HOCKEY'S BACK!!

After about six years of Dallas Stars fandom, my team is finally good enough to garner the attention of the greater hockey media from across the country. That is to say, my boys in Victory Green get mentioned more often in the articles I read and the podcasts I hear these days.

DD and I attended the Dallas Stars' home opener and it was great to be back in the American Airlines Center. It's a really lovely building on the outside and I'm rather partial to the inside when it's set up for hockey games. :0)

And although we won (in overtime), the game itself was mostly "meh" to me. We were missing our top-line center and it was noticeable. But, as I said, we they pulled out the win, and at the end of the day, no one remembers how it happened.

Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

The last non-fiction book I completed was Rich Dad, Poor Dad and it was super interesting. The gist is that the educational system doesn't teach our children how to be entrepreneurs, it teaches them how to be employees. And while we need employees...we also need folks who can HIRE those employees. And as I've learned over the last twenty years of small-business ownership--it's not for everyone. But there are also other ways to be financially free.

Two big take-aways for me from this book are:

1) Your house is not an asset. If it costs you any kind of money, it's not an asset. Now, a house is a better use of your money than living in an apartment, but it's still not an asset unless you're renting it out and it's making money for you.

2) Being wealthy and being rich are two different things (according to Robert). Wealthy means being able to pay your monthly expenses with passive income from your assets & investments. Rich people are the Warren Buffets and Donald Trumps of the world. I like that distinction because one of those is way more attainable for me.

As I mentioned in my last post about my progress in reading non-fiction, reading this book suggested the next non-fiction book, and I finally started reading it. (Had to take a break from the educational reading and do some reading for pleasure.) There's also another book I bought earlier this year and never read, so I should probably read that one of these days. :0) Where that fits into the grand scheme of books to read, I have no idea.

Re-imagining the Vision Board for 2023

I need to re-do the vision board for Q4 of 2023... I've made strides toward the goals that were pictured, but it became clear to me as September rolled along that I had a disconnect between the various action tracks I was on. I had to take some time to re-assess the three tracks and align them so that all my efforts were working toward the same goal.

It's not that I don't want to reach all the goals, but I realized that some were stepping stones to others so instead trying to do "all" of them, I need to focus on the nearest stepping stone so as to make the most progress in the most direct and efficient fashion.

I'm talking about finances and debt here. I won't go into too much detail, but trying to save a nest egg is great, but paying off debt and eliminating finance charges and interest fees is a more lucrative short-term goal. So, yeah, alignment and streamlining.

DD and I have been working our way through this medical drama. It had been an enjoyable breath of fresh air with the main character, the medical director of a large public hospital, making changes to policies and procedures for the good of the patients. Things we have all probably all questioned at some point or other.

It was going great until we reached season two. AKA the COVID season. I don't watch a wide swath of television, so I don't know this to be true, but I imagine most shows addressed it some way, some how.

Medical shows probably had to address the pandemic seeing as how they're medical shows. I've watched Grey's Anatomy for years (in real time) and they definitely did.

Watching the pandemic play out in delayed real time was understandable although I wasn't a fan. I wanted to escape the reality of COVID, but, again, I understand why medical dramas included that reality.

It's definitely different / interesting to watch a show that addresses a real time world event like the pandemic after the event has passed. Especially something like a pandemic where the virus itself morphed and changed at a fast pace and the medical and scientific communities were learning on the go.

We know so much more now, of course, good and bad / true and untrue, with the benefit of hindsight and the continued analysis of the chain of events and the data. Almost everyone (from news, to governments, to entertainment) jumped on the various band wagons and people were "labeled" if they disagreed with anything. (What happened to free speech and respectful discourse??) And now we're learning that maybe some of the people who had qualms about various policies maybe weren't so heretical after all...

The show also jumped on other various band wagons which while topical at the time, don't always have great results as time passes. I get that it's a tough challenge & balance for show runners, but it's all a bit uncomfortable to watch, to be honest.

In addition to plugging through "New Amsterdam," (week nights are hit or miss depending on how either of us feels by the time DD gets home), I've re-watched a couple of favorite films in the last couple of weeks.

I was scrolling through Netflix one day and saw "The Imitation Game" starring Benedict Cumberbatch. You all know of my love for Mr. Cumberbatch and so I spent a couple of hours once again enjoying his performance as the pioneer of computer science, Alan Turing--aka the man primarily responsible for breaking the Enigma code.

I never ceased to be moved by this film, especially the tragedy of Turing's death.

*

On the complete opposite spectrum of tones of movies, I also re-watched "Dumplin'," a coming-of-age movie (based on a book) about an overweight young woman who finds peace with and acceptance from her (former) beauty queen mother as well making some new friends along her journey--including the hot new boy at school with whom she also works.

The film's soundtrack is all Dolly Parton, whose humor and wisdom underpins the plot. It's a fun, sweet, uplifting movie, and you just can't help but smile through the last twenty or so minutes.

Before writing this up, I didn't realize the movie was based on a book, but it is. So what did I do? Looked to see if it was available in the online library--which it was--so I promptly borrowed it. And while doing that, discovered that there are two sequels which I will also borrow in due course. :0)

It turns out that the book doesn't have nearly so much Dolly in it and less of a few other things I found very fun and enjoyable about the movie. Usually I'm more disappointed in the movie than the book, but in this case, I like the movie more.

And that's all I've got for you, dear followers. Hope all is well in your neck of the woods.

Take care. See you in a couple of weeks.