reading

Dave Ramsey and The Total Money Makeover

Posted in family, financial, reading on April 19th, 2008 by Daniel Johnson, Jr. – View Comments


I’ve been listening to the Dave Ramsey Show via podcast on my commute up to Dayton every day. Our family is going to buy his book The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness. We think this is a good deal. Not sure if we want to wait for it to be delivered or simply go buy it now at the brick and mortar store.

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Reading List

Posted in reading on August 24th, 2007 by Daniel Johnson, Jr. – View Comments

I’m reading several books right now.

One of them is by a fellow podcasting friend, Charles Hodgson. I’ve been listening to his podictionary podcast for almost two years now and have even mentioned it here and on the Journey Inside My Mind Podcast.

Charles was very gracious in that he sent me a copy of the book, in return for my “helping get the ‘word’ out.” lol.

If you’ve ever wondered where the words we use to describe parts of our bodies comes from, then this book is for you. I’m getting a copy for my Dad for his upcoming birthday, since he’s also a word lover.

Carnal Knowledge: A Navel Gazer’s Dictionary of Anatomy, Etymology, and Trivia

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Seeing ghosts of a younger me at the public library

Posted in car, cincinnati, college, high school, interview, job search, library, ohio, reading on June 23rd, 2007 by Daniel Johnson, Jr. – View Comments

Mood: nostalgic
Listening to: quiet
Reading: Who Let the Blogs Out?: A Hyperconnected Peek at the World of Weblogs
Eating: nothing – feeling hungry

I’m inside the main branch of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. Being here brings back a lot of memories. The library has changed considerably since I was a child, but some of it is still the same.

I used to catch the 17 bus from home to downtown. I would sometimes come down here with my best friend David Mixon, other times accompanied by his younger brother Adam, and still other times by myself. This library was one of the coolest places to hang out. I even had dreams about things happening down here.

  • I remember poring over the items in the Films and Recordings department. I recall vividly searching through the card catalog drawers to find some interesting music. Other times, I’d browse the LPs and cassettes – CDs weren’t around that much just yet. I remember testing some LPs on the record player they had set up, to see if I really wanted to check out the record.
  • Another time I remember spending a lot of time down here was in my junior year of high school, while working on my English term paper on Miles Davis. I would spend entire days up in the Arts and Literature department on the third floor, poring over materials. I would often listen to music I’d put on cassettes in my Walkman.
  • Yet another time I was reminded of just this morning was when I’d graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1994 and was looking for a job. I spent a lot of time at the Government and Business department back then. I remember, after learning of an interview I had with Alcoa Building Products in Sidney, Ohio, looking through scores of newspaper articles and other publications to find out anything I could about the company. Looking through microfiche and other materials, I’d print out and make copies of pages for my company research, back before the internet was really mainstream.
  • And then again, after receiving a job offer, I remember coming back to the G&B department to research the kind of car I wanted to get, spending lots of time going over reliability reports and insurance information.

I’m really impressed by all the changes to the downtown library, especially as I look at all the computers and the addition to the building that was done several years ago. Films and Recordings is now on the first floor. The Mezzanine, which used to be a paperback book area, is now a snack area and gift shop. The card catalog has been replaced on the first floor by a bank of computers. The checkout is no longer right at the both exits, but instead in a more central area.

Yet as I walk through this building, I still see younger versions of me doing the things I used to do so long ago.

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How the Credit Union made me read their newsletter

Posted in financial, reading on June 6th, 2007 by Daniel Johnson, Jr. – View Comments

I opened the envelope from our credit union, ready to toss the usual filler stuff in the trash. I quickly scanned the headlines and was convinced to hold off for a little while.

They have been conducting a “Hidden” word contest to win a $100 gift card. So I wound up reading a little further into the articles to find the hidden word. Then I logged onto their website and submitted my entry to the contest.

I think this is an ingenious way of getting a customer to pay more attention to the content, and I’ll be thinking of ways I could apply this technique.

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A bit of light reading

Posted in computing, reading on May 13th, 2007 by Daniel Johnson, Jr. – View Comments

I went to the library today for the first time in about a month. I was looking for some quick and dirty books related to programming. I don’t know if these will help, but here’s what I brought home.

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Book recommendation: Dreaming in Code

Posted in reading on May 10th, 2007 by Daniel Johnson, Jr. – View Comments

This book comes highly-recommended:

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Deaf Musicians – Book

Posted in deaf_hoh, reading on April 24th, 2007 by Daniel Johnson, Jr. – View Comments

Keisha and I just came back from putting gas in the car and a quick trip to the public library. It had been a few weeks since we’d been there, and she found a book called “The Deaf Musicians”. We just finished reading it while eating some ice cream. I recommend you do the same. Go ahead; I can wait.

I think I’d heard about this book recently on a podcast, but I can’t remember which one. It was really good. Keisha said her favorite part was when the piano player realized he was losing his hearing because that was just like her.

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Saturday Spring Cleaning and Golf

Posted in family, golf, podcast, reading, weather on April 21st, 2007 by Daniel Johnson, Jr. – View Comments

Saturday was an all-around great day for us. A single mother from church had some serious spring cleaning work that needed to be done, and several of us went to her house and helped her out.

At about 2:15 pm, we left her house and drove to Meadowlinks Golf Course, which is part of Winton Woods here in Cincinnati. We signed Keisha up for some Junior Golf lessons a few weeks ago, and Jennie and I have been taking lessons concurrently.
Last week we practiced pitching and chipping; this week we learned full swings. Next week, we’ll learn putting. After next week’s lesson, Jennie, Keisha, and I will have a golf scramble on the beginner’s course together.

I can easily see why golfing can become an obsession because it looks a lot easier than it is. I have found myself watching golf on TV – something I NEVER was interested in doing when I was younger. I think it could become a healthy obsession that our entire family could enjoy. Yeah, of course it could. If Keisha shows some serious interest and can develop some good skill, she could get a scholarship to go to college.

It’s probably just serendipity that one of my all-time favorite family podcasts, “Dancing With Elephants“, just did an episode about golfing. They mentioned a couple of books to check out, related to teaching kids golf:

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Video Greetings for December 1st

Posted in reading, video, weather on December 1st, 2006 by Daniel Johnson, Jr. – View Comments

Mood: upbeat
Listening to: DSC 507 – 12/1/2006
Reading: The Magic of Thinking Big
Eating: Taco Bell
Watching: wind blowing everything all over the place outside

A little video message from yours truly to kick off the last month of the year:

I’ll be recording the next episode of Journey Inside My Mind and posting it within the next day or so.

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Shave and a Haircut

Posted in pictures, reading on November 30th, 2006 by Daniel Johnson, Jr. – View Comments

Mood: tired
Listening to: fan in the window, washer and dryer in the kitchen
Reading: The Magic of Thinking Big
Eating: Hmmm… an evening snack perhaps?
Watching: something on TV

Jennie, Keisha, and I went to get our hair done this evening. I’d shaved earlier in the day, so this picture really makes me look a lot younger:

Shave and a Haircut

The smile sure helps, too.

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