Another TBB post featuring the most eclectic links around the web such as US & foreign stocks in the S&P 500, pig butchering expands, New Age BS, a reference site for food lovers, the 2024 Southwest Companion Pass, the 36 best hotels according to National Geographic, more fun maps and selected important developments in the crazy world of miles and points. See you tomorrow I hope.
TBB Blog Mission: To Educate. Entertain. Inspire. In That Order!
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This blog started way back in 2012 focusing on my crazy hobby addiction of traveling with frequent flyer miles, hotel and bank points. It has since evolved to curated posts featuring the best web content along with my commentary.
This is a one man labor of love operation, enjoy it while it lasts.
BLOG HOUSEKEEPING
The experiment to post every single day this week continues. Why? To increase traffic and support clicks ( coffees sold and still non existent credit card sales ). I will reevaluate the blog direction afterwards.
Thank you for reading my blog. I always appreciate all feedback.
PERSONAL FINANCE
I have been thinking lately about international diversification in stock portfolios. Maybe Jack Bogle was right all along remaining unconvinced that international diversification was necessary. And he claimed that investing in the S&P 500 index provided sufficient diversification. So, maybe we financial advisors need to lighten up a bit on this issue? Visualizing the S&P 500’s Domestic and Foreign Revenues:
Everyone uses LinkedIn for business. With the demise of Twitter/X, it is getting a lot more attention in social media. And posts are becoming cringier. I mean, take a look at this post, WTF! Do you know what is even more sad? This post got over 30,000 likes and over 4,000 comments (to help with the engagement algorithms of course). So much fakery online these days smh…
SCAMS/CRYPTO/AI/TECH
This is becoming a major problem around the world: The Pig Butchering Invasion Has Begun. Scamming operations that once originated in Southeast Asia are now proliferating around the world, likely raking in billions of dollars in the process. When you receive a text from someone out of the blue, just block them. And keep blocking. They won’t stop, just like political fundraising texts, they just keep coming.
…pig butchering operations that are offshoots of the Southeast Asian activity have emerged in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and West Africa.
In 2023, the FBI had reports of nearly $4 billion in losses from the scams, and some researchers put all-time total global losses at $75 billion or more.
The wealthy, authoritarian city of Dubai, within the United Arab Emirates, has emerged since 2021 as the largest epicenter of pig butchering outside Southeast Asia.
“Fraud is not being seen as a serious crime—not like drugs, not like terrorism,” Humanity Research Consultancy’s Chiang says. “Globally, we need to start shifting that idea, because it creates the same kind of damage, and maybe even more because the amount of money we’re talking about is so huge. We are racing against time.”
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ODDZ & ENDZ
Let’s have some fun in this section with the two links below:
New Age Bullshit Generator. Sit back, click on ‘Reionize Electrons’ and get ready to laugh.
Namaste. Do you want to sell a New Age product and/or service? Tired of coming up with meaningless copy for your starry-eyed customers? Want to join the ranks of bestselling self-help authors? We can help.
Just click and the truth will manifest
Click the Reionize electrons button at the top of the page to generate a full page of New Age poppycock.
You’ll get some profound-sounding nonsense here.
Enjoy!
Are you a foodie? Or do you just like food? Do I have the link for you! FoodReference.com. This site has been around since 1999 and I had never heard of it. It is never too late you guys. Every day it lists the following:
Today’s food quote
Today’s Food Holidays
Today in Food History
A few featured Food Festivals
Food Trivia Quiz
TRAVEL
Oh no, not another ‘Best of’ List. But this one is by National Geographic: The World’s 36 Best Hotels.
My absolute favorite subject in school was Geography. But I wanted to make a living so I went into business in college. Anyway, I love looking at maps like these here: 30 Interesting Facts About The World Represented In Unconventional Maps.

The discount is now $60 if you sign up for ETF using code TBB below. You can be first!
SAVE $60 FOR 2024 THE EXTRAORDINARY TRAVEL FESTIVAL
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This blog started with a focus on miles and points and travel. It has evolved since then. Everything below deals with the hobby of collecting frequent flyer miles and points and maximizing your travel experiences. If you are not interested, you can stop here, thank you.
The latest edition of one of the best deals amazingly still alive after so many years: 2024 Southwest Companion Pass Complete Guide.
This is good advice in general: 9 Reasons You Should Avoid Booking Via Travel Portals Like the Plague. I am not sure “plague” is appropriate here. With more statement credits out there and just plain ease when booking the darn trip by using them bank points…I think this will go on. But good to be beware of what could happen and be prepared.
Get ready to start seeing a lot more properties with the City Express name brand. No, it is not Accor, they have been awfully quiet adding brands lately, weird. This one is being added by Marriott. Marriott Expands Select Service City Express Brand To The US & Canada.
Fun SAS Airlines Eurobonus promotion, all you need to do is fly 15 Skyteam airlines before the end of the year to earn 1,000,000 miles. If I was 20 years younger, based in Northern Europe somewhere and with a lot of time on my hands I may have looked at this closer to game it. But not going to happen at my advanced age lol. Oh, it brings back memories of that infamous Latin Pass promotion.
I haven’t gardened my reservations. I always leave it for…tomorrow.
There are some in this hobby who have taken it to levels you can not imagine. Some are doing it full time, I guess they have a lot of time on their hands. Arguably, way less as many doors have closed over the years. But they always probe and find new ones. When a door opens or however that saying goes. No time for me to do that with so much going on in my life. If I was retired maybe. Some bigger philosophical thoughts for advanced hobbyists: The Tipping Point.
One of the hardest transitions between casual churning and becoming a heavy hitter is the switch from earning miles and points to earning cash back. The transition should happen when you’ve earned all the miles and points you can spend cover your travel for the next 12-18 months, because:
- Miles and points devalue by 30-50% in the span of years
- The programs with the best redemptions change over time
- Points don’t earn interest
- The value of an unredeemed point is zero
- Most of us don’t travel as much as we think we will (even if we travel a lot)
Yesterday I hit my weight low this year. I celebrated with tacos from a Mexican food truck about a mile away from my house.
The home driveway and path to the front door concrete project is almost done, it is supposed to be finished today. We’ll look at upgrading the master bathroom and/or the kitchen next year. Spending money on your house never ends. Grateful we live in Michigan and don’t have to endure hurricanes like Milton. Best of luck to all affected in the Tampa, Florida area, I hope you have evacuated!
I am not going to see the new Joker film. I am getting sick of sequels, how about something original for a change?
If you are looking to get the Southwest Companion Pass today is the last day to apply for the 85k personal Southwest Airlines cards, see below. Trying to make the first credit card sale here desperately since September 4th wow, unbelievable!
MILES & POINTS
HOT CREDIT CARD OFFERS: 90k CHASE Ink Business Unlimited, 75k CHASE Ink Business Cash, 75k CAPITAL ONE Venture X, 75k CHASE United Business, 60k CHASE Sapphire Preferred AND $300 Credit, 150k AMEX Business Platinum, 200k CAPITAL ONE Spark Cash Plus, 150k CAPITAL ONE Venture X Business, $1,000 Cash Back CHASE Ink Business Premier, 5 FREE Nights with AMEX Marriott Bonvoy Business, 15k AMEX Blue Business Plus and many more!
As of today, I have burned 1,859,617 miles/points year to date (1,148,286 in 2023) and have 4,212,205 miles/points in the bank.
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Let me leave you with this:

Some of the links are behind a paywall. You can try to read them using Archive.is.
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Feel free to contact me anytime at travelbloggerbuzz@gmail.com, all feedback is very appreciated.
George
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Gold! For the Pacific Northwest!
I broke my diet yesterday with TACOS, too! Home made except for making the tortillas. YUM!
Thanks for all the good reading! Loving the daily stuff but I gotta ask….where do you find all these jewels? And how?
Have a great day!
Still here Buzz
You can’t get rid of us that quickly
Hi, back at the dentist, had to replace a crown so back I go on my phone again…Read this amazing interview from an amazing actor now in his mid 80’s, wow. I think it just took the lead spot in the Oddz and Endz section for tomorrow.
Buzzing never stops, I will not quit until I get that one cc sale this month, sad lol.
Milton looking a bit better?
Marking DML tardy today
Indeed! I’ll bring a note from my students!
Hi George,
In honor of your 12 years of blogging, I created an audio conversation of today’s post:
https://notebooklm.google.com/notebook/f1f5f99e-5917-4cf8-ada7-cc566fdb3367
(I promise you, this is not a rickroll.)
Seriously, this is easy and fun to do: https://blog.google/technology/ai/notebooklm-audio-overviews/
Wait, wrong link! The one I posted was testing it with Summa Theologiae. Here’s the TBB link: https://notebooklm.google.com/notebook/f1f5f99e-5917-4cf8-ada7-cc566fdb3367/audio
WOW!!!!!!
Did u feed it just my post or the actual articles mentioned?
Going to feed it how the new $150 Amazon Visa bonus is THE credit card to get RIGHT NOW, seeing my chance to overtake the big bloggers, this it Nick, going to make all you nine long time supporters rich! Think charter flight to the Maldives baby!
Ok, I need to calm down. Just mind blowing, they sound so cool!
Just fed it your post. But yeah I’m blown away by the capability.
Incredible!
Two midterm exams today to proctor … now all
I have to do is grade them …
The booking advice is interesting. The risk is real but there are
advantages … I went to Santiago on a Delta partner booked
through the Chase portal using the Ultimate Rewards I’d
accumulated with the Chase multiplier. I got the Delta miles / medallion qualifying dollars.