Having watched many re-run episodes of “I Dream of Jeannie” when I first immigrated to US, I was rather intrigued to find out more about Barbara Eden, who played Jeanie in the show. I remember to show to be simple and mostly no-brainer kind of show that filled my lazy summer days between schools. And as Eden has emphasized, it’s a show that play out the fantasy of the people who the audience can easily relate to, hence the appeal.

I didn’t expect that much from this book but after listening to the audiobook, I found the book or Barbara Eden’s life to be rather interesting. Her love of singing brought her to Hollywood and got her career started. Trying out every audition was her way of playing the odds and getting herself in front of the movers and shakers.

Her being cast in “I Dream of Jeanie” was mostly because her earlier Genie role in a movie. It helps to get your hands dirty and try all different roles if you want to be an actor.

I’m convinced that she was truly in love with her first husband, Michael Ansara. Unfortunately, Michael’s acting career didn’t last and caused a strain in their marriage, which resulted in a divorce after 16 years. She attributed her broken marriage partially to postpartum depression after losing her 2nd baby due to the busy working schedule. She claimed that she would have kept the marriage to preserve a better environment for her first son, who was 6 years old at that time. This in turn may have contributed to Matthew’s drug addiction.

Larry Hagman, the co-star of the “I Dream of Jeannie” was such as basket case. Indulging himself in drug and alcohol, he was a huge disruption to the show with his mood swings. He didn’t feel that he was at his best. Of course not, he turned out to be a bigger star in Dallas.

The second marriage to Charles Donald Fergert didn’t turn out well because he resented his wife to be on the limelight. Barbara blamed herself for not seeing the telltale sign of his issues before the marriage – like the desire to be looked upon as Hugh Hefner of the Playboy Magazine.

There were interesting tidbits about her working with some of the biggest stars like Lucile Ball (a huge star with professionalism), Desi Arnaz (a womanizer even in front of Lucile Ball, Tony Curtis (tried to hit on her), Jim Jones (another womanizer, “I want to show you London”), Bob Hope (a fun, respectable guy), Elvis Presley (as a co-star role, may have feeling toward Barbara, who didn’t detect it. Found all of Elvis’ cousins to be unrelated to him), Sidney Sheldon (a genius producer), Don Rickle (who wouldn’t insult her because his beloved wife is also named Barbara) and many others.

The last act of the book was about her son’s drug overdose. It was very courageous for Barbara to describe in details of her son’s addiction and on that dreadful final day when she was told of his death. It’s very hard for any parent to accept that. Her quivering voice throughout this part of story reveals the heartache that she had to endure since then.

It is a good book if you want to know a little of the TV history and the early pioneers of the era. Barbara Eden practically grew up with the TV industry and benefited from its growing popularity. It pays to a pioneer in a new industry and she paid dearly and brought lots of joy to the audience.

Betty White is long recognized as the quintessential comedy actress. I like her part in the Golden Girls. The book reminded me of her Homemaker role in Mary Tylor Moore’s show. Of course, this book also introduces me to her new “Hot in Cleveland” show, which I wasn’t aware of. I watched a few Season 1 episodes. Not bad. It’s like the Golden Girls show except the girls are washed-out Hollywood actresses and Betty plays the old caretaker lady that comes with the house. 3 women and 1 older woman – same formula.

I learned a few things about her life. I admire her longevity in the show business. May she live long and continue her happy and fulfilled life.

Key takeaways:
– She really likes pets. It’s good to have a passion or course. It makes life interesting – a key ingredient to happiness.
– She is modest in attributing her success to luck in pursuing her passion of the TV/movie industry, which practically grew up with her.
– Her fan club leaders are all retired – it goes to tell you how long she has been in this industry.
– Getting nominated is a reward in itself. Winning it makes it all that much sweeter.
– She hasn’t been sick for over 20 years, thanks to taking vitamin C. Wow, that’s a testimony!
– She enjoys crossword puzzle and writing. They both go well with the craft of acting while keeping her mind sharp at her age: 91 years old now.
– Timing is very critical in comedy. She has to continue tuning her timing. But she’s a pro.
– Having consistent stories for reporters are important. She admires Warren Betty.
– Integrity is especially important in her line of work. Coming from her really makes it more pronounced.
– Her monologue in the SNL is hilarious.

Lisa See, the author of “Shanghai Girls” picked up where she left off on that novel This time, Joy, the daughter of the “Shanghai Girls” – two sisters – Pearl and May (birth mother), ran away to China just 8 years after People Republic of China was formed. The author goes through a great deal of research in finding the condition of early years of People’s Republic of China, the inner working of the Communist Party, the Great Leap Forward and the resulted famine throughout China. This novel gives the readers a glimpse of what is like to be living in China at that time. The novel was interesting and probably more mesmerizing than the previous novel – Shanghai Girls. I highly recommend it.

Below is a quick plot description:

Blinded by youthful idealism, confusion about who she was because of the shroud of lies her family put around her, and her desire to find her true father (Z.G.), Joy went to Hongkong and traveled across to China and eventually got to Shanghai.

After meeting her birth father, who was struggled against (public criticism) and had to travel to a village to re-educate himself, Joy traveled to the Green Dragon Village and met Tao, later became her husband. In the mean time, Joy’s mother, Pearl, traveled to Shanghai and stayed in her old Shanghai home working as a paper collector to wait for her daughter to come back.

When the mother and daughter finally met, they had a fight and the mother continued to wait for Joy’s change of heart. In the mean time, Pearl fell in love with Don, a boarder in her home before she left Shanghai 20 years before.

The next time they traveled back to Green Dragon Village, Joy and Tao decided to get married. Little did she realize, she was stepping into a nightmare – joining a family of 7 in a small hut. After Pearl and Z.G. left for Shanghai, Joy got pregnant then the famine hit the village with the onset of the Great Leap Forward. Throughout the ordeal, she was struggled against by her own husband, family members and even her friends. To survive, she put up with all the false beliefs, and bureaucracy. Near death, she was saved by her own wit in notifying her mom and Z.G. of her dire situation.

After being rescued back to Shanghai, Joy and Pearl plotted the exit out of China to return to USA. It was through some scheme and luck that they were able to get out with Z.G., Don, the little orphan boy, Tongming, Joy and her baby, thanks to Pearl’s final reunion with her father, who abandoned the family 20 years before.

The final scene was when Z.G. finally met May for the first time since her departure from Shanghai.

I think there could be more novel coming next after Joy, if Lisa See chooses to turn these stories into a “Root” in the Chinese way.

Just finished the API book on Safari Online.
This book goes into the business side of the API as a strategy for businesses and touched on some aspects of the technical side of the implementation like security, authentication, load balancing and etc. It opens up my eyes how the Google Map API, Twitter and other seemingly free on-line services are powering the internet. And you can even make money out of it like Netflix and Amazon API are doing. I was surprised by how many of the developers out there are taking in all these services (like NY Times) and re-packaging into something creative and useful to the end users (like NPR). It’s like an ecosystems that feeds on itself. Nice.

Just finished the long audiobook. Wow, I don’t know how the author did it, the book reads like a novel with all the conversations among the key players of the economic disaster of the 2008. I’m really shocked about how clueless the top echelon in the financial industry, which may have contributed to the fiasco in the first place.

The reward system of the financial industry appears to be morbid. The more risk a person take, the more he gets rewarded if he got lucky but the company and in this case the US tax players bear the risks and consequences.

Solving the 2008 problem was not something one can figure out from textbook. Even the government officials like Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke and Tim Geithner were short of the experience in handling it and they had to play be ears as waves and waves of financial shock hit the industry (like the flip-flopping of buying up toxic assets and injecting capital directly in the troubled company) , which is and was essential connected like a web of dominoes. When one falls, it would drag down the rest of the industry given the size the leverage the people are taking. In this case, it started out from Bears Stearn, then Lehman Brothers, then AIG. The others are teetering on the edge of bankruptcy until the major rescue with TARP.

Warren Buffet seemed to be tapped frequently as the white knight to buy cheap assets when the financial companies were in a dire need of capital. It really helps to have lots of cash and be an able and willing funding source of the last resort. I think only the Fed can claim to be one, an official one, nevertheless.

There are a few interesting events like hand carrying a check of $9 Billions from Japan back to Morgan Stanley because of a bank holiday preventing wire transfer, shotgun wedding meetings arranged by Paulson and Geithner, forced feed of capital injection into the 9 major financial firms to beef up their balance sheet and to avoid a financial Armageddon.

After reading this book, I can’t help to be cynical of the investment banks and the financial industry in general. How does one get to be paid millions in bonus and not having to risk anything?

This is a good book depicting the greed and shallowness of the people involved. The characters and their names were difficult to follow except for the key ones. There are sufficient details in the book for the future historian to judge what happened. I have made my conclusion.

I was introduced to the concept of Mind Mapping through the book “Moon Walking with Einstein.” Decided to check out the concept with this book. It’s a thinking structure that’s supposed to mimic how our brain neurons work so that we can assimilate information quickly, retain and recall contents easily. The author spent almost half of book on the technology side of the mind mapping and the other half on techniques, which is probably the right mix. The color prints are wonderful and I’ve learned a few things. Will need to practice more to be good at it.

My key takeaways:
On mapping: use 1 keyword per branch and Use graphic elements like colors, symbols, pictures, boxes, and connecting arrows.

One can use the mind map to prepare a talk/presentation, taking notes in talks, lectures and meetings, and manage projects.

There are lots of desktop software and apps available to help with the mind mapping, e.g. Freemind (free), iMindMap from Tony Buzan, Mindjet MindManager, and etc. The author provides a pretty review of the various software offerings. It does go into the inner working of the Mindjet Mindmanager and iMindMap.

On mindmapping reading materials:
A. Preparation: Skim the text (get an initial impression , and prioritize), recall the background knowledge (in a mindmap), setting questions you’d like to address and aims (what you want out of it).
B. Reading process: 1. Skim reading: read through from introductions, summaries, headings/subheadings and tables and illustrations. 2. Preview: read the first and last paragraphs of section section of a chapter. 3. Immersion: go into details if you haven’t got what you want. 4. Difficult Passages: focus on those passages.
C. Generate a mindmap from different sources.

Learning and Preparing for Exams:
1. Taking your mind-mapping notes: Tips on taking notes: 1. arrange keywords in a non-linear sequence, 2. Don’t write everything down word for word. 3. Link what you hear to what you already know. 4. Structure what you’ve heard. 5. Develop a system of abbreviations and symbols. Generate special study mind maps.
2. Entering your own thoughts.
3. Revising regularly.
4. Explain it to others.

Mindmapping for creativity
4P Creativity Model: People, process, press (team or org climate), and product.
Creative Problem Solving: The Situation in the center of the circle surrounded by teh following:
A. Clarification: Formulate challenges <-> Explore the vision.
B. Transformation: Explore ideas <-> Formulate the solutions.
C. Implementation: Formulate plans <-> Explore acceptances.
Principles of creativity – two-stage thinking
Divergent thinking: a broad search for many new and different alternatives.
Convergent thinking: a focused, positive evaluation of alternatives.
Mind Mapping is both divergent and convergent at the same time. applying keywords and using branches is divergent. Embedding each branch within a structure is convergent.

Developing and ordering ideas with MindManager:
1. Formulate an issue.
2. Inputting ideas.
3. Evaluating ideas.
4. Structuring ideas.