Money and freedom When I was younger I used to think that money is not the most important thing in the world. Indeed money can't buy wisdom, love, good family and friendship, so I’ve always focused on something else. Now I’m in my thirties and I’m a wage slave spending 8 hours a day at work (not including commuting) and I don’t have enough time for the great things mentioned above. The problem is not specific to a particular job, I've worked plenty of them and finally realized that I just don’t like other people telling me what to do and inability to control my time. I’ve read R. Kiyosaki and understand the basics of “money working for you”, but changes require time and work eats a lot of it. I’m not here to complain. I can get what I need and I will. But if I realized the problem and possible solutions at age of a student or earlier I would have taken a different course of action. The point is, knowledge about money is a fundamental thing that will make achieving high level goals easier. It's a key to freedom for me. It's good to know how it works and affects our life at early age.

Why do I think podcasts are great for language learning First off, most of them are just sound, and therefore can be “consumed” while doing something else: I often listen to them when going for a walk during a break at work. If it was a video or a text I would spend another hour starring at the screen instead. I listen to them in public transport while getting to work using otherwise “dead” time to learn English. Even if I am very busy and can’t study during the day I still always have my transportation time. I subscribed to some podcasts for learners that have easier but still real spoken language. I found some great shows for natives also, and I'm still motivated to listen because of the interesting content. Podcasts are easier to produce than video, and because of that some authors release episodes more often. Furthermore, comparing to video many of them a less commercial and have more useful content. Using podcasting software it’s really easy to subscribe to shows I like and get notifications when a new episode is released. I like that podcasts are decentralized and don’t depend on one big company such as Google or Apple.

What beliefs to choose In my previous notebook entry I wrote that we can choose our beliefs. A probable conclusion from this could be that we can believe whatever is convenient. But I don't like the idea. If we choose to believe something that is convenient but not rational this can cause problems in the future. For example, we can waste all our income and don't try to save or invest, believing that the government or a company will take care of us when we become older. So, I prefer to choose beliefs that are at least not lies, better if they are based on facts and thought through. Sometimes the best thing to believe, if we care of long term happiness, is not convenient at all and takes courage just to realize it. For example, sometimes bad traits of character can prevent us from moving forward if choose to believe that we are good and try to hide them from others and even ourselves. Another example, is some important decision that was made in the past and that turned out not to be good later. It can be very hard to confess that you have been wrong for such a long time. So, for me, the key is the long term result of a believe and how truthful it is for us.

Choosing beliefs Snow was falling, and two snowflakes were talking. One said: Look, now we are dancing in the wind. And after we reach the ground and the sun starts to shine we will melt, turn into a stream and unite with all our sisters and brothers. Isn't this beautiful? The other one replied: Idiot! Why are you so happy? Our life is so short and very soon we will fall down and die in a dirty puddle. For a while I didn't understand the idea of choosing beliefs, that is taught by some modern gurus. Shouldn't our beliefs reflect the truth and the reality? Or at least what we think is true and real? This metaphor illustrates the fact that many times there is no one right answer, especially, when it comes to such things as the meaning of events in our lives or the meaning of life itself. We can think one thing or another, and both of them can be true from someone's perspective. But beliefs determine our thoughts, reactions and feelings, and eventually our life. And if it's so, why not to choose ones that will help and motivate us?

A ghost at the postoffice Many years ago I worked as a night watchman at the post office. It consisted of several rooms: a big one where clients were served and some others for staff only. Usually, after all workers went home I remained in the rooms for stuff, and turned off the light in the main room. One day in my shift I went to the main room wishing to do something. And before I managed to turn on the light on, I saw a black cat sitting on one of the tables and starring at me. I turned on the light and to my big surprise the cat was gone! I searched the room thoroughly, but with no luck. I couldn't hear any sounds of the cat also. I turned off the light and went to my place. I returned to the main room again several hours later, and saw the cat's eyes glowing in the dark before turning on the light and no cat after that. I was a little bit scared and spent the rest of the night thinking of the ghost and why it had appeared to me. Nonetheless I had some doubts and decided to go to the main room one more time in the morning. I searched the place yet again and this time I finally found a normal cat sitting between a large cabinet and the wall. Somehow it managed to sneak in the post office without being seen by anybody and was sitting very quietly all the time leaving its refuge only when there was nobody in the room. So do ghosts exist? Maybe, but I haven met one yet :)