Everyday Jon Hill

It’s Finally Done

Ok, so a long time ago I said that deadlines are important and I thought my book that I’ve been writing would be done by my birthday. Well, I never expected to get a full time job which pretty much made me postpone the book.

But then that job ended.

So I’m proud to announce (mostly to myself?) that tonight I finished my book, Running to Pittsburgh: A Story about a Boy from Philadelphia. It needs some illustrations and some good friends editing it, but it is finished and will be released relatively soon. Don’t worry, it’s not that good and you probably won’t like it. But I like it. So there’s that.

I Hate You Bank of America

Why do I hate Bank of America? Was it the sub-prime mortgage lending? Was it them threatening debit card fees? The bailout? Nope. I’m pissed because they got successful and that they did it without me.

I few months ago I noticed that with all the public outrage of the Occupy Movement, their stock, (BAC) took a major hit and was trading at $5. I knew it was an undervalued stock, which, having just read a bunch of finance and investing books, is exactly what you are supposed to look for. The risk of it falling even farther into a penny stock was very little. I mean, the property value of all their buildings alone was more than what their stock was showing. The bet seemed safe and I figured at its worst, I wouldn’t lose much. So I hatched a plan to buy a bunch of shares at this deflated price and wait a year for it to get back to where it probably should be at.

Well, I lost my job and thought it was too risky to buy the stock with so much financial insecurity ahead of me. Smart move right? Well cut to a few months later when I see that BAC is trading at $7.30 a share, meaning that had I bought 400 shares like I wanted to, it would now be worth $2920, netting me $920 in just a few months. And if it ever gets back to its yearly high, I’d be looking at my initial investment being work over $6000. $6000 for reading a financial book and acting on my instincts. 

I hate you Bank of America.

Did You Know Paulo Coelho Has a Blog?

The author of The Alchemist (please read this short book) has a blog. I enjoyed this short story. 

30 Sec READING: why do we shout in anger?

  A master asked his disciples:

‘Why do we shout in anger? Why do people shout at each other when they are upset?’

the disciples thought for a while, and one of them said
‘Because we lose our calm, we shout for that.’
‘But, why to shout when the other person is just next to you? ‘Isn’t it possible to speak to him or her with a soft voice? Why do you shout at a person when you’re angry?’
The disciples gave him some other answers but none satisfied the master.

Finally he explained:
‘When two people are angry at each other, their hearts distance a lot. To cover that distance they must shout to be able to hear each other. The angrier they are, the stronger they will have to shout to hear each other through that great distance.’

Then the master asked:
‘What happens when two people fall in love? They don’t shout at each other but talk softly, why? Because their hearts are very close. The distance between them is very small…’

And he concluded:
‘When they love each other even more, what happens?
‘They do not speak, only whisper and they get even closer to each other in their love.

‘Finally they even need not whisper, they only look at each other and that’s all. That is how close two people are when they love each other.’