I read the most inspiring book last week and have to say that this kick ass book is a total game-changer! The author published this classic in 1959 and it continues to remain relevant and something I should probably read every year.  I would recommend this book to anyone who is wants more out of life in terms of career growth and relationships because it holds the power to transform your mindset in your life. It’s a manual for success by building confidence in yourself because typically a person's thinking is always in the process of becoming small and marginalizing itself. The book is a powerful reminder of the great things that can be accomplished with the right attitude so I found it a very effective motivational tool. This is an absolute must read in how to create a success plan in life. The best part is he summarizes the main points at the end of every chapter. Here are some excerpts I found insightful:

"Blaming others is destructive. You gain absolutely nothing from "proving" that someone else is wrong. Have the courage to be your own constructive critic. Seek out your faults and weaknesses and then correct them."

"Acquire the quality of relaxed easy-going so that things do not ruffle you. Be extremely careful to avoid the petty cut him-down language. Before complaining or accusing someone ask yourself 'is it really important? In most cases, it isn't and you avoid conflict."

"The successful people are active; we'll call them activationists. The just average people, the mediocre and unsuccessful are passive. We'll call the passivationists. Mr. Activationist is a doer. He takes action, gets things done, follows through on ideas and plans. Mr. Passivationist is a "don'ter. He postpones doing things until it's too late. Example Mr. A  decides he should attend church regularly. He does. Mr. P thinks it's a good idea to go to church regularly too, but he finds ways to postpone acquiring this new habit. In the end Mr. A gets things done and gains confidence and self-reliance. Mr. P doesn't get the things done he wants done because he won't act. Thus he loses confidence in himself, destroys his self-reliance, lives in mediocrity."

"Ever notice how seldom children complain about the weather?  They take hot weather in stride. Complaining about the weather makes you more miserable and it spreads misery to others.  Other people want to be around alive, enthusiastic people. Being around complainers and half-dead people is uncomfortable."

"Remember, your appearance "talks." Be sure it says positive things about you. Never leave home without feeling certain you look like the kind of person you want to be. People do evaluate you on the basis of your appearance because it is the first basis for evaluation other people have. The well-dressed person's appearance says positive things. It tells people, "Here is an important person: intelligent, prosperous, and dependable. This man can be looked up to, admired, trusted."

"Pay twice as much and buy half as many. With everything you wear, quality is far more important than quantity. Your garments will last more than twice as along because they are more then twice as good.  You owe it to others, but more important, you owe it to yourself to look your best. Your appearance says here is a person who has self-respect, so treat him that way. Go first class: that is an excellent rule to follow in everything you do, including the goods and services you buy. "But I can't afford to go first class." The simplest answer is: you cannot afford to go any other way. It's better to have fewer things and have quality than to have many things and have junk."


"The person who does the most talking and the person who is the most successful are rarely the same person. The more successful the person, the more he practices conversation generosity, he encourages the other person to talk. Conversation generosity helps you learn more about people."

"One characteristic of successful people: enthusiasm. Always spread good news because it garners enthusiasm and please people. No one ever won a friend by broadcasting bad news."

"Average people recent progress. Soak up all the good ideas you can. Be an experimental person."

"We've found an amazingly close correlation between a person's job respect and his job performance. Impressed when a job applicant thinks his present job is important, even though there may be something about it he doesn't like."

"If you mispronounce or misspell someone's name, that person feels that you feel he is unimportant. Learn to remember names.  The most important person present is the one person most active in introducing himself. Drop a personal note or make a phone call to the new friends you feel you want to know better. Go out of your way to meet new people."

"Being fired from a job can be a blessing in disguise. You might not really like the job much and might have stayed there and never have gone far. Now you have a chance to find something you really like to do. The difference between success and failure is found in one's attitudes toward setbacks."

"Prolonged association with negative people makes us think negatively; close contact with petty individuals develops petty habits in us."

"Compliment people at every possible opportunity."

"Set monthly goals for yourself of accomplishment. You will only accomplish what you set out to do. The most regarding kind of investment is self-investments, building mental power and proficiency. Set goals to get more energy. Set goals to get things done."

Check out this post of mind about goal crushing.

Lunch - Black Rice Peanut Kale Bowl

Dark Places is the movie adaption of Gillian Flynn's book published before "Gone Girl." Per usual, the book is better than the movie because there’s simply too much going on in the book to condense into a two-hour movie which doesn’t come across nearly as dark as Flynn’s book reads. The movie is a puzzling thriller with a strong list of actors including Charlize Theron, Corey Stoll, and Drea de Matteo. Charlize plays Libby Day the sole survivor of a massacre in a rural town in Kansas. Having witnessed the murder of her sisters and mother in what appears to be a Satanic cult ritual, she manages to escape and later testifies in court against her teenage brother Ben. Twenty-five years later true-crime fanatics called the Kill Club enlist Libby to exonerate her brother Ben, whom they believe in innocent, but first they must convince Libby.

The chilling story has some similarities to Charlize's real-life experience as a teenager. When she was 15 she witnessed her mother shot her alcoholic and abusive husband in an act of self defense. Charlize has spoken publicly about it.

I was scared to start this book because of the topic matter and because the reviews were very melodramatic. But honestly only 2 pages were devoted to details of the murder, the rest read like a dateline investigation series of who done it. I was perfectly fine reading it at night in my dark bedroom. This book kept me guessing throughout as it kept switching back between narrators. I highly recommend this book as a great mystery!

 But how does a movie based on a bestselling book and starring A-list actors get dumped into an extremely limited theatrical run? It was released in April in France, then opened in the US 2 weeks ago with no publicity and will go straight to video. I guess the powers that be decided the film wasn’t made well enough to spend money on promotion so it’s only made less than $1 million at the box office so far. Check out the trailer: 


Check out my list of books coming out as movies this year.

                                                                                                          My air-conditioning seems to have a problem every summer. I have a little portable humidity reader in my bedroom that tells me if the indoor humidity is at an acceptable level.  When I saw how high the humidity was, I looked into cost effective ways to get it back down. Everyone I spoke to about the issue, highly recommended DampRid which I heard of before but found it at Bed Bath & Beyond. DampRid is a bucket filled with calcium chloride crystals which absorb excess moisture out of the air. The process works in that the crystals turn into a solid mass then they dissolve and liquid drips out of it. Once I opened up a tub in each room, my humidity reader said the humidity levels went down 10%.  In my closet, I used DampRid's Hanging Moisture Absorbers and look how much water has come out of it! I highly recommend this product!
Here are some tips everyone should know about keeping your home cool in the summertime.

1. Keep your blinds closed. Doing so keeps the temperature in your apt lower and saves you money on your a/c bill. You don't want the sun heating up your apt!

If you don't have a balcony or outdoor garden, a terrarium is a great idea for a house plant. Succulents are low maintenance, they just need some sun and a little water. Terrariums are easy to make, even if you don’t have a green thumb. I think it adds a beautiful touch to any room as the plants come in all kinds of colors. Since my living room is painted orange I wanted to create my terrarium around a vibrant orange moss. I recently read the book The Signature of All Things which talked about the world of mosses in great detail. Did you know 12,000 species of moss exist?
I really enjoyed the process of making my terrarium into its own tiny biosphere. I started off by picking the perfect container to build it in. The beauty of terrariums is that you can plant one in any container, the sky is limitless! Terrariums can be potted in cactus soil or sand. I arranged mine with a composition of different materials to create their own little world including colorful plants and crystals. I think the crystals create a great sparkle factor and natural beauty in my miniature landscape. I also added two airplants, also known as Tillandsia, which don’t require soil to grow. See they get all of the water and nutrients they need through their specialized leaves. In nature, air plants use their roots only for attaching themselves to rocks, trees, shrubs, and the ground. But in my terrarium I remove them once a week for a soak in water so they can absorb water into their leaves.

Succulents can thrive indoors in containers that don’t drain as long as they receive some light during the day and as long as you’re careful not to overwater them – a few drops of water once a week is really all they need. I also added some activated charcoal and pebbles at the bottom of the bowl to help with drainage and possible mildew issues. The more sun a succulents gets, the brighter it’s color. My plants only get morning sun from my window, but the species I have could potentially turn orange and red! And once a year they will bloom flowers! I love how they are sticking out of the bowl and spilling out.



Last summer on a business trip to LA, I walked by the vendor below on the street and fell in love with the succulents but thought how will I pack the spiky plant to take home? Well when I got home I showed this picture to my mom and she knew exactly where to get one locally and bought me a moon cacti. At first I kept it in a dark room and the cacti turned orange. That’s when I realized that it needed to be on a window to get sun. Once I put it there, it returned to its bright red color. I also spray painted the potter gold.