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I have always liked restoration hardware and shows that restore things. Recently my wife has restored and redone a lot of parts of our home and we are all reaping the benefits of joy.
<img src=”https://damehq.blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/image-e1462387691799.jpeg&#8221; alt=”bed set” width=”660″ />
<em>Our story of our journey to success is a long one. I write in my column just a little about it here along with why we enjoyed fixing up our current home.</em>
I think it was about age 20 that I started to see the financial journey most people take in a lifetime. It’s pretty simple for most. As my dad used to tell me: when you are young you will be paid a little for hard work and when you are older you will be paid a lot for doing a little work. I have certainly found this to be true.
Another thing I remember is feeling that an AA (2 year) or even a BA (4 year) degree really isn’t worth much and it’s only those who have connections or family or a trust fund who ever really “make it.” Since then, I learned differently. Those degrees are stepping stones that catapult you into your chance at life. They are also gatekeepers keeping the riff raff out.

<blockquote class=”pull alignright”>Randy Pausch before he died of cancer said publicly that the brick walls in life are not there to tell us no but to show ourselves and others how much we want something.</blockquote>

People told me all kinds of weird things when I was young and starting out. “Bill Clinton will make college free soon so wait and have a hit off this bong buddy!” Other people told me it would be impossible to graduate based on budget cuts. Really? Looks like I dodged those. These and many other statements like them are excuses used by real people I’ve encountered all throughout my life, especially in my late teens and twenties.
I’ve gained so much from college and for hanging in there with a good work ethic. When my wife and I first got together in 2002, we were poooooor by many people’s estimation, certainly by ours now. I’m not proud of it but sometimes to pay that last bill, I had to go down and get what is called a “Pay Day Loan.” These are horrendous for a young family. We had one 4 year old at the time and I wish I never had to sink that low as to get these pay day loans but I did. Like I said, I’m not proud of it.

<blockquote class=”pull alignleft”>For a poor young couple in charge of a family, loans were a means to an end, a dangerous one at that.</blockquote>

Now, in the 14th year since then, we have been homeowners for 7 years and we have 3 kids ages: 8, 11, and 17. We would never need to get a payday loan, we have savings, 2 retirement plans with the state, I work as a teacher with 17 years experience and my wife is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist making close to what I make after all the years. We aren’t hurtin’. Next month we are taking our first trip to Hawaii as a family and we’re tickled to death.
In the past month, my wife decided to get us a new bedroom set, bathroom sets, various things at the container store, and basically, what feels to me to be a brand new home. We have talked a lot about getting a new home but after these minor adjustments and additions of new furnishings, we’ve done it all for much cheaper. Now, we can let the equity accrue and enjoy our house.

<blockquote>I usually don’t give advice on home stuff but I would say getting things fixed, replaced, renovated, and restored has as much of a payoff as getting a brand new home.</blockquote>

Think about places like the place where you sleep, the place where you eat, the place where you are entertained, and the place where you take a shower and get refreshed. If you’re not happy where you are, fixing up these places will definitely give you a boost. Move on and up in the right time but remember just a little effort can give you a boost like you’ve been waiting for all your life.
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I’m linking to: <a href=”https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/hope/”>Daily Post</a>

Anthony Hopkins plays John Clancy, a psychic Doctor. If I were psychic and could see people’s death path when I touched them, I think I would pass on being a doctor and work in a toll booth. It turns out the serial killer cop “Joe” and Clancy seek is also very psychic and quite a few steps of both of them as they try to track him down.

There isn’t much new here for the genre. It feels like a run-of-the-mill serial killer movie. Anthony Hopkins does a few Hannibal Lecter clone scenes. One example is when he describe Abbie Cornish’s child to her without knowing anything about her. She plays Joe’s partner on the force. Clarisse anyone?

The killer, played by Collin Farrell, doesn’t show up until past midway. When he does, he is docile and tame. In my opinion, he was a very poor casting choice. His impetus or killing is supposed to be benevolent but it’s really not. Yes, it’s that hard to divine. We have a dead victim in a bloody bath (Dexter anyone?) and a script that borrows from every serial killer more cliche but it’s “ok,” the more isn’t terrible. I hated seeing talents wasted on such nonsensical writing though.

The ending is very predictable. I read on Wikipedia that this movie was meant to be a sequel to se7en. That might explain why the borrowed so much rom that and movies like it.

I enjoyed the actors but everything else is a fail for me. I took three stars away possibly to warn people this movie doesn’t merit the actors in it. There is some action between the nonsense so if you have nothing else to watch, I might recommend it.

I almost feel like if I don’t give this film 5 stars, bad movie karma will visit me. It is mentioned in so many reviews I read as well as in interviews with directors and actors. It was released with an “X” rating which is laughable by our standards today. I think you see one female breast in about three short, clothed sex scenes. It later received an R rating.

This film is old, it came out the same year I was born.

Oldies are often goodies though and “Midnight Cowboy,” while gritty, is a drama treat with award winning actors that make the story come alive.

I love movies that show us the naked city. From the playbills stapled and frayed on side streets to the honking of taxicabs. People are trying to survive and we get to travel with the camera, taking it all in. Of course, we can pause at any time or come back to revisit another time. People in the real city can’t. Maybe that’s why we like watching what they will do, often out of desperation.

Just seeing John Voight and Dustin Hoffman in their prime is very entertaining.

These guys were showing us acting like university drama instructors here in their mid twenties. John Voight has always struck me as one dimensional and stupid. That actually works for his character here. Hoffman is a con man, a sick one at that. We get a slice on 1969 in this very well made and incredibly acted film. I recommend it.

Title: Midnight Cowboy
Number of times I’ve seen it: 1
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: R
Year: 1969
Director: John Schlesinger, (“Marathon Man”)
Top Billed Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Sylvia Miles

Brief Synopsis: Man moves to the big city and makes an unlikely friend.

This post is about self help / personal development. Or, specifically, how to make acronyms and use them for self-improvement. The process of making them can be challenging, but using them is easy and rewarding. At New Year’s cusp, people always think about resolutions but shouldn’t we be thinking about them all year long? Trying to reinvent ones self once every year can have some value but ongoing changes throughout the year yields greater results. I usually make my resolutions around August because that is where my teaching work year renews itself. Continuous improvement is what I strive for and I use self-invented acronyms to make it happen.

These funny little words really work!

There are many quality online personal development courses that attest to the power of acronyms. The reason I use acronyms is because they are easy to remember. Usually all goals can be narrowed down to three words. That’s the perfect length for an acronym. The word you create becomes your personal thing and you carry it with you while traveling toward your goals. This past new year’s eve I read about a great worksheet and used it to develop some of my goal words for the year. Check it out here.

The first three goals are your creation!

At the beginning of the process, write down three words you want to focus on. You might write many and narrow them down to the three best. For example, a horse trainer might list:

patience, people, volume

Each word has a lot of idiosyncratic meaning to the horse trainer. You can imagine what these three words might mean in a horse trainer’s life in contrast to that of say, a lawyer.

Next in the process come up with a three letter word you will use as your acronym. It doesn’t matter if it’s related to the three words you just chose or not, but you should find the imagery of the word pleasing. You may find this list of three letter words intended for Scrabble players useful. This is in a way the game of your life.

To illustrate these first 2 steps, let’s say the horse trainer chooses the goals listed above and then chooses the word “ACT” as his acronym.

That leads to the most fun and rewarding step in my opinion. It’s also the step that takes the most time. The step is to come up with three words that start with the letters A,C, and T. Each word should represent one of the word-meanings you came up with when you started the process ie; patience, people, volume.

This can take a lot of trial and error until you get it right but once you are done you “own” the acronym. Take this as a possibility:

Allow (patience)
Culture (people)
Tons (volume)

The words you assign to the acronym don’t have to be exactly the same meaning as your goals but they should have enough to do with the original goal for you to remember the goal when you recall the acronym.

Now the horse trainer can go to work thinking about his meaningful acronym “ACT.” He has given his job and life a more precise focus.

I chose nouns for this example, but you can choose action verbs as well.  A resource you might find useful is this list of action verbs by letter. You can even make up a sentence like “I will Always be patient,” where Always is the A part of the acronym. This is helpful when you just can’t think of a word to match the goal.

When it comes to personal development and self-improvement, I swear by my acronyms to improve memory and other stuff. I think once you give it a try, you will too. If you are a trainer or a mentor, acronyms can assist you greatly with your time management training program. On a last note, you should check out this make an acronym engine, it is helpful.