A Higher Loyalty: Audiobook Review

Dork score: 8/10

Oh Lordy! I was conflicted about James Comey before getting into this book. I still am, but less so. It's so much better hearing directly from a person in a long-format such as this, instead of reading headline news or a twitter post. You get much more detail and you don't have to assume so much.

Putting the presidential election aside, this book offers a ring-side seat to the inner workings of an FBI director. How cool is that? Despite what you may hear from the current white house, James Comey was highly-regarded director of the FBI. The recent Mueller report confirms that the white house press secretary Sarah Sanders directly lied to the public, painting Comey in a terrible light. It's a sad day when it is confirmed that the white house lies to us. What other lies are they telling us? In any case, to get a better idea of Comey's character, let's see what he has to say for himself. Here's a snapshot of Mueller's report:

"When a reporter indicated that the "vast majority" of FBI agents supported Corney, Sanders said , "Look, we've heard from countless members of the FBI that say very different things. " 48 Following the press conference, Sanders spoke to the President, who told her she did a good job and did not point out any inaccuracies in her comments. 481 Sanders told this Office that her reference to hearing from "countless members of the FBI" was a "slip of the tongue ."482 She also recalled that her statement in a separate press interview that rank-and-file FBI agents had lost confidence in Corney was a comment she made "in the heat of the moment" that was not founded on anything. 483"

Right off the bat, you can tell this book was highly motivated by his interaction with the orange orangutan in the white house. He immediately starts talking about bullies and mob bosses. While there have been no tapes brought forward confirming this, I believe Comey when he says that the orange idiot ask him for his loyalty. As far as I am concerned, the only possible way the orange idiot has gotten so far is that he was somehow able to recruit a bunch of loyalists who blindly put their faith in him. His longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen describes his blind loyalty in his testimony to congress.

I'm not well-versed in branches of government, so this book was enlightening in the fact that Comey outlined the purpose of the FBI and the 'norms' of government. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, besides what I've seen in film and TV, was a pretty big mystery to me, so it was interesting to learn more about it from its former director. Who knew most FBI agents don't actually carry guns?

My main reason for reading this book - as I am sure is the same for many people, is I wanted to hear his explanation as to why the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails was made public. The title of the book, 'A Higher Loyalty', I'm sure is a rebuke of Trump's advances and attempts to recruit him - but also a message that he, along with the whole FBI, are a separate bipartisan group that conducts their business independent of politics, religion, etc. The emails sent on a private server was a HUGE mistake by Clinton and they were brought to the attention of the FBI as the perfect time. The FBI had no choice but to investigate them.

Comey claims that he doesn't know if this open investigation had any effect on the election results and that if it did, it would make him, 'mildly nauseous'. I hate to say it, as I like the guy in general, but he's got to be somewhat delirious if he thinks this didn't affect people's votes. Or perhaps he says this to cover his butt and defend his action. While it didn't affect my vote, I can easily imagine someone on the fence, being pushed over the edge and cast their vote for Trump. Here's a good article that outlines the likelihood of this FBI investigation affecting the election results:

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-comey-letter-probably-cost-clinton-the-election/

Despite this, however, I cannot put myself in his shoes. What was the right thing to do? Was he put in an impossible situation? Probably, yes. The thing we have to remember was, while he was the director, the decision was not his alone. He had his own council. The decision was to conceal or to speak. Also, Comey did not make the public announcement about reopening the investigation. What he did was send a private letter to congress about it. Then, congress let this out to the public. So, we cannot put the whole blame on Comey.

This book was about more than just the 2016 election. It also goes into the details about what happened afterward. Comey saw immediately that Trump was unfit to be president and that his actions mirrored those of a gang lord. While indeed the FBI director is appointed by the acting US president, the president does not dictate how the director does his or her job. While I don't believe there are any rules in stone about this, the general relationship between the FBI and the white house is limited. The president and the director don't generally speak unless it's at the daily white house briefing. In the case of Trump, Comey was on speedial. Any many occasions, Trump indirectly asked for Comey's loyalty and compliance. Trump even asked Comey to drop the investigation into Michael Flynn. Trump repeatedly pressed Comey on issues like this and tried to bring Comey to his side.

A few months later, Comey was fired - essentially on TV. Comey was in LA at a few FBI-related events and was caught completely off guard when he was told there was a press statement from the white house informing the public that he had been dismissed. This was obviously intentional from Trump himself, as far as I am concerned. This was punishment for refusing to become loyal and for not shutting down certain ongoing investigations.

There was a dismissal letter sent simultaneous to the public announcement by Sean Spicer, but I'm fairly certain Trump knew Comey was not in washington at the time. Since he had been dismissed, he immediately lost all his privileges of being in the FBI, which meant he was essentially stranded in LA without a ride back home. Luckily, the acting director McCabe authorized Comey to fly back. McCabe later received a scolding by Trump for authorizing this. Funny enough, McCabe was also fired by the white house a few years later.

Yes, we have a malicious monster in the white house. Hopefully, for not too much longer.

Related links:
C-Span Interview
Time article/video
Vox article on Clinton emails
Trump's dismissal letter to Comey

A Man Called Ove: Audiobook Review

Dork score: 9/10

What a wonderful surprise! This was a last minute find before my long drive to work. I have since learned it was made into a film, which I promptly reserved at my local library. Apparently Tom Hanks is producing and possibly staring in an American remake of the film!

If you've seen the film, On Golden Pond, imagine a younger, widowed, Swedish Norman (played by Henry Fonda) - and you get the main character of this charming novel, Ove (oo-va).

Ove is an older retired gentleman, who lives by himself and keeps a strict daily routine. He's very stubborn, judgemental, brutally honest - even snide at times, but means well despite his outward abrasiveness. After his wife passes away and retiring, he loses his purpose in life - that is, until a foreign couple move in next door and disrupt his life.

The book's chapters are pretty linear, but contain several disjointed sections that either tell a random story from Ove's life, or a flashback to when his wife was still alive. It was unique, but eventually got a bit repetitive that each chapter's title began with, "A man called Ove" + title of chapter. I suppose this was made worse by the fact that I had to listen to the voice actor say this each time. The voice acting was very good, so I can't complain much.

Ove is a bit old fashioned, but has an open mind. He is not racist or homophobic, but he is weary and blunt. I was surprised to see how he reacted to the gay character in the story. He called him, a 'bender' - which I'm assuming is Swedish slang for gay (not straight, hence 'bend'). I'm unsure if this is an offencive term, but he meant no malice by using it. He's not emotional or sympathetic, but he does care - just in his own special way, if you happen to appeal to approach him in the right way. He's a very self-reliant, handy man, and will judge you without remorse if you are unable to do something that he views as common sense or something you should have been taught as a kid.

I can see myself and some of my family members in Ove. I have my principles, like him. I'm also pretty stubborn when it comes to certain things. He'll only ever own or purchase a Saab, I've only ever purchased Hondas - and we both judge others for driving other types of cars. Other than being able to related to the character, it's a sweet story about a grumpy old man who who eventually opens up to certain individuals that stumble their way into his life - and give him the  purpose he needs to keep living.

Becoming: Audiobook Review

Dork score: 9/10

I believe you can tell a lot from a person by the company they choose to keep; especially their life partner. Now that I've learned more about this amazing woman, I respect Michelle and Barack even more than I did before. How we went from two intelligent, well-educated, wonderful people to an orange buffoon and his fashion model wife, I'll probably never understand.

Becoming describes the journey from Michelle's childhood to White House and all the struggles and joy in between. This is a well-written memoir and a well-read audiobook by the author herself that held by attention until the epilogue.

Michelle is very well-spoken - clear and articulate down to the last letter of every word. It was interesting to hear about her grade-school struggle to pronounce the word, 'white' in elementary school and being told by her high school advisor that she wasn't Princeton material. She's come a long way since then! Not only did she get into Princeton, she graduated at the top of her class.

She kept her nose down and did what she wanted and proceeded to Harvard law school. She kept on the straight and narrow and landed a six-figure job at a fancy law firm where she met Barack - where her life started to 'swerve' as she like to refer to it. She was not fulfilled at this job, so she switched gears and took a pay cut of about half of her previous salary. She reiterated this fact several times in the book, so it's clear she was sore about it, but happier.

Barack is a fascinating character. He is apparently a little bit unpredictable and likes to 'swerve' as Michelle likes to put it. I was a bit shocked to find out right getting married to Michelle, he left her for over a month to write a book, "Dreams from My Father". He was heavily into reading books and figured writing one could make them some money - and it did! He also had his story to tell. It's a little unclear if even Barack knew he would eventually get into politics. Michelle certainly didn't know until much later on in their relationship, after they got married. Unfortunately Barack had to spend a lot of time away from both Michelle and eventually their children as he got sucked further into his legislative career.

It is pretty clear that Michelle was never a huge fan of politics - she even states this at the very end of this book. She also never plans on running for office. In the end, she did agree to go on this rollercoaster ride with Barack, and I don't think she regrets it, but it wasn't quite the life she initially saw for them. She is well aware of the dangers of being in the public spotlight. She was very honest about how she feels about Donald Trump and the hateful and dangerous things that come out of his horrid mouth. From the birther conspiracy that Trump peddled, among other things, put her family at risk and she clearly says she'll never forgive him. It's incredible what people will believe as face-value. When someone in the public eye makes any kind of statement, large amounts of people are likely to believe it without proof. I was surprised to learn about that the white house was fired upon while Obama was in office. Luckily they were in Hawaii at the time.

In any case, when you are literally helping to lead the country and consequently changing the world, there are many sacrifices you'll have to make. Michelle took full advantage of this responsibility, in a positive way. Unlike the current first lady - who is trying to stop cyber bullying (which is an absolute joke since her husband is the biggest bully of them all - especially on Twitter, Hello!), and wearing jackets in public that says in large letters, "I really don't care do you?", Michelle used her intelligence, class, common sense, and charisma to drive positive change.

Ratings & Reviews

Short version:
Don't judge a book by its cover. Be careful of reviews for sometimes they are inflated and/or fake! Favor user ratings vs critics ratings (my opinion). Also, just because something is rated low doesn't mean you won't like it.

Long version:


<-- Amazon rating system

Recently I was in the market for a new set of earphones. My first stop was Amazon. Right near the top of the search page was exactly what I was looking for. It had a great price and great reviews! Not only was it rated above 4 stars, but it had more than 300 ratings. Looking at the reviews, everyone had something good to say about the product.

Almost immediately I popped it in my shopping cart. Having a little extra time on my hands, I figure I'd shop around a bit to see if I could find a better deal or better product. After looking through several similar earphones, none had  the features at the same great price with such good reviews, so I navigated back to the product page of the item in my cart to look it over one more time.

Looking at the reviews again, I spotted something strange. The first two reviewers had similar usernames. Wait... the first three... no... the first 15 reviewers had the same exact usernames, just with different digits at the end. All these were five star reviews. This must of been the same person somehow reviewing the same product many times, inflating the products rating!

This was on Amazon! One of the biggest tech companies in the world. It's 2019... how does Amazon not have code behind the scenes that catch this trickery!? Or maybe they are aware of it and just don't do anything to prevent it because it's not affecting their sales and profit. Sad! I almost fell for it. Good thing I spent the time looking over the reviews carefully this time. I don't always have time, however. Most of the time i'll glace at the review score and perhaps the number of reviews and I'll purchase the item shortly after. This time I just happen to notice the reviewers usernames.

This got me thinking about reviews in general. I personally never write product reviews. I'll write the occasional book or restaurant review, but that's about it. What about all those product reviewers? I wonder if they are paid. If that's the case, I'm wondering if they are honest reviews. How am I supposed to trust them? Great!


<-- Rottentomatoes.com rating system

This problem applies to other reviews as well. Movie and book reviews, car and other product reviews. Want to go see a movie? How often do you hear someone ask, 'how are the reviews?'. They will typically refer to Rotten Tomatoes.com or IMDB.com. If it's not well-rated, they might pass on seeing it. I think this is sad! Form your own opinion!

Luckily, many of these websites will have two scoring systems - one that is for 'critics' and one generated by users or audience. When I do look up ratings, I gravitated to the user-generated scores. Many times, there is a large difference between the scores of the critics vs the users. A recent example is for the film, 'Venom' with Tom Hardy. While this was in the category of big, blockbuster movies, I'd put it in the cult-classic bucket. You'd likely only enjoy it if you're a fan of Marvel Comics. Venom was rated 29/100 by 312 critics and 81/100 by 37,732 users. I personally enjoyed the heck out of this movie; I'd give it a solid 85/100.

This brings back a memory of when a cousin recommended a video game to me. I looked up its ratings and they weren't spectacular, so I gave the game a pass. It was a bit awkward when I told my cousin the reason I didn't try it out. I suppose I was a bit stuck-up back then and heavily swayed by the masses' opinion.

<-- Goodreads.com rating system

I'm also reminded of the novel, 'The Catcher in the Rye'. Often it is required reading for many grade-school students. It wasn't very memorable, so I re-read it a few years ago. I can't say I was very impressed. It's know to be a classic must-read. I give it a 3/5 stars. Surprisingly, it's rated lower than I expected on goodreads.com at 3.8/5 stars by 2,404,182 (2.4 million!) users. I imagine the 'critics' would rate it higher.

How I Save $

I've always been very frugal and was always taught to be careful with my money. I also don't live a lavish lifestyle, but since moving to Boston, I've become a hardcore penny-pincher keeping up with the cost of rent. Here's how I save. Instead of a ton of random bullets, I'll try to put them in buckets to keep things organized.

Personal Care

• I cut my own hair. I have been since high school. Hundreds of dollars in savings over the years....two haircuts a year @ $20 a pop - so savings of around $40/year.
• I use a safety razor w/ dual-edge razors (Feather brand) that cost about 25 cents per blade. I usually use the same blade about 3 times. Compare this w/ a $2 Gillette Mach 3 cartridge. 1/8th of the price!
• I shower/bathe infrequently - but enough in my opinion. This is often seen as poor personal hygiene or even Taboo! - but unless I work up a sweat, there's really no need. I save tons on shampoo and soap! Also, believe it or not, there are scientific papers that support this lifestyle. ;)

Food

• I buy in bulk whenever possible, although I do not have a Costco or Sam's Club membership. I am unsure if it is worth it for 2 people and 1 cat.
• In particular, I buy coffee K-Cups in bulk from a company called Angelino's. In large bulk, each cup is 39 cents. Not bad for a cup of coffee! Compare that with Starbucks!
• Speaking of Starbucks, I avoid them like the plague. I don't understand how people afford buying a coffee here every day! Crazy.
• I'm definitely not a coupon clipper; I simply do not have time for that - but I do try to check out the sales in the flyer as I  walk into a supermarket.
• I love the discounted shelf at supermarkets - sometimes referred to as 'manager's special' items. These are typically day-old bakery items. I'll often buy 8 bagels for $1.50 and throw them in my freezer. Bam, 20 cent breakfast!
• I try cook most nights instead of eating out. But, this is tough when you are working, going to school, and living in Boston where there are tons of delicious restaurants.....
• On the other hand, I do a lot of fasting and (mostly) unintentional calorie restriction - so this saves a bit on the grocery bill

Personal Finance

• I carry around some cash just in case, but I rarely ever use it. For one, it's hard to keep track of purchases and two, I'd be losing out on cash rewards from my 'swiss-army' credit card knife collection....
• Yes, I play the cash back credit card juggling game. It's really very simple and effective! I have about 4 cash back credit cards that I use for specific purposes. None of them have yearly fees and I always make $ every month just making regular purchases. And of course, I always pay my full bill every month to avoid interest fees. Citi Double Cash and Chase Freedom are among them.
• By the way, if you don't use a cash-back credit card, you are probably losing $! And not only because you don't get cash back form the credit card company. See this youtube video that explains why.
• I have a high interest online savings account through a bank called Ally. They are currently offering 2.2% APY. No yearly fees. And they pay you every month! Pretty darn sweet.
• I participate in my company's 401K matching program as well as a health savings account (HSA)
• I'm starting to look into other ways of investing... it looks like index funds are the safe route!

Entertainment

• I utilize the library whenever possible. I'm just discovering my local branch has video games! Can you believe it! You can borrow video games from the library. For free!
• I use a smart phone app called, Libby through the minute man library network. Libby has an excellent design and user functionality and allows you borrow audio books from you local library. For free! Gotta love free stuff.
• Up until recently, I was mostly a PC-only gamer. All the video games I purchases were always heavily discounted - typically on a service called, Steam or GOG or practically free on Humble Bundle. I recently caved and purchased a sexy red Spider-Man themed PS4. Even still, I won't buy a brand-new game or pay full price.

Bills

• I do not own a top of the line smart phone nor do I see the need. I have a 'mid-range' Moto G5 Plus that I purchases unlocked from Motorola that does everything I need a phone to do. Being unlocked, this allows you to use it on pretty much any carrier. 
• Instead of being on one of the super expensive contractual cell phone plans, I pay for what I use on a plan through a company called, Ting. My bill is roughly $20 per month.
• My wife uses a similar service from Google's called, Google Fi
• I try to play the haggle game with Comcast, threatening to leave unless they lower my bill - and it has worked a few times, but they are such a shady company. They also have somewhat of a monopoly. ALSO, their internet only plan is MORE expensive than their internet + cable plan. WHY!? 
• I also purchased my own modem/router (wifi device) so I don't have to pay them a monthly rental fee

Clothing

• I'm VERY picky when it comes to what I wear. I'm also very cheap, so I don't buy clothes that often. When I do need to buy something, I shop around quite a bit for the best deal.
• I once bought a full price pair of J-Crew chinos. Unfortunately, I absolutely love them. Unfortunately, they cost around $80 new. For my next two pair (diff. colors), I shamelessly bought them second-hand on Ebay. One of them took several months of scanning Ebay listings. BUT, it was totally worth it. I bought one pair for $15 and another for $30. 
• I pick my shoes like I do my life partner. They need to be VERY close to perfect. If I find a pair I like at a department store like DSW, I'll search elsewhere for a better deal. My latest pairs of shoes were purchased on Overstock.com! 

The Restless Wave: Audiobook Review

Dork score: 8.5/10

The 'maverick', John McCain died too early. 81 years is a long time, but this world would have benefited greatly with more time with this fighter. We need more politicians like him. We need more people in the world like him.

Yes, he was a republican (I lean to the left), but that's just a label.

He spent his life fighting this political divide. He didn't automatically agree with people from his party. He supported many bipartisan policies. He worked to bring people together for common interests. He was a fighter, a humble hero, and a man I deeply respect.

The book's intro/outro was read by McCain himself, but the bulk of the book was read by actor Beau Bridges (older brother of actor Jeff Bridges (True Grit), son of Lloyd Bridges (Airplane)). While there voices are fairly different, they are similar enough that I sometimes forgot McCain was not the one speaking. Beau did a great job with this.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this memoir. He's written several books before this one, but this was the last one he wrote just before his passing. At the time of writing he likely knew he didn't have much time left, so he was unhindered in his speech. He is naturally an honest person, but with little time left, he was free to say what he wanted with no fear of backlash. For the most part, I was expecting him to open up about American politics and his honest views on it - and that is mostly what I got. It is very refreshing to have an insider's view like this. There's only so much you can learn from headline news and Twitter posts.

He went into depth on his foreign policies and his political travels abroad - while very important, didn't really grab my attention. A good chunk of the book was devoted this this because I think foreign policy was his thing. Being a veteran and a Vietnam prisoner of war, this makes a lot of sense. I know next to nothing about foreign policy, so I can't say I agree or disagree with his opinions.

One thing I love about John is great effort to unite people with apposing views. One of his best friends was Joe Lieberman, a democratic/independent senator from Connecticut. Funny enough, they never voted for the same candidate for president. He touches on this topic many times in the book. spending time to understand people with different opinions can be very beneficial. The political climate today is extremely polarized. This is why we need more John McCains.

Let's not forget this wonderful person. Here's some additional material in support of my respect.

An epic John McCain moment when he defends Barack Obama during his presidential campaign.

https://youtu.be/mwRWpOEmMCQ

John's funeral/eulogy by Barack: (Trump was not invited to his funeral while Barack was asked personally by John himself to give a speech)

https://youtu.be/raDyWogvQ2Y

Time article:

http://time.com/5260228/john-mccain-pow-history/

"If you haven't gotten the book, it is really worth getting. You don't need to agree politically, but as an American and as a human being, I think this is a book everybody should read." —Whoopi Goldberg

“It is clear McCain wants this book—sure to be his last—to be a guide for standing up for oppressed people around the globe, as he has done for decades.” —CNN

About Me

I love books, but I don't like owning many of them. This is what libraries are for! I do own a handful of favorites however.

I have hoarding tendencies. I think it's genetic. I used to keep several years worth of paper receipts and carry them with me every time I moved. Luckily today I'm able maintain the hoarding digitally! But, yes, in general, I agree with the mantra, 'less is more'. 

I'm extremely picky when it comes to clothes and shoes, but quite the opposite when it comes to food. I will eat pretty much anything, but this is not to say I don't appreciate the finer foods. 

I'm very antisocial and would describe myself as an introvert, but I don't hate people.

I'm extremely frugal and go so far as to monitor and scan for certain items of clothing on Ebay for several months before making the purchase (on a used item).

I will only ever purchase a manual transmission car because automatics are so boring to drive. 

However, while I love driving, I hate driving among all the careless drivers on the road. Because of my frugality, ideally I'll end up somewhere I won't need a car to get around. While I am looking forward to self-driving cars for safety's sake, I will miss grinding through the gears

My last meal would be a toss up between a good burger and sashimi

I'm very skeptical by nature. I find it scary and alarming when people believe something so easily.

I believe ignorance is likely bliss, but willful ignorance is downright sad and infuriating.

I believe in the KISS philosophy: "keep it simple, silly", for  most aspects of life.

I find it strange when people strive to be 'normal' or like everybody else.

Giving people the benefit of the doubt is one of the best things you can do. Don't assume. Ask questions.

I don't put my eggs all in one basket. Obviously when it comes to investing, but also when it comes to spending money. I try not to support only one company. This part of the reason I like building computers so much. Almost every component is made by a different company: storage: solid-state drive (SSD) - Western Digital,  hard drive (HDD) - Seagate, power supply unit (PSU) - Corsair, graphics card (GPU) - ASUS, central processing unit (CPU) - AMD, random access memory (RAM) - G. Skill, motherboard (MOBO) - MSI, mouse - Logitech, keyboard - Kensington, Monitor - LG, Case/tower - Rosewill, Speakers - Creative, Operating System (OS) - Microsoft

I don't follow traditional holidays or even keep track of birthdays. I do however, participate in spontaneous gift giving. Along the same lines, if you contact me once or twice a year for either my birthday or a holiday, I prefer you don't contact me at all.

I can't for the life of me stick to a certain daily schedule. Every day is different and somehow I manage to live this way. I feel like if I did, I would feel too much like a robot.

Trendy fashion eludes me for the most part. I don't know why you'd want to look like everyone else. Along the same lines, I especially don't understand why you'd want to be a walking advertisement. As a younger kid, I used to wear this t-shirt with a giant Nike logo on the front. Looking back, I think I was desperately trying to fit in. I see these people carrying around these expensive hand bags and the only decoration on the entire bag is the brand name tiled across the entire surface. Typically, they are Coach bags. How does that look good? I suppose it's a status symbol. 

In reaction to a similar post in 2009:
https://muse-parade.blogspot.com/2009/03/25-things.html

1. Somewhat still true - although it's more like low light. Likely due to being so frugal I keep as many lights off as possible. I also sometimes wonder what it's like to be blind.

Fun fact: did you know blind people don't actually anything at all. Not even black. So simply closing your eyes doesn't exactly put you in the shoes of a blind person.

2. I definitely don't do this anymore
3. Still true
4. Not true anymore - although sometimes I just want to get rid of it
5. While nostalgic, this is not true. Too much of hassle. I do however enjoy using mechanical pencils from time to time - although I get pissed every time I smudge the lead.

Super short story: A college math professor asked us not to write in pencil because writing in pen would make us not forget our mistakes. Instead of simply erasing the mistake, we'd cross it out. He thought it would make it more likely we would't repeat the mistake.

6. I think I grew out of this. Funny enough, my wife and I kept our original last names. Whose name will our kids have? Better grab a coin.
7. Looking back, I should have raised my hand. I had nothing to be embarrassed about.
8. I finally got rid of it. The holes became too large.
9. My favorite color is yellow and I do know why. It's a happy color. And I am generally a happy person.
10. False. I love being alone. But yes, I am extremely introverted.
11. How nostalgic. I'll have to find some ROMS and try to recreate this experience.
12. Yup, I was devastated. 'You can't always get what you want'.
13. I still wonder what happened to the letter. However, looking back, I'm happy nothing came of it.
14. I've been sick, but nothing too bad.
15. Still true. I try to read too much between the lines.
16. Still an option, but we'll see.
17. Not true anymore.
18. True, yup. I think it had to do with the material. I have very sensitive skin. Now I have a pair of jeans I love - but I  would still be horrified to put them on wet.
19. I still hear people say this. Still don't understand why.
20. Yeah.. this happens from time to time, but I'm still here!
21. Not true any more.
22. First  part is true. Second part, not so much. I just don't have the time.
23. Yup,  true. I always enjoy telling people these useless facts.
24. Yup, true. I can still do it, but still only stuck at 3 balls.
25. Partly true. I hate daily routine, but it's important to have discipline. So you need to find a good balance.