Almost There!

This week is going to be extremely hectic for 3 reasons. One is Kristi moving in this week. Second is my dads birthday on the 12th. Then third is the fact that my birthday is this Saturday or otherwise known as the 15th. The problem with my birthday being so soon is that I have yet to actually make a list of what I want for my birthday because there isn't much that I want. Music is pretty much out of the question because I can listen to any music free on the internet and since I have ad blocker there really isn't any wait time. Books are an OK bet but I read a book about once or twice a year so I feel it would be terrible to enjoy a book immensely then let it sit on a shelf for about a year before being picked up again. Finally I don't want to ask for anything to expensive because there is so much going on this month and it seems almost rude to ask for a $50 video game when we are already spending so much this month with Christmas and dads birthday not to mention any unexpected problems that might show up.

Today's work was fairly easy but did require some thinking. I had to read one book named Nurture Shock which was a nice little wake up call to the way the kid brain works. For example that praising the a person in general might not work the way you want. Research has shown that by praising a kid you might actually make them worse rather then helping them improve. For example during a test which consisted of 3 puzzles the kids who were praised for being smart but not for the actual effort decided to go for an easier puzzle the second time which they were then praised for this puzzle as well. Though when they were given the 3rd puzzle they did 20% worse on this puzzle which was actually the same as puzzle number one.

Then another book I read today was a book known as "Mr. President Mr. President!" which is about a journalists view of the white house with personal interviews with different presidents. For example she got to know Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman as well. These are the two that I have gotten to but she gives her opinions of the two and what they had gone through for example Harry Truman was hated by many people while he was president but when others looked back at Truman they think that he was a wonderful president. Another one which was also with Truman was that when he had to decide to drop the bomb on Hiroshima or not he claimed to have slept like a baby after making the decision to drop the bomb without the help or support of anyone close.