Book Review: Fablehaven - Grip of the Shadow Plague

Within weeks of finishing the summer vacation Kendra and Seth find themselves once again thrown into the battle between good and evil. The fate of Fablehaven hangs in the balance as a mysterious shadow plague begins to spread through the magical preserve. The once plentiful supply of light creatures are being transformed into creatures of darkness with one purpose: swell the darkness and stop everyone else at all costs. Stakes are raised as Kendra and Seth do not know who is friend and who is foe in the battle to protect the supernatural preserve.

Mull provides a fantasy tale that includes hundreds of complex creatures and characters in such a way that it is remarkably simple to follow and enjoy. With each book in the series the characters are able to explore more and more complex situations while still retaining a sense of themselves. This book, as with the two previous, provides an intense action adventure from start to finish. Overall I give this book a grade of “A”.

Goblin Valley

I added some pictures of our recent trip to Goblin Valley on my picasa album.

Financial Budget Card

I put a copy of some budget cards that I use on my website if anyone would like to look at them or use them. I still use my credit card, but instead of having a bunch of envelopes with the months budget in them I put a little card in my wallet. On the top of the card I write the total allowed in that category for the month and each time I spend something I subtract the purchase for the total. For example if my gas budget were $100 I would put "$100" at the top, then when I spend $20 at the pump I write down "$100 - $20 = $80" and so on and so forth.

Book Review: Epic by Conor Kostick

Book Review: Epic by Conor Kostick

When many years have passed since earth was evacuated and earth is nothing more than a legend, the surviving people are caught up in a world where stations in life, wealth, and posterity are all tied to a game. A game called “Epic” which was brought along in the journey from earth. However when medical attention, food, and wealth can be tied to “Epic” it is anything but a game. There is one peasant boy, Eric, who does not subscribe to this and soon finds that his unorthodox way of playing is soon getting noticed. He is noticed by his friends as well as those who don’t want to give up any power. Epic was well written, keeping a steady pace of story and action. This science fiction novel gave some interesting ideas on government, time management, and making ethical decisions without going overboard on futuristic ideas or inventions. The book at times reminded me a bit of “Ender’s Game”, but in a new and inventive sort of way. Overall I give this book a grade of “A”.

Book Review

I am trying to get better at writing more complete book reviews. I have reviewed one of the latest books I have read below. If you have any thoughts about the book or my reviewing feel free to let me know.

Book Review: The Millionaire Next Door

The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley and William D. Danko does not provide promised steps to financial success. Instead it shows through years of statistical evidence what the millionaires have done to find monetary accomplishment.

The answers the millionaires provided are simple. The driving theme of the book can be summed "FRUGAL, FRUGAL, FRUGAL... Being frugal is the cornerstone of wealth-building... The affluent tend to answer "yes" to three questions: 1) Were your parents very frugal? 2) Are you frugal? 3) Is your spouse more frugal than you are?"

In short the authors very plainly show the findings that having a high income does not guarantee wealth. Spending more than one has still means you are broke no matter what tax bracket you are in.

The Millionaire Next Door is like a junk yard. There are treasures of information to be found, but they are sometimes lost amidst the heaping amounts of statistics. It was fun to listen to the simple habits of the nations wealthy and find the fascinating nuggets of truth. The book helped confirm other financial advice, such as that found in The Total Money Makeover. I found phrases such as “Fewer than 20% inherited more than 10% of their wealth, and more than half never received a penny of inheritance” leaving me confused and needing to re-read (or in my case re-listen to) the section to follow the string of continuing statistics. Other sections, such as car buying, seemed to contain a mountain of information that the authors decided to completely explore. This seemed a little tedious at times due to the often repetitious feel of the section.

The book may have been more enjoyable if I had actually read the text instead of listening to the CDs. I would recommend the book in conjunction with others such as The Total Money Makeover. I thought the fascinating bits did surmount the downsides of the book. Overall I give the book a grade of “C”.

Google Earth

So my latest fever has been to play with Google Earth. So I have posted some fun Google Earth link here that also correspond with the reunion that is coming up. For fun I also posted a Shakespeare link that I thought was kind of interesting. Also if you go to Google Earth and press CTRL+ALT+A you get a secret that Google put into their system.

Dad's Challenge

I like to make spreadsheets that I can check off. Recently I have made a spreadsheet to track my progress on Dad's Challenge. I thought everyone else might want to have a copy of their own. I have placed a copy of that here. In my exuberance I also thought it would be cool if there was some sort of ranking that was involved with how far you were along on the challenge. The first thing that came to mind was Star Wars. I don't know. Part of me wanted to be able to say, "Hey, are you still a sissy Luke." Anyway, for what it is worth there is the spreadsheet.