In some ways, this is a book that is best summarized by its title. When we act as parents, Dr. Gopnik is telling us, we should think of ourselves more as gardeners than as carpenters. The relevant difference is that the gardener is focused on growth, but doesn't usually try to insure details such as exactly how many leaves grow on the plant or where, just that there be about the right amount of leaves growing. A carpenter, on the other hand, usually does a lot of rather precise measuring and cutting, insuring a certain final outcome where all the pieces fit together. Gopnik appears to be concerned that modern "parenting" (she dislikes the verb, by the way, preferring the noun "parent") is becoming too similar to carpentry in its aspirations, and not enough like gardening. Children learn best through play. That does not mean that unstructured environments are the best for learning (although they are likely better than overly structured environments). Rather, what works best is when adults provide scaffolding: rich environments which trigger curiosity about interesting topics, pointers for when children want to learn more, and perhaps most importantly, a playmate. Play is delicate though. As soon as play starts to feel required or like work, it will stop being play and learning will grind to a halt.

As an aside, one of the interesting things about reading is that readers have significant portions of their brain that are specialized for reading. This is despite the fact that reading has happened much more recently than could have been accounted for by biological evolution. The reading brain co-opted processing centers, such as visual centers which detect edges, to become so efficient that reading is both fluid and involuntary. The mind is incredibly adaptable. Did Richard expect all this – the book, the new album, the continued Carpenters love – to happen at age 75? When you see the good, look for the good and expect the good, you find the good and the good finds you. Ideally, your carpenter should have both liability insurance—which will protect your home against work-related damages–and worker’s compensation insurance—which will make sure you’re not held liable if the carpenter undergoes work-related injuries. Additionally, your carpenter should have a bond so that you’re protected, should he or she not meet the terms of your contract. Warranty My biggest take away from The Carpenter was the concept of beginning with the end in mind. So often we get caught up in the busyness of our jobs, our families, and everything else that is going on in our lives that we end up going along for the ride instead of being intentional about how we’re living.

Richard Carpenter Conducts ‘Carpenters With The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’

In a few shots of They Live, particularly in the scenes set in the alien compound near the end, you might notice the alien characters using strange, sci-fi-looking devices as communicators, and realize they look similar to props used as ghost detection devices in Ghostbusters. That’s because they’re the same props. According to Carpenter, the film was so low-budget that they rented various things from prop houses, and that’s how the got those devices.

Teaming with professional wrestler “Rowdy” Roddy Piper for the lead role, Carpenter and company set out to make a film full of alien ghouls (most of which were the same guy), borrowed props, and a fight scene that seemed like it would never end. The result is one of greatest cult films of the 1980s, which also happens to feature one of the greatest movie lines of all time. We have come here to chew bubble gum and give you 10 facts about the making of They Live … and we’re all out of bubble gum. 1. They Live was inspired by a comic book adaptation of a short story. When he's not running through airports or speaking, you can find him playing tennis or lacrosse with his wife and two "high energy" children. This is common advice in the professional development world; you will become what you feed your mind and I firmly believe it to be true. J. gives Michael a list of positive affirmations to say on a daily basis: Failure can be a gift if you don’t give up and are willing to learn, improve, and grow because of it. Failure often serves as a defining moment or test designed to measure your courage, perseverance, commitment, and dedication. Sometimes failure causes you to take a different path that is better for you in the long run. Sometimes we have to lose a goal to find our destiny. See failure as a test, a teacher, a detour to a better outcome, and an event that builds a better you. Failure is not meant to be final and fatal. It is not meant to define you. It is meant to refine you to be all that you are meant to be. See failure as a blessing instead of a curse. “Every struggle, every challenge, every failure is meant to help show us who we are in this moment and how far we have to go to become all we are meant to be.”I didn’t want this to be yet another one of those authorized biographies where this famous person never admits to making a single mistake,” Richard explains during a press junket for the book in September. “Nobody would even believe that. Nobody’s perfect. We weren’t perfect.” Carpenter has described They Live as a “primal scream against Reaganomics,” a story that uses a science fiction concept to pour on social commentary about the way he saw what was happening to the American middle class in the 1980s. In a 1988 interview with Starlog promoting the film’s release, Carpenter noted that he’d begun watching television more frequently while developing the story, and realized “it’s all about wanting us to buy something,” which further influenced his take on the material. I bought this book after reading 'Meet the parenting expert who thinks parenting is a terrible invention’ from The Correspondent — which appealed to me. Parents shouldn’t try so hard to mould the perfect child, but provide a safe space in which the child can grow up and explore and make mistakes. (This also matches how my parents raised me.) And that article gripped me in a way the book never did. Overall, I think it works. The chapters (and often, sections within chapters) are self-contained, so one could easily skip around the book to the interesting bits without losing context. Gopnik is also careful not to overextend the findings to fit the larger narrative of the carpenter and gardener. However, one can see how she composed the book and how all of it contributed to her view on parenting.

J. gives Michael great advice in saying “I want to encourage you to talk to yourself instead of listening to yourself. It’s a powerful tool to build your success.” Dr. James Gills completed six double Ironman triathlons. He’s the only person on the planet to do so. In a double Ironman triathlon, you swim for 2.4 miles, ride your bike for 112 miles, run 26.2 miles, and then 24 hours later, do it again. The late and great Nelson Mandela said it best: ‘I am fundamentally an optimist. Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say. Part of being optimistic is keeping one’s head pointed toward the sun, one’s feet moving forward. There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lays defeat and death.'” 2. Negative Thoughts are NailsTo build a masterpiece you must design it. Same with life. Too many people go through life living by chance but when you live by design and know the life you want to create you are able to create a masterpiece instead of a piece of junk. After becoming multi-million selling, Grammy-winning superstars with their 1970 breakthrough “(They Long to Be) Close to You,” Richard and Karen Carpenter would win over fans worldwide with a record-breaking string of hits including “We’ve Only Just Begun,” “Top of the World” and “Yesterday Once More.” According to Piper, the line actually didn’t enter the picture until the day they shot the scene, but either way both men agree that he wrote it. 6. They Live's subliminal messaging proved costly. Gopnik calls the entire verb "parenting" into question, pointing out that no other relationship in our life is made into an action word in this way. We do not "husband" our wives or "daughter" our parents. Gopnik highlights another possibility: that instead of viewing parents as carpenters, we instead view them as gardeners. We provide the rich soil, the structured environment suited for the individual needs of our children, but where and how they grow is up to the individual vagaries of the seedling. We cannot ordain the height of a tulip, or the number of apples our tree produces. Instead we provide them with what they need, and hope for the best. A good carpenter will provide a warranty on both the workmanship and the materials used in the renovation. This means he or she can vouch for the quality you’re getting. Experience