My wife and I are both equally enthusiastic movie-goers. By “movie-goers,” I also mean “movie-watchers,” since we don’t always go to the movies that we watch. During the Pandemic especially, there was a two year gap between going to the movies, though we watched many of them at home Happily, in the past year we returned to movie-going, and have done a fair amount of it. In the first half or so of 2022 we saw the following movies in the theaters: In the past two months, we’ve added to…
Month: January 2023
Day 185: Blissing Out at the Cafe (2023 Edition)
For years now, I have loved going to the cafe to write. These days I do my best to time it so I can maximize my positive experience. I aim to go there when I am in a positive, receptive state. When I’m there, I like to sort of “prime the pump” of positivity, you might say, as I listen to inspirational talks on my phone,* write positive statements of what I am appreciating, receive inspiration, and basically, practice put myself into a really good state. That is a primary…
Day 184: Documenting Personal Growth
It’s late on a Sunday night so let’s keep this short and sweet. I continue to get value out of documenting my personal journey on this blog. Here are three areas where I have been seeing personal growth and writing about it: Here’s my little compilation of posts that deal with each area: Getting Comfortable Saying “No” or Changing Plans Posts covering: Day 160: No One Said the Best Decisions Are Easy Day 149: Chinks in the Armor Day 111: Improving My Marathon/Life Balance (Update #3) (Basically, any of the…
Day 183: Your Receiving Matches Your Transmission
As I was writing the other day, I am continually looking at how our thoughts match up with our experience. Today I picked up another way of looking at it, courtesy of Abraham-Hicks: your receiving matches your transmission. In other words, what you give off is what you are likely to receive back. Everyday we have the opportunity to look at how our thoughts and feelings match the experience we are attracting. For example, today I have been getting ready for a gig, playing through some classical music I have…
Day 182: “Badlands” (Original Music)
Recently I was working on a project to compose music for someone. Though the collaboration didn’t work out, I got a chance to write some neat music, including this short piano piece with some string support. The mood is thoughtful, perhaps even sad, and atmospheric.
Day 181: Back to Investing Basics
In re-reading “A Random Walk Down Wall Street,” I am reminded of the basics of how to succeed as a long-term, buy-and-hold index fund investor. These basics could be summarized as follows: It’s not a flashy formula, but it has worked for millions of people. Let’s take each item one at a time: Save a good portion of your income. Like much of the financial literature, Malkiel makes the all-too-important point that if you don’t save, you don’t have anything to invest: Without a regular savings program, it doesn’t matter…
Day 180: Halfway Through Year Two
I am just about half way through my second 365 days of blogging! It’s been a fun experience so far. I am still enjoying myself and looking forward to more. Here are some of the things I have gotten out of the latest 365 day effort: Finally, I wish to share some thoughts I wrote almost exactly four years ago, upon reaching Day 180 of the first 365 Day Blogging Project: A big part of doing this project has been about getting out of my way. When I started this,…
Day 179: Re-Reading “Random Walk Down Wall Street”
I am re-reading (again) “A Random Walk Down Wall Street,” by Burton Malkiel (2012 edition), the investing classic that champions buying and holding index funds for investors rather than trying to beat the market. The last time* I read “Random Walk” was late 2019, before the Pandemic, before inflation reared its ugly head, before interest rates rose, and before the current Bear Market that started last year. 2019 feels like a whole other world. Having gone through the past three years, I now have more understanding as I read the…
Day 178: Who is Ultimately Responsible?
How we think about things is a HUGE indicator of how we will experience those things. Whether we realize it or not, our thoughts about a subject are always a match for our experience of it. For instance, think about someone you REALLY like. Do you feel good as you think about them? Does thinking about them conjure up positive-feeling thoughts, memories of times you’ve laughed together, or nice things they did for you? Given the positive-feeling thoughts you have about them right now as you think about them, which…
Day 177: Master of My Fate!
I am continually getting the chance to focus my mind toward the positive. I’m as human as the next guy, and sometimes I really have to work at it to keep a positive frame of mind. For instance, early this afternoon, as I sat at home (at my desk where I’m typing now), I noticed my thoughts were trending sharply negative. Indeed, I was quite annoyed. I won’t go in to why. Suffice it to say I was in thinking about things I found most unpleasant. Thankfully, instead of wallowing,…