I bring you another batch of eclectic links along with my incendiary commentary such as the case against Bitcoin, JetBlue flights to London, taxes in retirement, best Hyatt hotels, travel to Russia and abandoned places, visualize the state of debt in the US, the best two articles about Covid I track down for you to save you time, the best electric truck was unveiled by Ford, Sinead O’Connor is back in a way, learn about psychology, the Capital One cards continue to improve and a lot more! Enjoy the weekend everyone, thank you for reading and your support.
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TRAVEL
Every single blog posted about this like it was the second coming of Jesus. It is not. Good to see though for the added competition going forward: JetBlue Has Released Their Flights to London!
I am going to make a prediction: There will never be a Hyatt built in this place lol. Surviving in Isolation, Where the Steppe Has Turned to Sand. In the Russian republic of Kalmykia, the encroaching desert has transformed the landscape. “Nature,” one farmer said, “is forcing us to leave”. Archive.is link.
I like the photography, I was always drone to deserted places, maybe my inner to escape my problems? 🙂 Nature Resurges to Overtake Abandoned Architecture in a New Book of Photos by Jonk
LOVE this tree! Found here.
![Previously posted this beautiful pine tree covered in snow, now here it is uncovered, Daedunsan, South Korea (OC) [3000x1800] - Author: NathanielMerz on reddit](https://64.media.tumblr.com/9738a565cb2fc0a248cb81e6fbc0cc44/666662c91062bbdc-80/s1280x1920/87ba9ac17383583e3addd8a36b52ee45a4157e96.jpg)
PERSONAL FINANCE
Good resource to bookmark, updated: Taxes in Retirement: How All 50 States Tax Retirees.
I have no idea what will happen to bitcoin in the short term and you know my long held stance against it and all the other crypto coinshit. Actually, has anyone come up with SHITCoin? I mean, DOGE shitcoin has its day or…whatever. The Case Against Bitcoin. Peter Thiel’s former portfolio manager says that the crypto narrative is built on half-truths and a nonchalance about the security provided by the nation-state. Good read.
There are some dudes out there who have been screaming about the Fed printing money for years and hyper-inflation is just around the corner, blah blah blah…It is 2021 after a once in a century pandemic that stopped the economy in its tracks a year ago and it is normal to get supply bottlenecks to proliferate a little bit until…things get back to normal. Actually, like everyone else, I don’t know what the hell is going to happen and I don’t pretend I have a crystal ball, nobody does! I say stick with your plan, you have one, don’t you? Visualizing the State of Household Debt in America.
COVID-19
How this whole aerosols vs droplets “debate” started… The 60-Year-Old Scientific Screwup That Helped Covid Kill. All pandemic long, scientists brawled over how the virus spreads. Droplets! No, aerosols! At the heart of the fight was a teensy error with huge consequences. Must read. Archive.is link.
This is fantastic and, as I have been saying all along, we are having such a hard time with this virus because it is, wait for it, NEW. As in novel! Novelty Means Severity: The Key To the Pandemic. Nothing in a pandemic makes sense except in the light of novelty. And as I always said in my blog, we are going to be okay. Another must read.
Covid numbers continue to drop in Michigan and the state continues to open up more as each day goes by. I use this site to keep track of the vaccine progress: COVID-19 Vaccine Dashboard.
ODDZ & ENDZ
My wife has been working at Ford and we drive Ford cars. Bill Ford Jr. lives in Ann Arbor and many years ago I officiated his daughter’s high school soccer game and I gave her a yellow card for dangerous play, I hope he does not remember me lol. Anyway, the company is transforming itself into an electric vehicle powerhouse while Tesla gets all the glory. For now. Here is the latest piece of the transformation: Ford F-150 Lightning revealed: an electric truck for the masses. Doesn’t it look gorgeous? Compare it to that butt ugly Tesla truck…I rest my case! 🙂
This is a fantastic Twitter thread about 9 psychological elements by Dr. Julie Gurner. Sent this to my kids. When I do this, I suggest you do too. Here is the first one:
1 – Be Action Oriented. The person who responds to emails, rolls up their sleeves when required, and jumps into opportunities. While others are deliberating…the bias toward action will push your career ahead faster than your peers.
Do any of you remember Sinead O’Connor? That song “Nothing Compares 2U” is still ingrained in my brain after all these years! And I still remember when she tore up a picture of the Pope in Saturday Night Live back in 1992! And then she just vanished. Well, many mental health trials later and she is back. Kind of. Still wild inside and looking a little bit differently these days, to say the least. But all I can say is Respect girl! We are all different! Sinead O’Connor Remembers Things Differently. The mainstream narrative is that a pop star ripped up a photo of the pope on “Saturday Night Live” and derailed her life. What if the opposite were true? Archived link.
MILES & POINTS
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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: Some commandments in this hobby: Bank points are more flexible than pure airline miles and hotel points. Do not buy miles and points during “sales”. For the love of God, do not redeem your points on stuff like toasters or TVs or other merchandise. Every credit card click is a click of support, choose WISELY. Ignore blogs that keep selling to you their bank merchandise.
Bloggers will say ANYTHING to sell you a credit card. The latest pump piece from a self-proclaimed thought leader called the Chase Sapphire Preferred card the “one indisputable best credit card”! Wow, I have seen some ridiculous terms used to pump plastic and this one is first! At the same time, earning 80,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points AND a $50 statement credit for groceries spend is definitely a BIG score, so here is my own REFERRAL link for this card, thank you!
You got to give some respect to Capital One Bank for not giving up the fight and continuing to improve its card offerings: Capital One keeps crushing it: Now 3% grocery and more on both Savor and SavorOne. Maybe one day I will circle back to this bank but I am not ready yet to divorce Chase lol. The Savor cards are also available with my links, thank you for supporting the site. I have no ads or sponsors here, I am pretty sure they do not know I exist. And I like it that way so I can focus on the content to educate. entertain and sometimes inspire YOU!
Register for the latest Choice Hotels promo: Stay Twice, Earn 8,000 points.
This hobby is in its final legs…Can’t believe I posted about a Choice Hotels promo just above LOL.
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.
Just as I was thinking about that, especially for Hyatts with the best beach to get away, Frequent Miler posts this: Best Hyatt Category 1-4 Hotels & Resorts. Great timing!
Some really good advice for our hobby: Weekend Wisdom 2.0.
I have burned 293,500 miles/points year to date. I still have 4,203,345 to go!
I am going all out to get rid of my pain due to mild arthritis/bulging disks/sciatica…you name it, I have it. Physical therapy, chiropractor, full body cryotherapy and now starting massage again. New physical therapist is really good and has been stretching my ass, sorry, glutes a lot lately…and oh boy, those muscles need it so bad! Oh, I signed up for a 10k race in August smh. Not seeing myself going back to the awesome running stretch I had for 2.5 years. Looking back it was kind of epic. Never Give Up you guys.
Is it only me or is this new play-in format of the NBA Playoffs confusing as hell? As time goes by I am less interested in sports. Now just down to my Greek hometown team AEL in Larisa, Greece which sadly was relegated to the Second Division. The team is owned by an attorney dude who makes Trump look sane, I am not joking! Maybe when this blog gets recognized and sells out I go back to Greece and buy the team. It is actually my dream. And so it was to land on the Moon but I don’t see that happening either lol.
My daughter flew out of an airplane. Went sky diving that is. At 18. I have been thinking about it for years but every time I say this is the year I read about an accident and postpone until next year. It is what it is.
Let me leave you with this:
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TBB
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GUWonder on FT just pointed out that some bloggers have taken PPP loans… 😀
Link?
FM stated so and he deserves it. But the big boys? Could not afford caviar anymore or what? 🙂
For the record, I have not taken any PPP money PERIOD!
Go into the EMPR forum on FT
https://projects.propublica.org/coronavirus/bailouts/loans/matthew-klint-dba-award-expert-live-and-lets-fly-7594087310
“Insurance Agencies and Brokerages” for the industry. Seems legit.
Insurance agencies and brokerages”…yikes!
Thanks for the cov-19 links. The factionalism in science has predictable consequences. As we see.
Someone said…science is messy. Add the novel virus and cartoon characters in charge and…you get a national ongoing tragedy sadly.
Excellent post today Buzz, much appreciated. Have a great weekend and good luck with the healing process!
Thanks and you too!
I did the Jumping Out Of An Airplane thing several years ago. The adrenalin rush was AMAZING!!! The only reason I haven’t done it more times is that it was spendy and I am cheap. Though now I know I might be able to get points while plummeting, er, parachuting safely, to the ground! Really worth trying, at least once. Seriously!!
As far as Choice Hotels, I am seriously thinking about diving into that program. Especially after my recent road trip on back roads and through smaller places where I might have been able to capitalize on their deals. Traveling solo and not caring about “Free Breakfasts” and stuff like that, it kinda makes sense for an old and somewhat non-picky fart like me.
As far as getting new cards, once I finally got down to 0/24 (Yes, really), I picked up your Chase Sapphire via renewal. Now my plan is, at least for now, to shoot towards a new card every 6 months or so and eventually always be at no more than 4/24. Finally, trying to think long-range!
Hope the new massager helps with all the pain. Readjusting to shorter runs and not doing the big ones is a tough situation, but you have to do what works! Best of luck on all of this and the upcoming 10k!
I plan to trademark “Points While Plummeting” to title a future blog on skydiving.
Or maybe one to comment on each credit card sales blog that goes out of business.
One day I will do it…one day 🙂
Got plenty of hotel points, no Choice Hotels for me anytime in the near future. It may work for you!
Thanks for picking up the CSP! There are some juicy business Chase cards fyi.
Just had my massage person handle me with her magic hands, first time after Covid hit. It was emotional. And my left glute needed her hands…she called the muscles there “angry”. I must have really done a screw up job on these muscles after so much running, wow.
@ Sam: It is amazing not many have gone out of business. Never underestimate how many newbies are out there! Ingy could have just mailed in a post and sat back and could still be getting paid but he sold too early!
Fantastic links as always. I’m so far behind – just read your link from Elle (Mother, Son & Wartime Secret) and wow, was that a story.
Yeah, it sure was, I remember reading that one and….just had to finish it!
Unsolicited medical advice because we care about you: stay hydrated to help reduce disc pain. If you are thirsty it is past due.
thanks for the reminder…great advice…If I did this regularly before I got thirsty it would not have been so bad and so long! Just had another cup of water!
Ty for the link to the article on COVID, novelty means….
You’re welcome. I have more tomorrow…maybe if I get to it.