Home Budget Ledger: Fill & Download for Free

Dear Cameron, thanks for the question.The best budgeting habit you can develop is to BE AWARE OF YOUR MONEY. I capitalized that because most people spend 30% of their income with no idea where it went, and most don’t even know exactly what they earn.Write down all your income even if it does not come directly to you! I.E., you have a work scholarship that pays part of your tuition. Write down that income, note the expense of education, and take that off the tuition expense in your budget ledger. A businessman, mentor, and speaker, Jim Rohn, said: “Keep strict accounts.”KNow everything you spend, and everything you save, even if indirectly: I.E., taxes withdrawn from your check.The money you have and earn and spend is not infinite. Even though that is how most treat it, it is finite, and your ability to make money will end someday.Nathan W. Morris said: “When you borrow money, you rob your future self.” More accurate words were never spoken. Don’t borrow, except for a home.“Keep strict accounts,” and don’t borrow money. Know where your money comes from and where it goes.I wish you well.AW Stites II retired CFPHelping people to understand life, money, and Markets. Teaching people how to create an empowering Second Act or new life in ‘retirement,” and how to work online anywhere in the world there is an internet. (thelaughingretirement.com.)

Short answer: No, Heath Ledger's Joker is not overrated.Long answer:Heath Ledger's Joker is no fad. He isn't like this guywho continues to have his face on T-shirts all over the world decades after his death, with most of us not knowing who he really is.Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker is the most accurate, even slightly overreaching, live-action depiction of the true comic book villain that we love/hate so much. Among all the Jokers, Heath Ledger is second only to Mark Hamill. (You might see Heath Ledger's face when you think of the Joker, but the voice you hear is always Mark Hamill's.)Ledger's contribution to the Batman franchise is gigantic, but it is Christopher Nolan's vision of Batman and his nemesis that made Ledger come out so well. Ledger's Joker wasn't just more compelling than the others, but he made more sense. Here are some traits of the Joker that only Heath Ledger has manifested on screen.1. "I don't want to kill you. What would I do without you? You complete me."The greater the villain, the greater the hero. Christopher Nolan says that the Joker is the logical(?) response to a character like Batman. One is a symbol of order, the other is an agent of chaos. One is a guardian of justice, the other is an insane criminal. One has spent his life getting things under control, the other has only wanted chaos. Heath Ledger managed to personify this.2. "I'll show you, when the chips are down, these 'civilized' people will eat each other. You see, I'm not a freak. I'm just ahead of the curve."The Joker wants to see that everybody has a price, that everybody can be bought, including the Batman. What he does to Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight is simply proof that he can manage to corrupt the most shining symbol of order and justice. He wants Batman to see that the people he's fighting for are not worth his sacrifices. This is another important facet of the Joker's personality that only Heath Ledger has managed to pull off on screen.3. "Some people just like to see the world burn."The Joker in The Dark Knight is just intangible. He represents something the Batman cannot even comprehend. Batman, who knows a lot about criminal psychology, can't fathom this villain at all. The Joker in the animated series takes hostages and likes to see Batman run around, or he might rob a bank. The Joker in The Dark Knight is after nothing reasonable. He represents chaos, randomness, none of which are things that Batman will let go of. That's why he is a more challenging Joker than the one in other movies or the animated series.4. "This is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object."Christian Bale said that he always felt that Batman has a great curiosity towards the Joker character. He has never come across such a unique individual, who in many respects, is just like Batman. Both are individuals who will not compromise whatsoever. They are dark reflections of each other. Batman is extremely disciplined and logical, whereas the Joker is a complete raving lunatic. An interesting insight into Joker's madness comes from Dr Benjamin Karney (UCLA Psychology Department: Home). He says that, in Joker's view,...the fact that law can be easily broken means there is no law, and the fact that innocence can be easily destroyed means there is no innocence. That's a moral and intellectual challenge. He's not just threatening Batman physically, he's challenging the very premise of Batman. That's why it's such an epic discussion they're having.In other words, if Batman allows a character like the Joker to operate in his world, what does that say about his own sanity? Heath Ledger portrayed one half of the epic discussion that Dr Karney talks about.It is easy to consider that Heath Ledger's Joker might be overrated, because never before has a Joker character received so much footage on the screen. One could easily think that Heath Ledger became so popular only because The Dark Knight was a high budget superhero film. But for the reasons stated above, that alone was not sufficient to make the Heath Ledger memorable. Jack Nicholson and Mark Hamill made great Jokers, but Heath Ledger took it to another level and went all the way.Source: Batman Unmasked: The Psychology of the Dark KnightEDIT: For more details, check this video about the diary that Heath Ledger used to maintain as he prepared for his role.(The transcript can be found here - Heath Ledger's 'The Dark Knight' Joker diary revealed (video) - Batman News)

Question: “What were computers used for in the eighties? Why would people pay 5 grand for a fancy typewriter? What were modems used for before the internet?”By the 1980’s mainframes, such as the IBM 360 and competitors from Burroughs, Control Data, Honeywell, NCR, RCA, and UNIVAC were ubiquitous in American businesses and everyone was aware of their usefulness, not only for scientific computation, but for records storage and retrieval, accounting, personnel management, and inventory control.By the 1970’s word processors, such as those made by Wang were being used for other office functions.These word processors were extremely useful for businesses such as law firms that produced a large number of documents which often had to include the same legal language, “boilerplate”, slightly modified with inserted names, dates, addresses, or figures. The word processor allowed the legal secretary to use a template and merely insert the terms and names and dates specific to that filing or contract, rather than, as in the past, typing up every word of the complete document.Moreover the ability to correct, modify, or edit a document, rather than paying a legal secretary to completely retype it, more than justified the word processor’s cost for any busy office.As these machines became smaller and less expensive (In 1981 Wang dropped the price of its 1200 model to $6,400.) word processors found their way into the offices of small law firms and independent practitioners as well as onto the desks of professionals such as independent medical transcriptionists.In 1981 the relatively inexpensive (by 1980’s standards) IBM PC, priced from $1,565 to $,3000, and ink jet printers (which had become available in 1976) made computers available to small firms and independent professionals and businessmen. They were most often used for accounting, billing, records keeping and retrieval, and word processing. Their purchase could often obviate the need for an independent practitioner or small businessman to employ a secretary.The ability to easily edit text and store and retrieve copy on the affordable PC made this computer extremely attractive to professional writers. Technical, literary, ad copy writers, and grad students found the PC invaluableEven in the very large law firms PC’s began to appear on the desks of the associates and partners (although many of the latter did not know how to type!) as those law firms sought to lower back office costs and become more efficient. Lawyers were now expected to type their own work rather than dictating it or handing hand written paper copy to their secretaries to type.The marketing of PC’s for home use in the 1980’s tried numerous approaches…some of which failed miserably. This was, after all, an office machine, not an entertainment or communications/social media device. The primary sales pitches were: 1) The PC could be used as a home budget keeping device, i.e., an electronic ledger sheet and checkbook. 2) The PC could be used as an educational tool for one’s children. And 3) The PC could be kept on the kitchen counter where it would serve as an electronic recipe card box.The latter was never very successful. Keyboards did not work very well after batter had been spilled on them. But later a French company did try to sell a dedicated kitchen computer that had an armored keyboard.As for modems before the internet: There were bulletin boards one could log on to. These were slow and troublesome to use. And most of the information on them was technical. No rants from Fox News addicts, believers in conspiracy theories, ill-informed people with strong opinions, or self-absorbed types who really think you are interested in what they are having for lunch or cat pictures. The fact that bulletin boards were used almost exclusively by those who were well educated and technically knowledgeable meant that the information on them was more trustworthy and of better quality than that which one sees today on easy to access social media.