February 2014 – Page 4 – Concert Katie

Product Review: Roger Love Singing Academy

Katie February 16, 2014 2 Comments

Disclosure: I got this product as part of an advertorial.

Roger Love’s Singing Academy has already helped thousands of people, including stars like Jeff Bridges and Anthony Robbins, Selena Gomez and John Mayer, find their voice and learn to communicate effectively. Whether you are a professional singer, sing in your church choir, or just want to hear how good your voice really can sound, Roger Love’s Singing Academy can coach you.

In five weeks I can teach you the basics of mastering all three of your voices – Chest, Middle and Head.

I’ve always been told that I’m a pretty decent singer – but it can’t hurt to try and get better, right? Now that I’m looking to become a Pop Star… but I’d hate to be that person that somehow always ends up behind me at concerts who can’t sing at all (yet they always seem to be the loudest and proudest?)

Week 1 begins with you recording yourself singing ‘Happy Birthday’, this is so that you have your “before” sound and can figure out what progress you’ve made when you complete the course and sing it again. Then you go into Vocal Evaluation. There are 2 videos one for males and one for females. And the final video is about Diaphragmatic Breathing. (Turns out that it is a very good thing that I’m not a mouth breather!)

The videos are neat because Roger will go through things with you and then pause for you to sing along. It’s almost as if he is in the room with you telling you you are doing beautifully and great!

Week 2 we have videos about the Larynx, How the Vocal Chords Work and Intro to Chest, Middle and Head Voice.

Roger has a lot of great advice and techniques for singing, a lot of stuff that I am sure many people don’t even think about before singing or trying to sing. There is really a lot that goes in to properly breathing and singing.

Week 3 is separated by Male and Female once again with different videos about Chest, Middle and Head Voice as well as a Special Message from Roger.

Week 4 gets into Vibrato and an Intro to Love Notes. This is where the actual voice lessons begin!

That is how far I have gotten so far with my Academy Lessons, but I do plan to finish them out. Maybe, if I’m feeling up to it, I’ll post a video in a bit of me singing after going through all the videos (but don’t count on it. I’m camera shy!)

If you think you are a singer or just want to improve your singing for the heck of it – be sure to check out Roger at http://www.rogerlovesingingacademy.com/ You can get access to 4 Free video lessons right now! The 5 week course is just $297 , the 10 week course $497 and the Advanced 14 week course is just $997.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Book Review

Book Review: The Science of Happily Ever After

Katie February 16, 2014 0 Comments

I was intrigued by the concept of The Science of Happily Ever After – What Really Matters in the Quest for Enduring Love. Could you really figure out using science how to find love? I was also shocked when I saw the statistic that only 3 in 10 people find “happily ever after”, if everyone is looking for it, why do so few actually find it? What are we doing wrong?

Each chapter has a real person’s experience and then the book kind of mentions where things went wrong or right and how to better approach these kinds of situations. There isn’t a crystal ball that will tell us the outcome of a relationship, we have to try and piece these things together ourselves to figure out if it will be a good match. Bad decisions are made when we think traits are present in the potential mate that actually aren’t. (And remember – what you see is what you get!)

I found the most interesting chapter to be the one on Red Flags in Relationships. The real-life story was pretty amazing and unfortunately the couple dropped out of therapy so we don’t know what ended up happening!

After reading the book I’m still not sure if there really is a science for finding love, but the book has certainly given me a lot to think about and take in to consideration when looking for a relationship.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

In this playful and informative exploration of the science behind compatibility, Dr. Ty Tashiro explores how and why we fall in love. Dr. Tashiro, an acclaimed relationship psychologist, translates reams of scientific studies and research data into the first book to revolutionize the way we search for love. His own research has pinpointed why our decision making abilities seem to fail when it comes to love and how to rewire our brains to make smarter choices.

Illustrated using entertaining stories based on real-life situations and backed by scientific findings from fields such a demography, sociology, medical science and psychology, Dr. Tashiro provides an accessible framework to help singles find their happily-ever-afters.

Uncategorized

Blog Revamp coming!

Katie February 15, 2014 0 Comments

After being accused of copyright infringement on Christmas (yeah, really) I’ve been in a bit of a “blogging funk”. The fact that someone would not only accuse me of violating the terms of service of the site where I get 90% of my books to read from reviews from – but to actually email me about it on Christmas when I was celebrating with family was a real turn off. It turns out, the only thing that I am guilty of is having a common first name and not posting my last name all over the place. Which last I checked, isn’t a crime.

I’m currently on what I am calling a “blog vacation”, I’ve deleted the blog email account off of my phone so I am not checking it constantly and feeling overwhelmed and I am trying to make a dent in the list of books I have to review (it was at 39, I think I’ve got it down to 30 now and I am trying not to accept more book reviews until I can get the list even smaller). I check the blog email every night – if I have the free time to – and that’s it. I’m also thinking about new features for the site.

Unfortunately, I have books and books and books scheduled until about May. So in May, the actual transformation will start to take place, but for this month I will be taking it slow, trying to request little to no books and little to no product reviews. (And read all I can!) I have already gotten everything for February scheduled and completed (with the exception of any concert reviews!) and I will be completing all reviews I have already committed to.

Then in May, look for some new content that is more ME!

I’m still working out the details but I hope to have the following features on a semi-regular basis (if not every week)

Music Monday – Reviewing a CD, New Artist, New Single or something somehow music related.

Try It Tuesday – Where I try something new. Whether it be a scrapbook technique, cooking something from pinterest, new crafts, or try to organize my new home. It will be documented and posted. Love with Food boxes will also fall in to this category.

Whatever Wednesday – I can’t come up with anything for Wednesday yet so this will just be whatever I want to talk about. Maybe I’ll blab about how I watch too much TV, maybe a product review that otherwise didn’t get scheduled will weasel its way in. Or maybe the latest concert I went to will end up being reviewed here. Or maybe I’ll just take the day off!

Throwback Thursday – I’m not totally sure the details on this one but probably either recapping an old concert I attended or talking about a past opening act with a where are they now (if I can find them!) But it should be a bit more music related!

Friday Book Nook – Here’s where those book reviews will be! I am trying to limit myself to only 3-4 book reviews being posted a day. Hopefully I can stick to that! I’ll have to be a bit more selective with what I choose to read.

Scrapbook Saturday – I started this in the new year and it will of course continue throughout the year – provided that I keep up with my scrapping. (I’m currently in March 2013!)

Sunday – Probably either reviews or another free for all day. Again, I just started mapping out changes so it could be anything.

What do you think? Anything you’re looking forward to? Anything you think I should add?

Book Review

Book Review: Her Valentine Fantasy

Katie February 14, 2014 0 Comments

Jessica is on a date the week before Valentine’s Day and it doesn’t seem to be going so well. When he leaves before the date is over and leaves her with the bill, Jessica is so frazzled she ends up leaving her room key instead of her credit card and leaves. (I don’t quite get this. Why you’d leave a credit card and leave the restaurant – but for the sake of the story I will go with it.) The waiter, Sam, was really into Jessica and decides to head to the hotel to give her the key back and get the money for the dinner. Jessica apologizes and says she will give him cash instead of making him run back to the restaurant with her credit card (see? now it’s part of the story?) but they end up hooking up instead.

When they meet up the next day, Sam is under the impression that Jessica is going back home to Chicago later that day, as Jessica neglected to inform him she lives nearby and was staying in the hotel to be closer to a convention she was working at. Sam also neglects to tell her that while he is a waiter at the restaurant, he also OWNS it. (Something Jessica ends up finding out after calling the restaurant to get in touch with him again). They have another day of sightseeing and hooking up and Jessica is pleased that her New Years Resolution of having great sex before Valentine’s Day has come true.

The book ends on Valentine’s Day and the two are together again. Something that bothered me is that the lies each of them had told each other was never resolved. You don’t know if the relationship went beyond Valentine’s Day or how all that worked out and since that was bugging me the most while reading it, I’d have liked for that to be resolved. But as this is a Cosmo Red-Hot Read, the story is short which is what I like about them so I guess I either have to be happy with the short story or want the story to have more information included 😉

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

Tonight’s sinful dessert special…Valentine’s Fantasy

The tasty dish from Benedict restaurant is everything Jessica Lafayette could want… or crave. And it’s not the dessert in front of her—it’s her waiter. A guy with dark, intense eyes that suggest he wants to slowly lick whipped cream off her skin. A smile so wicked it makes her insides lava-cake gooey. And a too-hot-to-handle body that was meant to be tasted…

Yup, Sam The Waiter is better than chocolate.

But what Jessica doesn’t know is that her one-night-waiter is actually Sam Benedict, Upscale Restaurateur. And that her little lie about being from out of town is going to turn into a Big Deal. Now Jessica is in deep hot chocolate… because her Valentine Fantasy is starting to look a lot like a red-hot reality!

Book Review

Book Review: Historical Heartthrobs

Katie February 14, 2014 1 Comments

What better for Valentine’s Day than a book about Historical Heartthrobs? This book makes learning about history fun and picks 50 of the “top” heartthrobs. There are “vital stats” on each of the heartthrobs which includes their years, country or origin, area of influence and style of seduction! then there is a little bit about the persons life story, the story of their sex life, why he/she matters, best feature and heat factor and some quotables with quotes that others said about the person. It gives just enough information about the person to be interesting and in such a way that it is fun. And we all know how much I “love” history…

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

Hot tip for potential Jeopardy contestants: History really comes alive when you stop to consider the likes of Eva Peron and Nikola Tesla as potential members of your dating pool. Some items for consideration: Stalin was handsome as a devil, but he lived like one too (c.f. the purges). Che had the smoldering good looks, but would he only look out for himself in a relationship (he is eerily photogenic, after all)? And what about Nelly Bly? Was it legal to look that good in 1884? Historical Heartthrobs includes both men and women from a wide range of countries, ethnicities, and historical epochs. Some are artists, some are scientists, and many are political or military leaders, but all have had a lasting impact on human life—and a sizable impact on their admirers as well. In addition to an iconic image of each personality, each entry contains essential information about when these people lived and died, where they came from, what their best features were, and why they mattered. Each entry concludes with a crushability ranking: a measurement of how crushworthy these people really were, based on their relative levels of heroism/villainy.

Giveaway

Amazon.com $100 Gift Card Giveaway

Katie February 14, 2014 0 Comments

If you’re anything like me, you’d have no problem spending $100 at Amazon and you probably already have a wish list of things to buy set up just waiting to hit the jackpot of Amazon gift cards. Well, now is your chance! I’ve teamed up with some other great blogs to bring you a giveaway for $100 to Amazon! Good Luck!

Hosted by:

NYSavingSpecials

Product Review: Cook’n Recipe Organizer + Giveaway

Katie February 13, 2014 0 Comments

Disclosure: I got this product as part of an advertorial.

Do you have trouble keeping your recipes organized? I know that is a problem for a lot of kitchens! Let me tell you about Cook’n Recipe Organize Software. I’ve been trying it out for the past couple weeks and if you are trying to get organized as one of your New Year Resolutions – this is for you!

You can use this software to organize all your recipes. You can create a cookbook for your family recipes, share your recipes with ease, create menus and meal plans in advance, add photos and stories to help enhance the recipe AND get the nutritional facts for your recipes. This is a huge one for many who are trying to eat healthy and are counting calories. A lot of times you don’t know what that home cooked meal might contain calorie wise – this software will help you figure it out!

With your meal plan you can save time because you can organize a shopping list and know exactly what you need to buy. You won’t have to run out and buy any last minute items that you forgot about! Planning in advance will also give you more time to plan healthy meals rather than rummaging through your cabinets when you get home from work to see what you have and what you can make from it.

Have you been pinning recipes like crazy on pinterest? You can automatically import all your Pinterest recipes with just one click and sync the two so that any new recipes that you pin will AUTOMATICALLY appear in Cook’n! (It’s not magic, but it’s pretty close to it!)

So I know what you’re thinking – Katie this all sounds great but what about all my magazine and newspaper clipped recipes? Do I have to type everything in to Cook’n? That will waste all the time you say I will save with this software! But wait! The Scan-It feature makes it easy to get printed recipes in to the software. Scan them or take a photo with your mobile phone and use the Scan-it feature to translate the scanned recipes to text and then just a few clicks will get them pasted in to Cook’n!

And there are even more tools than that – I just feel like I am starting to sound like an infomercial!

Now with Cook’n 11 you can print your recipes and make them look great! You have the option of printing out 3×5, 4×6 or full pages with your recipes. (Want to share them with relatives? Print and make them a cute little book to give them for their birthday or the next holiday!) Or if you prefer to share things electronically – you can share to Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and many, many more!

I have to admit. This software all sounded a little bit too good to be true for me. But it really is as easy to use as it sounds, once you figure out what all the buttons and menus do 🙂 Just poke around and click everything to figure it out – that’s what I did! And you’ll be cook’n in no time!

Below is a screen shot of one of the recipes I imported from Pinterest. I was skeptical it wouldn’t get the recipe in there – but it did! (You can see on the left bar that I have the Ultimate Cook’n Cookbook and my pinterest board titled “FOOD” (Maybe I should have separated out my pins a bit more. It would make things much more organized!)

Win your own copy of the software!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Book Review

Book Review: Transforming Your STEM Career Through Leadership and Innovation

Katie February 13, 2014 0 Comments

As you may know, I work as an engineer and am always interested in reading more about STEM especially when it involves women. We really need to get more women in the field because it’s lonely! (jk) While this book is probably more for a course and in a group setting, it certainly has a lot of information that is great to read on your own and information on how to advance that you can probably use in your own job even if it is not STEM related. (Or if you’re a dude.)

There is a plan lined out and reasons why women don’t take the lead, etc. Lots of interesting information and I will definitely be thinking about some and perhaps putting it in to play in my career.

I received a free e-copy in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

An inspirational and practical guide to discovering and developing leadership and innovation skills for women in the STEM fields

Transforming your STEM Career through Leadership and Innovation offers valuable information on what it means to be a leader and innovator and encourages you to discover and develop these skills for yourself. This book integrates leadership and innovation principles with personal examples and profiles of inspirational women. By providing a clear process on how to build upon your personal strengths to realize leadership and innovation goals, this book will inspire you to pick up the mantle and meet the critical need for leadership and innovation in the STEM fields. This is a must-have guide that is relevant and valuable for women in all stages of their careers.

KEY FEATURES
• Examines research-based leadership and innovation principles to make these critically important characteristics both real and attainable
• Empowers you to build upon your own strengths and successes to discover and develop leadership and innovation skills
• Provides a practical guide that educates, encourages and equips you to pursue leadership and innovation opportunities

Book Review

Book Review: Dr No Commitment

Katie February 12, 2014 0 Comments

Dr No Commitment is about Rohan Sinclair and his roommate Ally. Rohan is a doctor and Ally is a nurse. Ally shares a home with Rohan and his twin cousins, Angus and Hamish. Ally and Rohan both seem to be into each other, but Rohan appears to be dating a model and doesn’t want a commitment with any woman. Ally does. Rohan keeps trying to hook up with Ally but Ally keeps trying to resist him. But for how long? Rohan then ends up working on the same floor as Ally and that seems to be what causes their relationship to shift a bit. Ally knows that Rohan is not what she wants – but can she make him be what she does want? Will he be willing to put his ‘no commitment’ mantra away for Ally?

The story dragged out a bit but overall it wasn’t a bad story. I just kept hoping that they would get together earlier than they did! The book is also set in Australia so a few of the words that they use are not what they use here in America. It’s not enough to make it hard to understand, you just sometimes do a double take on a sentence to figure out what is being said 🙂

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

A mischievous romantic comedy, about a man whos always run from love and the girl who just might catch him.Ally was warned about Rohan Sinclair when she first moved to town and she is determined she wont let this gorgeous, model-dating doctor distract her from being the best nurse she can be. Problem is, this bad boy just happens to live in the room next door . . .Its hard enough to resist his persistent charm at home; almost impossible when they are thrown together at work . . . But a little innocent flirting never hurt anyone, right?Wrong. Ally knows its a terrible idea to fall for a man who will never commit, but what if in every other way hes her perfect guy?

Book Review Giveaway Product Review

Product Review & Giveaway: Shaking Behind the Microphone

Katie February 12, 2014 0 Comments

Disclosure: I got this product as part of an advertorial.

I knew that there were a lot of people that suffered from a fear of public speaking, but I didn’t know that it was actually 3 out of 4 people – or 75% of people that suffer from this.

A lot of the people who have written stories for this book, including the author, once had a fear of public speaking but were able to overcome it. I liked that this book is a compilation of stories from other people with this same fear and what they were able to do to overcome it and how many of them are now successful public speakers and get paid to do this!

There are a lot of great tips in this book and while I don’t think I will find myself needing to be a public speaker anytime soon, they are definitely things that I will keep in the back of my mind incase the need does arise because you just never know when your boss may want you to do a presentation!

If you, like me, also suffer from this fear then I think that you will benefit from this book. If nothing else, you will realize that you are not alone and there are more people who suffer from this than you think. And you’ll also learn that although there are a lot of people who have this fear – there are also many who have been able to overcome it – as shown by the stories in this book!

About the Book
Do you suffer from the fear of public speaking? You are not alone. In the book, Shaking Behind the Microphone: Overcoming the Fear of Public Speaking, Jill Vanderwood shares her story of being terrified to speak in public. She now speaks to groups and teaches workshops without fear.

You will read about others who struggle with this common fear; those who had a choice to either learn public speaking or risk losing their job. Learn tips from experts; read about kids who learned public speaking at an early age, and stories from performers who tell others how to perform without fear. You will also acquire untraditional solutions like using THC gummies for overcoming fear and anxiety.

Taking steps toward overcoming the fear of public speaking will put you on the road to living a better life.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
						1
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28