effect

I was placed on a long-term treatment using Prednisone two years prior to the initial publication of this book to combat kidney disease. I had only wished that time would have been in my favor and I could have had this book in hand on the first day that I started the regiment. It discusses all those things that doctors don't quite like to scare you with before you begin. This is the story, written in the style of a journal or diary of one person's endurance of the drug and the side effects that she experienced. She also recommends several ways to handle or compromise with the harsh side effects of a very effective medicine.

I purchased this book for two reasons. First, I wanted to somehow validate the crazy experiences that I was having. Those undergoing the therapy feel very much alone with their experiences and have a difficult time recognizing its merits. The severe behavioral problems that evolve in the recipient of Prednisone or other cortocosteroids are under some very harsh criticism by peers and family who do not personally understand the very constant, real and aggravating side effects. It is somewhat comforting to know that these behavioral problems are not a figment of the imagination, as our peers and family may suggest. The author(s) do a superb job of discussing those behaviors and suggest ways to get around them.

The second reason that I wanted to browse this book was to read about any complications that I may encounter when the drug treatment was finally stopped. This subject was covered very lightly, but I got the general notion of what to expect and the time required. I was satisfied with what the author related and those observations seemed good, true and accurate.

Being that a person on strong doses of Prednisone is somewhat out of character, it was a good idea that the duo published this book after her experience was complete. We patients are somewhat mentally hyper-emotional while undergoing treatment and I feel that a complete evaluation of the use of Prednisone would have only been useful if written by someone in a normal and emotionally-balanced state of mind.

This book is especially good for parents who are desperately trying to understand the reasons for the behavior of one of their children who must undergo this treatment. I am not sure that friends, siblings or other family members would find it helpful in order to completely understand what friend, brother or sister is experiencing. They'd still chalk us off as being "out of our gourd!"

In summary, I recommend this book to all who question the drug and its use as a form of validation, comfort of understanding or help in recognizing what to expect. It may be the written form of a self-help group, and in some cases, a "how to" book for getting through it all.

I cannot believe it has taken me so long to find this book. I am a long term prednisone user and am always looking for information about this drug, it's side effects and ways to cope with all those "things" prednosone does. The authors have compiled a wealth of information, including personal experiences, in a very concise easy to read book. (This in itself is signifacant to those of us with problems concentrating!) This book contains very accurate discriptions of the effects of long term prednisone use along with very practical advice on how to cope with the changes that occur. I could identify with many situations presented and found some very helpful advice. The advice is given by a prednosine user as well as a physician.

I would (and do) recommend this book to anyone beginning their treatment with prednosone, those who have been on prednisone and most of all to the family members and care givers of those on this "miracle" drug.

I have a rare, autoimmune disease called Pemphigus Vulgaris. When I was diagnosed I was placed on a high dose of prednisone in 1998 and I am still on prednisone to help keep my disease under control.

I knew nothing about my rare disease or about prednisone and found this book "Coping with Prednisone" which became my lifeline as to exactly what prednisone was, its side-effects and what I could do to help prevent many devastating side-effects of a drug that was to become my friend and my foe.

I still use it as my bible of information on prednisone and refer to it often, as new questions or problems arise. Although it isn't specifically written for my disease, I found it to be convenient to read and easy to refer to.

Actually, when I found the book was available on Amazon.com, I read a review here by someone else who had pemphigus and I contacted him via his email. I ordered my book and have never looked back.

I have come a long way since I bought this book back in 1998 and have become very knowlegeable about my disease and prednisone, including writing my own online newsletter about pemphigus.

So, I would highly recommend buying this book if you want to learn a lot about prednisone...no matter the disease or medical condition you may have that calls for you taking prednisone....especially if you have to take prednisone for more than a few months.

This book contains little new knowledge or info on photoshop. Some of the techniques might give the reader a useful idea however the execution in general is more like the authors trying to show off instead of teach. After reading through the book there weren't many of lessons that I cared to duplicate or experiment with and certainly none that led to any advancement of my profession.
I don't mean to be overly critical, but with so many PS books out there I am tired of mediocrity. There are other books available with much better and informative content.

This is one book that you should have in your library no matter what your area of specialty is. Each chapter is an individual project and there are valuable tips for everyone. From the graphic designer to the airbrush artist to the photographer.

Although this book assumes that you have some basic working knowledge of Photoshop, I would also like to add that the best way to learn such a powerful software is actually by using it. And Photoshop 6 Effects Magic provides a guide that will definitely shorten your learning curve. It doesn't explain what a particular Photoshop feature/function is. Rather, it explains in clear steps how to achieve a particular task eg how to colourise a monochrome. And this is one of the strengths of the book. You don't read pages and pages of what a particular Photoshop feature does. It gets straight to the point - results.

The things that can be done in Photoshop are spectacular. It is a program like no other. Now Photoshop 6 has jumped into warp drive leaving all other programs behind. So how does the average budding digital artist keep up with all of this?

May I suggest a good start would be to buy a few books and settle in for the trip of your life. New Riders has just come out with a book of magic; at least in regards to using Photoshop 6. The authors have pulled a few rabbits out of their hats and were nice enough to show us how it is done.

The new book, "Photoshop 6 Effects Magic", is for intermediate to advanced users and that is exactly what it means. If you're new to Photoshop you can buy this book and drool over it, but you'll need a beginner book first. It will definitely get your juices flowing and inspire you to learn Photoshop quickly.

Ten top Photoshop professionals combined their talents into a smoothly flowing educational and visual delight. I know I sound like a pitch man for this book but I just liked it very much. No hype, just facts, this is a really good learning tool.

From Airbrush techniques to creating vignettes and unusual edges for photographs- from colorizing to creating all manner of clouds- from painting with light to liquefying faces; it's all here and a whole lot more. Add a little magic to your Photoshop bag of tricks; don't hesitate to buy this magical book.

This book was excellent in helping me understand what was happening to me. It did not do a very good job of covering treatment options. I read Menopause for Dummies which didn't cover my symptoms as well as this book did, but did an excellent job of covering the treatment options.

In writing my own recent book, "The Care and Feeding of Your Brain" I searched the world's medical literature to produce a brief but well-documented "for women only" section. I can tell you that both the cyclical and the menopausal hormonal changes can wreak havoc on normal and even super normal brain function if not dealt with and managed properly. In "Menopause and the Mind",Dr. Warga documents this very clearly and offers many of the solutions I found in my own research and interviews. I enjoyed it immensely. It is well written. May I also suggest "The Care and Feeding of Your Brain" as a good companion guide to support this and to help you with optimizing your natural baseline of mental functioning...All the best to Dr. Claire Warga...Kenneth Giuffre MD

Wow! I'm 47 and was convinced I had early onset Alzheimer's because 3 or 4 times a day, I find myself using bizarrely wrong words ("wishbone" instead of "washcloth"; "plane" instead of "phone"). Dr. Warga's is the first book to point out how very, very common this is for women in perimenopause (pre-menopause) and that it doesn't get worse -- in fact, these symptoms usually stop when you've achieved actual menopause (because, as I understand it, it's not the estrogen loss that causes this syndrome, it's the wildly fluctuating estrogen levels of perimenopause that cause it). If you're a pre-menopausal woman who is experiencing mental fog, forgetfulness, word misusage, etc., you HAVE to read this book. It will allay your fears about Alzheimer's, etc. It has literally saved my life and my sanity! Thank you, thank you, Dr. Warga, for writing this groundbreaking book.

I specifically targeted this book because of the disintegrate material effect but was unable to follow it cos of missing parts in the tutorials/scenes. upon trying to work it out my self , I still havent I will have to put this book in the toilet as emergency toilet paper. I was really dissappointed when I sent emails to coriolis to try and get the proper tut file scenes (2 years ago) and still havent recieved any feedback, this is so frustrating. I'll never buy another coriolis text again.

If you want to get more out of 3D Studio MAX, then this book's for you. The chapters on advanced materials and lighting helped me create better-looking scenes immediately, and the special-effects stuff (including the great Greeble plugin) is well worth the price of the book. Highly recommended!

Wow, I don't know if they have awards for these kinds of books, but Jon Bell should be able to run away with this one.

He covers a lot of great stuff in this book including all the new things that R3 has. Including Flex, the new material options, plus it has some sweet models you can try. Like the SR-71 Blackbird, and an alien.

The CD that comes with is also the best to come around in a long time. It includes a bonus material library, hordes of free plugins including Greeble!, lots of free maps and chapter files. The Cd itself is worth the 40-50 bucks.

This one is worth the money!

This book focused on several of the components of culture. It was disorganized because there is little continuity between topics and the general theme is that resources produce cultures. Complicated at times, the book was not difficult to read, but tedious. Another problem with Cannibals and Kings is its focus on female infanticide. It never clearly described why exactly females were killed insted of males. It answers the title by describing why there are/were cannibals in the world and later talk about kings and how kingdoms evolved. This book does give the reader a better understanding of how civilizations formed. The conclusion was inconclusive at best. The Epilogue explains that unless technology improves, the living standard will inevitably fall. Although this may be true, it does not account whether this will be true for the western world only or for the third world or both. This book is worth reading to get a better understanding of the connection between supply and demand and why cultures evolved.

Another brilliant view of the emergence of cultures. In the vein of Daniel Quinn, Harris expands on how the intensification of production of resources will always lead to population growth. Such is the recent history of humanity. Prior to intensified production, humans lived quite well within the restraints of their environment without outstripping their resources. For a more complete analysis, check this book out.

Marvin Harris is one of those writers that it's almost impossible to disagree with, while you are reading him. Later, when you've put down his book, and you're trying to recap his points, they seem simplistic and muddy. So you pick up the book again and, there they are, all his arguments and evidence, as clear and convincing as ever. I think this has to a lot to do with the sheer quality of his writing, as well as the fact that he is someone who has spent the better part of his life studying, teaching, and observing human culture. His themes are broad, and sweep over the entirety of human cultural evolution. Harris is convinced of the primacy of humankind's ecological roles and modes in shaping human culture. He explains warfare, the state, the male superiority complex, food taboos, industrialism, plant and animal domestication, cannibalism--all in terms of the productive and demographic imperatives of human life throughout the past several thousand years. His basic argument is presented as a cycle: when the going is good, human populations expand. But as population pressures increase, the current method of obtaining energy and protein from the environment must be intensified. This intensification, however, comes at the price of diminishing returns for time invested. Sooner or later a crisis is reached. The humans in question must either restrict their population growth (primarily through infanticide, abortion or contraception), or up the technological ante and find a new way of exploiting their environment. And so civilization ratchets onward, increasing the level of time spent on subsistence, sharpening the hierarchies of power, bringing cities, and prisons, and slavery, and bosses, etc. Along the way, various cultural oddities can be explained as responses to material tradeoffs. But no mere description of Marvin Harris' writing does him justice. Read the book.

I NEVER know why women aren't in the mood!! The frustration!! AAAAAAA!! I bought this book to help me in this area, and I have to say it has helped me out a lot. It's a must read for any guy. Another great book to read is The Hormone Desire; The Truth About Testosterone, Sexuality and Menopause. I know, these are books for women, but if you know why she isn't in the mood, you can take what is found in these two books and use it to put her IN the mood!

Dr. Reichman tackles a delicate subject in her latest book, "I'm Not in the Mood Tonight". The book deals with the loss of a woman's libido, or sex drive, and how to get it back. It's direct approach is refreshing and honest. Dr. Reichman spells out the possible causes of decreased sex drive, some of which you'll find very surprising. As the founder and host of the online perimenopause/menopause support group HotFlash!, I have learned that hundreds of women want to regain their sexual selves. It is very important to them. Dr. Reichman's book does a terrific job of explaining the many culprits for a declining interest in sex. She takes a great deal of time in offering solutions and therapies for getting our sex lives back on track.

Sue R.N., BSN

I have used this book in my clinical practice as a Women's Health Nurse Practitioner for the past couple of years to treat Female Diminished Libido. I loan my copy out to my patients who don't want to purchase this book and have had tremendous success with my patients. I have my client read the book over a couple of weeks while waiting for lab results to come back and then we discuss her lab results and what she discovered in the book. The book has had the beneficial effect that most of my patients are able to honestly reveal if there is marital discord that may not have been admitted to in the first appointment. Opening up the way for a sex therapist or marriage counselor has been another positive benefit of this book. I find that many of my patients were reluctant to consider counseling in the first appointment, but were willing to include counseling as part of the treatment plan of their decreased libido. So many women learn about the female body and functions for the first time while reading this book. Every patient has been very happy with this book and no longer felt alone with this problem. They were able to realize that other women have suffered with this same problem and that, most of the time, there is positive results with hormones, exercise, honest communication with their spouse, counseling and/or treatment for depression. I plan to continue to use this book in my treatment of Diminished Female Libido.

The book was overall a history book on the evolution of life. The discussion of Darwin and his beliefs was prevelant throughout the book. The main theme of the novel itself was only presented through the last 2 chapters. Additional information should have been omitted in regards to Leakey's life and his experiences from living in Kenya. It should have been more focused on the actual human extinction rather than extra information on blah blah blah.

Leakey's Sixth Extinction was a new spin on traditionally held bliefs. He compares trends in the modern world to patterns in the past five mass extinctions. He introduces new ideas like superior genes, and luck being a major deciding factor in an organism's survival. He also thinks that humans are the pinnacle of evolution. We still have the responsibility to protec and preserve organisms.
his book, though at times repetitiv and drag, intoduces new and innovative ideas bout evolution. He places a little too much emphasis on the superiority of his on work, byut what scientist wouldn't? His background in paleanthology gives him a quique outlook on life.

The Sixth Extinction by Richard Leakey outlined the five past major extinctions in the history of the Earth and the trends toward a sixth extinction of the Homo Sapien species. Leakey emphasized negative effects humans have on species diversity. He also stressed the importance of species diversity in the stability of ecosystems. With 30,000 species going extinct every year, humans are having adverse effects on the life on Earth, and eventually it will effect the human race. The book was intuitive and tied together wonderfully with references to many studies and research by various other scientists and philosophers.

It's useless, unfortunately. I can't see myself actually even using anything I learned from this book, ever. It's past the point of inconceivable. It focuses too much attention on a bunch of boring-not-going-anywhere layer styles, credits to Al Ward as far as I can pick up from the insinuating banter at the end of the book. And speaking of the end of the book, what's up with the last two projects? One has to do with a movie poster, "The Pool", which was awful. And another one of a tin-can advertising "Goldfish in a Can", which is the epitome of junk. But it's a great way to end the book though, all your accumulated knowledge from reading and practicing previous chapters and look where it got you. Hah! I didn't even bother sorting through that worthless dribble. I don't know who these other reviewers are that are giving kudos to this rubbish of wasted ink, because this is not the paragon for which all other Photoshop books aspire to be. This is crap.

While it's true this book does not come with a CD full of tutorial files. The thing is, you don't really need them. You can, and probably should, create all the material yourself. That way, you get a chance to experiment and try something a little different than what the authors had in mind. This is how you evolve and become a better Photoshop user. I found this book to be very good at teaching how to be creative in Photoshop. Once you've built a foundation, this is the next step. I'm familiar with some of the functions and uses in Photoshop, but, I'm certainly not an expert. However, I had no problem following the numbered steps in each tutorial. I will say, this is not a book for a complete beginner. You should have some experience with Photoshop. Anyone that buys this book will not regret it. There is so much good information here. I will return to it often.

Have been a member of Al Ward's website for years and purchased this new book. Just received my copy and I have found it probably THE best supplemental book on Photoshop 6.01 that I have - and I've got about 7-8 of them in addition to the User's Manuals. Very easy reading and the step-by-step instructions to create some fantastic Photoshop images are OUTSTANDING!

Where's the next book, Al, Colin????

This book requires that you can already work with FormZ and seems to be intended for people who are using FormZ to create models to be animated with 3DS or Electric Image. FormZ was at version 3 when this book was written (1999). The approach seems to be that of a person who makes a living building models destined for an animation production environment.

The book starts with a heady discussion called "Digital Production Pipeline and 3D Modeling Process" and continues in the vein of managing workflow for several chapters.

It then progresses to chapters containing "Exercises" which are follow along tutorial-style and include such things as engine exhaust nozzles, auto wheels and tires, auto interiors, and a human hand. The exercises show lots of techniques for using FormZ to its fullest, particularly when modeling surface meshes.

Rindner has done a spendid job with this advanced book on formZ. He offers valuable process methods, advanced modeling descriptions through real world examples and how to prepare formZ for standard Animation apps. Rinders' modeling techniques alone are invaluable to the intermediate to advanced formZ user. What impresses me most about the book is that it is not just for digital visual effects and animation. Many design disciplines will find this book to be a strong technical resources.

Finally your FZ book arrived this morning. What can I say except 'thankyou' for writing this book. I think it's the only one in the market that reveals such advanced techniques for modelling. Truly your hard-earned career experience is shared here without reservations. I could not accept FZ's claim that 'Anything you can imagine can be modelled in FZ' before, but now after seeing your working techniques, I can. My eyes are opened. Instead of simple examples that rehash the User's manual, this book's examples are quite complex, typical of real-world requirements. Learning the techniques from the Automobile chapters alone will enable one to use the concepts presented there to build any other model thereafter. Cons? Maybe absolute beginners will find this book a bit daunting, but it's stuff that every beginner must learn to progress.

This is a beautiful text visually, and the author has done an excellent job of bringing together very interesting experiments in interactive design. However, his analysis, as several other reviewers have noted, really is best described as "shallow." His interpretations lack insight and the details examined seem selected randomly. The interviews he includes often lack proper contextualization, and I think he stretches the term "narrative" far too much, trying to subsume things like games and theater as narratives only, without attending to their game-ness or theatricality. The problem is that there aren't many other books dealing with this genre of work yet, so some readers will find it useful for the excellent example of interesting case studies at least until someone with better analysis writes a book. Theoretically, Marie Laure-Ryan's book on Narrative as Virtual Reality is also a good selection.

This is a must read for game designers, theoreticians, and anyone interested in how to tell a story in which the listener can influence the outcome. It's a how-to book, and a how-did-it-get-that-way book. Its range is wide enough to swim in, yet deep enough to go diving. And if the book doesn't get dog-eared from becoming an essential reference manual to those who design interactive environments, it certainly will from the flipbook comic in the upper corner that tells a story of one funky looking skeleton. Excellent.

Mark Meadows has proven himself over and over again to be at the forefront of the intersection of art and technology in the Internet age. From his now classic 3D comic 'Crutch', museum installations that interact between the real and virtual worlds, to narrative architecture experiments at Xerox-PARC, Mr. Meadows has consistently challenged notions of perception in the art of storytelling. Pause and Effect takes all that he has gleaned from his experiences to create a remarkable contribution to the burgeoning field of interactive narrative.

The book's premise is deceivingly simple: narrative and perception are equivalent terms, and since our notions of perception are changing with the use of a networked world, so too must our narratives. When video games are matching Hollywood in financial returns, and as increasingly novel ways are being created to distribute, explore and exchange information, this point of view is both timely and forward-looking. Mr. Meadows takes us through from basic principles to 2D and 3D imagery, and on to the development of interactive environments. With his interdisciplinary approach, he provides a wealth of examples, including analyses of medieval Christian paintings, eye physiology, color theory, software UI design, video games and comic books. And in keeping with the interactive spirit of the topic, he interviews people exploring this new terrain, from theater to books to online gaming, including Scott McCloud, Marcos Novak, and the creators of DeusEx2.

Other readers have found the book shallow. Unfortunately this is an indication of the reading that went into the book, not the writing. Pause and Effect assumes a level of reader education, reader participation, and it moves over large ideas quickly. The book points to the invention of visual narrative and goes on to explain how it has changed over time, showing why video games are part of a much larger narrative history and that "interactive narrative" is an emerging process.

It is rare to find an academic book that is both as carefully constructed and as beautifully co-ordinated as Pause & Effect. There is nothing shallow about showing how visual art, interaction, and writing are combining in new ways, and what this means to contemporary literature. One has to only read the table of contents to see that Meadows is being conscientious about his approach. Each of the 4 chapters (Theory, 2D, 3D, and Practice) are viewed through the triple lenses of perspective, narrative, and interaction. It makes for a 12-part composition that only a careful eye will notice.

The book is overambitious, as it sifts through 2,500 years of history and better examples could be found, but in the end it is an excellent read and one that stands alone in a field where consideration is needed.