Summer At Tiffany

I saw Summer At Tiffany by Marjorie Hart and it sounded like a great memoir.   It is about a college age woman, Marjorie, and her best friend who go to New York, from Iowa, for the summer during WWII to work in a fancy department store.  Marjorie and her best friend go from fancy department store to fancy department store to find a summer job.  Nobody is hiring.  So finally they go to Tiffany.  And they luck out and get hired as the first woman employees on the floor.  Marjorie then tells about her experience working at Tiffany for the summer, as well, as experiencing New York for the first time.

Marjorie does a great job telling the story of her summer.  Just reading it you feel the energy and fun she had that summer.  Overall, it is a quick read.  It is an entertaining and fun.  I would highly recommend it for a quick fun read.

Accidental Billionaires

I know most of us are on Facebook, and I don't think many of us really appreciate (or despise) how much it has changed our everyday life.   I think the fact that Mark Zuckerberg developed this idea and made it into what it is is pretty amazing.

I watched the film The Social Network and really enjoyed.  So, I decided to read The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich which was the inspiration for the film. And I loved Bring Down the House, which he also wrote.

I was disappointed with Accidental Billionaires.  First it starts out saying that most of the story is speculation on what happened.  Only one party participated in the writing of the book, Eduardo Saverin.  So, initially I felt like a lot of it was fiction and just staged ideas.  I also felt that it portrayed everybody poorly, except for Eduardo.  So I was kind thrown off by the negative characters around every corner.

If you are contaminating reading the book, don't.  Watch the Social network and move on.  Or, if you want to read a book by Ben Mezrick, read Bring Down the House about the MIT blackjack team.

Smoothies

I read a blog post about the Green Monster smoothie so I decides to try it.  I have been wanting to eat better, and eat more fresh fruits and veggies.  So I decided to try a green smoothie.  I have been making smoothies for about a week now.  I have made 3 to 4.

I have been making them with fresh strawberries, blueberries and mango, and spinach.  And these smoothies have been great.  And since spinach is so mild in flavor you cannot even taste it in the smoothies and you still get the nutrients.

American Taliban Review

For whatever reason, I have been having a tough time getting into books this year, so I have read very little.  I was browsing the library website and found American Taliban by Pearl Abraham.

It starts out with 18 year old John Jude surfing for the 2000 summer.  He decides to defer his year at Brown to find himself.  He then hurts himself skateboarding and can no longer do much physical activity.  So he starts working on his reading list.  As he is reading about religion he decides he needs to study classic Arabic.  He goes to a school in Brooklyn to study Arabic.  While there he becomes close to another boy his age that tells him he should go to Pakistan to be surrounded by the language and culture.  In this culture his believes become more aligned with the radical Muslim way of thought.

Overall, this book seemed a little disjointed to me.  It starts out discussing surfing and skate boarding in great deal and other times it discusses the Arab language, and later the Muslim culture.  I felt that the idea behind the store was great, very relevant to current events.  But it felt like some ideas were forced, like when John converted to Islam.  I understand why it was necessary in the story, but it did not feel like there was much thought to it.  I also found it strange that John never questioned his American upbring against what he was learning in Pakistan.  It just seemed that a lot of thought and questioning was left out.

Overall, the book was a disappointment to me.  I felt like this could have been a great book bring up a lot of thought provoking questions, I did not see any of that.  In the end, I pushed to finish the book hoping it would get better, but I finally got to a point where I only had 100 pages to go so I was reading more to finish and move on to another book, rather than the enjoyment of what was going to happen in the end.

Project 365

One of my 101 things I want to complete is the 365 project.  The idea behind this project is to take a picture each day of the year.  And another thing on my list is to open a flickr account to post each one of these pictures. I ended up opening a 365project.org account instead.  This website is geared towards this project and I thought it would be fun to see others trying to complete the same thing.  Here is the link to my account as well, http://365project.org/hski2349/365

And just for fun, here is my first picture.

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother - Review

I was browsing books on my library website and I saw that Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua was available. I have heard somethings about this book on TV and thought I would check it out and read it.

Amy Chua is a Chinese-American who was born to immigrant parents.  She states that she was raised in the traditional Chinese way, which is basically doing everything her parents told and pleasing the.  She feels that she owes everything to her parents and must obey them.  Once Amy Chua had kids, two girls, she decided she would raise her child in the Chinese way as well.

Amy Chua has some very strong believes in child raising, these include no play dates, no sleepovers, and playing an instrument, either piano or violin.  She also believes that her children must be the best at everything.  An A- is unacceptable, it must be an A and better yet it should be better than an A if there is extra credit.  Her children must practice their musical instrument each and everyday.  It does not matter if they are sick or traveling.  They will still practice.  Amy Chua talked about how she arranged time for her daughter to practice playing the piano wherever they traveled.  Her daughter would practice anywhere there was a piano.

When reading this book I thought Amy Chua was often trying to shock the reader with her child raising.  She often compared the Chinese way, the right way, to the Western way, the wrong way.  But I read it more as a cultural difference in raising children.  Sure, she seems harsh and demanding of her children, and her youngest daughter lashes out because of it, but if she is raising children that are going to be effective adults who am I to argue.

In the end, the book is comical at times (not sure if it is supposed to be) when she talks about the crazy things she puts her daughters through.  But she is honest about all of it, and she is trying to provide her children with the knowledge to have a very successful life.  This was comical, entertaining quick read.

Tax Refund Card

Lowe's was running a promotion where you could purchase a gift card before March 15th and then on the 18th Lowe's will add 10% of the purchase value to the card.  Since I had somethings I wanted to purchase for the house I thought this was a great opportunity.  So, I went to the store this weekend to add up the cost of the things I needed.  And then bought a gift card for the estimated cost of the items I needed.  My biggest purchase was a new range and hood.

Here is my old range and hood.

And here is the new range and hood.

101 Small Things that Make Me Happy (11-20)

11. The way Lola's ears bounce up and down when she trots on walk

12. Tax refunds.  I know I am giving the IRS an interest free loan, but I can't help but love getting that check

13. Excel.  That's right Microsoft Excel.  I am a numbers girl and there is so much  Excel can do to help crunch numbers.  It really does amaze me everything that program can do.  

14. Girl Scout cookies

15. Happy hour with the girls.  

16. Falling asleep in the arms of somebody you love (and loves you)

17. Having great coworkers.  I work for a small company and we have a great group of people.  We have so much fun together. 

18. Dexter.  Such a great show.

19. Craigslist.  I love that I can get some cash for something I no longer want.

20. The nerdy conversations I can have with my dad about math and science.

Waiting for Superman

Filmmaker Davis Guggenheim looks at the US public school system.  He questions why the nations school systems have so many problems when the US is one of the world's superpowers.  Every state has districts that are not sufficient in math or reading.  And DC has one of the worst school districts in the country.  Interesting considering the fact, that DC is where everybody (Politicians) is talking about improving education.  And yet, the politicians don't seem to be looking in their own back yard.

 He talks about the neighborhoods which have "dropout factories".  These are basically schools where a huge number of students will drop out.  And they are usually in the worst neighborhoods.  When these students drop out, they typically end up in jail or dead.  The interesting thing he points out is the fact that it cost more to keep provide for inmates each year than it cost to send students the average private school.  Yet, we don't supply all of our children with education. And then let them end up in jails.

One school district gave some students video cameras and put them in their book bags to record what was going on in the classrooms. There were videos of teachers reading newspapers, students shooting craps in the classroom and teachers harassing kids.  The superintendent of this district said he was going to fire all these teachers.  However, he was not able to fire them because they were part of the union.  It is truly amazing to me that anybody, including the unions, would be ok with keeping teachers in classrooms that do not teach students.  Now, don't get me wrong, I know there are great teachers out there that need the unions, and need help in keeping their jobs.  But when a teacher is sitting in the classroom doing absolutely nothing, they should not be teaching.

In New York, when teachers are facing disciplinary action they go and sit in a room and wait for their hearing.  Typically it takes two or three years for the hearing.  And during that time they are sitting in a room reading, taking naps, playing cards, etc, and getting paid during this time.  I don't know about you, but if I was not doing a good job at my job, I know I would get fired.

This is a great documentary.  It brings up a lot of questions and problems in our nations school systems.  There are people out there who have made a difference.  There are some charter schools out there that are doing great things for students of all different backgrounds and have huge success rates.  The question is will this would for the mainstream?  Who knows.

I know this documentary does not represent all teachers. And I know it is not easy being a teacher and I know not everybody can do it.  But I also know there are amazing teachers out there that do everything they can to help their students.  Those teachers are the ones that will change the world one kid at a time.  So to those teachers, thank you for doing everything you can to help each of your students.

February Money Review

Some of money related goals are to keep track of how much I spend, as well as, keep track of the free money I accumulate and use.

Budget and Spending
Now, I don't have a strict budget I stick to, but I do track my spending.  I find it so much easier to track my spending to see where my money goes than trying to just keep it in my head.  I can then also adjust my spending through out the month and make new spending/saving goals for the following month.  This month was good on coffee and drinks, (by drinks I mean bars and going to happy hours with friends).  Very little was spent in that category.  As far as going out to eat, way to much was spent there.  For March, I am going to try to cut that down.

Free Money
This month I got $50 in gifts for $10.  I cashed in Swagbucks for 2 $10 Starbucks gift cards, I got a $10 Amazon.com gift card from viewpoints.com for reviewing items, and then I paid $10 for a $20 Barnes and Noble gift card.   Not too bad, if I say so myself.

I also earned 1,843 Swagbucks this month.  That is the highest I have ever earned in a month.  Let's see if I can beat it in March.

Freakonomics - The Documentary

Freakonomics (the book) is a book about looking at things in a different way.  Well, now there is a documentary about it.

One interesting thing they talked about was parenting.  One thing that was said was that everybody wants to be a good parent.  But what makes you a good parent is based more on what you have done before you became a parent not going out and buying 10 parenting books.

Another interesting discussion was names.  They compared traditionally black and white names.  They discussed whether or not it will change your life's come.  One professor said your name has no effect on what happens in your life.  It is based more on your upbring.  Another professor said have a traditionally black name will effect your life.  They sent out 3000 resumes half with traditionally white names and half with traditionally black names. They found in their study that the traditionally white named resumes got 33% more phone calls and got a job in 10 weeks while the traditionally black name resumes got a job in 14 weeks.  An interesting thing to think about.  Why were we each given our specific name, and has it had an effect on our live's outcome?

There is also the discussion of abortions legalization in 70s had an effect on the crime rate going down in the 90s.

Overall the documentary is very much like the book.  I think it provides an interesting way to look at some difficult subjects.

Pressure Cooker Review

A woman, Wilma Stephenson, in an intercity Philli high school runs a culinary class in hopes of helping her students receive scholarships to better themselves. This woman spends so much of time and energy to teach these kids the proper way to cook.  But more than that she helps guide and support her students with everything.

This was a great documentary.  Wilma is hard on her students because she wants the absolute best for them.  She deserves so much praise for helping her students and pushing them to be the best they can be.  She does more than just the classroom work of teaching them to cook.  She took a couple of her students prom dress shopping, she helps raise money for application fees her students, she helps them in every way she can.  And these students are rewarded.  With all this hard work all of her students get scholarships.  I wish more teachers could be recognized for all the hard work they do.

101 Small Things that Make Me Happy (1-10)

1. Laughing so hard I cry.  And believe it or not this usually happens at least once a week with a few of my coworkers.  We have such unbelievably juvenile conversations, (I cannot even repeat them to others, the conversations make no sense whatsoever), but they are absolutely hilarious.  

2. Sodoku.  And I love doing them on the IPad or computer so I can track how my statistics.

3. IPhone.  I could not live without. The apps, the calendar, the ipod, the internet, and so much more.  

4. The auxiliary port in my car.  It makes is so easy to listen to music from my IPhone/IPod

5. Cotton candy

6. The library.  I love going to the library and exploring and then grabbing whatever catches my eye.

7. Books.  I love reading.  Novels, mysteries, history, math, you name it, I love it.  There is so much in the world to learn. And books are a great way to learn and explore the world.

8. Childhood memories.  I went to a home daycare for 8 years.  And the memories I have from that are amazing.  And the woman who ran it is somebody who will always be family to me. She is amazing and I love her. 

9. Swagbucks. Free money, I love it.

10. Lola's crazy antics. Yes, she is standing on a table. Why, I have no idea. But I can't help but smile and laugh.

Viewpoints February Promotion

If you have not used Viewpoints I highly recommend it.  It is a great site to write reviews on products and to read real reviews of products.  And the thing I really love about viewpoints is the promotions they do.  Typically, it is writing 10 reviews and get a $10 amazon.com gift.  It really easy an easy way to earn some free gift cards.  I have $20 in Amazon gift cards and a $25 restaurant.com gift card in 2011.  Pretty good for not even two months out of the year. 

Finished the List

I have finished another task on my list.  It is really is the most important item on the list.  I now have 101 items to complete.  Now the hard part, actually completing the list.

Darkly Dreaming Dexter

I watched the Showtime series Dexter and loved it and decided I wanted to read the book that inspired it.  I checked it out from my library and started reading.  The show follows the book extremely well.  So well in fact, that I started getting bored reading.  All the same characters are also in the book.  But they do not seem to be developed as well as the show.  Or maybe I have see too many episodes of the show and that is what I have in my mind and the book is not there yet.

I ended up giving up on the book.  It is one of those stories, where you either read the book, then watch the show, or don't read the book at all.

Revolutionary Road

One of my goals is to watch a movie that begins with each letter of the alphabet.  This weekend I went to the library and checked out Revolutionary Road.  I have been wanting to see this movie for awhile, so I was excited to find it.  I was quite disappointed by this movie.  To me all it was was a bunch of arguing between the two main characters, Frank and April.  There were a few moments of happiness when they decided to move to France.  But that quickly changed when Frank, the main character, was offered a promotion that he could not pass up.  And, then it went back to Frank and April arguing.

I bought the book hoping it would be a good read.  But now after seeing the movie, I have absolutely no desire to read the book.  Especially, if it is anything like the movie.

Has anybody read the book or watched the movie and really liked it?

Create A Twitter Account

So I have completed my first task, number 19, create a Twitter account.  I created my account and I am following a few things, and to my surprise I even have followers.  (Which makes me think, at some point I may have to change my settings so I can approve followers.)  Now, I just have to figure out how to use the Twitter account to my advantage.  I usually understand technology extremely well.  But I don't quite get Twitter.  But I am sure the more I play with it the more I will like.  If you are bored feel free to follow me, @hski2349.  Hopefully, I will come up with some ideas on things to tweet.

Money Making Apps

I talked about Swagbucks and how you can make "free money".  I found 2 great moblie apps to earn free money.  With both of these apps, you check into a store that you are at (or as I have learned nearby) and you gain points.  You can then redeem those points for gift cards.

The first one is Shopkick.  With Shopkick, there are some exclusive stores where you gain earn two points for checking in, and randomly get one point for checking into other stores.  Shopkick also has bonuses.  Bonuses range from more points, to money that goes to charities.  You can also gain additional shopkick points by scanning products in the store.  There are also levels in shopkick, so the more places you check into the more levels you move through.  And it says that you open more bonuses, when you move up levels. 

There is also Checkpoints.  With Checkpoints you gains points checking into stores and scannnig products. With Checkpoints you can usually only check into a handful of stores each day.  But I find with checkpoints there are more products to scan and you gain more points with the products you scan.   With each product you scan you typically get coins, in addition to the points.  You then get to use your coins in something similar to a slot machine.  And with this slot machine you can gain bonus points.  You can also earn additional coins by downloading apps. 

I dont' favor one app over the other. The combination of their features make both great.  I have redeemed points with Checkpoints and earned $21 in Amazon gift cards.  I would highly recommend both apps. And you will come to love them. To me it is a game to collect points.

Swagbucks

I found I website that I love where I get what I call free money.  This website had many different levels to it.  But the main idea behind it is earning Swagbucks.  And Swagbucks can be cashed in to gain gifts, gifts, etc.  There are many different ways to earn swagbucks. 

1. The first way to earn swagbucks is by searching.  Instead of using google or bing, for example, you search through swagbucks.com.  And you will randomly earn swagbucks.  I typically earn swagbucks between 1 and 3 times a day depending on how much I search.
2. The second way is what I call the daily four.  You can earn 1 swagbuck for completing the daily survey, checking the No Obligation Special Offer, NOSO, checking trusted surveys, and finally installing the tool bar.
3. You can also register for surveys, and if you qualify and complete surveys you can gain extra points
4. Completing special offers.  Some of these require signing up and paying for services and some are free news letters, etc.
5. Watching videos.  I do this one daily.  It is a very easy way to earn extra swagbucks
6. A new feature that was just added is playing games.  I typically do this a few times a week
7. You can also refer friends and gain swagbucks when friends join and then earn swagbuck
8. There are also swagcodes that come out periodically.  These are what I consider a bonus.  Typically you will have to find the code from given hints and enter the code within a certain time period

As you continue to use swagbucks.com you will love it more and more.  I love monitoring how much I earn, and what I cash out.  It is a great free way to get more free money.

New 101 List

I started a 101 in 1001 list in October of 2009.  And I have done an extremely bad job of trying to complete that list and updating this blog.  But I really like the idea of the 101 in 1001.  So, I decided to start a new list.  I felt that I threw together my last list too quickly.  Some things one the list I really liked and completed.  Other things I did not really care about.  So this time I am going to go about the list in a different way.

So I am starting the process again, but this time I am going to approach it in a different way.  I am starting the list  today and the completion day will be November 3, 2013.  I have not completed the list yet.  This time around I am going to give myself sometime to compile a list of things that I really want to complete.  Rather that completing the list in order to start.  I will give myself until March 31, 2011 to complete my list.  The other thing I am going to change this time around it allowing myself to change some of the goals on the list if I feel the now longer fit what I want to accomplish.

So, hopefully, I will be much more successful with this list.  Here is the new list.