Welp, unfortunately I can't tell you the whole behind the scenes look at what it took to get The "X-Files Phenomenom" going (It will take Forever and a Day, plus I wouldn't want to spoil the joy of you reading it), but I can say this is worth the money. Find out what it took to get the show on the road, how it was for everyone when they first got together, to the time they had to leave Their Vancouver Home where it All Started.
Written by Tom Braidwood (Fohike of the Lone Gunmen) so you know there is more than what an ordinary journalist can get a hold of. I guess you can call this Book "The little Diary of Tom Braidwood, and Friends."

Learn Everything you need to know about how They found the perfect location for each episode from Seasons 1-5, and find out how the weather was at the time of filming. . . hmmmm. It also has many Black and white pictures for your enjoyment, some funny, and others that illustrates how each set looked at the time of filming. It's definitely a keeper.

This book was an excellent read for myself, an X-Files fan and a resident of Vancouver. It expresses the love and dedication that all the X-Files crew members had for the show.

Anyone who likes the X-Files will get a kick out of reading the various stories behind acquiring all the locations for the show. A synopsis of *every* episode shot in BC is given, making this a useful episode guide as well.

After reading the book, I can say I am truly lucky to live in a city that stood for so many diverse places during the X-Files run.

After watching Sunday's finale episode, I pulled out my "X Marks the Spot" book to reminisce about the "good ol'days" when the X-Files was filmed in Vancouver - which was seasons 1-5. This book, written by Louisa Gradnitzer and Todd Pittson (who were location managers on the X-Files for 5 years) and an introduction by Tom Braidwood (also known as Frohike of the Lone Gunmen), shows the viewer the places that the X-Files filmed in Vancouver, a map to show where they are located and behind the scene facts about the episodes.

What is great about this book, it is split into seasons and episodes so that you can find your favorite episode, what locations were used for it and trivia about the filming of it.
This book also contains black and white behind the scenes photos featuring the cast, crew, buildings, props, cast parties and the final shots from Vancouver, which closes the book.

This book is a must if you're an X-Phile planning on visiting Vancouver.

As i said its not to good not to bad its to much of mystery theres practicly any stops from mystery and also its not bad because its funny sometimes.

This story is about a dog (Byte) who used to be in the AIA where animals would go on missions that were too dangerous for people.
The AIA retired him because he was over 40 in dog years.
He just got an urgent IM from his former people partner (Lassie) saying that the Sewer Systems are not ready for Y2K! In the chat room he talks in he tells them what is going on. They all say that they used to be in the FBI, CIA and NSA.
But when they gathered up at the meeting place they were a fat CIA mailman who was canned for sleeping on the job, a retired NSA secretary, and a 14 year old kid who dad was fired for crashing up an FBI car.
Will they still be able to save the world?? Time and toilet paper are running out!!

I am not into the far-fetched fantasy books but I decided to try this one anyway. It is pretty fun and silly at the time. I would suggest to anyone who like's silly and funny book!

... I thought this book had a lot of literary merit, and though I agree that Lee Renaldo's work, with it's over the top bold 24 pt. typography, is pretty amateurish--"flash me flash me c'mon now you're not flashing me" (I think he is one of only two obvious mistakes in this anthology, the other being Beau Sia, whose short quirky poems may be fun on open mike night but don't work on the page--"I want to be known as the guy who shot beau sia in the face"--end of poem), I DON"T agree that Maggie Estep's short story has any integrity at all--"Do I look angry? He screamed. She held the phone away from her ear..." It's pretty dull with uninventive language and not as cute as it's trying to be. Highlights of this book, and there are many, are Prageeta Sharman, "Some formula for sacred council as not to weep into the meadow grass...", Carl Hanccok Rux, "The conflation of rapture and regret (born out in those sequestered regions of the body, unterrained/outlawed by our fathers and subjected to extreme lore of hope and monotheism) transmogrifies when you touch me/an apocolypse of destroying temples and murdering eunuchs who keep the Sabbath..." and Micheal Portnoy "Here, in the lather of sebum, of the decomposed, the misconstrued, the imprecise and everything else abandoned out of weakness, I prepare the milk bath. ..."

Oh, these tawdry agendas. Heights..is a great
collection of poems. Jordan Davis, et al.
are producting some of the most interesting poems
in the world. These are young writers that have
managed the difficult feat of absording the french
avant garde, while still paying attention to the
clarity, lack of pretention and abstract realism
of the Beats. They know what they are doing.
They would know painting and film etc. as well as
the literature. That isn't a fault. They could
sit down and write like Verlaine or Proust; but they
choose to write from their own experience, and
cultural terms. The work is diverse and accomplished
while still remaining accesible. It is A rare feat,
that for some inoncievable reason, is still met
with boos even the expamples of Frank O'Hara and Auden.
Oh when, Oh when will we let poetry find some
cool breeze and fresh air again?... Or at least admit
when it has. They are a bit overly clever and
gimmicky (maybe)at times. But one thinks you might
not exactly "get it."

let me just express the suicidal depression going through beau sia because his name has not been mentioned in any capacity in any of the reviews. do you know what this does to his fragile ego? he knows he can't write, but to be nonexistent? forgettable? he is crying. i hope you're happy with yourselves. real big men. real big, grown up people. shame on you. shame. and furthermore, i'm not him. i'm a friend of beau's. and the anthology is (insert positive adjectives here). plus, i am applying for the assistant manager position at a local starbucks. wish me luck!

The following is my third review of this book. I have changed some of my ideas after doing further research.

For those scientific-minded people, like me: if you are looking for a book that shows scientific 'research' that the manifestation process exists (as could be inferred from the back page of the book), you'll be better served by reading "Margins of Reality". "Margins of Reality" makes a very solid and very technical attempt to prove these phenomena by conventional scientific means. "Manifesting Your Heart's Desire", on the other hand, does make a good companion book that attempts to describe how the process can be used in real life, rather than a laboratory setting. The authors provide some of their insight as to how the process works.

In Summary: The authors held periodic group meetings with people that attempted to manifest different desires. No traditional scientific controls were used, mostly because real life tends to be very difficult to control outside a lab. The book consists of excerpts of the participant own accounts and some interpretation.

The title and the back page of the book (describing the authors' research) can be a bit misleading to some. The title and preface may lead readers to believe that this book is a "manifesting manual" that includes solid research results (through the traditional use of the scientific method) to back their claims. However, I would like to note that I DO NOT THINK that this was intentional, but rather a small marketing mishap.

There are some things that I would have liked to have seen explained more thoroughly and that would have made the book more complete (in my humble opinion):

a)The reason why conventional research and the scientific method may not work too well in this area and why the authors chose to study manifesting using their particular format (e.g. what are the limitations? why? Are there better alternatives? )
b)The authors claim that 'detachment of the outcome' is quite necessary to be 'successful' in manifesting. I would like to see this concept more thoroughly explained. This concept was explained to me by one of the authors, and it made good sense. I just would have liked to see that articulated in the book.
c)More references to some of the many technical writings that currently exist. It always adds to one's credibility if one can cite additional sources. On the other hand, there are not many sources doing this kind of research, which is a big bummer.

I gave the book an Amazon Rating of: Neutral- mostly because the absence of the above information makes it look more like a 'new age' book.

...

I purchased this book about a year ago. I began to read it, and found it not to be just another "how to" book, but a book with REAL people in it, their stories, frustrations, fears, successes and triumphs. I was able to relate to what these people were doing, and felt as if I were reading a book about people I knew personally.

Not only are there specific ideas for how to manifest what you desire, but there are actual examples from Fred and Todd's manifesting focus group. I found myself trying the ideas immediately, with quick, positive results. I felt empowered! I've been able to take these same simple, yet powerful, ideas and have consistently been able to create and manifest my desires.

The manifesting is up to us! The information is laid out in a clear, understandable, interesting format. There are actual examples for each chapter idea. If anyone reads this book and isn't able to manifest their desires, it's a shame, but it's definitely due to their own lack of accepting of their manifestations.

If you read the book, do the ideas it presents, KNOW that you will manifest your desires, and accept them, you WILL be able to manifest your heart's desire. Give this book a chance, and I'm very certain that most of you will not be sorry.

Just finished reading this book. How refreshing to read a book that provides first-person accounts of individuals who actually preferred to walk the talk. I'm sick of all the other kooky new age books that simply repackage and parrot previous authors' philosophies as if they invented it, provide mere arm-chair philosophies of rich people who probably never had to consciously manifest anything in their entire lives, and/or mind-numbing pedantic theories...opinions...speculations and nauseating "feel goodisms" ad nauseum without any way to empirically verify their assertions. Aaargh!!

In contrast to those types of tedious new age books, Manifesting Your Heart's Desire not only describes the successes, but the failures as well. This really gives it an air of verisimilitude. It provides step-by-step empirical methods so one can experiment with reproducing the results claimed by the authors. No mindless faith required or desired: It's a workbook, and you get to be both the experimenter and the participant. Although it may not always be possible for literally everyone to verify everything they assert yourself, it's certainly empowering and morale boosting when you can replicate even one little thing that they describe. If scientific spirituality appeals to you then this book may very well be for you as well. You may also like writings by H. Spencer Lewis, Paramhansa Yogananda, Swami Vivekananda, Florence Shinn, Deepak Chopra, and Arnold Patent to name just a few.

The terms "Upheavals" and "Market Shock" should not be used to describe the subject matter in this book since it consists entirely of slow, gradual changes in demographics. These changes are only discussed in the most general of terms. There is not one chart or graph in this book. The lack of a timeline makes it impossible to do any serious financial planning. Most of these changes will not have a major effect on the U.S. economy until after most of us are dead and buried.

Unfortunately, the financial advice in this book is very limited, consisting mainly of common sense items, such as, "Learn to broil a trout." The useful information in each chapter can be summed up in one sentence: Chapter 1: Americans are aging. They will need health care and retirement homes. Chapter 2: Science is cool, but make sure that a lot of people will pay for it before investing. Chapter 3: Mutual fund fees are too high. (Also contains the crazy theory that all funds will collapse when people figure out they are not FDIC insured.) Chapter 4: One day, white people will be the minority in America. Chapter 5: The Japanese are getting older, too. Chapter 6: Europe needs Euro-denominated junk bonds. Chapter 7:China has a tough row to hoe. Chapter 8: The crime rate will rise. Chapter 9: There's that global warming thing.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical trivia. On the one hand, I read every page in this book. On the other hand, I don't expect to ever make a dime off of anything that I learned.

We all see the changes that are taking place around us (such as the graying of America). This book takes those changes and puts them into perspective with actionable information. I kept slapping my forehead and saying, "I know this, why didn't I see where it leads?" Buchholz makes sense out of our everyday observations and puts them into economic context.

A rare book on the economy that is actually interesting and fun to read. Buchholz has taken a very clever approach to making his point (with mini-novellas) that are both insightful and well researched. And humourous. Raises some serious concerns about the not too distant future that we should all be looking at as we contemplate our next investment.

"It is my aim in this book to define the meaning of the social sciences for the cultural tasks of our time. I want to specify the kinds of effort that lie behind the development of the sociological imagination; to indicate its implications for political as well as for cultural life."

The first chapter of this book is "The Promise" and in it Mills takes his stand with the great tradition of the Enlightenment and the idea of liberation by learning. For Mills, the promise is that cultivation of the sociological imagination may enable people to place personal worries and concerns in the larger social and historical context, and thus to think more effectively about them.

Chapters on Grand Theory and Abstracted Empiricism show how the understanding of social processes is impeded by immersion in certain types of theory and in narrow-minded "nomal science". Other chapters explore the many and varied ways that the critical and probing "sociological imagination" can be subverted or frustrated. His description of the Machieavellian tactics employed by academics to sideline rivals is especially revealing (for example, have a potentially dangerous book reviewed by a junior member of a hostile faction). His comments on the function of professional associations and conferences are equally deadly.

The main failing of the book arises from the author's theoretical and ideological stance which is not explicitly articulated but was clearly in the rational and humanistic Marixist tradition. He yearned for a viable alternative to liberalism and Marxism as he saw them in the 1950s but he clearly did not perceive classical liberalism as a candidate that was worthy of mention. It seems that classical, non-socialist liberals were so thin on the ground during his lifetime that he did not see any need to engage with them. That is a major weakness and it prevented Mills, and this book, from reaching the full extent of insight and understanding that his scholarship, his integrity and his industry should have permitted.

The best part of a very good book is the Appendix on Intellectual Craftmanship and this the kind of thing that is worth reading every few years to keep focussed for effective reading, thinking and writing. The remainder of this review consists of extracts from the appendix to convey some of its flavour.

"It is best to begin, I think, by reminding you, the beginning student, that the most admirable thinkers within the scholarly community you have chosen to join do not split their work from their lives.They seem to take both too seriously to allow such dissociation, and they want to use each for the enrichment of the other."

"You must set up a file, which is, I suppose, a sociologist's way of saying: keep a journal...In such a file as I am going to describe, there is joined personal experience and professional activities, studies under way and studies planned..."

"One of the very worst things that happens to social scientists is that they feel the need to write of their 'plans' on only one occasion: when they are going to ask for money for a specific piece of research or 'a project'. It is as a request for funds that most 'planning' is done, or at least written carefully about. However standard the practice, I think this very bad: it is bound in some degree to be salesmanship, and, given prevailing expectations, very likely to result in painstaking pretensions; the project is lilely to be presented', rounded out in some arbitrary manner long before it ought to be; it is often a contrived thing, aimed at getting the money for ulterior purposes, however valuable, as well as for the research presented."

"Any working social scientist who is well on his way ought at all times to have so many plans, that is to say ideas, that the question is always, which of them am I, ought I, to work on next. And he should keep a special file for his master agenda, which he writes and rewrites just for himself and perhaps for discussion with friends. From time to time he ought to review this very carefully and purposefully, and sometimes too, when he is relaxed."

"Any such procedure is one of the indispensable means by which your intellectual enterprise is kept oriented and under control...In [a vigorous and free intellectual community]...there would be interludes of discussion among individuals about future work. Three kinds of interludes - on problems, methods, theory - ought to come out of the work of social scientists and lead into it again: they should be shaped by work-in-progress and to some extend guide their work. It is for such interludes that a professional association finds its intellectual reason for being."

TThis is a masterful work by an original thinker. Wright was concerned with the developments that he was seeing in the social sciences in his time. He was concerned that the social sciences was developing in ways that limited its value to humanity and therefore to itself. He saw the social science of his day as working against true freedom in society by allowing itself to be used to manipulate the population into unthinking acceptance of established authority.

He saw two major trends that removed the social sciences from addressing robust problems whose solution would make genuine differences to humanity. The first was a retreat into 'Theory' so abstract that it was unable to describe anything of significance. Wright uses as an example an article that describes a theory of human relationships that was so abstracted from reality that, as Wright shows, it could not capture the fact that sometimes people accept the norms of their society unwillingly. This theory was wrapped in such opaque jargon to unambiguously define the trivial that it last all relationship to genuine society.

Wright also identifies as a further development in the social sciences, an empiricism so constrained by technique that it can only address the most specific and mundane problem. If theory has become to remote and abstract to contact real society this empiricism is equivalent in being so immersed in the specifics of a society that it cannot capture more than the trivial.

Wright's book is a plea to social scientists to abandon these two enterprises and to return to a social science which is concerned with problems whose solutions will change society,. He calls the ability to find and understand such problems the sociological imagination. He sees practitioners of this form of sociology as inherently political. They may not be in political office but they make their findings known to be acted upon in the political milieu.

Wright sees this as a way to genuine freedom in that the governed will know the structure of the society that is governing them and can then freely choose to live within it or to make changes. Wright is concerned that the social sciences of his time were not used to promote this genuine understanding of society by the population but to manipulate them into a passive acceptance of norms that may not be in their interest. He is afraid of a beneficent tyranny with a population of what he calls happy robots.

This book is a denunciation of passive acquiescence and a plea for informed acceptance as the basis of society. Wright's fears are as valid today as when he wrote them over 40 years ago.

I first came across this book when I was an undergraduate doing a course on introduction to sociology. It was on the required reading list. I had to confess, when I first encountered it, I did not know what to make of the book nor what the fuss was all about.

Now, many years later, I have just finished re-reading the book and am now convinced why this is a classic in the literature of the Social Sciences. Mills in this book seeks to advocate a certain ideal in the discipline of sociology. Known as the sociological imagination, he advocates the idea of using sociology to bear on the unease which man(in a generic sense!) faces in his daily life. Mills is arguing that much of unease felt by the individual has social roots, i.e., it is shared by many others. The cause of such unease has to do with the structure of society and changes that is happening in it. Hence, there is a great need for sociologists (and other social scientists) to articulate how such unease has sociological causes and thus enabling the individual to understand how his biography intersects with the structure and history of his society. In this way, hopefully it will empower to individuals to transform such unease into public issues in order to bring about changes in society.

Overall, this work is intelligently written as well as being morally challenging.Sure, much has changed since the first publication of this book but it is a good place to start for those who wants to find out what is sociology and to those who wants to be reacquainted with the ideals of sociology.

It is a morally challenging work which needs to be read and re-read time and again!

*From Here to Economy* is a concise and entertaining (if you like the author's sense of humor) introduction to economics. Since the book is only about 250 pages long, the coverage of any given topic is not deep, but the author does touch on the key concepts and explain them at a level appropriate for the literate novice. The book divides the subject into 5 sections: macroeconomics, microeconomics, international trade and finance, personal finance and investing, and schools of economic thought. The section on personal finance and investing will, I think, be particularly useful to the average reader, since it ties the broader economic concepts discussed in the rest of the book into the economic questions that most of us face every day. This section is also the one that struck me as dated, in that it does not mention all the investment information (both good and bad) that is now readily available on the Internet. However, that's a minor flaw in an otherwise very useful work. Readers may also want to look at Sowell's *Basic Economics* -- Sowell gives a fuller discussion of microeconomics, but he's also much more tendentious than Buchholz, is not so good on international topics, and does not discuss personal finance or the history of economic theory.

I was asked to teach economics this year for the first time in several years. Thank goodness for this book, because without it I do not think I could teach the class. The great thing about this book is that it makes understanding economics easy and fun. Is this book for everyone. Of course not, I do not recommend economics for everyone. However, if you are in the postion where you must learn economics whether as a teacher, student, college student, or who ever this is the book to turn to. Anyone who needs to learn economics will be well off to purchase and read this book. I also highly recommend the authors other book Lessons from Dead Economists. Like this book, it is again highly usefull and extremely readable for the economically challenged. For those of us who need to know economics thank goodness for this book.

If you want to learn about the economy then this is the book for you! It's a great start if you know nothing about the economy. And even if you did some time ago, this book would still be a good refreshing resource.

I recommend this book for basic knowledge of the economy.

When they burned down the library at Alexandria, The excuse was if it is in the Koran than we already have it; if it is not, then we do not need it. What was true for them is true for us; if it is not in this book, then we do not need it. Or as Ed McMahon would say on the Johnny Carson Show "everything there is to know is in this book"

I will not give you a blow by blow description of all the features in this book, as it would weigh as much as the book. Let's say it covers everything you need to get off the ground or expand your existing knowledge. One usually overlooked feature that is well covered is [Connecting Using ODBC (with Microsoft Access)]. What I really want to do is tie this back to my Unix applications, as this is the only program I use that is not UNIX at this time. My best guess is that AutoCAD can not afford to keep their UNIX experts. That is no excuse for lack of information in this book. So five stars for coverage of almost everything and minus one for lack of UNIX information.

The book itself is an amazing tool to have at ones side while learning this complex program. However, I see I'm not the only one who had problems with the CD. Most unfortunate as the files that do work are an excellent match with the scripted tutorials.

I have found the book to be an excellent source of information. The only problem I have found is that the CD that comes with the book locks my computer when autorun is turned on, and will not let me access the CD.

Overall a very enjoyable book, especially for the distant cowboys fan across here in the UK. Todds' love of the Cowboys is very apparent all the way through but, and maybe it's my fault for not reading the details more thoroughly, there is no direct input from Jerry Jones or any of the organisation, something that I'm sure would have made the book much more credible.

This book was hard to put down once I started reading it. Mr. Cawthorn gives great insight to the world of NFL football and the "fly on the wall" play by play of the life of Jerry Jones. Unbelievably shocking and funny stories that will make you want to read it all the first time you pick it up.

I am female and like to watch football so I thought it would be an interesting read, but to my surprise, it was much more than that. It is a very candid and somewhat blunt account of life and times with the team members and their owner. The book was so intriguing to me that I actually read it in one evening. It reads like you are having a converstation with the author and he is telling you one unbelievable story after another! I was thoroughly entertained as well as educated on what REALLY goes on behind closed doors.

This book has plenty of errors. Page 80 says import to library streaming.fla (file provided on their website). FlashMX chokes.

I was hoping to pick up this book and write a crude web based non linear editor with FlashMX within a few hours, but this book is disjointed.

By the way, page 58, MPEG is Moving Pictures Expert Group.

Kristian and Hoss waste no time in their book, they get you and your film into Flash straight away - and show you how to control it.

Other MX books waste too much time explaining Scripting techniques, this one gets you going right from the start. All the Actionscript is in thier, as an when you need it & is explained from a real users point of view - not from a coders!

Fast & Friendly - just like they say.

Inspiration, code and compression - this book covers it all.
In a simple step-following format the writer takes you from editing your clips to putting them up on the net, and gives you plenty of ideas of what you can do in Flash.

If you can ignore the 'cool' skateboarding example video (or use your own!) then get this book!