that flairing red dress with all the pleats," for example. — None the less the author is able to paint a fairly good picture of the characters, just enough so that the reader can fill in the details for themself. This works well because this is the events of the story that matter most, and by writing the book this way the author focuses the reader's attention most firmly. — One aspect I particularly like was the use of famous... Tue, 25 Mar 2008 19:02:50 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/A-Small-Harvest-of-Pretty-Days-review-012c1 tivawallon 4 http://www.viewpoints.com/Spiderman-3-Movie-review-b6744 The grandkids and I  just got back from the movies a few minutes ago. We had some free tickets given to us from a friend who owns the cinema. Anyway we decided to take the grand kids and a couple neighbors. I have to admit that I am very happy the tickets were free! If I had to pay to go see Spiderman 3, then I would have been ticked! — — Now don't get me wrong, the special effects were awesome, Toby still looked spectacular in his skin tight suit, especially the black one! The black crawly substance came from outer space. No one knows where, how or why. It just appeared, landing in some park field and just happened to attach itself on the back of Peter Parker's moped. He and MJ were hanging out in a local spiderweb. For romance in that scene, there was definitely no spidey tingles going on! Not even a twang from a string on the web! — — The sand man guy was pretty cool too. I also liked the fact that in the end everyone made up and became friends. I... Mon, 24 Mar 2008 20:03:48 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Spiderman-3-Movie-review-b6744 tivawallon 2 http://www.viewpoints.com/I-Am-Legend-2007-review-22f72 I have always been a big fan of Will Smith and usually love all his movies. But.... — Where do I begin?????  The most exciting part was at the very end. — The movie starts out with some news show. A woman is being interviewed and she claims the scientists have found the cure for cancer. She goes over the stats of their findings, the tests run and so on. — Then it's magically 3 years later. All of New York is deserted, grass is growing on the streets, cars abandoned, buildings in ruins and everything looks like it's been covered with a huge layer of dust. Then as the camera pans back, you see a bright red and white car, a Mustang I think it was, speeding down the streets. Of cource the driver is Will Smith. Sitting in the passenger seat is his dog, a German shep he's had since a puppy. — Then after you watch him drive at terribly high speed around the city for a while you're thinking something exciting has to happen any second...maybe a few more... Sat, 22 Mar 2008 12:21:59 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/I-Am-Legend-2007-review-22f72 tivawallon 1 http://www.viewpoints.com/5002-Ready-To-Use-Insect-Soap-Plant-24oz-review-ba612 Being in the lawn and garden business for as many years as I have, I hear all kinds of requests from customers. Many of them tend to lean towards natural pest control that is safer to use. — — Well I have always recommended Safer products. Especially for tender inside plants, herbs and veggies. For all my inside plants I use Safer Insecticidal soap. I raise Orchids of all varieties and I have to be very careful of what I use. — — Safer insecticidal soap is very effective when it comes to getting rid of aphids, mites, white flies, mealy bugs, thrips and so much more. But this product if best effective when used with protected plants, indoor or tender plants. — — I don't recommend insecticidal soaps for outside use because even though it is an excellent product and it will work outside, it just doesn't have a very long residual life. If you use it outside and it rains, its washed away. That means you spend more time going back to respray. — ... Fri, 22 Feb 2008 12:00:25 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/5002-Ready-To-Use-Insect-Soap-Plant-24oz-review-ba612 tivawallon 4 http://www.viewpoints.com/Ace-Hardware-Ro-Pel-Animal-Bird-Repellent-B010-review-ad090 As I have stated in my other reviews, I am a lawn and garden expert and also work at a major home improvement center in the garden department. I have access to all the products we sell and living in an area that is classified as a bird sanctuary, they will never build in that area. — — Before we put a fence around our property, we used to have all kinds of wild life running around in our back yard. Even when we had our swimming pool being built, we had creatures in it. — — I asked vendors for some free samples of their products to see if one of them could do as it stated; to keep animals out. No matter what I tried, nothing worked. Then we got in this Ropel stuff. It promised to do the trick. — — HA! That stuff was the least effective! I called the vendor and explained my problem. He actually drove out to my house, since I live 2 miles away from work and applied the stuff. He explained that I must have applied it wrong. Yeah right. — ... Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:59:10 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Ace-Hardware-Ro-Pel-Animal-Bird-Repellent-B010-review-ad090 tivawallon 1 http://www.viewpoints.com/Spectracide-Fire-Ant-Killer-Pesticide-review-efe15 I was given a free sample of Spectracide fire ant killer from a vendor at my place of employment. Hey, if it's free..... you know the rest. — — Anyway, living in the area that I do, I always have problems with ants, especially with fire ants. Its true, all of them need to die! They hurt! — — I began reading the bag of Spectracide fire ant killer and realized that the chemical that kills the ants had been poured on ground up peanut shells. I like recycling so this product was better than most because of this fact. then I read that the poison is an accelerator. i wanted to make sure I understood what that meant so I called Spectracide and asked them. — — An accelerator simply means that fire ants eat the poison and they grow themselves to death. Now that is the perfect idea when it comes to killing unwanted pests like the blasted fire ant. — — It was further explained to me that the smell of the chemical was added in as a lure to the... Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:56:12 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Spectracide-Fire-Ant-Killer-Pesticide-review-efe15 tivawallon 4 http://www.viewpoints.com/Aquapore-hose-review-b0404 Living in Florida I came to realize that if you want to have beautiful flowers and lots of veggies during the drought months, you have to do something. — — In every neighborhood you will have those busy bodies who delight in tattling on their neighbors who use water when they aren't supposed to. Those people are dorks and are usually more of an offender than those they are reporting. — — I checked with my water company as well as the local county extension service about this idea I have been implementing for quite a while now. All you have to do when planning your garden or flower bed is to weave this soaker hose around your plants or along side of them then cover it with mulch. — — You can run the hose for hours and still use less than half the amount you normally would when you water for 15 minutes. Plants lose water in a process called transpiration. Think of it like sweating. Most all plants take up their water through the roots. So why not... Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:54:45 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Aquapore-hose-review-b0404 tivawallon 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Raid-Fumigator-review-9f771 At one time or another in our lives we all have tried foggers. You have to push the button and instantly the poison comes out. If your hand or face is in the way, oh well. — — Not so with this product. I swear by Raid fumigator. It is the best of any type on the market. You get 3 cans in a box and it will run you just under $11.00 depending where you shop. One can in every room does the job. — — We were moving from our home and I discovered we had carpenter ants in the master bedroom closet. Again getting a free sample of this product from one of my vendors, I used one in my closet. — — I was pleased to see how easy this product was to use. All you have to do is peel back the foil lid and take out the center can. Put a tiny bit of water in the bottom of the plastic can then drop the center can back inside the plastic can. No chance of all that poison squirting out in your face or getting on your skin. — — Once you set the can in... Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:52:43 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Raid-Fumigator-review-9f771 tivawallon 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Scotts-Co-Ortho-Bus-Group-Gal-Super-Conc-Roundup-review-aede4 Roundup is a name most everyone knows and most of us have used. Its best to always purchase the concentrated type. Why? Because if you buy something already premixed, you are paying for water. Also look at the percent of active ingredient. Maybe 0.5% — — Now, when you pick up a bottle of Round-up's super concentrate, look at the active percent. It will tell you 40%. Yes, you will pay a bit more for a quart, which runs in the neighborhood of $40.00 and the gallon will be about $100.00, but look at the mixture rate. You will be able to make bathtubs fulls of the stuff. — — What does that mean? It saves you money. Not only in using the super concentrate, but also it saves you from having to run to the store. It saves you time and energy also. — — Now, the way Round-up works is like this. It contains glyphosate, which is an organophosphate. Now before you get all excited, let me explain. Dursban also contains organophosphates and it was taken off the... Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:48:09 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Scotts-Co-Ortho-Bus-Group-Gal-Super-Conc-Roundup-review-aede4 tivawallon 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/9-Lives-Tuna-Select-Canned-Food-for-Cats-review-72e01  have 2 cats with not so unusual likes and dislikes. Except when it comes to food. — — My husband's cat, named Lucky, (named so because he was lucky to have a home) started to have a problem in the potty area. I would find him trying to go in the sink, on the table or in the shower and even in the corner. This was strange behavior for him. — — I took him to the vet and was told he had urinary problems and would have them for the rest of his life. I also had to feed him this bland, very expensive cat food that I could only buy from the vet. Well I tried it, taking a few cans home with me that night. — — Well let me tell you, my cats, all of them refused to eat that garbage. So I headed out to the store and found 9 lives. It suit all my cat's needs, offering him what he needed to maintain a healthy urinary tract. — — I know this works because I took them off 9 lives and bought another brand and sure enough, by the... Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:44:55 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/9-Lives-Tuna-Select-Canned-Food-for-Cats-review-72e01 tivawallon 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Rubbermaid-deck-box-review-7e2f3 I have to admit that I got my Rubbermaid storage box for practically nothing. I work in a home improvement center, in the garden department and at times when things get a little damaged or our display model starts looking like kaka, they get marked down to almost nothing. — — At my house in Palm Harbor, we have a pool and hot tub, for which we need to store the chemicals. Now I admit that the storage box isn't large enough to fit all the pool supplies, hoses etc. but it's just right for the chemicals. — — I first got my Rubbermaid storage box about 2 years ago. The old shed we had for the pool stuff finally had to be laid to rest. When the boss at work said he was going to replace all the displays throughout the store, I immediately went to him and asked if I could buy the Rubbermaid box. I got it and another shed, but that one is another epinion. — — To be honest, I got my storage box for $5.00. Yes I know, I can hear all the gasps. But like I... Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:40:49 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Rubbermaid-deck-box-review-7e2f3 tivawallon 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Suncastr-Deluxe-Hose-Hangout-Dhh150-review-5aa91 Living here in sunny, hot Florida, and on the water things tend to wear down faster than normal. — — But not so for my Suncast delux hose hangout. I'll admit that in the beginning I was cheap. I bought the other brand that didn't cost more than a loaf of bread. But I soon learned that trying to save money by buying something of lesser quality, wasn't the way to go. — — I bought my hose hangout at my place of employment. It wasn't really that expensive, going for about $19.98 for the larger size that we carried. — — I have to admit that I am very pleased that I bought the hose hangout. Its made of a very high quality plastic that is sturdy and has with stood the hot, pounding Florida sun. I have had it for about a year how and it hasn't faded or cracked. — — When I wind my hose up, all 150 feet of it, I never have to worry about kinks or other problems. My hose hang out rolls smoothly and allows the hose to be rewound from side to... Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:38:29 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Suncastr-Deluxe-Hose-Hangout-Dhh150-review-5aa91 tivawallon 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Excedrin-PM-review-be831 Unfortunately I happen to be one of those people who just can't sleep at night. The doctor tells me that while my body is physically exhausted and more than ready for rest at night, my brain is getting its second wind. — — Being a writer and having a very vivid, creative imagination, I find it hard to come up with the next plot in a chapter during the day, while I am at my regular job. I guess that's why my brain kicks in at night when I should be sleeping. — — For years I have had sleep problems and have tried this or that. After a while nothing worked, which prompted me to go to the doctor. Actually I have gone to 3 and all 3 of them have told me they recommend Excedrin PM as the best sleep aid. — — The other brands on the market don't have but 25 mg of sleep aid, but Excedrin PM has 38 mg. Take one of those babies and you are out for the night. And the best thing is, that you wake up feeling refreshed. None of that dazed feeling you get while... Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:35:40 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Excedrin-PM-review-be831 tivawallon 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Rubbermaid-Vertical-Storage-Shed-review-b5ed2 This is the other of the sheds I got as a display model from work. Now usually this Rubbermaid Storage shed sells for about $169.00. But for once, I was in the right place at the right time and was able to pick up this display model for $5.00! — — I have to admit, its one of the better sheds I have ever had. Its not overly large, just a bit over 6 feet tall, 5 feet wide and about 3 feet deep. Granted, its not made to hold a lot of stuff. But if you're like me and don't have a whole lot of room, then its the perfect size. — — I have put a few of these together for customers and it actually takes less than 30 minutes or less. There are only 8 panels that just snap together. I store all my garden tools plus my 3 pump sprayers, some fertilizers and pesticides. — — Now this unit does not come with shelves. But hey, who ever told you that you had to have shelves to match? All I did was go down to the lumber department and root through the bargain bin... Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:33:08 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Rubbermaid-Vertical-Storage-Shed-review-b5ed2 tivawallon 5