Book 4: The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, Started!

Last night I downloaded Book 4, "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" by Edmund Morris. I don't know much about Roosevelt and I don't remember much from what I learned in school.

He probably wouldn't be on my list except that a few months ago my girlfriend and I went to see Jeffery D. Sachs (no relation!), the Director of The Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University speak at University of Baltimore. Neither one of us were having a particularly great day and thought about canceling on each other but didn't. We were running late, had issues with parking and had to book it to the speech. We were lucky to get two seats next to each other. Sachs spoke about the financial issues this country is struggling with, his ideas on how to fix the issues and other political ideals that he had. It was a GREAT event. My girlfriend and I left there being so thankful we didn't cancel on each other. The one thing that stood out to me was he mentioned we needed a president like Theodore Roosevelt to help this country move forward. I thought, "Well damn... I don't know much about Teddy". When I started putting this challenge together I thought I might as well learn about him!

I didn't do too well reading the Ben Franklin book. I had a hard time getting into the style of writing but I'm hopeful for this book because it is an biography not a autobiography. I can only keep my fingers crossed because when I opened the book on my Nook I saw that this book is 977 pages. WOWSERS. I attempted to read some last night but only got part way through the prologue. Monday's usually make for a tiring evening. This might take me a little while to get done. I hope its a good read!

Book 3: My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business, Completed!

Yesterday morning I completed the memoir, My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business. This book was an easy read and I  probably would have finished it in two days if that thing called "life" didn't get in the way.

I really enjoyed reading this book. Part of me would glaze over as he talked of some older actors or movies/tv shows that I had never heard of. BUT it gave me an appreciation for the time when television was just coming into it own. It was a walk down the memory lane of entertainment technology.

So what did I find so inspiring about Dick Van Dyke? A LOT of things! He is living proof you can do what you love and be successful. When he ventured from home to start his entertaining career, there were times where he was so broke that he and his wife had to stay in hotels because they were evicted from their home. After hard work and sticking to his guns he slowly but surly moved his way from doing shows to being on TV.

It was interesting to read about Van Dyke being an anchorman on the CBS morning show around the same time as The Today Show came on the air. Just last week when I was beginning the book, The Today Show was celebrating their 60th anniversary!

After his break through on the play "Bye Bye Birdie", you could see his hard work finally coming together. I enjoyed reading about his time on "The Dick Van Dyke Show". I can only imagine what it was like to work with such great actors and have awesome time. While this was before my time, I did enjoy watching the reruns on Nick at Nite growing up. He really put all of himself into his work.

Van Dyke liked to do his own stunts and physical comedy. He just wanted to keep doing more once one movie/TV show/play/entertainment type stuff ended. At 81 years old he was doing his own stunts in "A Night at the Museum". Its easy to keep trucking and moving from job to job when you love what you do! That is definitely something to keep in mind. He also only wanted to do movies that he could watch with his children. Sticking with the Family Entertainment worked well for him and his way of acting.

My inner child loved reading about him being a part of "Mary Poppins" and "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang". Apparently Van Dyke kept turning down the roll of Caractacus Potts on "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" but finally gave in. I also didn't know that Van Dyke was disappointed in how the movie turned out even though so many people love it. The second day into reading the book I pulled out our DVD of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" and had a movie night with Connor while Kevin went bowling. We laid a blanket out on the floor, ate dinner on it and danced around to the music. Connor enjoyed it and I did too! The next morning Connor found the case to the DVD, brought it to me and said, "Bang Bang". As much as I love the movie I couldn't watch it for a second time for a second day in a row. Thankfully we were on our way out the door to daycare and skipped the watching the movie.

He touched on the topic of him being an alcoholic, the separation of him and his first wife, and him beginning a new life with his long time love.This is just another part of him being true to himself. As soon as he stopped denying he had an issue with alcohol he checked himself into rehab. Even though he did not become sober for several years afterward, he was very aware of the problem. When he and his first wife split, it was after their children were grown and out of the house. He wasn't ready to retire and she was not into the Hollywood lifestyle. It just wasn't going to work. He listened to his heart and went with what he loved.... entertaining. Even though he was still married when he started talking to his long time love, he was honest and upfront when the time came. But again... despite everything, he listened and went with what he loved. Reading this book inspires you to trust your heart.

Overall this was a great book and a highly recommend it. I think I would have enjoyed it a little more had I been in touch with that era of movies and television.

On to the next book!

Book 3: My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business, Started!

Barnes & Noble

Yesterday I started the memoir My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business by Dick Van Dyke. Growing up I was always fascinated by the characters Bert from Mary Poppins and Caractacus Potts from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Later on in life, when I was watching Nick at Nite, I discovered the Dick Van Dyke Show and enjoyed watching the show because "that guy from Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is in it". Dick Van Dyke has always caught my attention if he's in the TV or movie since.

This book popped up in my findings while I was researching autobiographies / biographies / memoirs and developing my list. I thought it would be cool to read about Dick Van Dyke and his path to success. Inspiring AND I've always liked him!

I don't think it is going to take me very long to get through this book. Its only 236 Nook pages and as of lunch today I'm just past 100. Kevin is bowling tonight. Soooo after Connor goes to bed I'm pretty sure I'm going to be reading my little heart out!

I will leave you with some nerdy facts about me and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. First off... I LOVE that movie and probably know all the words. I never realize how long the movie actually is until I start watching it and become absorbed.... I have a copy of the soundtrack on CD because I love pretty much all of the music in the movie. When I met my husband he had never watched the movie or heard of it before. He bought me tickets to see the play when it come to the Hippodrome in Baltimore, MD so of course he was given a copy of the movie for Christmas and we watched it! The guy who played Caractacus Potts in the play had NOTHING on Van Dyke. My very favorite scene in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is when Potts and Truly are dressed up as dolls and given as toys to the Baron as his birthday present. I could watch that over and over again.

Stay Tuned!

Book 2: Steve Jobs, Another Thought

So of course the day after I finish reading the Steve Jobs biography I see the news report that a Steve Jobs action figure will NOT be produced and is being taken off the market. I literally laughed out loud and giggled every time I thought about it.

STEVE JOBS THE ACTION FIGURE!!! For a geek's desk world wide! It would be sporting his black turtle neck, blue jeans and white tennis shoes reminding you to work hard, love what you do, think like an A Player and not to produce "shit work". Hahahaha.

But in all honesty... if they did make one... I'd probably have him sitting on my desk!

News Article: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/01/17/steve-jobs-action-figure-pulled-from-market/

Book 2: Steve Jobs, Completed!

My eMac from college. Still hangs out on my dresser but rarely turned on.
After reading this book I think I'll be hanging around even longer.

WOW. That pretty much sums up the book. Not only did I get a huge history lesson on the development of technology and design but I also got to view a visionary at work.

Walter Isaacson did an EXCELLENT job writing this book. There was honesty, truth and emotion on every page (Nook screen). It was a book that was hard to put down and not think about or talk about when I wasn't reading it. I know I thoroughly annoyed my husband with all my geeky technology talk and how my love for Jobs was growing at every chapter. I can see why the following of Apple users are so strong, they have a company that is there supporting them and providing them with quality tools. I started the book thinking how could a ass like this push his way to be so successful and loved? By the end of the book, my heart ached with each medical leave and I cried when Jobs finally resigned for good as Apple's CEO. Half way through you just see Jobs for who he is and why he's doing what he's doing.

So my thoughts? What did I learn?

Well the biggest thing I learned was Jobs' involvement with Pixar. I had no clue. NONE! What was especially endearing is my 2 year old, Connor, has taken interest in Toy Story in the last month and now carries his Buzz and Woody around with him where ever we go. He also has a Buzz stuffed animal that he sleeps with at night. Reading about the process and beginning life stages that Toy Story had and how it was almost shelved made my heart flutter. As a kid I loved that movie and now my son was enjoying it too. Then I started imagining the world without Pixar films. I mean... could we live without the movie Finding Nemo? Uh... NO! I also didn't realize how bad off Disney was in their animation department at the time. I grew up with Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and Lion King. At that point, I was out growing the animated films and didn't notice their 10 year stint of uncreative movies. Pixar brought Disney back to life.

When Jobs' decided to pull the floppy drive off the Mac and put in a disc drive only, I loved when he voiced that you have to keep looking forward. He said that you can't move forward if you keep looking back at what has already been done. Sure enough.... the floppy drives are gone! Technology is such a fast paced moving world that you do have to keep looking forward.

Another thing I learned was Jobs' and Wozniak's involvement with Atari. Together, they designed the first one-player game for Atari. My knowledge of Atari was that my parent's had a system in our house while I was growing up, but that's about it. I could picture myself as a kid playing pong while Job's was already working on the Mac!

Who would have thought a computer company would have put a dent in the history of the music world? Jobs did! Who would have though a compute company would have put a dent in the mobile device world? Jobs did! Jobs was dreaming about a computer the size of your hand in 1982.. we now have the iPad.

I could go on and on about everything he thought and helped produce and the legacy he left behind. BUT that is what this book is about. Read it! It's fascinating and entrancing.

Jobs' was Zen but feisty, simple but full of visions, and he pushed us forward in so many levels it's unreal. He was always looking for and thinking about what we would want next. He pushed his engineers to think forward and creatively and brought design to the forefront. Obsessed and crazed over perfection and simplicity scream from this book. This book reminds us to love what we do and to work hard at it. He was definitely sent here to get the job done and he did. He had a knowing about that too. Like I said in my last post, he mentioned to Sculley that he felt like he had little time on this earth. It was also mentioned several other times to several other people in the book.

We have his legacy that was left behind and I'm sure I will find myself more interested in how Apple will continue to grown and produce. Hopefully they can continue to focus on the total user experience.


"Intuition is a very powerful thing, more powerful than intellect, in my opinion. That's had a big impact on my work" - Steve Jobs

Book 2: Steve Jobs, Continued!

Out of 642 Nook pages (not sure what at equals to in regular book pages) I'm in the 220's. I read through Jobs' childhood, teenagehood, his brief college career and on to the birth of Apple all the way through the birth of the Mac and its eventual drop in sales and Jobs' eventual push to having no power in Apple.

I have notes written all over a random envelope that I scooped up when I started reading because I realized there is so much to take in and fascinate over that I wasn't going to remember it all when it came time for the final completed blog post.

For right now, one moment I'm thinking Job's is a crazy genius and was placed here to push our technology and the way we think about it forward. Then on the next page, I'm thinking, "Wow this guys was a real asshole!" It's almost like his ideas were so grand and so necessary that he had to be the "bad guy" to get things accomplished. And then.... my other thought is he was just an assholeish genius and HR's biggest nightmare. But I'm not done reading yet so my thoughts may change.

One MAJOR thing that stuck out to me the other night while I was reading was Jobs told the new President of Apple (when he started), John Sculley, that he felt he didn't have a lot of time on this earth and he had a lot of ideas to put together and little time to do it. My jaw literally dropped open. Its like he knew his main purpose and needed to get it knocked out.

I was googling around looking for an image of the original mac to include with this post but I found something EVEN better. I found a video on youtube of Steve Jobs introducing the Mac in 1984 for the first time. I JUST read about this last night!!! Walter Isaacson got it right on point! Watching the video had me just as excited as I was when I was reading it.

I'll be moving onward and upward on pages this evening!

Book 2: Steve Jobs, Started!

Image from:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/
steve-jobs-walter-isaacson/1104099551

Wednesday evening I started the biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson.As I slipped off into slumber last night I was already moving on to page 104 and didn't want to go to sleep but I couldn't keep my eyes open. This is a MUCH more easier read than Book 1 (probably because I've been looking forward to reading it for well over a month).

Prior to beginning this challenge, I was in a book club and focused on the books that we were reading. Between homework and book club I didn't have time to squeeze in other books before the next book club meeting and getting the next book read. Sooooo the Steve Jobs biography was released and my inner Apple / technology fan was DIEING to read it but I couldn't squeeze it in. When I decided to start this journey and step away from book club, I decided the Steve Jobs book was the FIRST one I was going to read. BUT I found the free Ben Franklin book on the nook and decided to start with that one because it was the holiday season and the budget was a little tight.

So why am I so excited to start reading this book? Did I jump on the Steve Job's hype after he passed away and became the ultimate Apple fan? NOPE. In my early days of school we used Apple computers until reaching the upper grades where we were switched to PC. I then used PCs for the most part and could have cared less about the history of the computers or technology. When I started the community college I wasn't sure WHAT I wanted to do so I focused on getting my Associates in General Studies and took a bunch of Accounting classes. I found out that I was pretty darn good at Accounting. Moving forward to my Bachelors I decided to go to University of Baltimore for their Accounting degree... but then..... I discovered their Corporate Communications degree......... I had finally found what I wanted to go to college for! Corporate Communications had me learning the history of technology, the advancement of media, the advancement of technology, graphic design and web design. Somewhere in all those teachings we touched on Steve Jobs. He just fascinated me.

I don't own an iPhone but I do own an old old old iPod. I don't have an iPad or MacBook... but I do have a really old eMac. I bought the eMac when I started at University of Baltimore because they used Macs for their graphic design classes. I lived in Glen Burnie, worked in Annapolis and UB was in Baltimore. There was no way I was going to drive up to the computer lab at the end of the day or on a weekend just to do my homework. Soooooooo I scraped together my money and my savings bonds from over the years and bought my eMac. I LOVED (and pretty much still do) it! And while I don't have an iPad or iPod Touch (hubby has the iTouch) and I own a Droid instead of an iPhone its all because of the cost of things and our budget. If I could.... I would. I switched to using PC when I became a programmer and deep down inside my heart still belongs to Apple.

All these reasons add up to why I'm excited to read this book.

Book 1: Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Complete!

Finally finished reading The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.

Overall I'm pleased with my decision to read it. He was very inspiring considering his education was cut short due to lack of funds and he was sent to be an apprentice. His desire to be at sea had his father worried so his father sent him to be an apprentice with different trades until they settled on being a printing apprentice for his brother. Ben had a love for reading, learning and growing. He learned from his mistakes and craved knowledge so much he'd rather study on Sunday's than go to church!

I was intrigued how Ben could take an idea such as the stove and fix its flaws into "Franklin Stove". The "Franklin Stove" could heat a living quarters much more efficient that the original stove. Even with the stove being successful he refused the patent. He accessed the issues in his part of the city and went to the Assembly about getting roads paved and then took it ever further to keep them clean.

Knowing the importance of education Ben developed and followed through with a plan to create a library and an academy in Philadelphia. He helped put a plan together for building a hospital. Creating a treaty with the Indians and devising a plan for the impending war with the French are also under his belt along with many held political offices. His scientific ideals linked the connection between lightening and electricity. No wonder he is a founding father of our country! I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting more accomplishments that I read but these are the few that I jotted down as I read.

He practiced frugality, thought that one should be working or studying not drinking in a tavern and practiced a practically debt free life.

His newspaper was extremely successful due to his writing and ideas. The Poor Richard Almanac was also successful at communicating ideals to citizens all over. In the copy of my book it included excerpts from The Poor Richard Almanac. Some of them were just lines like, "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man health and wealth and wise". Good reminder when you're working towards a goal and need to be inspired.

What threw me off about this book was, I didn't realize it was written in pieces before being published after his death. When I was reading parts of it I felt disconnected and I couldn't figure out why. I also had a hard time staying awake because of the writing style.

Ultimately what I got from this autobiography is you can be successful if you work hard and study hard, live simple and turn your ideas in to the physical.What a great book to start off with the new year.

Book 1: Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Continued!

Welp Book 1 is taking way longer to finish than I anticipated. Ben Franklin is quite the interesting person BUT the style of writing totally puts me to sleep. I'm 30 pages from being done and have moved into the section of the book that give excerpts from the "Poor Richard Almanac". Close to being finished and I'll blog allllll my thoughts about good old Ben :)