Pay no attention to the "recommended age" above - this little booklet of stickers is ageless. Most of the stickers are not so "sweet" as Darcy May's fairy drawings, but are comical and charming. I like 'em. Great for sticking on notes to people who take themselves too seriously, as well as for sending to those who simply have a good sense of fun. ...Enjoy!

A friend who knew about my "challenging" work situation recently gave me a copy of Winning Ways. This engaging and extremely practical book is already helping my work group. After taking the "short" one hour to read it, I immediately purchased copies for my coworkers. The author, Dick Lyles, explained some complex concepts in a very easy to understand business parable. But, the story hit close to home. Very close to home. I have two "Alberts" in my work group. The 4 secrets in the book were discussion items that helped move us out of "interpersonal" squabbles and refocus our energies toward our work. People who avoided each other before reading the book are now working together collaborately. The book helped us all realize that we needed to solve problems for the future instead of for the past or the present. It also helped us realize we all had different strengths and needed to share what we were doing with each other. The secret about Camels are OK was particularly helpful, because it allowed us to move on without having to have everything perfect all of the time. It's still early but my group's negative performance trend has definitely been reversed. Surprisingly, not everyone at work was taught these four fundamental secrets in school or earlier in their careers. But, with Winning Ways, those who needed to, learned them quickly. And the rest enjoyed the helpful reminders. All will reflect upon what they are doing. And be mindful going forward in the future. Winning Ways will motivate anyone who reads it. It's that good!

At my work, we read this book to enhance our skills as a company and as individuals. I really enjoyed reading this book and would definitely recommend it to others. What this book said to me, was that in order to work efficiently, one needs to work well with others. Positions do not necessarily matter, as long as everyone feels that he or she is contributing all he or she can into the project. People need to be on the same wavelength as far as the goal for the project, because everyone can have different ideas on what the goal is. Another thing is to work together, not compete. If two people have different ideas in mind, they would both more likely succeed if they combined efforts. Lastly, if you boost each other's self esteem you will feel more comfortable working together.

Winning Ways is one of those truly unique books that grabs you and won't let you go. It's one of the few books I've ever read where I actually remembered the lessons the next day.

In this case the lessons are four incredibly powerful "secrets" anyone can use to be more effective in their dealings with other people. The lessons are presented in the form of a very entertaining parable with characters we can all relate to. The simplicity, combined with the power, of this book's message make it one everyone should read.

After reading it, I put it down for a moment, and said "Wow." Not only can I use these ideas, but if I do and others do as well, the world will be a much better place. Then I immediately thought of three friends I couldn't wait to share it with. Thanks, Dick Lyles, for giving us such a powerful message in such an entertaining way.

I Loved this movie! It had everything: comedy, realism, and the ability to make you laugh and cry. The acting is superb. Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, Janeane Garofalo, Steve Zahn and Ben Stiller are excellent.
Lelaina Pierce (Ryder) is the valedoctorian of her college and should have her entire life mapped out for her, but all she has is a job at a morning talk show called 'Good Morning Grant' where she makes barely enough money to cover her rent. (For all those Frasier fans out there Grant is well acted by John Mahoney who plays Frasier's father on the show.) Her best friend Vickie (Garofalo) has just been promoted to manager at the Gap, and her other friend Sammy (Zahn) is coming to terms with his sexuality. Troy (Hawke) is her other troubled best friend who is the lead singer of a band and is in love with Lelaina. Lelaina videotapes all her friends making a documentary about their lives and their troubles, and she meets a guy named Michael (Stiller) who she begins dating, and who wants to turn her documentary into a television show for the network he works for called In Your Face TV.
The movie has a plot that appears so simple, yet it applies to everyone everywhere. It tries to answer the question: what to do when you just get out of college and where should life go?
Lelaina is also trapped in a love triangle and has to decide who she wants to be with more: Hawke, her closest friend or Stiller (who makes an excellent directorial debut), someone who loves Lelaina but also wants to profit from her documentary.
There are cameos from actors such as Renee Zellweiger, David Spade, and Swoozie Kurtz (who plays Lelaina's mother in one scene).
This film is one of my favorite movies of all time and is one that should be more well-known. It also has a fiere soundtrack, featuring artists like the Knack (Sharona), and Lisa Loeb, so I highly suggest you buy that as well.
"There's no point to all of this. It's just a random lottery of meaningless tragedy and a series of near escapes. So I take pleasure in the details. You know... a quarter-pounder with chesse, those are good, the sky before it starts to rain, the moment where your laughter becomes a cackle... and I, I sit back and smoke my Camel Straights and I ride my own melt..."-Troy from Reality Bites...
SO BUY THE MOVIE!

The first time I saw this movie was on HBO. But then I had gotten it on video and now DVD. It's timeless and still fits into today's culture. Since the 90's of course wasn't that too long ago. Winona Ryder who plays college graduate Lelaina Pierce who likes to make documentaries. She is making a documentary of her friends who are played by: Ethan Hawke (Troy), the funny Janeane Garofalo (Vickie), Steve Zahn (Sammy), and Ben Stiller (Michael). Each of them goes through their own troubles Troy's father is suffering from Cancer and is dying, Vickie worries that she might have AIDS, Sammy is struggling to tell his parents that he's gay...and Lelania is stuck in the middle of a love triangle between Michael and Troy. It's realistic thrown in with great comedy and a great cast and storyline. Not to mention it has a great soundtrack. (You may also try to see if you can spot another upcoming star Renee Zellweger in the movie :).

The DVD in itself is a great buy. It is in a widescreen format. And has theatrical trailers, and also production notes of the movie. If your a fan of the movie this is the DVD for you.

I 've seen this movie sooooooo many times and let me tell you it rocks. I know this movie by heart it deals with everyday life but is really funny while doing it!!! If you haven't seen it yet please do so for me!!! it's well worth it hey I'll even let you borrow my copy!!! ryder,hawk,and stiller make a wonderful pair in this movie so you can't go wrong let me just say ............don't bogart that can man,are you retarted? no I'm rhyming!!!

A lucid and though provoking work, Castes of Mind would be close to THE authoritative work on the construction of caste. However the boldness of Dirks's argument, mainly that British rule is responsible for the state of caste today, raises some serious questions, which are not easily answered. Firstly, the book is heavily focused on Southern India, which raises the question of how did this play out in the North, and with whom. The colonial state was not the only actor, and the role of Christian Missionaries in the construction of caste is instructive: no matter how hard they tried to rid the Gangetic plain of caste, it was met with no avail. Secondly, his use of archival material is rather concerning. One one chapter relies heavily on archival material, whlst the remainder is dangerously rhetorical. And lastly, the epilogue raises serious concerns regarding similar scholarship and other interpretations on colonial rule in India. Dirks dismisses offhand essentially any work which might be remotely classified as 'neo-colonial', although he does not seem to quite understand what this concept means. What is most dangerous however is that Dirks dangerously approaches a moral judgement on the British Raj, which is a taboo in the historical profession.

Well-read in similar works such as B.S. Cohn, Spivak, et. al., Dirks's is the least tenable, and a farcical display of scholarship. Although he argues that 'the British did not invent caste,' after reading the 315 pages one might actually think they did. Dirks seems to ignore the roles of Brahmanic institutions and hegemony and the role of 'collaboration' and 'capitalist development,' (the latter which he seems to dismiss outright) and one might actually conclude that India was, in the pre-British era, caste-less! Embarrisingly enough, he still refers (however naively) to the uprising of 1857 as the 'Great Rebellion.' The rhetoric and culture of domination must be put behind, if any of are to write unbiased (or a close approximation thereto) history. I wonder how long it will take for Columbia and Chicago to realise this.

The british did not invent caste but they exploited it to the hilt to divide the pluralistic Indian society.
The thesis of the book matters. The thought provoking nature of the book is more valuable than its contents.
Columbia and Chicago are doing a valuable job of undoing or atleast explaining the british (and german) rape on indian history.
A thinking that an objective history can be written, like conducting a laboratory experiment where an observer is independent of the thing that is observed, is a major fallacy . No more attacks of scientific methods on humanities please!

This video features cartoons from the 30s. All of the cartoons feature visual gags set to music as the main element of humor. In many cases, you almost have to be a child of the 30's and 40's to understand much of it, especially with respect to the Hollywood stars.

The titles included on the video include:

Smile, Darn Ya, Smile: A very early black and white version that seems like a take off from Mickey Mouse. Still, it is quite humorous and is one of the better ones on the video.

Shuffle Off to Buffalo: Another black and white classic that contains some (what would be considered today, politically incorrect) ethnic humor.

Miss Glory: No famous Looney Tunes characters in this one, but somne clever gags put to music.

I Love to Singa: Probably one of the better ones on the video. Features a young owl whose father is a classical music buff who despises jazz. Guess what? The kid sings jazz. Lots of clever musical and visual tricks. Plus, my kids think its funny.

Have You Got Any Castles?: This one takes place in a library where the subjects of the books come alive and do some gags that were probably funny at the time, but have only limited context today. I suppose if you grew up in the 30s and 40s, the gags may have more relevance.

Speaking of the Weather: Instead of a library, this one takes place in a magazine shop. Features many Hollywood stars of the day along with some simple and fairly clever gags and plays on words. Much of the historical humor is lost on those of us who are young, but there is still enough there to laugh at.

Katnip Kollege: This one features a school for cats set to jazz and swing music. The name of the class is "Swingology" and all of the gags and effects are centered around the jazz and swing music of the day.

Bottom line: If you grew up around this time and went to the movies and know your old stars, this will probably be pretty nostalgic. If you like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and the rest, you might want to skip this one.