russelison

Knowledge and Reading Fun!

Knowledge:


Time Is Money

Trading Time for Money: 7 Steps to Stop Doing It

Many people in the olden days were led to believe that to have a financially secure future, you needed to work for a reliable company for a minimum of 40 hours per week, climb through it ranks, so you can retire with enough money for a comfortable retirement.

While this might seem true in the olden days, so many things in the world of business has changed that this concept has been challenged by many.

For one, even the most stable companies have closed down, unpaid overtimes are becoming a norm, and many employees find themselves in the same position for decades and even unto retirement with very minimal salary increases.

This is the reason why there are many former employees now doing freelancing jobs and joining the gig economy which promises them a more flexible work life while also providing better income...



How to Read Faster: 5 Facts and 10 Tips You Should Know

The volume of available information especially in this age of computers is growing on a daily basis. To be competitive and stay updated, you need to absorb as much information as you can.

This is the reason why you need to learn how to read faster. Here are facts and tips you should know about learning to read faster ...



Working Night Shifts: 9 Health Facts Seen From Real Nighttime Workers

I currently live in the Philippines which is called as the ”Call Center Capital of the World”. My niece actually works as a night shift call center employee.

Contrary to what I read online regarding the severe health effects of working night shifts, I see many night shift workers living happy healthy normal lives.

The night shift workers I have known have been working night shifts for years now and even have active normal day lives.

Could the online reports about the supposed severe effects of working night shifts be exaggerated? ...




Life

Purpose in Life: 12 Questions You Should Ask Yourself

At one point in your life or several, you might have asked yourself: “What is the purpose of my life?” This is especially so, if you are feeling depressed about your situation in life.

Many people have asked this question: from lowly ranked people living mundane lives to successful, rich and famous people. There are many people from all walks of life who feel an emptiness in their life for some reason.

If you are one of these people who question your purpose in life, here are a few questions which might help you to find your purpose in life:...



Dogs are the Best: 13 Reasons to Consider Having Them

It’s not hard to find people who own dogs or have owned one during their lives. Many people like dogs. In fact, dogs are widely known as: “Man’s Best Friend.”

It’s no secret that there are dogs that can be dangerous, like having rabies for one. They may also be costly and hard to maintain, think of veterinary and grooming services cost.

Also, having a dog is sometimes like having a child that you have to take care of and spend time with, which could be very demanding.

But what are the good reasons why you should own dogs despite the trouble and inconvenience you get from them?...



Benefits of Being Single: 10 Facts From Real Lifelong Single People

Although mature single people are treated more as an anomaly rather than a choice in this relationship biased society, there are advantages in being one.

Being a lifelong single person myself, I have lived through its advantages and also its considerable disadvantages.

But one thing is for sure, you must make full advantage of being single while you can. Time will come when you might really need a partner, together with the disadvantages of having one....




Career

How to Find the Job You Love: 15 Questions to Ask Yourself

Your job makes up a great deal of your life. You spend on average between 40 to 48 hours a week on your job, or a minimum of 36% of your waking hours each week. You also spend more than 4 decades of your lifetime in a job.

If you hated your jobs, it would be a very miserable life for you. There are employees who are so miserable in their jobs that they have resorted to alcoholism, drug addiction and other vices to make their jobs temporarily bearable.

This is why if you are just starting out on your career, or are already in a career, it might be time to find a job you love, for your health and sanity’s sake...



Sales as a Career: 17 Important Facts You Should Consider

Many people stay away from salespersons. They don’t even have plans of becoming one. But sales as a career is a very profitable and rewarding career if you are the right person for the job.

Many people have become heads of companies and even became extremely rich because of their career in sales.

If you think about it, everyone is involved in sales. From employees who sell their skill to their employers to heads of companies selling the products and/or services of their companies ...



Retirement Is Boring: 11 Things To Do To Have a Happy Retirement

Being retired at 46 almost a decade ago, I am now living the life and in the company of people who are in their 60s and even older who are just living the life of a retired person.

I observed that many retired people don’t know what to do with their excess free time and are bored at times.

I experienced this too but found ways of relieving my boredom by being productive and finding a purpose beyond the work that I used to do before retiring ...




Writing/Blogging

How to Write a Book Title: 14 Key Points You Should Know

More than the contents of your book, the book title is the most important business decision you’ll ever make when selling your book.

It’s the first thing people see and hear about your book before your book contents. A book title is even more important than a book cover, This is because everything in your book starts with your book title.

A good book title won’t make your book do well, but a bad book title will almost certainly turn off people from reading your book.

In fact, there are many books which were initially a flop became successful later after the title of the book was changed. This is how important a book title is to a book. ...



Making Money on Ebooks: 9 Real Facts You Should Know

Having created a couple of ebooks with no budget at all and which are mainly composed of a few novels and novellas, I can definitely say that ebook writing is definitely something that anyone should consider as a source of passive income side hustle.

While I’m not making a full time living with my ebooks, I have been receiving income on a regular basis for ebooks that I’ve written several months ago.

But if you are contemplating on whether to write ebooks for money, here are a few facts you should consider: ...



Writing for a Living: 11 Facts Learned From Years of Self Publishing

Writing is a good job if you land in a high paying writing position. Unfortunately, there are many writers who are not paid well and their working conditions are atrocious at best.

Also, many writers end up writing content for someone else and not what they want to write. This is why many want to be self published writers.

I have been a full time self published writer for more than two years and have been lucky enough to earn a little from it. ...




Online Business Ideas

Selling Life Insurance Online: 8 Steps for Probable Success

If you are an insurance agent or broker, selling life insurance online seems like a better alternative to cold calling, door to door selling and the numerous drives to appointments which usually end up without a sale.

However, selling life insurance is not easy either. It not as simple as creating a life insurance website and waiting for customers to log in and buy life insurance from you.

For the most part, you should treat your life insurance website as a lead generation tool just like what many professional insurance professionals do.

If you are just entering the life insurance sales profession or even a professional already, here are a few steps you could take if you want to increase your chances of selling life insurance online: ...



Working at Home: 12 Advantages, Disadvantages and Solutions

I work from home, so does my niece who lives with me. I also know of a couple of people, including neighbors who also work at home.

This wasn’t the case before for many of us, but working at home as a trend has been rising fast even before the pandemic which accelerated and even somewhat institutionalized working at home.

I can see for myself, niece, relatives and neighbors the benefits of working at home: the time and money saved from not having to travel to work, the proximity of your loved ones while you work and so on.

But there are also disadvantages to working at home: being detached to your coworkers especially to your company team & bosses, and the dissolution of your work-life separation ...



Teach Yourself Coding: 7 Free Steps to Be a Self Taught Programmer

Slowly but surely, the world is being digitized. Even our cars now run on computer codes. Computer programmers are generally well paid and are much sought after.

This is the reason why there are a lot of people who want to learn computer programming. However, many are intimidated on the alleged difficulty in learning computer programming. Computer programming degrees are also quite expensive.

But this doesn’t have to be as proven by many tech entrepreneurs who are college dropouts or never took computer programming degrees.

For example, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook fame coded Facebook while still attending college. He eventually dropped out of college after Facebook became famous.

I myself never had a computer programming degree then yet was able to work as a computer programmer and IT professional. I learned computer programming and IT by myself. ...




Saving Money Ideas

Saving for the Future: 7 Easy Steps You can do Right Now

Your future including your financial future is unpredictable. You might have a lot of money today, but a single health problem, accident, legal problem, economic downturn, and so on can immediately land you in poverty anytime.

Also, do you know that in America for example, 4 in 10 adults do not have money to cover USD 400 of unexpected expenses? These people would likely have to resort to bad measures like borrowing money from loan sharks or selling their prized possessions at meager prices.

This is how important saving for the future is. Besides unexpected emergency expenses, you need to save for the future for: ...



Grocery Shopping on a Budget: 17 Sure Tips to Help You Save

With or without a recession, grocery costs have been rising continuously year after year. This is not good considering we spend a good deal of our money buying groceries. We cannot function in our daily lives and even live if we do not buy groceries.

Although you cannot avoid buying groceries, there are a few tips you can follow to save on your grocery costs: ...



How to Stop Spending Money: 19 Things You Should Do Right Now

If you asked a lot of people today, many of them cannot account for the things they spent their money on.

Think about it: ”Do you have an exact breakdown of the things you spent your money on yesterday or even today?”

A lot of people have this problem. Usually, the way people approach spending is to spend when they have money and to starve when they don’t. This approach mostly make people go broke ...




Income Ideas

Gift Basket Business: 11 Steps to Start and Thrive

At a glance, a gift basket business might seem like a simple one. After all, it just requires repacking similar and even dissimilar products in a beautifully packaged container.

However, don’t let the simplicity of the gift basket business fool you, it already has a market size of USD 26.3 billion as of 2019, beating out much more capital intensive and complex industries.

Also, it has been predicted that the gift basket industry would grow to 60% of its current 2019 market size by 2026. The industry has a really bright outlook.

Maybe you’re interested now to start one, so here are a few steps to starting and thriving in the industry. ...



How to Become a Motivational Speaker: 11 Steps to Help You Succeed

According to PR Newswire, the global motivational speaking industry is forecasted to grow to 28.37 billion by 2025. It has a projected annual average growth of 14%. Any industry that has 10% or more growth is considered a very promising industry.

As of 2020, 33% of life coaches, which is another term for motivational speakers are in the US. There are 17,500 motivational speakers in the US.

From this figure, we have a rough estimate that by 2025: an average American motivational speaker would be earning about USD 500,000 per year.

Motivational speaking could be a good career for you especially if you are concerned with the earning potential of your career...



Renting a Room in My House: 13 Things to Consider First

It doesn’t matter if you rent out your building, home or a space in your building or home. You are still called a Landlord no matter what.

This means that you have a tenant or customer who pays you rent and you have a taxable business in the eyes of the government.

Although renting out a room in your house might seem an informal affair, this is a real business in the eyes of your tenant and the government. Contracts between tenants should be signed and permits from the government need to be acquired if required. ...




Reading Fun!:


Famous Quotes By:

bell hooks- Gloria Jean Watkins (September 25, 1952 – December 15, 2021) who is better known by her pen name "bell books", was an American author, educator, social critic and theorist who was a Distinguished Professor in Residence at Berea College.

She is best known for her writings on capitalism, class, feminism, gender, race. She published about 40 books ranging from essays, poetry, children's books and scholarly articles. She was also featured in documentary films and participated in public lectures.

She has taught in several educational institutions and founded the bell hooks Institute in 2014. Her pen was taken off her maternal great-grandmother, Bell Blair Hooks. She died of kidney failure on December 15, 2021, aged 69.

She purposely wrote her pen name in lower case as she wanted the focus to be on her ideas and not her identity.


Star Wars- Is an American epic space opera franchise created by George Lucas in 1977.

The original Star Wars film was retroactively subtitled "Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)" and was followed by the sequels "Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) and "Episode VI: Return of the Jedi" (1983), forming the original Star Wars trilogy.

Lucas later returned to the series to direct a prequel trilogy, consisting of "Episode I: The Phantom Menace" (1999), "Episode II: Attack of the Clones" (2002), and "Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" (2005).

In 2012, Disney gained ownership of the Star Wars franchise and further expanded the franchise by producing more movies.


Michael Scott- Michael Gary Scott is a fictional character and the protagonist of the NBC sitcom The Office, portrayed by Steve Carell.

He serves as the regional manager of the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of paper company: Dunder Mifflin Inc. .


James Baldwin- James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American writer known for his essays, novels, plays, and poems.

He was also a well-known public figure and orator especially during the civil rights movement in the United States.

He is primarily known for his themes on masculinity, sexuality, race, and class. He is also known for using gay characters in his works.


Henry David Thoreau- (July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862) was an American essayist, naturalist, poet, and philosopher.He is a leading transcendentalist best known for his book "Walden" and his essay "Civil Disobedience" which was originally titled as "Resistance to Civil Government".

He was a lifelong abolitionist, attacking the fugitive slave law while praising the writings of Wendell Phillips and defending the abolitionist John Brown. His philosophy of civil disobedience later influenced the political thoughts and actions of such notable figures as Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr.


Alice in Wonderland- Actual title: "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" is an 1865 English children's novel by Lewis Carroll.

It is a story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole and into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatures. It is now one of the best-known works of Victorian literature. The titular character Alice shares her given name with Alice Liddell, a girl Carroll knew.

The book has never been out of print and has been translated into 174 languages. It has been adaptated for screen, radio, art, ballet, opera, musicals, theme parks, board games and video games.




Short Stories:

Short Story: The Fish in Our Aquarium

When I was young we loved having pets. One of the pets we particularly liked best are aquarium fishes. Our aquariums started out small. We initially had a fish bowl with a goldfish in it. Like all excited pet owners we started decorating our fish bowl with sand, pebbles and plants. Of course we did not realise it then but we were overcrowding our fish bowl and suffocating our goldfish...




Jokes:

What did the movie director say when he finished his burrito? ...

... That’s a wrap!


Netflix: Do you want to watch a 10-hour movie? ...

... Me: No way! Are you insane?

Netflix: How about I break up the movie into ten 1-hour episodes and you see them all in one sitting? ...

... Me: I am in!


Made love to the wife last night, just like they do in the movie ...

... I was fast, she was furious!


I heard Alec Baldwin is shooting another movie this year ...

... Hope he misses this time!


Most characters in the Harry Potter series were represented well in their transition from book to movie ...

... But Nearly Headless Nick was poorly executed!


Say what you will about Die Hard, but it has the best ending for a Christmas movie ...

... Hans down!


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