Words by Larry Kusik and Eddie Snyder and Music by Nino Rota

A time for us, some day there’ll be
When chains are torn by courage born of a love that’s free
A time when dreams so long denied can flourish
As we unveil the love we now must hide

A time for us, at last to see
A life worthwhile for you and me

And with our love, through tears and thorns
We will endure as we pass surely through every storm
A time for us, some day there’ll be a new world
A world of shining hope for you and me

For you and me

And with our love, through tears and thorns
We will endure as we pass surely through every storm
A time for us, some day there’ll be a new world
A world of shining hope for you and me

A world of shining hope for you and me

Love Story Theme Song

Where do I begin
To tell the story
Of how great a love can be
The sweet love story
that is older than it seems
The simple truth about
the love he brings to me
Where do I start
Like the summer rain
That cools the pavement
With a patent leather shine
He came into my life
and made the living fine
And gave a meaning to
this empty world of mine
He fills my heart
He fills my heart
With very special things
With angel songs
With wild imaginings
He fills my soul
With so much love
And anywhere I go
I’m never lonely
With him along
Who could be lonely
I reach for his hand
It’s always there
How long does it last
Could love be measured by the
hours in the day
I have no answers now
But this much I can say
I’m going to need him
’til the stars all run away
And he’ll be there

By Shirley Bassey

Speak softly, love and hold me warm against your heart
I feel your words, the tender trembling moments start
Were in a world, our very own
Sharing a love that only few have ever known

Wine-colored days warmed by the sun
Deep velvet nights when we are one

Speak softly, love so no one hears us but the sky
The vows of love we make will live until we die
My life is yours and all becau-au-se
You came into my world with love so softly love

(instrumental interlude>

Wine-colored days warmed by the sun
Deep velvet nights when we are one

Speak softly, love so no one hears us but the sky
The vows of love we make will live until we die
My life is yours and all becau-au-se
You came into my world with love so softly love

Andy William’s lyrics

I planned to blog something else; however, instead of doing that I grabbed the smartest 401 k book that I had borrowed from the library yesterday with the intention to read it so I can easily fall into a nap.  After a few chapters I started to feel uneasy because the book made me fearful of my plan so I got up to retrieve my file and started to compare with what the book said.

Disheartening!

I post here some notes I took as I read the book.  See if you can pat yourself in the back because you are financial investment savvy or learn from mistakes as I do.

The Smartest 401k Book You’ll Ever Read by Daniel R. Solin (Financial Columnist for the Huffington /Post and International Bestselling Author of The Smartest Investment Book You’ll Ever Read)

On the flap of the book it says:

If you are one of the 70 million Americans counting on your 401(k) or 403(b) plan to usher you into a comfortable old age, you are likely to be bitterly disappointed.  Most of these plans are not designed for your benefit.  They reward employers, brokers, investment advisors, fund managers, insurance companies, unions, and lobbyists.  Employees are stuck with high-cost plans filled with undeperforming investment choices that make it extremely to reach their retirement goals.

Choose lower operating cost.

Do not go for active manage fund .

Invest in Index funds.

Ignore the hype in the financial media.

Market returns are superior returns.

Simply aim for market returns using index funds.

Don’t engage in stock picking or market timing.

Don’t try to pick “hot” mutual funds.

Do not confuse activities with progess.  Activity increases costs, which can reduce returns.

If you donn’t take risks, you will only earn saving account returns

Your portfolio should consist of a mix of different classes of stocks and bonds.

Standard deviation measures the risk of your portfolio.  Make sure your portfolio’s standard deviation isn’t too high for your tolerance for risks.

Diversifying your portfolio offers protection against risk.

Chapter 12:

Hold investments in a group of funds that, in turn, have investments in all the securities (stocks or bonds) in particular index.  Hold investments in funds that represent three broad indexes:

1.      An index fund representative of the U.S stock market in its broadest terms;

2.      An index fund representative of the international stock market in its broadest terms; and

3.      An index fund representative of the U.S. bond market it its broadest terms.

When constructing a portfolio, nothing is more important than your asset allocation.

I always sleep on my left side.  If I wake up at night and want to know the time I will lift up my head, just slightly to pass his shoulder and glance to the right.  There I will see the red glow of the digital alarm clock.  If I look straight, out of my bedroom window, above all the trees without leaves, very far up in the sky, I always see a lone star if the sky is clear.  Even when there is moon light I still can see it.  Bright.  Twinkle.  If I look at it for a long time, I may see it moving up and down or tilting side way and tilting back.  Sometimes I see two stars, but that is because my eyes are blurry by sleepiness or maybe I mistake with the light of a plane.  The same star but it has two names.  In the evening before I go to bed, it is “Hôm” or evening star.  When I wake up its name is “Mai” or morning star.  I forgot the name of the poet, but remember a verse “Buổi tối anh là sao Hôm, buổi sáng anh là sao Mai, và em mơ theo anh suốt sáng suốt chiều.”  Literally it means “In the evening, you are evening star, in the morning you are morning star and I am dreaming of you from morning to evening.”

This morning I did not see my star because it was cloudy.  My back yard had a thin layer of snow but my drive way was totally black.  I sat on the train, snow fell steadily.  The trees were white.  The tracks were black at certain locations such as the bottom of the rails or the gaps of the ties where snow could not get in yet.  The air was gray and misty.  But in the city, streets were wet and snow flew horizontally.  At lunch time I stared outside of my window, Manhattan was dark.  All the buildings were behind a dark grey curtain.  A whole day I was very tired.  I wanted to find a corner with a thick blanket and doze off.

When I got home, snow fell steadily and more heavily. It was wet, soft, and fluffy.  All the trees and bushes were white.  I snapped a few pictures as the light was waning.  There were about two inches of snow on my car.  As I cleaned it up I tested the winking lights.  My 106000-mile car is not very healthy.  If it is too cold or too hot the flash lights do not work.  They worked, tonight.

In Vietnam people have to go up to the mountain and only once in a while up in the mountain they see snow.  Some people will be very happy because it is a special occasion for them.  Local mountainous people will be miserable with the cold because they do not have warm clothes.  This year here we have a lot of snow.  It snows almost every week.  The snow last week still covered the ground.  There is so much shoveling and I am always afraid of falling and break an arm or a leg.

Everyone have different feeling toward snow.  Orhan Pamuk  in “Snow” saw snow as pure, innocent and poetic.  Khaled Hosseini in “The Kite Runner” talked of the muffle noise, and fluffy snow tapped into the window made him feel peaceful.  The snow in the Lord of the Rings of Tolkien always made people think of misery, war, and death.  Robert Creely heard the caw of a raven and the sound of snow falling out of the branches and his feeling about previous situation changed.  Another poet said the difference of the prose and poetry is the same as seeing a bird gradually covered by snow.  One minute it looked like a handful of snow.  The next minute the handful of snow flew up into the sky.  Some people are happy to see snow.  Others think of all the cleaning and shoveling await tomorrow morning.  Snow brings us all that is within it: beauty, danger, hard work, peace, etc.