Cleverness is a gift while kindness is achoice. Gifts are easy—they're given after all. Choices can be hard.

    I got the idea to start Amazon 16 yearsago. I came across the fact that the Internet usage was growing at 2,300percent per year. I'd never seen or heard of anything that grew that fast, andthe idea of building an online bookstore with millions of titles was veryexciting to me. I had just turned 30 years old, and I'd been married for ayear. I told my wife Mac kenzie that I wanted to quit my job and go to do thiscrazy thing that probably wouldn't work since most start-ups don't and I wasn'tsure what to expect. Mac kenzie told me I should go for it. As a young boy, I'd been a garage inventor. I'd always wanted to be an inventor, and she wanted meto follow my passion.

    I was working at a financial firm in NewYork City with a bunch of very smart people and I had a brilliant boss that Imuch admired. I went to my boss and told him I wanted to start a companyselling books on the Internet. He took me on a long walk in Central Park,listened carefully to me, and finally said, “That sounds like a really good idea,but it would be an even better idea for someone who didn't already have a goodjob.” That logic made some sense to me, and he convinced me to think about itfor 48 hours before making a final decision. Seen in that light, it was reallya difficult choice, but finally, I decided I had to give it a shot. I didn't think I'd regret trying and failing. And I suspected I would always behaunted (萦绕)by a decision to not try at all.

    After much consideration, I took theless safe path to follow my passion, and I'm proud of that choice. For all ofus, in the end, we are our choice.

    “Don't you have any toys you want to share?” I asked my son during our church's Christmas toy drive. “What about all those things in your closet you haven't used in years?”

    "I don't have anything,” he said. “We're so poor.”

    We're only “poor” because we refuse to buy him the phone he wants for Christmas, which would also require a monthly texting charge.

    “You're not so poor you have nothing to give,” I found myself saying to him, a phrase my mother often used on me.

    At work the next day, one of my students said, “I didn't spell your name right,” as she handed me a Christmas gift—a box of chocolates. No wonder she hadn't spelled it right—I had only worked at the center for a couple of months, and my name is not easy to pronounce, even in English, which is this woman's second language.

    I hadn't expected a gift—I worked at an adult education center, where we dealt with people who struggle economically. When I was hired, my boss told me she tries to keep snacks around the center and cooks “stone soup” once a week, where whoever can bring something in does, because “You will hear growling bellies here. They give their food to the children before they themselves eat.”

    And yet these people, so grateful for a second chance at getting an education, unable to sometimes even afford the gas money to come in, manage to do something for us nearly every week. Some bring in food; others do chores around the center. They help and encourage one another, and us. They give what they are able to give.

New York City Tour Guide

CENTRAL PARK PHOTO TOUR $79

With Sam L.

    Come to shoot in the Central Park of New York that will allow you to take home digital postcards. This tour is a great introduction to Central Park and combines views of the bridges, lakes and skyline.

    At each stop of the photo tour, I will provide you with explanations around photography(摄影)，camera settings etc. You will be able to put these tips to good use immediately.

NEW YORK RUNMNG TOUR $50

With Sebastien B.

    Love running? Love New York? Do you want to see the sites of the city? Contact me and we'll take a special tour. All you'll need to do is to put on your sports shoes and we'll be off. I'll show you my favorite running spots along the Hudson River or north of Central Park and away from all the tourists.

    If you re thinking of training for something, I'll give you the explanations and tips to make the best of your time training!

GREENWICH VILLAGE FOOD TOUR $75

With Manhattan W.

    Discover unbelievable places to eat. This is the real Greenwich Village gastronomic(美食的) experience. Along the way, find out how the village has kept its unique character throughout the years, from the Dutch and English controlled periods to today.

Tour runs every day from 12:30 PM—2:30 PM.

NEW YORK BY NIGHT PHOTO TOUR $115

With Sam L.

    We have already prepared NYC for the most unique points for you. During the -hour walking tour, we share these special comers of NYC.

    The night tour teaches night photography techniques while discovering the “darker” side of the city that never sleeps： the UN headquarters, 42nd street, Grand Central Terminal, the Chrysler Building, Rockefeller Center and Radio City Music Hall.

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    The fence was long and high. He put the brush into the whitewash and moved it along the top of the fence. He repeated the operation. He felt he could not continue and sat down.

    He knew that his friends would arrive soon with all kinds of interesting plans for the day.

    They would walk past him and laugh. They would make jokes about his having to work on a beautiful summer Saturday. The thought burned him like fire.

    He put his hand into his pockets and took out all that he owned. Perhaps he could find some way to pay someone to do the whitewashing for him. But there was nothing of value in his pockets—nothing that could buy even half an hour of freedom. So he put the bits of toys back into his pockets and gave up the idea.

    At this dark and hopeless moment, a wonderful idea came to him. It filled his mind with a great, bright light. Calmly he picked up the brush and started again to whitewash.

    While Tom was working, Ben Rogers appeared. Ben was eating an apple as he walked along the street. As he walked along it, he was making noises like the sound of a riverboat. First he shouted loudly, like a boat captain. Then he said “Ding－Dong－Dong”,“Ding－Dong－Dong” again and again, like the bell of a riverboat. And he made other strange noises. When he came close to Tom, he stopped.

    Tom went on whitewashing. He did not look at Ben. Ben stared a moment and then said: “Hello! I'm going swimming, but you can't go, can you？”

    No answer. Tom moved his brush carefully along the fence and looked at the result with the eye of an artist. Ben came nearer. Tom's mouth watered for the apple, but he kept on working.

    Ben said, “Hello, old fellow, you've got to work, hey？”

    Tom turned suddenly and said, “Why, it's you, Ben! I wasn't noticing.”

     “Say—I'm going swimming. Don't you wish you could? But of course you'd rather work—wouldn't you? Of course you would.”

    Tom looked at the boy a bit, and said, “What do you call work？”

     “Why, isn't that work？”

    Tom went back to his whitewashing, and answered carelessly.

     “Well, maybe it is, and maybe it isn't. All I know is, it suits Tom Sawyer.”

     “Oh come, now, you don't mean to say that you like it？”

    The brush continued to move.

     “Like it? Well, I don't see why I shouldn't like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day？”

    Ben stopped eating his apple. Tom moved his brush back and forth, stepped back to look at the result, added a touch here and there, and stepped back again. Ben watched every move and got more and more interested. Soon he said，“Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little.”

    Tom thought for a moment, and was about to agree, but he changed his mind.

     “No—no—it won't do, Ben. You see, Aunt Polly wants this fence to be perfect. It has got to be done very carefully. I don't think there is one boy in a thousand, maybe two thousand, that can do it well enough.”

     “No—is that so? Oh come, now—let me just try. Only just a little.”

“Ben, I'd like to, but if it isn't done right, I'm afraid Aunt Polly ”

     “Oh, I'll be careful. Now let me try. Say—I'll give you the core of my apple.”

     “Well, here—No, Ben, now don't. I'm afraid …”

     “I'll give you all of it.”

    Tom gave up the brush with unwillingness on his face, but joy in his heart. And while Ben worked at the fence in the hot sun, Tom sat under a tree, eating the apple, and planning how to get more help. There were enough boys. Each one came to laugh, but remained to whitewash. By the time Ben was tired, Tom sold the next chance to Billy for a kite; and when Billy was tired, Johnny bought it for a dead rat—and so on, hour after hour. And when the middle of the afternoon came, Tom had won many treasures.

    And he had not worked. He had had a nice idle time all the time, with plenty of company, and the fence had been whitewashed three times. If he hadn't run out of whitewash, Tom would have owned everything belonging to his friends.

    He had discovered a great law of human action, namely, that in order to make a man or a boy want a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to get.

    Sam Allred suffers from a rare and incurable kidney (肾脏) disease. One day, when his sister was playing a song repeatedly, Sam sang along. His sister thought it was funny so she recorded it and posted the video online. The video — and Sam — became a hit. Only 8 years old at the time, he couldn't have expected the response.

    "The Doctors (The television show) called and wanted me on their show so they paid for me to go to California," says Sam, now 13, "and we got to stay in a hotel where all the movie stars stayed."

    During that visit to California, Angie Allred, Sam's mother, had an idea about Sam writing a children's book. Together, she and Sam wrote Opening Hearts, which tells Sam's experience of living with a chronic (慢性的) illness.

    "I wrote the book to teach people to be kinder to people," Sam says. Moreover, Sam wanted to send pillows to sick children staying in hospitals around the country to make their stay more comfortable, an idea that came from a time when he was in the hospital.

    "A few kind boys came in with pillows and they gave me one and it meant a lot to me that someone cared about kids in the hospital," says Sam.

    Angie thought of starting a nonprofit organization to provide a way for people to contribute money to realize Sam's ideas. She named the nonprofit Kindness for Kids.

    Since then, Sam has taken pillows to children staying at Providence Hospital in Anchorage.

    Sam's father, Scott Allred, owns a small business that contracts (承包) shipping services with FedEx Ground. He asked the company for help.

    "FedEx Ground learned about Sam's pillow project," says Erin Truxal, manager of public relations for FedEx Ground. "We thought, 'What a perfect way for us to get involved.' "

    The company provided shipping services for Sam to ship about 5,000 pillows to hospitals.

    Sam wants to send more pillows to all of the children's hospitals in every state. His goal is simple: "Kids in the hospital as happy as they were before they got sick," he says.

    LOS ANGELES, Nov. 12 (Xinhua)—Legendary comic book writer Stan Lee has died at the age of 95, according to media reports on Monday.

    Lee, born in Stanley Lieber on Dec. 28, 1922, began his career in 1939 and joined the Marvel Comics in 1961.

    He is considered as one of the most legendary names in the history of comic books and the leading creative force behind the rise of Marvel Comics. He co-created iconic fictional characters such as Spider-Man, X-Men, the Avengers, and many more.

    Lee's characters often have super powers, but they also have weaknesses. They were humans, not gods. They not only struggled to save the world, but also to pay their bills, make friends, and hold jobs. This made Marvel comic book heroes stand apart from its competitor DC, which produced the seemingly perfect heroes like Superman and Wonder Woman. Those superheroes have been adapted into blockbuster films, most of which were made after Disney acquired Marvel in a 4-billion-dollar deal in 2009.

    In a statement, Bob Iger, chairman and CEO of the Walt Disney Company said Stan Lee was as extraordinary as the characters he created.

Marvel also praised Lee on its website by putting on one of Lee's famous quotes, which goes, "I used to be embarrassed because I was just a comic-book writer while other people were building bridges or going on to medical careers. And then I began to realize: entertainment is one of the most important things in people's lives. Without it, they might go off the deep end. I feel that if you're able to entertain, you're doing a good thing. "

Praise from his Hollywood peers and colleagues was generous. President of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige appreciated Lee's unparalleled impact on the industry. "No one has had more of an impact on my career than Stan Lee, " Feige said. "Our thoughts are with his family and the millions of fans who have been forever touched by Stan's genius, charisma and heart. "