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Category: miscellany

You too can be debt free

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A while back, that is to say, about a year or two ago, my parents began listening to this guy on the radio called Dave Ramsey.聽 Although he may not be as well known as Sean Hannity, his broadcasts focus on individual people instead of politics.聽 If you tune into his radio show on any given day, you may be priviledged to hear several families call in to tell their success stories: how much debt they paid off, and how long it took them; and then they will scream I’M DEBT FREE!

Now please don’t get me wrong, I’m not a Dave Ramsey fanatic.聽 But I am very much appreciative of the work that he does every day to (1) convince people that they have financial problems, and (2) tell them how they can change their lifestyle in order to attain that high and lofty goal of financial peace. Read More

Poverty Is a State of Mind

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When people find out that I have visited Mexico, they almost invariably respond with some comment about the realization such a trip brings as to how much we are blessed in this country, seeing the poverty of many south of the river. However, as grateful as I am for the worldly goods I have here in Texas, I have a different opinion concerning those who are termed as “poor” among the people of Mexico.

True, they may not have running water. True, they may not be able to afford to own a vehicle or a computer. They may struggle to make ends meet to feed a large family. But does this make them poor? Our grandparents probably lived thus, but were they poor? I humbly suggest that poverty lies not in the wealth or number of goods that one possesses, but instead is an attitude, a way of thinking. I am not saying that there are not poor people in Mexico, but I was able to enter some very humble abodes down in San Luis Potos铆, dirt-floored homes made of sticks and thatch, and I am here to tell you that these people are just as industrious as many hard workers around here.

I believe the amount of things a man owns largely depends on where he lives. In this country we have a very favourable environment for building wealth, given that money is managed in a proper way to facilitate this. On the other hand, folks down in Mexico do not enjoy the same work/money ratio that we have here. Read More

Delicious!

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I would like to alert you of the initiation of yet another Benja-blog: Belph艙be. This new blog is not to replace any of my existing blogs, but instead exists for the purpose of sharing with the world interesting passages from the books I am reading. I am quite a bookworm (though not as much of one as my sister), and as I read I encounter passages that are just so wonderful and marvelous that I want to save them.

So I hereby invite you to visit my new blog, a blog of tasty morsels and literary titbits. I’m sure you’ll find it palatable.

Belph艙be

See y'all

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隆Adi贸s, amigos! I’m off to Camp Blue Haven in the mountains of New Mexico, and I’ll be gone for two weeks (now you know why I’ve been blogging so much lately!)

I hope you’re enjoying the series on my trip to Mexico, and if you would like to really make my day, leave a comment on one of the posts. It thrills me to get comments, and I get them so seldomly that when I do get one it really makes my day (hint, hint). :)

隆Timupantise!

Rejoice!

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We now interrupt our regular programming to bring you this important message.

I’ve taken the ACT twice now: once last fall and then again earlier this month. The first time I got a score of 30, and today I got my second score in the mail. And it is… 31!

So what does this mean? Well, the ACT scoring system is a scale from 1 to 36, and 31 is quite an excellent score, if I say so myself. So again you may ask: What does this mean? Why is this so exciting? Well, it means that I would be able to get a free tuition scholarship at either one of the two colleges I am currently considering—pretty nifty.

So anyway, you know what I’ll be doing this summer: Scholarship essays! Free tuition is great, but room and board are pretty pricey at college these days as well.

Now, back to Mexico!