Tuesday, December 11, 2018
Okay, so the European Union wants assurances that our cookies won't poison you if you eat them. The Truth Fairy does nothing at all with cookies. We wouldn't even know how to add one. And we don't care. Google has apparently posted something about their use of cookies, since they own this wesite, and just let me speak my mind on it from time to time. Their cookies should be the only ones in use on this site. We do not sell our mailing list, nor do we know who has visited here. We believe in privacy as a primal right of all people. We know of no cookies in use on this site, other than the ones admitted to by Google.
Friday, March 9, 2018
The Truth Fairy Reads III
There's a new book out by one of my favorite authors. Well, technically, it's not out yet, but it is available for pre-order from four retailers, and more expected. The pre-order price is just $2.99, which will rise to $4.99 when the book is released on Friday, March 23rd. This book is a book on how to build a solar energy system for off-grid use on a rock bottom (they call it shoestring) budget, and then expand it to provide full energy to your home within a couple of years. Get this while it is still available at this rock-bottom price.
Solar Energy on a Shoestring Budget
Solar Energy on a Shoestring Budget
Sunday, February 18, 2018
The Truth Fairy Reads II
This weekend starts the traditional spring rush to buy new cars, so EVERYONE should go out and buy, read, and understand the book I mentioned in my last post, Jay Hamilton's wonderful book HOW TO BUY A CAR Without Losing Your Shirt. I don't care if you are looking for a new car or a used car, (there is one thing in that book that everyone looking for a used car should understand--and nobody else is teaching it!) this book will help you save money when you buy, and save more on maintenance!
But today, I would like to talk about John Waaser's recently published book, PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPOSITION: Because a Technically Perfect Picture Without Good Composition is of No Interest to Anyone. This is Book One of John's photo course. John spend two decades photographing motorcycle races for a living, and wound up as the Eastern US Contributing Editor for "CYCLE WORLD MAGAZINE," which at one point was purchased by a division of CBS, Inc. You don't rise to that point without knowing what you are talking about! In this book, without any technical rigmarole that might be hard to understand, John teaches you how to take a picture that will simply LOOK good. He does not talk much about the controls on your camera, or any later manipulating with Photoshop, or any of that stuff. He talks about backgrounds, foregrounds, how to separate the background from the subject, and the foreground from the subject. He talks about color, and about relative size of the subject, and cropping, and lighting. All the stuff you can and should control before you actually take the picture. And except for some discussions about zoom lenses, the book will work for you even if you are just using the camera in your cellular phone. And he talks about several photos he took that he sold in spite of the fact that they were technically very imperfect, because they just looked good, because he snapped the shutter at exactly the right moment. The so-called rule of thirds is the photographer's version of the ten commandments all rolled into one, and he not only does an excellent job of talking about it, but he drew a diagram that puts it all into perspective. If you take pictures, even if they are only of your kittens, or your new child, and even if they are only for distribution to your own family, this book will have you taking pictures that will put your audience in awe of your photographic skills. And it does it all in language that anyone can understand. The above link will take you to the book's own page on the publisher's website, from which you can find links to purchase the book from the iBookstore, Smashwords, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Kobo, and Google Books, among other retailers. The cover photo alone is an absolutely lovely sunset photo, and he tells you exactly how he chose and cropped it to make it fill the bill as a cover shot. And no, it's not something he found on some free photo page on the internet! He was standing on the dock at a local lake where the county shoots off fireworks over the lake every July 4th, and while waiting for the fireworks to begin, he noticed how beautiful the sunset was over the treeline at the far side of the lake, and he took about fifty photos of it as the sun got lower and lower. He was able to crop this one to show the sun in the center, with the clouds coming down an equal amount on both sides, giving him the space for the contrasting text he wanted at the top and the bottom.
Price at the time of this writing is $3.99 for the eBook, but better hurry, there are rumors of a rise to $4.99 very soon. The Paperback is $19.99, because interior color pages are vastly more expensive than black and white, and this book has a few interior photos in full color.
PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPOSITION
But today, I would like to talk about John Waaser's recently published book, PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPOSITION: Because a Technically Perfect Picture Without Good Composition is of No Interest to Anyone. This is Book One of John's photo course. John spend two decades photographing motorcycle races for a living, and wound up as the Eastern US Contributing Editor for "CYCLE WORLD MAGAZINE," which at one point was purchased by a division of CBS, Inc. You don't rise to that point without knowing what you are talking about! In this book, without any technical rigmarole that might be hard to understand, John teaches you how to take a picture that will simply LOOK good. He does not talk much about the controls on your camera, or any later manipulating with Photoshop, or any of that stuff. He talks about backgrounds, foregrounds, how to separate the background from the subject, and the foreground from the subject. He talks about color, and about relative size of the subject, and cropping, and lighting. All the stuff you can and should control before you actually take the picture. And except for some discussions about zoom lenses, the book will work for you even if you are just using the camera in your cellular phone. And he talks about several photos he took that he sold in spite of the fact that they were technically very imperfect, because they just looked good, because he snapped the shutter at exactly the right moment. The so-called rule of thirds is the photographer's version of the ten commandments all rolled into one, and he not only does an excellent job of talking about it, but he drew a diagram that puts it all into perspective. If you take pictures, even if they are only of your kittens, or your new child, and even if they are only for distribution to your own family, this book will have you taking pictures that will put your audience in awe of your photographic skills. And it does it all in language that anyone can understand. The above link will take you to the book's own page on the publisher's website, from which you can find links to purchase the book from the iBookstore, Smashwords, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Kobo, and Google Books, among other retailers. The cover photo alone is an absolutely lovely sunset photo, and he tells you exactly how he chose and cropped it to make it fill the bill as a cover shot. And no, it's not something he found on some free photo page on the internet! He was standing on the dock at a local lake where the county shoots off fireworks over the lake every July 4th, and while waiting for the fireworks to begin, he noticed how beautiful the sunset was over the treeline at the far side of the lake, and he took about fifty photos of it as the sun got lower and lower. He was able to crop this one to show the sun in the center, with the clouds coming down an equal amount on both sides, giving him the space for the contrasting text he wanted at the top and the bottom.
Price at the time of this writing is $3.99 for the eBook, but better hurry, there are rumors of a rise to $4.99 very soon. The Paperback is $19.99, because interior color pages are vastly more expensive than black and white, and this book has a few interior photos in full color.
PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPOSITION
Tuesday, February 13, 2018
The Truth Fairy Reads!
HOW TO BUY A CAR Without Losing Your Shirt is an excellent primer for anyone in the market for a new or used car. Car dealers train their salespeople, and each dealer belongs to a large support group that teaches them what words will incite people to buy NOW! When you walk in there you are a serious underdog in the negotiating arena. This book will teach you how to negotiate with a professional negotiator, and come out, if not ahead, at least far better than you could have on your own. The book also goes in to other areas not covered in most books of this kind. The author had worked in at least two dealerships which wrote phony warranty claims on every new car that came in for service, for instance. Those phony warranty claims are part of the manufacturer's cost of doing business, and they get marked up at the normal profit margin, and then are added to the price of every new car that you and I buy! Jay tells you how to spot these claims, and tell the manufacturer about them. This book sells for under $5 as an eBook and under $10 as a paperback, and it will absolutely save you far more than the price of the book itself, so this one is a no-brainer. Everyone should read it! It is available in a wide variety of formats from a wide variety of retailers, including Google Books, the iBookstore, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Rakuten Kobo, Smashwords, and many others. Their first review was from Wikipedia-listed performance artist Tom Miller, who is a published author himself. Tom says as follows:
Jay Hamilton (motorsports journalist and former manager and salesman for several automotive dealerships) wants to make sure if you’re buying a car, it is you and not the dealership in the driver seat of the negotiation. His straight-talking ninety-two page primer is folksy and filled with personal anecdotes and insider information designed to give a buyer the money-saving advantage needed to make a smart deal. It is well worth the price of the quick-read book. In fact, with the information provided in the nine chapters of HOW TO BUY A CAR WITHOUT LOSING YOUR SHIRT, the reader will come to know exactly what the salesman knows, and more.
Like having a personal consultant at your side, Hamilton’s casual but detailed primer is a fun and easy read. Topics range from researching your dealership to motivations of a salesman, and even to specifics regarding some of the tricks and traps which plague the industry of automobile sales. Using personal experience and anecdotes, Hamilton breaks down the psychology of buying by illustrating the complexities of the buyer/seller relationship in layman’s terms.
Particularly in the chapter, The Five Steps in Selling a Car, we learn how salesmen can play to a buyer’s habits, tap into a customer’s behavior patterns, and subtly connect to their customer's psychology in order to dampen intellect, amplify passion, and compel them to just say ‘yes’. But with the help of HOW TO BUY A CAR WITHOUT LOSING YOUR SHIRT, the reader will be informed not just in the buy/sell process (including used vehicles), but also in the servicing of the vehicle for the future, and even right down to the nitty-gritty of the warranty package.
Beginning with a simple concept--actually practicing to buy a car out in the real market before opening one's wallet--Hamilton’s no-nonsense advice and personal experience will literally save the buyer hundreds and possibly even thousands of dollars. And with hand-drawn comic illustrations (by artist Michael Garvin) and witty personal examples from real life, this book distinguishes itself as a serious, but seriously fun way to very quickly become a wise consumer—and not just for automobiles, but also in the practical buyer/seller situations we face each and every day.
If you are in the market for a vehicle, preparing with this book is an invaluable asset!
Like having a personal consultant at your side, Hamilton’s casual but detailed primer is a fun and easy read. Topics range from researching your dealership to motivations of a salesman, and even to specifics regarding some of the tricks and traps which plague the industry of automobile sales. Using personal experience and anecdotes, Hamilton breaks down the psychology of buying by illustrating the complexities of the buyer/seller relationship in layman’s terms.
Particularly in the chapter, The Five Steps in Selling a Car, we learn how salesmen can play to a buyer’s habits, tap into a customer’s behavior patterns, and subtly connect to their customer's psychology in order to dampen intellect, amplify passion, and compel them to just say ‘yes’. But with the help of HOW TO BUY A CAR WITHOUT LOSING YOUR SHIRT, the reader will be informed not just in the buy/sell process (including used vehicles), but also in the servicing of the vehicle for the future, and even right down to the nitty-gritty of the warranty package.
Beginning with a simple concept--actually practicing to buy a car out in the real market before opening one's wallet--Hamilton’s no-nonsense advice and personal experience will literally save the buyer hundreds and possibly even thousands of dollars. And with hand-drawn comic illustrations (by artist Michael Garvin) and witty personal examples from real life, this book distinguishes itself as a serious, but seriously fun way to very quickly become a wise consumer—and not just for automobiles, but also in the practical buyer/seller situations we face each and every day.
If you are in the market for a vehicle, preparing with this book is an invaluable asset!
The truth fairy is in complete agreement with Tom on this one!
The cover is a painting to the author's specifications by Gainesville, Florida artist Michael Garvin. Note that the salesman is depicted as a vulture, and that he has the customer's shirt thrown over his left shoulder!
The website also has a couple of pdf files available telling you how to go about cracking the dealer cost code that often on every price tag in furniture, appliance, and electronics stores, so you can use the negotiating techniques from HOW TO BUY A CAR to save money also those items, and a pdf that tells you how to use the information in this book to start your own business as a car-buying negotiator for other customers!
Find links to retailers who have this book for sale, at the book's website
This is a link to the book's website
The website also has a couple of pdf files available telling you how to go about cracking the dealer cost code that often on every price tag in furniture, appliance, and electronics stores, so you can use the negotiating techniques from HOW TO BUY A CAR to save money also those items, and a pdf that tells you how to use the information in this book to start your own business as a car-buying negotiator for other customers!
Find links to retailers who have this book for sale, at the book's website
This is a link to the book's website
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