Today I bring you amazing curated content warning you about Robinhood gambling, the corona fourth wave, learn about sneakerheads, 101 movie endings, we travel to Chernobyl, Santorini, Palos Verdes and show you how to get the hell out of North Korea, how to fight Covid at home, we revisit Dotcom survivors, bath in a festival of lies in some conference down south, we go deep into the ocean, visit some chill room to chill out and not much more, it was a slow weekend, you all have a great week and month!
TBB Blog Mission: To Educate. Entertain. Inspire. In That Order!
Support TBB by applying for CREDIT CARDS or visiting our LINKS or Donate
Changing things up a little bit as this blog evolves. The MILES & POINTS section has now moved toward the end to widen the appeal of the blog and hopefully not turn off first time visitors. The eclectic variety of content has absolutely NOT changed!
You like my blog? Send a link to someone please!
TOP PICKS
Top picks are for truly exceptional quality content.
This should be read by all, especially the young people amidst an investing environment that is lately looking like a giant casino! For the record, I agree with the Charlie about this, in case there was any doubt. The old man is a quote machine and the best one was this: ” I hate this luring of people into engaging in speculative orgies…Robinhood “may call it investing, but that’s all bullshit…It’s really just wild speculation, like casino gambling or racetrack betting. There’s a long history of destructive capitalism, these trading orgies whooped up by the people who profit from them.”
Charlie Munger Renews Robinhood Criticism, Likens App to Racetrack Betting
Best article I read on the pandemic since my last post…
5 Pandemic Mistakes We Keep Repeating
TRAVEL
If you have been around this blog since the beginning (back in 2012), you may have noticed that I have an obsession about delusional North Korea. So, this was perfect to be featured here: “North Korea: Russian diplomats leave by hand-pushed trolley“. The photo and video are priceless.
You also may have noticed that I like unique quirky blogs that march in their own beat so to speak. One of these blogs is Pacific Voyages. The writer has some wild life stories. And here is another one: Palos Verdes.
In the early 60s I lived in Palos Verdes. This is the stubby thumb of land hitchhiking along the California coast next to Los Angeles. Mostly this story is about death and destruction and as we meander north it concludes with an implausible tale involving pornography in the public square. Sit down. Strap in. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.
Amazing video! Postcards from Pripyat, Chernobyl. Video shot at ground level and from a drone, by Danny Cooke. Eerie and deeply affecting.
Best part about Santorini are the views. Other than that, not much 🙂 In Pictures: Stunning Astrophotography on Santorini.
COVID-19
So, in New Zealand they get one case and they go on a complete strict lockdown. And here we have bloggers traveling to Disney and Vegas, mask deniers and restaurants and movie theaters and gyms reopening and…Maybe the problem is us, even after so much death around us we appear to be totally numb to everything except how we behave. So, next time you see someone showing off on social media about how they are having such a great time in a different place, remember, the virus needs humans to infect and…mutate. The countries that handled this in a pure “tyrannical” fashion from the top down…seem to have recovered months ago and spared so many lives! So…this is going on and with the third one dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine approved we are finally at this…threshold to victory by going all out on vaccinations as the supply should be there in a month or two or three. As I told my family, it will be a MAJOR bitch if we get infected now that we are so much closer to the vaccine, maybe it is time to double down on safety instead! Do it for others around you damn it! Yes, you can make it…just think of being hooked on a ventilator to motivate you!
I hope we manage to avoid a fourth wave! The Coronavirus Is Plotting a Comeback. Here’s Our Chance to Stop It for Good.
Very interesting. 71 year old friend just scheduled appointment in a week for the vaccine. Nothing new or shocking. But, wait for it, she was told it is the Johnson & Johnson vaccine! Did they have some stored away and were just waiting for FDA approval? For the record, she felt a bit let down “Waited this long and I was hoping to get the Pfizer vaccine” she said…Yeah, the whole vaccine messaging has been so screwed up!
I had saved this for a while, hopefully it can help someone:
PERSONAL FINANCE
The author wrote an article about the dot com mania back in October 1999. And he revisits the people he interviewed in that article. There are a lot of good lessons here, be careful out there! Dot-Com Survivors Have Wisdom for the GameStop Crowd.
Every year Warren Buffet writes something in the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Report. And the media coverage goes wild. So, here it is or…wait for the numerous articles analyzing every…sentence.
I remember my son buying such shoes and me bitching about him wasting his money and he was dismissive of my rants because he would resell them and make money. I guess another sign of insanity going all around us. Sneakerheads Have Turned Jordans and Yeezys Into a Bona Fide Asset Class.
CURRENT EVENTS/POLITICS
They are STILL going on about the lie that the election was stolen. They are still kissing up to this horrible human being who turned out to be a sore loser! I am sorry I have to be blogging about this stuff again but, come on! Never forget January 6th, law and order my ass! Most importantly, never forgive all the sycophant enablers! A Festival of Lies. I have some conservative friends who still can not believe so many are still attached to this guy…even after all we have been through smh!
ODDZ & ENDZ
This is really cool: The 101 Greatest Endings in Movies History. Which one is your favorite?
We all need this, a chill room. The background for pandemic. Lots of long (10 hour+) videos of Mother Nature with quiet sound or sometimes music.
This is very cool and very disturbing. No wonder we are trying to get to Mars…pretty soon this planet may not be inhabitable? Beneath the blue: dive into a dazzling ocean under threat – interactive.
MILES & POINTS
HOT CREDIT CARD OFFERS: 75k CHASE Ink Cash, 75k CHASE Ink Unlimited, 100k CHASE Ink Business Preferred, 60k CHASE Sapphire Preferred, 60k CITI Premier, 65k CITI Business AA Platinum Select, 50k CITI AA Platinum Select, 20k CHASE Freedom Flex & CHASE Freedom Unlimited, 75k AMEX Platinum, 85k AMEX Business Platinum, 50k CHASE World of Hyatt, 150k AMEX Hilton Business & Hilton Surpass (and $150 credit!), 100k AMEX Hilton Card (and $100 credit!), 150k AMEX Hilton Aspire, $300 AMEX Blue Cash Preferred, $300 AMEX Blue Cash Everyday, 140k CHASE IHG Rewards Club Premier, and many more! Please use my Affiliate links.
If you do not see a credit card with my affiliate links, perhaps I could refer you? Contact me!
This section is about my hobby addiction of collecting frequent flyer miles and hotel points since the early 1990’s! Feel free to skip this section and parts of the next one if this is not for you.
Newbies: We were all newbies once. Feel free to ask questions in the comments or email me. It is okay to feel lost as the amount of information in this hobby is huge. And, a reason why many of us are addicted to it, is that it is ALWAYS changing! I think this is why we find it so exciting I guess. I learn something new every day in this space. As I earn miles and points every day, preferably at 5x rate… 🙂
Good reference to bookmark: Transfer Partner Master List.
Mentally, I am closer to booking some travel but not there yet…
BLOG BUZZ
We are now entering BLOG BUZZ, a section for advanced hobbyists and veterans of this fast imploding hobby and also a section where I go on and on about some stuff that happens in my life because it helps me feel better about myself.
The weather in lower Michigan has been great and we have had severe cases of spring fever break out…
Not much happening in the miles and points space over the weekends. Just your typical tabloid clickbait and plastic sales along with content that is just mostly forgettable, zzzzzzz.
Mile Nerd responds to Nigerian scammer, lol!
And I leave you with this…
Follow TBB on Twitter @FlyerTalkerinA2.
You can subscribe to TBB below, winners only!
Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
Doubling down here too, Buzz. Even after those second Moderna shots.
Apparently J&J has 4M doses this week alone. US vaccination should be “done” (for those who want it) by July and then it’s time for vaccine diplomacy. Mexico first!
One year ago, March 1st 2020. Dr Matt McCarthy’s assessment of COVID was spot on (on CNBC).
https://twitter.com/DrMattMcCarthy/status/1366391250836930562
Never forget how the CDC failed us.
The dealing with COV Rx was wonderful! Those lessons were so expensive to learn.
I take my first trip next week!
Thanks for the comments.
Dealing with some family issues in Greece right now…Not fun.
My left glute, commonly known as ass, is back hurting a lot again. 4 months now dealing with the same problem, I think God is sending me a message to retire from running…so much money blown on fixing it and no progress at all. %^$#@!
I have 51 Hyatt nights but can you guess how many nights I actually slept in a hotel?
Reading Frequent Miler’s post today about booking a RTW ANA award and a comment there made me lol:
>>>>>>>Just think! You can pick up every Covid variant in the World !
And the market is come back to being nuts…
TBBon!
Yeah- South Africa, India, Australia & NZ… Maybe add on a day trip to the moon while he’s at it?
Wife & I are both fully vaccinated & we found it too much of a hassle to book a weekend trip to Mexico
In next blog’s Top Pick I have a short movie about ICU beds…
Maybe all the bloggers traveling and blogging about it should watch it first…
Full Disclosure: I cried…it will move you.
Oh wait, maybe I should introduce it as a SHOCKING video (which it is by the way) to get more clicks…
A lot going on and this Ramsey dude keep posting here with stupid handle names and I am just deleting them by marking them as spam.
Hey Ramsey, go post on blogs you actually support. Like The Points Guy…oh wait.
14 months now and have not been more than 50 miles from my house. That, after 3.5 months in Europe.
My side-gig/hobby of eBay is going away because that company seems determined to squeeze every penny AND bit of fun out of selling there that they can. Now they want all my bank info to be handled by Mystery People in some foreign country. Ah, well. 24 years of off and on selling helped pay for some good stuff.
Credit cards…. Points and miles is having trouble keeping me interested lately. I can’t go anywhere (read: won’t) until I am vaccinated and most people wherever I go are, as well.
Thinking of letting a few cards fall by the wayside and just saving some Annual Fees, as well. It might be time to reconsider a lot of my former future travel plans.
Maybe it’s just getting older? I love this blog and I wish Mile Nerd would come back to posting far more often. I still read FM and a couple other pumping blogs but some of the stuff there is just so obviously shilling and/or ridiculous… It took me a long learning curve to realize that and wish I had found this blog a lot sooner than I did. Lessons here are good ones!
Hope you heal up, George. There are other things besides running and have you considered biking instead?
Take care!
Biden won, Trump lost…Because Trump is a LOSER! #losing
Ok “Andrew Cuomo”?
@ Carl: Thank you for loving my blog. Ramsey loves it too 🙂
Mile Nerd did the right thing. One day I am going to do the same…one day. Maybe when I get back to traveling…
I was into biking before discovering running. I had an amazing 2.5 year running stretch, I hate it to be over!
Right now, we are spending on daughter’s Companion Pass…tough doing it with a $2k line credit limit!
RIP ebayBucks!
Movie endings article was a fun read. Bunch that weren’t on my radar added to the queue.
I haven’t been more than 10 miles from my house since coming back from Sri Lanka 4 days after, as Biden says, “the last guy” made his chaotic announcement about flight cancelations and Rudy Gobert was touching microphones.
So maybe it’s just pandemic fatigue and needing something to look forward to but I am starting to plan some trips, but certainly nothing non-refundable. I still have a flight to Amsterdam scheduled for April, kicked down the road from a Virgin Atlantic booking originally for last July, which obviously wont be happening. There are some dates for this July that I might move to and take my chances. I did put flights in and out of Santiago on the books for a Patagonia trip this December / January. Surely that will be ok? Rational or not, flying before getting my vaccination just gives me the heebie-jeebies.
And Carl, I’m with you on cards these days. I keep letting them just close and not paying annual fees without traveling. I love how all the bloggers run their justifications for annual fees, not recognizing (or being honest) that they’re being paid back with their own money they already spent. It’s like the few sports GMs stuck in the pre-analytics world that pay for past performance as if it is predictive of future performance. Or is there some sort of stock metaphor that’s more apt?
Rudy Gobert will be remembered for that, sad!
I think a lot of that planning is happening. From an article I will post tomorrow, I think, looks like Hilton’s phone lines are insanely busy! I have a feeling we will see a massive reversal of the Covid friendly policies we have been given (for free, not that consequential to the airlines and hotels these days) and, wait for it, devaluations starting to happen sooner rather than later…
Tried to get a retention bonus from US Bank on the Radisson Rewards Visa…every year I say I will cancel but then the 30,000 points (or wait, maybe it is 40,000, I have the business card version) hits and I change my mind…
For Greece to be fully vaccinated I learned the country must increase its vaccination rate to a MUCH higher rate than it is doing AND keep it up for 9 straight months and, just like that, my trip to Greece in mid November is not looking as safe as originally thought…