Salinger The catcher in the rye

Lots of time you don't know what interests you most till you start talking about something that doesn't interest you most.

List of free programming books and websites

https://github.com/vhf/free-programming-books/blob/master/free-programming-books.md

https://learnxinyminutes.com/
http://kracekumar.com/post/71171551647/introduction-to-python

CME 193: Introduction to Scientific Python

https://web.stanford.edu/~arbenson/cme193.html

Scipy Lecture Notes One document to learn numerics, science, and data with Python

http://www.scipy-lectures.org/ 

Lessons learned from Rich Dad Poor Dad

Take it or leave it. I've got too much work to do to waste my time. If you can't make up you mind decisively, then you'll never learn to make money anyway. Opportunities come and go. Being able to know when to make quick decisions is an important skill.
Lesson One: The Rich Don't Work For Money.

Keep using your brain, work for free, and soon your mind will show you ways of making money far beyond what I could ever pay you. You will see things that other people never see. Opportunities right in front of their noses. Most people never see these opportunities because they're looking for money and security, so that's all they get. The moment you see one opportunity, you will see them for the rest of your life. The moment you do that, I'll teach you something else. Learn this, and you'll avoid one of life's biggest traps

One [dad] encouraged talking about money and business at the dinner table. The other forbade the subject of money to be discussed over a meal.

"So is a poor man happier?" I asked. "No, I don't think so," replied rich dad. "The avoidance of money is just as psychotic as being attached to money."

"Cynics never win," said rich dad. "Unchecked doubt and fear creates a cynic. Cynics criticize, and winners analyze" was another of his favorite sayings. Rich dad explained that criticism blinded while analysis opened eyes. Analysis allowed winners to see that critics were blind, and to see opportunities that everyone else missed. And finding what people miss is | key to any success.

Rich dad forbade the words "I can't afford it." In my real home, that's all I heard. Instead, rich dad required his children to say, "How can I afford it?" His reasoning, the words "I can't afford it" shut down your brain. It didn't have to think anymore. "How can I afford it'" opened up the brain. Forced it to think and search for answers.

I once met a young woman who had dreams of swimming for the U.S Olympic team. The reality was, she had to get up every morning at 4 a.m. to swim for three hours before going to school. She did not party with her friends on Saturday night. She had to study and keep her grades up, just like everyone else.


I made the statement years ago which is often quoted that 80 percent of life is showing up. People used to always say to me that they wanted to write a play, they wanted to write a movie, they wanted to write a novel, and the couple of people that did it were 80 percent of the way to having something happen. All the other people struck out without ever getting that pack. They couldn’t do it, that’s why they don’t accomplish a thing, they don’t do the thing, so once you do it, if you actually write your film script, or write your novel, you are more than half way towards something good happening. So that I was say [sic] my biggest life lesson that has worked. All others have failed me.
In my own life, I've noticed that winning usually follows losing. Before I finally learned to ride a bike, I first fell down many times. I've never met a golfer who has never lost a golf ball. I've never met people who have fallen in love who have never had their heart broken. And I've never met someone rich who has never lost money.

Keep try to get what you want, noone is gonna give it to ya, you have to take it.

George Orwell's 1984 - mind bending quotes

“It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words.” … “Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.” ... “Even the slogans will change. How could you have a slogan like “freedom is slavery” when the concept of freedom has been abolished? The whole climate of thought will be different. In fact there will be no thought, as we understand it now. Orthodoxy means not thinking—not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.”



"If you kept the small rules, you could break the big ones."


"On the battlefield, in the torture chamber, on a sinking ship, the issues that you are fighting for are always forgotten, because the body swells up until it fills the universe, and even when you are not paralysed by fright or screaming with pain, life is a moment−to−moment struggle against hunger or cold or sleeplessness, against a sour stomach or an aching tooth."


"She was very young, he thought, she still expected something from life, she did not understand that to push an inconvenient person over a cliff solves nothing. … 'Only because I prefer a positive to a negative. In this game that we're playing, we can't win. Some kinds of failure are better than other kinds, that's all.'"

Lists of greatest books ever written

So, I decided to start reading books again. Those are not work related. I mean again, because when I was a teenager, I was simply eating then, one after the other. Therefore, shortsightedness, slightly deformed spine. But then I felt much more sophisticated, much more clever and experienced than I am now, after all my travels and seen/felt experiences. However, the older you get, that faster time goes by. I simply do not want just to read any book, I want to read books which are the best. Otherwise, life is too short to read boring books.

Thank god we have internet today. It is so simple to choose a good book. All I have to do is just to check the lists greatest books ever written. There many lists available. The final choice, which list (or combination of them) to follow is up to the reader.

The Big Read – The list made by BBC in UK in 2003 from the three quarters of a million votes to find the nations best-loved book of all time.

List of best-selling books – List is made by the estimated number of copies sold of each book, rather than the number of books printed or currently owned

1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die – Provides a list of books compiled by over one hundred literary critics worldwide.

The 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written – A list proposed by Martin Seymour-Smith (1928–1998), a British poet, critic, and biographer.

Modern Library (publishing company) 100 Best Novels – Modern Library used its editorial board (Daniel J. Boorstin, A. S. Byatt, Christopher Cerf, Shelby Foote, Vartan Gregorian, Edmund Morris, John Richardson, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., William Styron and Gore Vidal) to find the best 100 novels of the 20th century.

Great books – A list for curriculum and made of books of contemporary significance (has relevance to the problems and issues of our times); inexhaustible (can be read again and again with benefit); relevant to a large number of the great ideas and great issues that have occupied the minds of thinking individuals for the last 25 centuries.

Memos and my personal interpretation of a book - “99 francs” (new title “14,99 euro”)

Amusing, straight, dirty, entertaining, but still makes us think and be concerned about  the power of media and TV. Anyhow, this is well known fact to me, therefore I have realized that my personal thoughts were on a little different subjects.

- Octave tells words of love to Tamara: “You are mine forbidden dream, my only storm, my only hope. You are mine only, dancing with the stars on the sand of dunes.”

- “From what happiness consists? From white sand, blue sky, and salty water.”

Memos and my personal interpretation of a book - "Love Lasts Three Years"

World famous book about the never ending topic of love, rises the concern about some impossible-to-answer philosophical questions, eg. happiness and love. I agree, love last three years, unless the sacrifice, you pay for staying in love, is a pleasure for you. I got several personal thoughts that stuck in my head after reading this book. Since I read it in Lithuanian, I am lazy to translate to English, so I just copy/paste some of the text.

- Mark, I’ll give you an advice how to behave with other women. You need to learn to imagine yourself in their place”, said Sofi leaving him forever.

- Happiness – is the silence of unhappiness.

- “Brangusis struti,

visąlaik apie tave galvoju. Galvoju apie tave iš ryto, vaikštinėdamas šaltame ore. Tyčia žingsniuoju lėtai, kad galėčiau ilgiau apie tave galvoti. Galvoju apie tave vakare, kai pasiilgstu per vakarėlius, kuriuose nusigeriu, kad galėčiau galvoti apie ką nors kita, o išeina atvirkščiai. Galvoju apie tave, kai matau tave ir kai tavęs nematau. Labai norėčiau daryti ką kita, užuot galvojęs apie tave, bet neįstengiu. Jei žinai būdą, kaip tave pamiršti, pranešk.

Ką tik praėjo blogiausias savaitgalis mano gyvenime. Nieko niekada taip nesiilgėjau. Be tavęs mano gyvenimas – laukiamojo salė. Ar dar yra kas klaikesnio už ligoninės laukiamąjį su neono šviesa ir linoleumu išklotom grindim? Ar humaniška taip su manimi elgtis? Be to, laukiamajame esu vienas, nėra daugiau kraujuojančių sužeistųjų, nuo jų buvimo jausčiausi ramesnis, ant žemo staliuko nepadėta žurnalų, kurie mane išblaškytų, nėra numeruotų talonėlių spausdinimo aparato, kad galėčiau tikėtis, jog šitam laukimui kada nors ateis galas. Labai skauda pilvą, o niekas manimi nepasirūpina. Būti įsimylėjusiam reiškia baisų pilvo skausmą, nuo kurio vienintelis vaistas – tu.

Alisa. Nežinojau, kad šitas vardas užims tiek vietos mano gyvenime. Buvau girdėjęs kalbant apie nelaimę ir nežinojau, kad jos vardas Alisa. Alisa, aš tave myliu. Neišskiriami žodžiai. Tavo vardas ne Alisa, o “Alisa-aš-tave-myliu”.

Tavo labai nusiminęs Markas”

- “Norim, kad laikas sustotų, kad meilė būtų amžina, kad niekas niekada neišnyktų, norim lepintis nesibaigiančia šviesia vaikyste. Kad apsisaugotume, statom sienas, ir šitos sienos vieną dieną virsta kalėjimu.

Dabar, kai gyvenu su Alisa, nebestatau pertvarų. Imu iš jos kiekvieną sekundę kaip dovaną. Pastebiu, kad galima jausti nostalgiją dabarčiai. Kartais išgyvenu tokias nuostabias akimirkas, kad imu galvoti: “Na, vėliau ilgėsiuos šio momento, turiu niekada jo nepamiršti, kad galėčiau prisiminti, kai bus blogai”. Pamažu suprantu, jog norint išlikt įsimylėjus reikia, kad abu turėtų kažką neapčiuopiama. Reikia atsisakyti banalumo.tai nereiškia prasimanyti kvailų pokštų, o mokėti stebėtis kiekvienos dienos stebuklu. Būti dosniam ir paprastam. Įsimylėjęs esi tą dieną, kai užspaudi dantų pastos ne ant savo šepetėlio.

O svarbiausia – sužinojau, kad, norėdamas būti laimingas, turi būti buvęs labai nelaimingas. Jei neišėjai skausmo mokyklos, laimė nebus patvari. Trejus metus trunka ta meilė, kuri nekopė į kalnus ir nepuolė į dugną, ta, kuri nukrito tiesiai iš dangaus. Meilė tęsiasi tik tada, kai abu žino jos kainą, ir geriau ją sumokėti iš anksto, kitaip rizikuoji apmokėt sąskaitą, kai jau per vėlu. Mes nebuvom pasiruošę laimei, nes nepripratę prie nelaimės. Užaugom išpažindami komforto religiją. Reikia žinoti, kas esi ir ką myli. Reikia subręsti, kad išgyventum nebrandžią istoriją.”

- “Epikūras pataria laikytis dabarties, paprastų malonumų pilnatvės. Ar malonumą reikia labiau vertint negu laimę? Naudotis šia akimirka, užuot svarsčius apie meilės trukmę, – ar tai geriausias būdas ją pratęsti?”

Memos and my personal interpretation of a book - "The Godfather"

After finishing reading “The Godfather”, a novel by Mario Puzo, one of the greatest books ever written, worldwide bestseller I wrote down my personal notes about this books, moments that have left the most indelible impressions in my head.

- Respect and honor, these words goes all the through out the book. Most important stone-like features of personality within the society. Don treated everyone equally, rich and poor, smart and stupid. He kept all his promises, never forgot about any service (even wrote everything down in his private notebook, which Sonny took from safe, when Don was in the hospital shot, in order to find a man who can do a service for the family – to check the phone calls of the traitor).

- Service for a service. Corleone leaders take it the whole way to even demanding friendship from the person who they help and requesting for a payback someday in the future.

- “I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse.”, said Michael Corleone to the stubborn Las Vegas hotel owner Moe Greene who never accepted the offer and got killed. Motifs of Green’s refusal were not revealed in the book, whether that was money, the job he liked or personal distaste of Corleone family. When Green refuses the offer, Michael brings up Freddie issue, which was slapped to face in public by Moe. Doing such a thing for a most powerful gangster’s son (Freddie), even though he is not the brightest son, one means one thing – disrespect for the whole Corleone’s family. Therefore, Moe has got his “offer he can’t refuse” – either money or death.

- Things people do in life ARE PERSONAL. “… it was business, not personal”, Tom said to Michael to calm him for jaw injury capitain McCluskey did to him in front of the hospital. “… It’s all personal, every bit of business. Every piece of shit every man has to eat every day of his life is personal. … You know where I learned that from? The Don. … The Great Don. He takes everything personal. Like God. … “, said Michael in return.

- Persuasive power of Corleone leaders comes from careful and thoughtful speach and abilities to convince the opponent using reasoning. Never threaten, never raise the voice. In order to convince somebody, always be ready for a discussions, have all reasons though of well. Dialogues between consigliori Thomas Hagen and rich Holywood producer Jack Woltz.

- Always be calm in any situation in life. Wise decisions or actions can only be made with a cold mind.  Sonny gets killed just because he did things first and then thought, not wise versa…

- Cruel business lesson. “Like any good salesman he came to understand the benefits of undercutting his rivals in price, barring them from distribution outlets by persuading store owners to stock less of their brands. Like any good businessman he aimed at holding a monopoly by forcing his rivals to abandon the field or by merging with his own company.”

- Sono cose nostre. “… And who are they then to meddle when we look after our own interests? Sonna cosa nostra,” Don Corleone said, “these are our own affairs. We will manage our world for ourselves because it is our world, cosa nostra. And so we have to stick together to guard against outside meddlers. …”

- You can not say “no” to a family members, at least not often. If if you really need to say “no” sometimes, it has to sound like you said “yes”. To my opinion, this is generally true for all the cases, whenever there has to be a negative answer, the recipient will be much happier to accept a negative answer if it is announced politely, with reasoning and sounds like “yes”.

- In order to achieve the goals in life, one has to think in advance as further as possible, plan all the moves carefully. Having a superior strategic advantage, just like in a chess game and seeing through the opponent’s traps brings you closer to success. In the book it is well demonstrated by Sollozzo’s trick, second, almost successful attempt to kill the Godfather. By making a deal with police captain McCluskey and imprisoning all the security guards and removing all legal security from the hospital when Don Vito is still lies powerless in bed after an attempt to his life.

So I started playing chess, my old beloved game during my young days.