Since the last writing I have started going back into the office. It is interesting to hear and see other people’s perspectives on covid-19 the Corona virus. However, I digress.

I am going to have to add a few books to the my list of completed. I should get better at this. I have read John C Maxwell 15 Laws of Growth. I will need to re-read this book several times to get everything out of it.

Maxwell suggests taking a week to implement each law – So will need to keep reading. Maxwell is also pretty confident of his ideas because the world has given him so much money. It’s easy to gain confidence when people give you money because of your ideas. It makes me questions how much truth there is to his ideas. I am beginning to question if people get lucky they start to think they know more than they do.

I also read Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, by Neil DeGrasse Tyson. I liked this book because of the ideas that help expand my universe. He is a bit overconfident in the science when he admits in his book that we only know about 5% of the universe and the other 95% is filled with stuff we don’t know about but called “Dark Matter.” He also explains there is a cosmic force that is out there they cannot identify, which is called “Dark Energy.” Fascinating stuff. He admits that we don’t know much about gravity and other things that are going around us all the time, like gravity waves and neutrinos. He doesn’t call science a religion but with the faith he expects us to put in his beliefs it should be called a religion.

The other book I read is Malcolm Gladwell’s Talking With Strangers. This is a fascinating look at how we interpret and misinterpret other people but most importantly strangers. He goes into the problems the assumptions we make are causing problems.

One interesting thing is he discusses is that we “default to truth.” Which means we automatically believe what people say is true unless there is over-whelming evidence to get us to change that idea.

Another idea I picked up from the book is that TV shows make it so obvious what the actors are thinking and feeling we don’t even need the sound on to understand what is going on. But people from other places and other cultures do not understand the facial expressions the same way.

I am coming up with a new philosophy of why people have a hard time trusting me. I believe now it is because I have not watched that much television in my life. We didn’t have a TV until I was 12 and by then I had figured out other ways to fill my time. At 15 I started playing sports, a social life, my high school home workload, a job, and other adventures I didn’t have much time to watch TV. I can now see where this has put me at a disadvantage because I do not know how to act like people on tv.

Several years ago someone in a class I was teaching told me about this book series. I was intrigued and read a couple of them. I enjoyed he books and was excited last year when I heard Disney was going to release a movie.

I would liked to have seen it in the Theaters. Sadly the virus has put a stop to that.

The beginning of the movie was slow as it went about setting up the world of the fairies and trolls. But when it got going I enjoyed the story. One of the things I like about hero stories is when the Hero is able to anticipate and diffuse the attacks. I also like when the Hero is able to turn and opponent into a trusted friend.

Another fun thing is the special effects that can be generated now for movies is a lot of fun for the fantasy/science fiction genres.