Recent Readings

As summer begins to move into full swing so has my reading. I've put A New Earth on hold for the moment and am focusing on other reads including:

Vanity Fair : The Man Who Crashed The World
This article is fascinating to me. Although the jargon behind hedge funds and sub-prime mortgage rates seems jump right on over my head I was still incredibly interested in the sheer volume of money the Financial Products division of A.I.G. was operating on. One of the employees of the F.P. admitted to receiving a bonus of $742,006.40 post-tax. $742,006.40 BONUS?! I simply can't imagine that kind of money. The C.E.O. of the F.P. was pulling down a reported $38 M salary. So let's assume that he works 230 days a year, that's roughly $165,000 A DAY. A DAY! I know for a fact that I will never make that in a year let alone a day, insane. Then after the failed C.E.O. got the boot, he was kept on consulting for something like $1M a month. At what point is enough enough? I am the first to admit I love a good pair of $200 jeans, but having money of that magnitude is a recipe for disaster. Greed is a powerful force and this article shows how it can rear it's ugly head, leaving American taxpayers to clean it up.

My Sister's Keeper
I am about half way through this and loving every page. It's an easy read, perfect to crawl in be with every night. I really enjoy the narration style and the way that the story is building, although from a designers standpoint better fonts could have been chosen to represent each character. I have been warned to keep a box of tissues near as I reach the last few chapters, and we all know how emotional I can get so I am sure stocks will rise in Kleenex the day I finish this one.

PRAXIS 2009 Study Guide
This is my current work read, compelling I know. I realized as I push forward with this graduate school stuff that I have not taken a standardized test similar to the PRAXIS oh, since the ACT in 2001, so I decided getting a study guide wouldn't hurt. At first I thought this was foolish because school has always come really easy for me and the only tests I ever have studied for were a college agronomy class, economics 101, calculus I & my high school mechanical physics class, but after glancing through some online materials and coming to the realization that you forget everything you ever learned when you get into in art school I decided I needed some brushing up on well, everything. I have gotten through the reading comprehension portion of the guide and am now moving on to math. I am liking the layout of the book and think it will be worth the $20 I dropped on it, I certainly hope so anyway as I chose the one that advertised "passing score GUARANTEED!". Looking at taking the test toward the end of this month, I'll let you know how it goes!