Good Book Day

"One day I was 12 years old and broke. Then Grandma gave me Grandpa's old riding lawnmower. I set out to mow some lawns. More people wanted me to mow their lawns. And more and more…

One client was Arnold the stockbroker, who offered to teach me about "the beauty of capitalism. Supply and Demand. Diversify labor. Distribute the wealth." "Wealth?" I said. "It's groovy, man," said Arnold.

If I'd known what was coming, I might have climbed on my mower and putted all the way home to hide in my room. But the lawn business grew and grew. So did my profits, which Arnold invested in many things. And one of them was Joey Pow the prizefighter. That's when my 12th summer got really interesting.

Gary Paulsen's comic story about a summer job becomes a slapstick lesson in business as one boy turns a mountain of grass into a mountain of cash." (Scholastic)

I worked in a junior high with the resource classes. The kids just needed a little more attention and help to do their work, but they were smart. The teacher read this book to the class, and one boy got very caught up in the idea that a twelve year old could make money and have a business. He wanted to learn more about investing and buy some stock in Disney. This book inspired him to dream big, even though he was only twelve. He may never make big amounts of money while he's a teenager, but I think the lessons he learned from this book will influence him down the road. 

Lawn Boy is a fiction business book for teens that can inspire big dreams. Learning about business and investing at a young age is a good way to set kids on a financial path that can better their lives. 

It inspired me to dream big and not give up. I've had some lucky chances, like this boy, to do some work that turned into more work. Some people may see this story as just a pure luck story, and it is to some degree, but at the same time, he put work into it first, learned, and stuck with it. There's a lot of luck that comes into success but it has to be accompanied by hard work.

Check it out and have a good book day!

Saturday Laughs

 T-Rex

Who You Are

Quote

It's so nice and refreshing to meet someone who just likes you automatically and accepts everything about you. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, hold on to those people!

Good Book Day

Empire by Orson Scott Card feels eerily like it could happen tomorrow, like it says on the cover "A disturbing look at a possible future". It has an equally intriguing sequel- Hidden Empire.

"The American Empire has grown too fast, and the fault lines at home are stressed to the breaking point. The war of words between Right and Left has collapsed into a shooting war, though most people just want to be left alone.


The battle rages between the high-technology weapons on one side and militia foot soldiers on the other, devastating the cities and overrunning the countryside. But the vast majority, who only want the killing to stop and the nation to return to more peaceful days, have technology, weapons, and strategic geniuses of their own." (Hatrack)

Empire is about the United States entering another Civil War. With the recent government shutdown, the scenarios in this book seem a very real possibility.

I listened to this book on cd and the reader did a wonderful job. I would get home from work and sit in the car for a couple extra minutes to hear more of the story.

This is a huge surprise in the middle of the book. I had to listen to it three times before I could actually believe what happened. It's a fascinating book that rings true in our times.

Check it out and have a good book day!

Enemy Conquered

Yesterday I faced down an enemy and told it, "We shall not both live in the same place, you must die." 

Lis - 1, nasty big black spider - O

It looked like this jumping spider, except it was black.

                                                                         Nat Geo


It crawled behind a heavy bookcase before I could grab my shoe to smash it, so I had to move the bookcase by myself, which is doable when you have the motivation. Then it crawled behind the desk, which is even harder to move because it is really big. 

I used a piece of cardboard to slowly move it towards me and it dropped to the floor so I quickly put a glass jar over it and slid the cardboard underneath to trap it. 

Then I had to put my shoes on while trying to keep my curious daughter away.

We took it outside, I let it out and then promptly squished it with my shoes, then dragged my shoe through the grass to get rid of the spider guts. 

My neighbor told me that most spiders won't harm you. I told him that I kill them anyways, you never know which ones will harm you and your family or not. 

Good luck fellow spider hunters!