October 30, 2009 – 9:03 am
I have been reading some interesting books recently. One of them was Free: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson from Wired magazine. The book is about all these business models that are created around free, especially on the internet and in digital form. Free is possible because the costs of digital goods in the digital era of the internet are very close to zero. I got this book from Amazon.
Another book that I have just finished is Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. This is a bestsellers book on personal finances and was first released in 1999. The book talks about how Mr. Kiyosaki had two dads, one rich and one poor and the different aspect of their vision about money. While the poor dad would tell Robert to go to school get good grades and get a secure job, the rich dad would teach about the importance of being financially literate. An excellent book that I got from the library, but I loved it so much that I want to buy it. You can find out about this book here.
In the book the author talks about the game that he created to teach people how to develop their financial intelligence, the game is called Cashflow. I had the chance to meet a group of people how plays this game and last weekend I had my first experience playing the game. I couldn’t achieve the game’s main goal, which is to get out of what Robert calls “the rat race” and have a passive income greater than your expenses, but I learned new things and I had a great time playing the game as well as I met interesting people. Looking forward to the next section!
After reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad and have enjoyed it a lot I start reading another book from the series Rich Dad’s called Retire Young Retire Rich. On this book Robert Kiyosaki tells the reader how his wife and him were about to, in 9 years, be financially free and retire. I am almost half way through the book and I am likely it so far. If you are interested about this book check out it’s Amazon page.
I haven’t always been a big reader but I think now I found topics that motivates me to read more and more and I simply started loving to read.
September 11, 2009 – 9:45 am
Last weekend we had a small family celebration for Anna’s birthday. Thomas was just recovering from a chickenpox so the main celebration had to be cancelled. Gabi, grandma Elizabeth, grandpa TarcÃsio and I gave the kids some toys.
Here is a photo of Anna on daddy’s lap with her first doll.
August 23, 2009 – 9:10 am
I have mentioned that I was studying for the Citizenship test. So this past week I finally took the test. Apparently there is a lot of people that want to do the test so the next available day when I went to book it was 3 months away.
The test is really easy. I have read the book twice and I got 19 questions right out of 20. The only questions that I got wrong was about the Mabo decision. I didn’t know what was it. It was in the book, so I probably read it, but I couldn’t remember.
If you don’t know what is the Mabo decision and so I can never forget it again, here it is:
“Mabo decision restored unsold land to Aboriginal people if they had maintained their traditional ties to it.”
Latelly I have been thinking about the idea of share knowledge without expecting any financial reward. Like on the old days of school where your friends would ask you about a subject that they knew you know better than them, and you wouldn’t even think about money and would give them a private class.
So I realized that if you legitimatelly teach someone without excepting anything back, you have a good chance of get something back, and when you do that over and over again, with more and more people, the rewards will start coming on your way and will surprise you.
And when I started to think, I had this idea that may explain to you why. At least to me things became more clear now. People like to teach other people because it makes them to feel good about it. On the other hand, when someone teaches you something that is useful to you, you want to reward them.
Now comes the reward part of give, the reward can be anything, and will be in most cases as genuine as the given part. You will be referred to a job, to a new customer, to a new partner, etc. And these things can get really viral.
The more you give, the more you will get back. This works like a law of physics, when you give, you are throwing a ball of air that will gather more air and return to you.
Antonio in thoughtful moments.
Last 15th of June I turned 32. Unfortunately I haven’t got any picture of my birthday celebration at home to show you. But Tati and Matthias came with Thomas and Anna and we had a delicious chocolate cake that Gabi made for us. (As Thomas says: “Thank you tia Gabi!”) They sang Happy Birthday To You to me 
and Thomas helped me to blow the candles.
I snapped this picture the other night with my mobile of the Sydney Opera House. This is part of an event that is happening in the Sydney Opera House called Luminous.
April 28, 2009 – 10:06 pm
This month we celebrated my nephew Thomas’ second birthday. Here is a picture that I snapped from him and his friend Anais analysing the cake.
I have received the study book for the Australian Citizenship Exam. I haven’t started studying yet, but I can tell that the booklet is pretty cool. There are lots on Australian Culture things that Australians probably learn at school that an immigrant like me, that haven’t been to the elementary school in the country wouldn’t know.
I will keep you guys updated as I am going through the booklet. If you are interested to see how the booklet is like, have a look on the online version here.
February 25, 2009 – 2:03 pm
Last Saturday you got a little fellow coming to visit us. It was on our building hall and I snap a pictire with my mobile phone camera. Have a look:
This is the Australia famous Possum.
January 31, 2009 – 12:05 am
After five years using the same pair of glasses I have just got a new glasses, in fact they were two pairs.