Last Minute Interview Tips (Last Minute Series)

Book Description

Last Minute Interview Tips outlines a detailed program to help the user develop the best possible interview strategy in the time they have available. It will help the user prioritize their research, prepare for the toughest questions and give them solid advice on dealing with curveballs they can expect the interviewer to toss their way.

Customer Reviews:

How to interview...the crash course.......2005-12-26

This is a book of quick, last minute, questions you can expect to be asked in an interview with ways to give the best, yet truthful answers. How?

It guides the reader thorugh the most common questions asked on a job interview giving answers that will win you the job you desire. It's a quick read; giving just enough detail without over-analyzing the interview process. A compact gem for only $10!

Last Minute Interivew Tips will give the interview edge (possibly the job as well) for recent college or technical school grads as well as those re-entering the marketplace.

Marty A. Nickison II, BSCS Net+
author, Beyond the Books (Lulu Publications)

Helpfull.......2005-06-27

Instead of reading this book cover to cover, read the question sections in each chapter. You'll learn a lot just from that.

Book Description

Checkpoints VCE Accounting 2, 2003 is a practical and up-to-date resource for students, designed to assist exam preparation for the Unit 4 VCE Accounting course of study. Features of this edition include: • past official exam questions from 1996–2002, with suggested solutions • comprehensive preparatory questions for Unit 4 written examination • time guides for all questions. Students will find Checkpoints VCE Accounting 2, 2003 both challenging and easy to use, and an asset to their exam preparation.

Book Description

This book, based in part on a continuing survey of hundreds of households, charts the progressive disenfranchisement of textile workers in the Indian city of Ahmedabad through the 1980s and 1990s elaborating dimensions of poverty often neglected by statistics alone. It also examines the religious fault lines of the community, which exploded into riots in spring 2002. The crises of Ahmedabad can also be found in Asia at large, where a lack of social provisions can allow entire communities to sink below the poverty line. Breman's book--along with its companion volume, Working in the Mill No More--give us as accurate and penetrating a portrait of this process as we could wish for.

Book Description

Taiko drumming is an ancient sacred practice in Japan, originally used to drive away pests from rice fields and then to call to the gods in thanks at harvest time. Today taiko in Japan, and especially in North America, has evolved into a form of mental, physical, and martial arts training that combines rhythm, harmony, and movement. This book is for anyone who would like to try taiko or who is fascinated by the instruments, dances, and compositions of a typically powerful taiko performance. Contains an introduction to taiko history as well as resources for students.

Heidi Varian is a longtime student of taiko and a taiko event producer.

Seiichi Tanaka is founder and director of the renowned San Francisco Taiko Dojo.

Customer Reviews:

Content great, Stone Bridge Press binding terrible.......2007-07-07

I only had this paperback book for a couple of days when pages began falling out as I read it. The information, pictures and writing were great, but even with very careful handling, the binding was not adequate to hold the pages intact. This was disconcerting, of course, and my attempts to contact the publisher - Stone Bridge Press - to complain of the problem failed. They never responded.

I returned the book to Amazon, who refunded the cost of the book minus shipping. This is one of the very few returns I have ever had to make to Amazon.

I would never buy another book from Stone Bridge Press without seeing it and handling it before hand.

Highly recommended to all enthusiasts of the eastern philosophies and arts.......2006-04-03

The Way Of Taiko by Heidi Varian is the translation of information that will enable American readers to understand and enjoy (even participate in) the sacred art and practice of ethnic Japanese drum music known as "Taiko". Providing a wealth of general information documenting "Taiko", The Way Of Taiko engagingly informs the reader of many of the great intricacies in this specialized music, and is inclusive of many expressive and artistic pictures to give the reader an accurate idea of what "Taiko" truly is. The Way Of Taiko is very highly recommended to all enthusiasts of the eastern philosophies and arts, especially those musically inclined, as well as students of Japanese culture.

The way of Taiko.......2005-12-24

This is a small 7x7inch high quality gloss paper bound survey of Taiko. It presents a nice forward by Sensei Seiichi Tanaka, a brief history and sections on the culture and "way" of taiko.

There are many high quality color photos that convey what cannot be conveyed in writing. Taiko is EXCITING!!

I liked the sections on the connections with the spirit and nature, as an artistic community I think we need to emphasized these elements more in practice and performance.

The Taiko Glossary filled in some data gaps for me - however, I would think that any practicer with more than 2 or 3 years experience would or should know these terms.

I think there should have been more on the "songs" how they are taught and the culture or practice of what groups get to perform what songs. - there is no copyright per se but there is an informal (read no lawyers - yet) means of giving permission to perform certain songs to groups.

All in all this is a good book for beginers and novices or anyone interested in an introduction to taiko. There is so much more that I hope to see in the follow on book to this one.

It's curious that while Sensei Tiffany Tamaribuchi is acknowledged that her group the Sacramento Taiko Dan is not mentioned either in the book it self or the list of "Senior Taiko Ensembles" - hopefully this omission will be corrected in later editions.

Customer Reviews:

I'm very critical, but it's still great........2002-09-01

I encourage many to read this book, but I feel compelled to give my criticisms first.

Valdivia is trying to write Latinas into media studies and cultural criticism, a very noble project. But like bell hooks, a scholar by whom Valdivia is strongly influenced, the author pats herself on the back too frequently about her interdisciplinary discussions of "race, class, and gender." Also like hooks, though non-homophobic, there is an unfortunate way in which "race, class, and gender" are written in capital letters but sexual orientation is written in the lower-case. Like many Latina/o scholars, Valdivia gripes about how racial discussions overly focus on white vs. black, yet she has to use a lot of African-American scholarship to make her points. While the last half of the book is clearly about Latinas, the first have is just about women in general; this book is much more likely to be in a women's studies syllabus than an ethnic studies one (which is unfortunate). As much info as I learned about the media here, the author gets many facts wrong. She says "Set It Off" is directed by a woman; it's directed by F. Gary Gray, a man. She calls Madonna "self-named"; actually Madonna is her birth name. She says "You Can't Do That on Television" was inspired by the Xuxa Show and that can't be because the former came on before Xuxa worked on Brazilian TV in 1984. Speaking of Xuxa, the author is way too forgiving. In a minority-heavy nation like Brazil they may worship the rare blonde like Xuxa. In the white-majority US, there are plenty of blondes and Xuxa would be nothing special, yet Valdivia inadequately addresses this. The author includes this silly chapter involving her daughter. All parents think their children are little miracles. Valdivia can't be critical here. For example, she states her daughter's school has Mexican-American students, yet the mother doesn't find it problematic in the slightest that all her daughter's friends are white. Finally, her descriptions go on too long; whole sections describing Victoria's Secrets catalogues and Xuxa's success had to be skipped because they were so exhaustive.

This book is critical, so maybe it just put me in a critical mood. In truth, I loved this book. If you like Coco Fusco's and Cherrie Moraga's works, you should love this too. I mean, this was a good attempt at a Latina analysis of media. In fact, this taught me a lot about the media generally because I'd pick up a book on Latinas, not a book on the media alone. Many critics say writings from "identity" scholars lack structure, but in every chapter Valdivia clearly maps out her project. Academics tend to either focus on Latinas/os in the US or Latin Americans abroad. Valdivia identifies as both and writes about both, excellently I might add. Given that Rosie Perez is "mulata", Rigoberta Menchu is indigenous, and Xuxa is white, Valdivia shows that she accepts and celebrates Latina racial diversity when she is analyzing these figures. This was some strong cultural studies.

Customer Reviews:

Non Fiction.......2007-09-03

Small book picked up the Gambler's bookshop in Vegas to give a few tips for the occasional bit of recreational gambling while there.

Waste of money.......2003-01-12

Very thin. Don't buy this book. There are too many other good video poker books out there to waste a cent on this book. I would suggest something from John Grochowski.

An Ad for his other books!.......1999-06-15

I agree with the other eviewr... this i nothing more than an ad for the more "advanced books" the author sells. Save your money. This is garbage.

This book is too basic to be of much value........1998-11-15

This entire book is simply to basic to be of much value--unless you need someone to tell you where the coins go into the machine. The content struck me as an intro (and advertisement) for the more "advanced" books advertised on the last page--namely the playing strategies you probably thought you were getting this round.

There's better information on the web.

Average customer rating:
The Basics of Winning Video Poker
J. Edward Allen
Manufacturer: Cardoza Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Video Poker | Gambling | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000THDYXO

Average customer rating:
Basics of Winning Video Poker
J Edward Allen
Manufacturer: CARDOZA PUBLISHING U
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Video Poker | Gambling | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000K7YAN6

Amazon.com

This is an extremely literate and somewhat scholarly look at the past, present, and future of the emerging art form of interactive narrative, where storytelling, visual imagery, and reader interaction meet. With an abundance of illustrations, including a comic strip that runs timeline-style along the bottom of each page, and a corner flipbook, Pause & Effect looks at what defines visual narrative, how it has developed through the centuries (from the religious paintings of 13th-century artist Giotto to the first-person shooter games of today), and the principles involved.

The book has four parts. In the first, "Theory," readers learn about perspective (both emotional/inside-the-skull and dimensional/outside-the-skull), Aristotle's definition of dramatic structure, the Freytag triangle (complication, climax, denouement), the three interactive narrative structures (nodal, modulated, and open), and other fundamental issues. The second part covers the 2-D topics of image and icon, including several examples of narrative imagery from the history of art (e.g., Velázquez's Las Meninas and Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2) and basic principles for designing a narrative that facilitates the four steps of interaction (observation, exploration, modification, and reciprocal change). The third section looks at the 3-D areas of place and space (how architecture and dimensional imagery affect narrative), as well as case studies from theater, game design (Deus Ex 2), the Internet (the graphical MUD Ultima Online), and more. The last section discusses the practical issues involved in developing interactive narratives and emerging trends.

Pause & Effect is for anyone interested in a serious analysis that touches on new media, storytelling, visual art, and literature. It would also make an excellent textbook for a variety of college courses, from game design to semiotics. --Angelynn Grant

Book Description

Interactive narrative is the cornerstone for many forms of digital media: web sites, interface design, gaming environments, and even artificial intelligence. In Pause & Effect, Mark Stephen Meadows examines the intersection of storytelling, visual art, and interactivity. He takes the key principles from these areas and applies them to the design, architecture, and development of successful interactive narrative. This provocative book will appeal to designers with its edgy aesthetic and artistic sensibility. Striking graphic and typographic imagery complement unique design features that encourage interactivity through varying levels of information, different navigational possibilities, and even flip-book animations.

Customer Reviews:

Beautiful but no holy grail.......2006-03-09

Pause & Effect is a beautiful book. Definitely the most visual work on the subject of interactive narrative I have ever encountered. From its almost baroque design it immediately becomes clear that Meadows has a multidisciplinary background that among other things has seen him working as a game-designer, photographer, portrait painter and writer. Clearly, this multifaceted approach is the book biggest asset, as Meadows, rightly so, positions interactive narrative on the intersection of literature, visual art and interaction design. In his view, a successful interactive narrative finds a way to transfer some of the traditional control of the author over the story to the reader who must be able to "affect, choose or change the plot". Control over the perspective and time are important to evolve normal stories with its fixed chains of cause and effect, to a new level. And with a new underlying temporal structure of 'pause and effect'.

We should be patient, however, the new art-form of interactive narrative will not blossom over night. It took literature several millennia to evolve from its epic (with its base and violent interaction between characters) beginnings to the current intricate form, with all its depth and reflections. Most video games (the most popular example of interactive narratives) are still in the initial cycle of development, although some games hint at the next step in the is evolution after only thirty years of development.

To me the best parts of the book are the first 'dimension' (or chapter) which explains Meadow's theory of interactive narrative and the interviews that conclude the second and third dimensions. Meadows interviews the creators of some very good and important examples of existing interactive narratives. These people have many profound things to say, and it becomes clear that they were a main source of inspiration to the general theoretical framework of Pause & Effect. But close inspection of these interviews also highlights what I think is a weakness in Meadow's work.

The possible structures that interactive narratives can use play an important role in both the theory and the interviews. Meadows presents three basic structures (the nodal plot, the modular plot and the open plot) which can all be diagrammed as networks of nodes and connections. I understand that these nodes some how represent story-points, events or scenes and the connections possible routes or reader choices. This reduces interactive narrative to a rather discrete network of possibilities, whereas interviewees stress the fact interactive narrative should move beyond discrete plot trees and to more analogous story worlds or simulations. Such worlds cannot be expressed in these diagrams, rather these are expressed in rules of simulation and rules of interaction. This approach will more easily incorporate procedural or algorithmical production of interactive narrative. This is (and I am confindent that Meadows agrees on this point) where the future of interactive narrative lies.

The second weakness in the book is related to its interdisciplinary quality. Though Meadow's study is informed, it is not always as clear as I would want it to be. The many images are exemplary in this respect. The link with the text is not always apparent. In sometimes they are just illustrations, at other times they could be more integral to the argument of the text. But without captions and direct textual references you can never be sure. Many technical terms that come different art genres are taken for granted, as if Meadow's assumes his reader is as well-versed as he is in the arts of painting, illustration, writing and cinema. Sometimes technical terms have very different meanings in these different areas and I am not always sure which particular connotation is the correct one. Worse, I doubt that technical terms can be as easily transferred between the different media as Meadows does. Especially his discussion of 3D perspective seems to suffer from this a little.

Still, Pause & Effect is an important work. Its discussion on the use of time and perspective as important tools or structures for interactive narrative remain valid. Meadows multidisciplinary, eloquent and intelligent perspective is a valuable contribution to the emerging field of interactive narrative. I do not expect the "holy grail" of interactive narrative to be conquered anytime soon, and will not chastise every knight that does not return with the ultimate prize from his explorations. After all, as with any quest it is the journey that counts more than anything else, and as Meadows reminds us on the last page of his book "This is, as you can see, just the beginning". What fun would remain otherwise?

a great introduction to the subject.......2005-05-09

This is a beautiful book, more at place on a coffee table than a bookcase. It benefits not only from its many full-color photos, graphic reproductions, and illustrations, but also from the freedom Meadows had to lay out these images with the text on the page, creating effects more typically seen on complex web pages than in traditional print books. From the Use-Case Scenario flow charts to the flipbook narrative that appears in the upper corners of the book and the related comic cell narrative that runs five panels to a page along the bottom of the book, Meadows is both telling us how interactive narrative "combines traditional narrative with visual art and interactivity" and showing us how these insights can be implemented in print.

Because Meadows believes that understanding the art of interactive narrative requires familiarity with a wide range of principles, he attempts to cover an ambitious amount of information in Pause & Effect. This would be challenging enough if Pause & Effect was exclusively an introductory "how-to" book for would-be interactive narrative designers, but the book, as Meadows says in his preface, "is designed for anyone interested in narrative art forms" (xiii). Therefore, Meadows is engaging a general audience, and does not assume any pre-existing knowledge in the field. While such a broad approach may be good for sales figures, it is not without its costs. His writing, while always refreshingly clear, is at times overly simplistic, leaving many of the good ideas he puts forth insufficiently fleshed out. Meadows attempts to compensate for this limitation by incorporating interviews and case studies that give the reader alternate viewpoints about the production of interactive narrative. The incorporation of complementary and sometimes conflicting viewpoints from important creators of interactive content adds depth to the work, making it more interesting to the general reader and more credible as a design "how-to" book.

The basic claims of the book are easy to understand. The book assumes that an author can combine narrative and interactivity and claims that the development of imagery in the Western tradition gives us crucial insights into how this process should work. Meadows' approach is to bring together traditional concepts of narrative construction, two-dimensional and three-dimensional art creation, and interactive systems design in a way that defines the role of the author in the new art form of interactive narrative design.

Meadows lays out his arguments very clearly, giving his readers useful background information and examples to illustrate his points. He also, in a style similar to a self-help guru, breaks down complicated concepts into easily remembered components or steps, such as his "Four Steps of Interaction": 1) Observe; 2) Explore; 3) Modify; and 4) Change, or his "Three Different Structures of Interactive Narrative": 1) Nodal Plot Structure; 2) Modulated Plot Structure; and 3) Open Plot Structure. Although this structure overly simplifies complicated processes at times, it is still admittedly useful for a book that is trying to be a practical guide as much as it is an academic exercise.

Even keeping Meadows' aims in mind, however, Meadows warrants some criticism about just how broad and introductory he sometimes is in the text. While a general reader, new to concepts of narrative and interactivity, will appreciate Meadows' approach, those well versed in the debates surrounding the contentious and provocative term interactive narrative will be surprised and disappointed by the fact that Meadows does not address the term as problematic at all. Although, to be fair, a great deal of the debate that continues to rage about the term "interactive narrative" has taken place after Meadows wrote his book. Still, his bibliography is missing some key figures. Perhaps this omission is because Meadows does not want to get bogged down in academic debates over ontology and taxonomy, which he may deem worthless and unproductive. It is a forgivable move considering the breadth of his work and how much he must leave out as it is. Nonetheless, these omissions are frustrating to those of us who would very much like to know how Meadows would answer the criticism levied against the term interactive narrative and some of the practices Meadows preaches.

students love this book.......2005-05-08

I've used this book to teach interative narrative to both media arts and computer science students. It clearly (and dynamically) covers issues such as narrative, point of view, interactivity, and design in a way that students find compelling. By threading these issues throughout the book, Meadows reinforces how all are intertwined and equally important. My students love it, I suspect, because of the high image to text ratio... but the style gets them to see and think differently. Students are inspired by both the book's layout and the interviews with media artists. This book pushes them both to understand the multiple variables that go into creating interactivity and to take creative risks. You couldn't find a better text.

Good on old news, bad on new news.......2004-12-01

The value of a book depends upon what the reader brings; as such, the author must write to the state of mind of the audience. The reader who is contextually sympatico with the author will derive greater benefits than the reader who is coming from another place.

This book has strong context: readers who come from the media theory context will find powerful resonances with their existing intellectual framework. Other readers will scrape and scratch to find anything of merit.

My context is interactive storytelling. Truth in advertising: I recently published a book on the subject, and so might be considered a competitor. I do not, however, consider this book to be competitive with mine, not in the sense that it is inferior, but rather in the sense that it is from another planet. From my planet, this book appears to have plenty of interesting things to say about iamge and narrative, but when it comes to interactivity, I maintain that this book has absolutely nothing useful to say.

Consider the description of interactivity offered in these pages:

"Interaction can be described as many things. Catchwords abound: 'Engaging', 'Immersive', 'Participatory', 'Responsive', and 'Reactive'.
"Interactivity is a continuing increase in participation. It's a bidirectional communication conduit. It's a reponse to a response. It's 'full-duplex'. Interaction is a relationship. It's good sex. It's bad conversation. It's indeterminant behavior, and it's redundant result. It's many things, none of which can be done alone. Interaction is a process that dictates communication. It can also be a commication that dictates process. It provides options, necessitates a change in pace, and changes you as you change it."

I consider this to be high-falutin' drivel. Poetic drivel, perhaps, but drivel in the sense that it simply doesn't say anything that you can put to use. Take these ideas and put them into your mental thought-grinder and nothing comes out. They're Madison Avenue fluff, nothingburger sentences, full of verbal flourishes and pirouettes and signifying nothing.

The author is clearly a master of imagery, and has much that is useful to say about graphic design and the role of the image. If the author had the discipline to confine himself to those areas in which his expertise commands respect, he could have produced a fine book; indeed, when the book doesn't mention interactivity, it has much to offer. But the frequent poorly-considered discussions of interactivity ruin this book the way a burned sauce ruins an otherwise excellent entre.

Absolutely No New Concepts.......2004-04-26

There are no new concepts put forth in this book, and worse, it's filled with painful stabs at humor, practically worthless information (most of which seemingly to get the reader from one picture to the next). I just don't think many people realize that Meadows has rewritten existing ideas as little "revelations" he has had himself, and so, I advise any prospective shoppers to move on, look toward online journals or monthly magazines in this field (like Speculative Reviews of Narrative, etc). There's nothing to see here.

PAUSE AND EFFECT the Art of Interactive Narrative

Average customer rating:

PAUSE AND EFFECT the Art of Interactive Narrative
Mark Stephen Meadows
Manufacturer: New Riders
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000JV3ENK

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