Somehow, the more I tried to look pass this book on the
customers-who-bought-this-item-also-bought menu, the more it kept showing up even on books I was browsing that weren’t of any hinge of relatedness.

Out of irritation and curiosity, I clicked to check the book out. Upon closer look at the cover, I came to know that the author was the creative consultant on The Secret—mere mentioning of this book almost caused me to gag. I hate The Secret—the book and the DVD; just hate them. They are simply overhyped and overrated. There, I finally say it.

On with this book, A Happy Pocket Full of Money, a hefty price tag that is selling two and half times more than many other paperbacks in Amazon. And with almost all 5-stars ratings, I just couldn’t help but to get this book and investigate.

So, was this book worth my time and money? Here’s my take on what I like and dislike about this book.

What I like; on:

Content Delivery: With a doubt, the author’s insights on creating wealth, abundance, and joy are incredible. He uses many metaphors to illustrate how LOA works. They are current and realistic which make them easy to understand and relate to.

He begins the first few chapters on basic understanding of quantum physics, and then gradually moves onto the spiritual aspects of LOA.

One of my favorite takeaways of this book is this:

Desire and intend, and you shall always have it. Quest for the truth and knowledge, and you shall always know what you seek to know. There are no real boundaries to your growth, for you are more than welcome to experience any choices you make. But you must be certain that these statements are true, for if you believe they are not true or they are partially true or selectively true, that is exactly what you will get.

Especially the last sentence—partially or selectively true—it rings so true for me. Quite often when I moved pass my complete doubt on a particular quest/belief to partially doubt, the result I got from it was always partial or selective.

What irk me about this book are the:

Borders and Line Spacing: Talk about abundance, the author or the publisher certainly didn’t apply one of his “laws” when it comes to line and paragraph spacing and borders especially the right border which width measures only 0.312 inches.

It put tremendous strain on my eyes when reading a whole chunk of texts in one cramped page. Some paragraphs go as long as four-fifth of a page.

For the price of $29.99 for a 228-pages book, least they could do is to be generous with the line spacing. The content itself isn’t at all different to comprehend but I had to pause many times between pages; making it thrice as long for me to complete a book with the same amount of content.

Subliminal Message: It took me almost a quarter of the book before I could muffled the—I AM WEALTH. I AM ABUNDANCE. I AM JOY—subliminal message between paragraphs and quotes. To be honest, I don’t quite appreciate these subliminal messages. It looks like the author was trying to accomplish too many tasks at one go.

I’m no expert on subliminal messages, but to my understanding, they are meant to be, a lack of better word, “hidden” and not thrown at you so vividly and often in infrequent intervals.

With clamped text and subliminal messages scattered all over is enough to clutter your brain and most probably dampen your reading pleasure.

Repetitive Phrases: I read one of the reviews at Amazon, and this reviewer loved the repetitive phrases use so often in the book. I don’t about you but I certainly don’t.

Not all repetitive phrases in the book are in exact wording, some are rephrasing one idea into two or six ways. I understand why some like repetitive stuff because it takes a while for the message to drill it in. Here’s what I think about repetitive messages, nag. Remember how your mom’s constant nags that you completely not hearing her?

I agree with the author that repetition is powerful, but what good does it make if one doesn’t pause to reflect or implement them once received. For what it’s worth, repetitive messages are nothing but noise.

If the literature is of worthy read, I can always reread it many times and highlight those that deem to be useful for me. But for the first take, I’d like to get through the book without jumping through hoops.

So-called Teasers: I don’t mind one or two teasers spread across the book but having one or two in almost every chapter just drive me nuts. Most are towards the end of the chapter but some are midway into a chapter. What teasers am I talking about? Here are some excerpts randomly picked from the first 108 pages:

• All this will make more sense when you understand…
• The pieces of the puzzle will fall into place as you read on…
• As you will see throughout this book…
• It will make sense when…especially after reading…
• Some…will only become clear after you have read the whole of this book.
• This will get easier and clearer…
• You will know more about them in later chapters.

A couple of chapters, the author talks great length about being in the Now; as you see from the above excerpts, these are certainly not the Now talking. How can I be in the Now—enjoying what I’m reading now, when the author so often reminding me about what I will understand or learn in the next few chapters? Subconsciously, I’m anticipating and not able to fully appreciate what I’m doing Now. I’d rather be shown (when I get there), not told (before arriving).

Spelling Errors: I, too, am guilty of making some spelling errors on my blog posts and also notice them on some of my friends’. I tend to be more forgiving on blogs. But for books, it can be annoying when you know there is an in-house editor to do the nitty-giddy checking and editing; unless it is a self-published book. Fortunately those errors are very minimal.

Conclusion:

So, does this book, A Happy Pocket Full of Money, warren your time and money? Yes, it still does if you can overlook the first four points the irked me. But seriously, I would recommend this book to those who are new to LOA or those who haven’t fully comprehend how LOA works or those seasoned LOA practitioners who want different perspectives. Having said, I honestly can’t give a 5-stars rating like many Amazon’s reviewers did. The content only rates 4 and the overall presentation is a 2-stars for me.

Strangely, this book doesn’t dedicate a page on author’s biography or a short bio at the back of the book.

It may interest you to know that the author’s website literally screams Internet Marketing sales copy to me—the layout, bonuses, endless testimonies, and the standard IM web copywriting. I have nothing against IM but many of these products just look plain scrammy and unprofessional. Maybe it’s about time the author hire a good web copywriter and a web designer to redo and update (…offer ends Oct 25. Hmmm, what year?) his site if he wants to increase sales and be taken more seriously.

• No related posts for now.

Duma Key

How Does this Book Fare as a:

• Renter: Yes.
• Borrower: Yes.
• Buyer: No. Well, not for this book in my opinion. You’re better off buying King’s earlier works as mentioned above. And who knows, they might become classic.
• Gift: Yes. Especially to SK fans.
• Audio Book: Definitely worth it. As I said earlier, John Slattery did a great job. I didn’t expect him to manage the various accents effortlessly.

Overall Rating On Duma Key: 3½ stars.

• Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World
• How to Drive Husbands Off the Wall…Effectively

What’s even more puzzling to me is that this book is listed as one of the bestsellers in Amazon with many reviewers giving 4 to 5 stars. Hmm…were they rating based on the book cover or the content? I wonder if we read the same book.

If you intend to buy this book hoping to read how a rescued, ordinary library cat in a rural area like Spencer who never left his “home” more than once managed to charm the world then you will be greatly disappointed.

With a subtitle like The Small-town Library Cat Who Touched The World and a picture of a cat on its book cover, I was expecting a TOUCHING story of the life of a cat named Dewey. Instead a third of the book is autobiography and a quarter of it talks about Spencer’s farm crisis during the 80s. A quick math here, 40 per cent of the book goes to Dewey which the author failed to show us (a good story shows, not tell the readers) how charming the cat was.

There are a few things in the book don’t quite resonate well with me (i.e. Dewey’s constipation and finicky eating—but I’m going to let these pass as I’m commenting here and not over at my pet blogs) in particularly the word/phrase world and Dewey Goes to Japan (Chapter 22).

Dewey never went to Japan rather it was the Japanese TV crew (consisted of six people including an interpreter) came to do a documentary film. Being featured in a Japanese magazine and film is not the same as being physically there. Figuratively speaking, yes! I just have to congratulate the author’s clever use of words.

As to the word world, the author again used it very loosely. The world consists more than these five countries—USA, Japan, New Zealand, Canada, and one more country (I can’t remember). There are 190 more countries which the author missed.

I’ve read quite a few memoirs on animals (because I’m a sucker for animals), but none is as dull as this book. There are a few Dewey scenes which I think the author could develop further showing us more eccentric behaviors of this cat. If only the author had spent equal amount of time observing Dewey with the patrons as she did with her daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren then she would have more writing materials on Dewey to cover in the book instead of filling numerous pages of unconnected personal tales.

If the author was trying to meet the quota to get this book published by filling in a hundred or so pages of fluff then it’s pathetic. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I understand that no publishing house would consider publishing a non-fiction adult book under 200 pages. Unless you have compelling persuading skills like Richard Bach (Jonathan Livingston Seagull), very rarely we see such “lengthy” book published.

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

How Does this Book Fare as a:

• Renter: No. Don’t bother to waste a dime on this book. There is plenty of good books to rent but not this one.
• Borrower: Yes or maybe no. I’m sure most libraries would have it since it revolves the life of a library cat. Do so only if you really love cats and have no other good books to sink your claws in.
• Buyer: No. Since I declare it isn’t a renter, then it’s pretty obvious it’s not worth buying.
• Gift: Yes, if you want to put the receiver to sleep! Jokes aside, I suppose most cat lovers won’t mind receiving this book especially with such a handsome cat on the cover. Whether or not they will read pass chapter 2 is very questionable.
• Audio Book: If you must read this book, then I suggest you borrow the audio version from your local library. It’s abridged; and why didn’t they do that for the book! For those who read the book and feel it’s a self-important prose, honestly it isn’t half that bad compared to the audio book. Kudos for Suzanne Toren who did a wonderful voice over capturing the author’s accent.

Overall Rating On Dewey: 2 stars. I’d very much like to give one star but because Dewey I gave it a two.

• How to Drive Husbands Off the Wall…Effectively
• Duma Key

And guess what? I don’t know who the sender is. Sure, there is a card attached, “signed.”

RENEE

APOLOGIES FOR THE CONFUSION

HOPE TO SEE YOU SOON

INAHAMANI

But who the hell is Inahamani? Female? Male? Or Animal?

One thing I’m certain is that there were quite a few people pissed me off (really bad) the last couple weeks, but having to receive this bouquet is a bit dramatic and puzzle to me. And I DON’T say it affectionately.

1. The card is not handwritten, therefore insincere.
2. They are all in capital letters, therefore rude.
3. Where the hell is the word ‘Dear’, therefore impersonal.
4. The sender has big ego, vague apology with zero stench of remorse.

This is what I read between the lines. The sender knows that he/she had done something despicable as he/she could not make himself/herself elaborate the cause of confusion, for fear I might relive the incident. Therefore, the sender stays as vague as possible (including the name) so I will forget the whole situation.

If the apologizer is really sincere, he or she would follow up with an appearance or at least a phone call. So I would know who the hell Inahamani is?

• If the sender is a male, he is an idiotic self-centered prick.
• If the sender is a female, she seriously needs a sex change and become a duck.

By the way, terrible choices of flowers. I hate Gerbera daisy and white roses. Whoever you are, you just got yourself into a deeper shit.

As a matter of fact, I favor a verbal apology over anything else. Cut the crap and be sincere. I will always accept it in a heartbeat, 99%!

• Getting Lost in Singapore?

Short breaks? Done that! Didn’t work.

Goof around? Done that! Didn’t work either.

Shopping therapy? Close. Does test drive a brand new car count? More on that later on.

Then I realize the reason why I feel my writing suck is because lately I’d been reading too many A-list blogs. The more I read, the more insignificant I feel.

I never thought of myself being an A-list blogger one day. Of course I have big aspiration where problogging is concern; but fame is not one of my top ten blogging goals. Or at least not in the next three years.

Anyway, catch up with you later!

• When Men Make Men Cry

Ladies, get a box of tissues ready, don’t say I never warn you!

Strongest Dad in the World

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.

But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.

Eighty-five times he’s pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he’s not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars–all in the same day.

Dick’s also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?

And what has Rick done for his father? Not much–except save his life.

This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.

“He’ll be a vegetable the rest of his life;” Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. “Put him in an institution.”

But the Hoyts weren’t buying it. They noticed the way Rick’s eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. “No way,” Dick says he was told. “There’s nothing going on in his brain.”

“Tell him a joke,” Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain.

Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? “Go Bruins!” And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, “Dad, I want to do that.”

Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described “porker” who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. “Then it was me who was handicapped,” Dick says. “I was sore for two weeks.”

That day changed Rick’s life. “Dad,” he typed, “when we were running, it felt like I wasn’t disabled anymore!”

And that sentence changed Dick’s life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.

“No way,” Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren’t quite a single runner, and they weren’t quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year.

Then somebody said, “Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?”

How’s a guy who never learned to swim and hadn’t ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried.

Now they’ve done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don’t you think?

Hey, Dick, why not see how you’d do on your own? “No way,” he says. Dick does it purely for “the awesome feeling” he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992–only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don’t keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.

“No question about it,” Rick types. “My dad is the Father of the Century.”

And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. “If you hadn’t been in such great shape,” one doctor told him, “you probably would’ve died 15 years ago.”

So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other’s life.

Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father’s Day.

That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.

“The thing I’d most like,” Rick types, “is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once.”

Here’s the video…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjPrL3n63yg

Written by Anonymous

• Reasons for my Temporary Absent…

Make the woman happy. Do something she likes, and you get points.

Do something she dislikes and points are subtracted.

You don’t get any points for doing something she expects. Sorry, that’s the way the game is played.

Here is a guide to the points system:

SIMPLE DUTIES

AT THE PARTY

HER BIRTHDAY

A NIGHT OUT WITH THE BOYS

A NIGHT OUT WITH HER

YOUR PHYSIQUE

THE BIG QUESTION

COMMUNICATION

IT’S THAT TIME OF THE MONTH…….

There you have it, BOYS!

• How to Drive Husbands Off the Wall…Effectively

Limited Edition!!!

Grab one quick before they disappear from the shelves!!!

• Is Computer a She or a He?

And if you don’t have GREAT sense of humor than you won’t enjoy what I’m about to say, because it will probably put you in an edgy position. However if you let it sink a little deeper, you’ll see the whole picture so much clearer.

Chat – It’s pretty well known fact that women tend to be chattier than men. Generally speaking, most husbands can put up with it for a while however your marriage can take its toll if your chattiness goes overboard. And to spice things up, gossip nonstop on phone and in public.

Be seen chatting to others while he…

• Gets home from work.
• Gets ready to go to bed.
• Watching his football game. Sit close to him and talk louder than the sport commenter.
• Reads his morning papers.
• Is with you in a corporate function.
• Is queuing up at the register counter in a grocery / hardware / electronic stores.

Intimacy – For decades, women have been giving this excuse, “Honey, I’ve a headache tonight” to avoid intimacy with their hubby. While this might put him off for a week or two but it isn’t enough to get him off your chest – so to speak. You have to be creative than this.

Before bedtime:

• Wear facial mask; more effectively if the mask is made of seaweed. Not only the smell is repelling, the color can even turn a white ghost green.
• Wear hair rollers on. Not just on the bang/fringe, but full head of rollers.

When pursued:

• “You just not that sexually appealing to me anymore.” Then sing this song!
• “It’s not appropriate because I’m seeing Brad Pitt (dream).” Then sing this song!
• “I don’t want to mess up the bed sheet.” Then sing this song!

Nag – From young we “hated” our mother for their constant nagging. As adult we still do. This is the best time to do your mother proud.

At home:

• “How many times must I tell you to lift up the toilet seat after before use?”
• “Can you please not fart in my present?”
• “Did you wash your feet?” right the minute he gets to bed.

In public:

Men hate to be told and nagged by WOMEN about their driving skill.

• “You are driving too fast, and it’s making me sick.” say it even he’s driving within the speed limit. Better yet when he is driving 20mph (30 kph) in a school district area.
• “Why can’t you park properly?” check to see the distance between the car and the marked white line on the parking lot are equally spaced. Then shoot him a killer look.
• “Why don’t I drive before we get completely lost?” As he started the car about to drive the kids to school.

Dinner – They always say that the best way to a man’s heart is food. And if you’re already a lousy cook, then you’ve accomplished 50% of your mission. And if you’re a great cook, needless to say, you’ve to turn yourself into a lousy one.

• Make all dishes tasteless by taking away salt, sugar and various sauce and herb you normally use.
• Prepare dinner at noon, preserve it in the fridge and serve it cold.
• Though he can preheat them in the microwave oven, but the dishes won’t taste any better without flavors.

Get acquainted – Husbands never like nosey / suspicious wives. Heck, wives never like to be questioned every piece of garment they bought be it the price or the practicality. Women react on emotions, Men act on logic. It’s time to turn the table around and be “logical” to check all his…

• Emails. Question non stop even if the email came from his mom.
• Mobile phone call activities and keep a record of all the activities
• SMS messages
• Pocket book
• Wallet
• Briefcase

Surprise appearances – Nobody like surprises, especially if they are unflattering.

• Appear in his office unannounced with shabby soiled clothes and no make-ups.
• Make yourself very available yet inhospitable when he is having a poker night with the boys. Serve Ginseng tea and marshmallow instead of beers and crackers. Constantly spray air freshener whenever one of his buddies lights up a cigarette or cigar.

Managing Funds – Most husbands entrust their wives with household expenses. Some lucky wives will probably have one to three credit cards for a little indulgence called side dishes spending.

• Don’t bother to balance cheque books.
• Write overdraft cheques, then deny for doing so.
• Max out his credit cards and his supplementary cards.

Shopping:

• Buy him thongs instead of boxer shorts. Do otherwise if he favors thongs.
• Buy his office wear shirts one to two sizes smaller. If his wears only a certain brand than get the brand that’s one grade higher. So when he made you return to the store for an exchange, is your second chance to max out his other credit cards. And if he decided to do the exchanging, you just give him an additional work to do.

Now the key here is to DO all of them day and night for a couple months. You should be able to see some results. Remember, NEVER put up a fight with him when he is about to blow.

If you still failed to drive him off the wall, after attempting all the above pointers, don’t fret because you’re most likely to be awarded “The best psychotic woman ever lived in history”.

By the way, if this list isn’t enough to drive you crazy, then head on down to Problogger and check the list writing competition.

• Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World
• Is Computer a She or a He?
• Duma Key
• How Women Score Men
• You Wanna a Sexy Song?

This secret simply blew me away. I never thought “aluminum coated plastic bag” has more than one functionality. I usually use it as a mini trash bag for cooking. That way, fruit flies or any creepy crawlies won’t linger around my trash bin before I clear my bin in the evening.

Secondly, I think it’s an awesome idea to safe some unwanted resources which most people would discard them without second thought.

Without further ado, here’s how “aluminum coated plastic bag” comes into action.

Any aluminum coated plastic bag will do, it doesn’t have to be from Quaker.

There is plenty room for you to put any choice of fruits or vegetables in it.

Do not fold or seal the opening of the bag. Just leave the bag open and it will do the magic work for you.

After one week, the vegetables remain fresh. Amazing, isn’t it?

A close up shot of the vegetables, they are still very fresh without any dehydration!

Go have a try! I bet you will thank me for it!

Instead of throwing useful things away, reuse them, and you’ll be inherently joining the group of “Saving the Mother-Earth” Campaign.

Best of all, you are hitting two birds with one stone.

• No related posts for now.