Another TBB post featuring the most eclectic links around the web such as the best beaches, a quitting jobs guide, Global Entry guide, a visual history of Rickrolling, an amazing Alaska trip report, Greenland photography, file your tax returns early, a stunning graph with all biases out there, latest on Omicron and unvaccinated casualties, the weird world of estate sales, a crazy story about the Thai cave rescue, we made it to Kauai and the latest on miles and points happenings.
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TRAVEL
This is an amazing trip report: The Call of the Wild: Something Fishy’s Four Alaskan 2020 Trips. Must click.
Amazing photography: Freeze frames: the epic wilderness of Greenland – in pictures.
Love beaches: 25 Most Beautiful Beaches in the World.
PERSONAL FINANCE
I recommend filing your taxes early. But not without having complete information, do not guess on anything that the IRS will get a matching document! 8 Reasons to File Your 2021 Tax Return Early.
There is a lot of that going on so here you go: A Guide to Quitting Your Job. And if you really want to stick it to your employer, do this 🙂
You’re entitled to the full health care F.S.A. amount you elected to set aside — even though the money is taken out of your paycheck over the course of the year. If you elected to set aside $2,000 for medical expenses but have had only $1,000 taken out of your checks by the time you leave, you can still spend the entire sum. And your employer can’t make you pay back the difference. “An employer is stuck with the bill,” said Karen Burke, an adviser with the Society for Human Resource Management, or SHRM, a trade organization.
Investing may look easy, especially in bull markets, but it is not! Because of our brains. So many biases out there, here are all of them, wow! The Cognitive Bias Codex.
COVID-19
Your Local Epidemiologist is becoming a must read so I added it to the Blogs I Like. Here is the State of Affairs as of January 18 post.
Bottom line: The United States has reached (or is close to reaching) its case peak, which is a very welcome reprieve. But this only means we are halfway through the Omicron wave—there will be the same number of new infections on the way down as there were on the way up. Hospitalizations and deaths will follow. Nonetheless, vaccines continue to work really well. But it’s clear that a vaccine-only approach isn’t going to get the United States out of this pandemic.
Stunning Omicron facts in this Twitter thread.
ODDZ & ENDZ
Had no idea, what a story: Being Henri Matisse’s Assistant: The Story of Madame Lydia.
I also had no idea that this happened: The Surprise Rescue-Within-a-Rescue in a Flooded Thai Cave. In 2018, before divers could reach a famously stranded junior football team, they first had to save other lives.
Today this section should be renamed “I had no idea” lol. The Wild, Wonderful World of Estate Sales. I went to one many years ago and I found the whole thing too depressing to ever return…The estate-sale industry is fragile and persistent in a way that doesn’t square with the story of the world as we have come to expect it. Another industry permanently changed by the pandemic it appears…
I had no idea Rickrolling started this way: A Visual History of Rickrolling.
MILES & POINTS
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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: This hobby can ruin your credit and your life if you get carried away with it after the first big scores. It is perfectly okay to slow down and play at your own pace!
This is excellent! 50 Best Destinations To Spend Your Points In 2022.
An updated 2022 American Airlines AAdvantage Complete Guide. Start getting used to “loyalty points”. Which no other airline has copied…yet?
Next time you rent a car you can do it as an Elite and just drive better, yes you can. 2022 Guide Status Matching for Car Rentals.
Global Entry is great and here is The Complete Guide to Get Global Entry: How to Apply and Interview.
Some changes coming: IHG Rewards Refresh: Spire Elite Becomes Diamond & New Silver Tier. I could care less at this point…But if you insist on staying in Holiday Inns and tolerating no guaranteed real benefits at all, well, go ahead and register for the latest IHG Rewards Promo then to earn, please sit down, Double Points zzzzzz.
Taking this a bit further downstream, register for the latest Choice Hotels promo. They advertise it as earning a $50 gas card but it is really 8,000 Choice Privileges points. If you are a road warrior and staying in the middle of nowhere with no other hotel available, I mean, go ahead.
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.
Hello from Kauai! The Grand Hyatt here is amazing. And with that I am going to enjoy some time off….I may make a post next week, or maybe not, it depends. Here is a pic of the suite we are staying in and the lounge is a short walk…
Let me leave you with this…
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The estate sale piece is wonderful! Yipes.
Thanks!
Suite looks nice–hope you have a great time! Can’t wait to read the trip report!
I was surprised to see that AA suing TPG is the top read article at Bloomberg. That should drive traffic.
That graph by yourlocalepidemiologist is striking. I get tired reading about omicron being worse for kids etc. The focus from day one at Wuhan was and should have been on the elderly population.
I thought everyone copied DL. I’m surprised AA came up with their loyalty point system.
Looking forward to the Kauai report. Especially car rental issues and places to eat.
Cool Alaska trip and all but how many pennies did they save on diapers and toothpaste?