Intro “Atomic Habits” by James Clear is a transformative guide on how small changes in habits can lead to remarkable results in personal and professional life. Clear emphasizes that habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. This book provides a comprehensive framework for understanding how habits work and how to develop and sustain good ones while breaking bad ones. Through scientific research, personal anecdotes, and practical advice, Clear illustrates that tiny changes in behavior can accumulate and lead to significant improvement over time. Summary of Each Chapter Chapter 1: The Surprising Power of Atomic Habits Clear begins by highlighting the…
Tag: odds and ends
Fallout 4-Seven Years Behind Everyone Else
I remember the Wanderer commercial. That was cool, but not cool enough for me to shell out the money for a machine powerful enough to run Fallout 4. So I forgot about it. Until a few months ago when it showed up on Xbox Game Pass. I downloaded it and played several hours a day until I had gathered all the companions, become General of the Minutemen, destroyed The Institute, and learned to hate Settlers. I used Fast Travel, played on Normal, and didn’t realize there was a whole world of players that considered fast travel cheating, and playing on…
Brain Trust
Garth Sundem has a lot of fun talking to a bunch of scientists who seem to spend a good deal of time thinking about things that aren’t all that important. Among the topics covered are how to talk your way out of a traffic ticket, how to lose weight by eating 8 hours a day, and how to win a race by taking the best angle on the turns. As the subtitle suggests, we get advice from 93 top scientists-and since the book is only 250 pages thick, this means there is not a lot of in depth coverage of…
Hope Springs
You’d think that knowing I have a couple of months off every year that I’d be able to make a few plans. Maybe go on a trip somewhere. Maybe bang out a couple more chapters on that never ending novel. Maybe go out and take a few pictures of this or that and tweak them in Photoshop and Lightroom. Maybe do a bit of marketing and see about getting some Clients so I won’t have to bother going back to work. But no. Like out of work guys throughout the ages I have done nothing productive, well, pretty close to…
Made by Hand-Is This How Tom Good Would Do It?
There’s something fun about the idea of a gazillionaire taking up the DIY craze by doing such things as organic gardening and making his own cigar box banjos. He explores the many benefits of knowing how to build things, modify things, and create things out of the odds and ends most people toss out for the trash collector. It’s clear from the introduction that boingboing founder Mark Frauenfelder never read The Sex Life of Cannibals, a wonderful book about what a living hell the islands along the equator are. Mark and his wife decide to move with their two small…
The Big Texan
Free 72 oz. Steak proclaims billboards for hundreds of miles on every road leading to Amarillo, Texas. The Big Texan is an old style tourist trap-a place with a gimmick and a ton of odds and ends for sale. In addition to a large dinning room reminiscence of Gunsmoke’s Long Branch, there is a pretty large gift shop filled with all manner of western themed items. Among the more interesting things was a series of mugs in the shape of rattlesnakes, one of them just like the one Craig Ferguson has on his desk on the Late, Late Show. The…
Adwords, Amazon Associates, and Affiliate Marketing
One of the good old fashioned ways to make money online is to sell other people’s stuff and be paid a small commission for each sale. This is called Affiliate Marketing and it seems that just about everyone with an online presence has some kind affiliate program in place. Over the years I have made a bit of pocket change being an affiliate for Amazon.com, The London Pass, and one or two other odds and ends here and there. I have read a few ebooks, watched a few videos, and had a bit of fun trying to make some money.…
Smile When Your Lying
Another story of sex,drugs, and rock and roll-this time of the Travel Industry. The untold stories of expats, underage sex, places that aren’t as dangerous as you think they are and more bits of odd sexual conduct in the backwaters of the world. Not surprisingly these are stories that the editors of major travel magazines and larger Sunday newspapers don’t want to fork over a lot of money to publish. Which our Hero thinks is a bad thing, after all, who wouldn’t want to know the best place to get a hummer in the third world? On more serious notes,…