Abe Lincoln and more
Soon it will be two months since I moved to Hawaii. I think I have started to relax a little bit. Things have stablized at work and I have taken care of many of the little things required when you move to a new place. I go to work 5 days a week and take financial analyst training classes on the weekends. Because I am using Japanese more in my life and work, I can tell I can use it with greater ease and its flowing more naturally again. I don't stop and studder and have to think it over when using Japanese like I did the first week. However, what is really interesting is that I mix up Chinese and Japanese sometimes. I don't realize which language is coming out of my mouth because they mean the same thing to me. Of course, I eventually catch myself within a few seconds, but it makes me seem a little strange to whomever I am having a conversation with. I do love the fact that I can communicate in those languages. I feel comfortable among people who speak those languages and I can relate so much more.
I have been reading several different books lately. I will read one book for a few chapters and then start reading others, and later go back to the first one. I have been looking at books about numbers and geometry. I read the first several chapters of a biography of Abraham Lincoln. I mainly knew about Lincoln as President, but its wonderful to read about his rise from life on a poor homested on the frontiers of America in the 1800s to the President of the United States. Born of illiterate parents and little access to education, taught himself to read, became a lawyer and statesmen of the highest order. But even with those credentials, he had a shy character, sometimes he could get very depressed. However, he was able to gain a reputation as very honest and was able to get along with the people in his region, and became a representative in Illinois and began his political career. Additionally, he was one of the only people to vote against some laws that were favorable towards slavery at least 20 years before the Civil War. The book also mentions some of Lincoln's encounters with slavery, seeing Africans chained and being sent on boats to the South, which strengthed his feelings against it. Just reading the book and getting a feel for life in that era was amazing, and I could hardly even imagine a world with slavery and some unjust laws meant to segregate and limit the opportunites of certain people.
Actually, Abraham Lincoln himself faced discrimincation because of his background coming from a poor family. When Lincoln was seeing a girl from a well-to-do family, her parents tried to stop him from seeing her because they felt his background was not good enough. I think Lincoln, as a man who had experienced injustice because of his background, could better understand a man should not be measured by those factors one has no contol over such as the wealth of his parents and the color of his skin.
Lincoln stood up to that injustice, maybe in part because he also had to beat it. He eventually was able to marry the woman that he was seeing dispite her family's objections and probably proved to be a great source of pride for their family.
I want to discuss another terrific book I have been reading by Garry Kasparov, the former World Champion of Chess, called "How Life Imitates Chess". The book discusses strategy, decision making, creativity, preparation, and more. His ideas are very practical and realistic. One thing I found interesting was his idea that in the game of Chess, the results are obvious, you have either won or lost the game. However, in our daily lives, we make decisions, yet we may be oblivious to weather or not it was a good decision. It is important for us to be aware of what results we wanted or goals we had originally, so we can measure how well we are making decisions and how to improve our process and ability. As Kasparov says, "a single rule holds true: make good decisions and you'll succeed; make bad ones and you'll fail." Thus by keeping in mind what results we want, we can improve our decision making skills, and give ourselves a better chance of success!
I have been reading several different books lately. I will read one book for a few chapters and then start reading others, and later go back to the first one. I have been looking at books about numbers and geometry. I read the first several chapters of a biography of Abraham Lincoln. I mainly knew about Lincoln as President, but its wonderful to read about his rise from life on a poor homested on the frontiers of America in the 1800s to the President of the United States. Born of illiterate parents and little access to education, taught himself to read, became a lawyer and statesmen of the highest order. But even with those credentials, he had a shy character, sometimes he could get very depressed. However, he was able to gain a reputation as very honest and was able to get along with the people in his region, and became a representative in Illinois and began his political career. Additionally, he was one of the only people to vote against some laws that were favorable towards slavery at least 20 years before the Civil War. The book also mentions some of Lincoln's encounters with slavery, seeing Africans chained and being sent on boats to the South, which strengthed his feelings against it. Just reading the book and getting a feel for life in that era was amazing, and I could hardly even imagine a world with slavery and some unjust laws meant to segregate and limit the opportunites of certain people.Actually, Abraham Lincoln himself faced discrimincation because of his background coming from a poor family. When Lincoln was seeing a girl from a well-to-do family, her parents tried to stop him from seeing her because they felt his background was not good enough. I think Lincoln, as a man who had experienced injustice because of his background, could better understand a man should not be measured by those factors one has no contol over such as the wealth of his parents and the color of his skin.
Lincoln stood up to that injustice, maybe in part because he also had to beat it. He eventually was able to marry the woman that he was seeing dispite her family's objections and probably proved to be a great source of pride for their family.
I want to discuss another terrific book I have been reading by Garry Kasparov, the former World Champion of Chess, called "How Life Imitates Chess". The book discusses strategy, decision making, creativity, preparation, and more. His ideas are very practical and realistic. One thing I found interesting was his idea that in the game of Chess, the results are obvious, you have either won or lost the game. However, in our daily lives, we make decisions, yet we may be oblivious to weather or not it was a good decision. It is important for us to be aware of what results we wanted or goals we had originally, so we can measure how well we are making decisions and how to improve our process and ability. As Kasparov says, "a single rule holds true: make good decisions and you'll succeed; make bad ones and you'll fail." Thus by keeping in mind what results we want, we can improve our decision making skills, and give ourselves a better chance of success!
posted by Mark at
6:35 AM
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