Another TBB post featuring the most eclectic links around the web such as the remarkable US economy, the amazing AI NotebookLM product, the Mossad exploding pagers operation, abandoned towns in the US, the best uses of Amex points, a revelation about them luxury soaps we all take from hotels and selected important developments in the crazy world of miles and points. See you tomorrow or Wednesday.
TBB Blog Mission: To Educate. Entertain. Inspire. In That Order!
Support TBB by applying for CREDIT CARDS or Buy Me a Coffee or click on LINKS
You like my blog? Send a link to someone please!
No clickbait. No sponsored posts. Also, no AI!
Follow me on Instagram and Subscribe to my YouTube channel
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
Big changes in the ever evolving blog this week. I am going to post more often and every post will be way shorter. I aim to post at least three times this week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I may try to squeeze Tuesday and Thursday as well but I don’t guarantee that. Why? To increase traffic and support clicks ( coffees sold and non existent lately credit card sales).
Still following the same format with less material in each section. Other bloggers post several times a day. We are all suffering with attention span issues and many bloggers have migrated to YouTube and TikTok. Due to my face, I am sticking with blogging for now lol. I am going to reevaluate if this change makes any difference and evolve from there.
For the record, this blog marks 12 years of life on November 12. In blog life standards, I am probably one of the oldest ones in existence. Think older than Jimmy Carter for comparison.
Thank you for reading my blog. I always appreciate all feedback.How do you like this format? Is this read too long still?
PERSONAL FINANCE
I think this article nails it: Let us pause to appreciate the remarkable US economy. It really doesn’t get much better than this, folks.
Pretty much everyone who wants a job has a job
Inflation is back to normal
Wages and productivity are both up
A lot of wealth is being generated
America is beating the world
And let’s not get carried away ok:
I do think that the day of reckoning for the federal debt and deficit is fast approaching; the window where big deficits can be used to supercharge the economy is about to close. But that is, necessarily, something we’ll worry about later. For now, let’s just take a moment to appreciate how amazing the U.S. economy is doing on all fronts. Times this good don’t come along very often.
Enjoy this while it lasts. And always diversify!
Instead of worrying what the Fed will do or what the next jobs report will be like, maybe focus on sticking with a regular investing plan now to get that amazing compounding miracle going:
SCAMS/CRYPTO/AI/TECH
Have you seen Google’s NotebookLM product? You feed it a bunch of PDFs and click a button and you won’t believe what it will do next. It will generate FAQs and guides and stuff like that. But that is not all. The most amazing thing it generates is a podcast. Between two people who sound so real, it is shocking actually. There’s a New Hit Podcast That Will Blow Your Mind.
Each show is a chatty, 10-minute conversation about, well, any topic you could possibly imagine. The hosts are just geniuses. It’s like they know everything about everything. Their voices are soothing. Their banter is charming. They sound like the kind of people you want to hang out with. But you can’t. As it turns out, these podcast hosts aren’t real people. Their voices are entirely AI-generated—and so is everything they say. And I can’t stop listening to them.
For the record, everything in this blog is picked by a human, me. And I look at the AI implications and I can’t deny I am worried about the “content” that will be generated and how it can be manipulated. Be careful out there and support humans lol.
You like my blog? Send a link to someone please!
ODDZ & ENDZ
I don’t get into much politics in my blog. Because it opens a can of worms. Especially when it comes to the long suffering Middle East area.
Nevertheless, this Mossad operation is something that will be studied for generations: Mossad’s pager operation: Inside Israel’s penetration of Hezbollah. New details emerge of Israel’s elaborate plan to sabotage Hezbollah communications devices to kill or maim thousands of its operatives.
In a feat of engineering, the bomb component was so carefully hidden as to be virtually undetectable, even if the device was taken apart, the officials said. Israeli officials believe that Hezbollah did disassemble some of the pagers and may have even X-rayed them.Also invisible was Mossad’s remote access to the devices. An electronic signal from the intelligence service could trigger the explosion of thousands of the devices at once. But, to ensure maximum damage, the blast could also be triggered by a special two-step procedure required for viewing secure messages that had been encrypted.“You had to push two buttons to read the message,” an official said. In practice, that meant using both hands.In the ensuing explosion, the users would almost certainly “wound both their hands,” the official said, and thus “would be incapable to fight.”
Amazing what you find deep in the ocean in the Tonga Trench: New Magnapinna Footage September 2024.
TRAVEL
Say what? The Truth About Those Luxury Name-Brand Soaps in Your Hotel Bathroom. Think you’re stealing the same MALIN+GOETZ you can buy in stores? Not quite. I better stop taking all them soaps and lotions then lol. Some blogger will take this and do a separate post with a sensational clickbait headline next smh.
Ready for this? Plan a Creepy Road Trip to These Abandoned Towns Across the U.S. Look at St. Elmo, Colorado…yikes!
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
Follow me on Instagram please. Subscribe to my YouTube channel.
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.
Please help the small independent blogs like mine continue to exist by supporting them with your CREDIT CARD clicks, thank you!
Going to do away with the former Section headings and make this section about my favorite hobby addiction much shorter as well. So I can post more often like the big shot bloggers and see what happens traffic wise #developing.
Good reference post if you are swimming in Amex points: Best uses of Amex Membership Rewards points.
This is an oldie video from many years ago: Hotel Check-In, Diamond Member. When we used to make fun of entitled elite hotel guests, enjoy it and if it made you smile, remember which blogger caused this and take care of your giraffe lol.
The weather in Michigan has been absolutely gorgeous, the summer does not want to end. Considering the weather carnage in so many places due to climate change, I think many people will be moving to places well suited to escape. Reverse migration. At some point we were thinking to buy a vacation place in Florida. So glad we didn’t, so many hurricanes!
I have been cleaning the basement and every day I toss something to the trash. I found some old photos, this is me during my first time in Malaysia when I met the in-laws. And had my first encounter with durian. It was rather traumatic. I mean the durian, not the in-laws. We look so young and innocent, you won’t believe what happened next!
I have created another page featuring my TOP CREDIT CARD OFFERS with a DETAILED explanation of the features of these cards. Basically, taking out a huge part of the regular posts into a dedicated area to make the blog posts way shorter. I will reevaluate if this makes any difference click wise.
I am going to favor personal over business cards in my rankings going forward, here are my four TOP OFFERS at the present time:
The #1 offer right now is the 60kCHASE Sapphire Preferred with $300 statement credit
The #2 Top Offer is the 75k Capital One Venture X card. It is amazing what you get for FREE with this card!
The #3 Top Offer right now is the 90k Chase Ink Business Unlimited card.
The #4 Top Offer right now is 75k CHASE Ink Business Cash card.
Learn more about these offers HERE.
Going to end this section with any credit card offer that expires within the next two weeks:
AMEX Marriott Bonvoy Business card: Oh, it is back! Up to FIVE free nights again. I am no fan of Marriott Bonvoy but hey, five free nights is five free nights you guys. Each Free Night Award certificate has a redemption level up of to 50,000 Marriott Bonvoy points, expire after one year and can be topped off with points for up to 15,000 additional points per night. The annual fee is $125. The minimum spend is $8k in the first six months. Earning structure is 6x on Marriott purchases, 4x on gas stations, cell phone bills, restaurants and shipping and 2x on everything else. You get 15 elite night credits, Gold elite status AND a Free Night Award cert at each card anniversary. Having Gold elite status earns an additional 25% bonus points on Marriott stays, 2 pm late check out and if the planets align with the moon a shocking room upgrade. No foreign transaction fees. 7% discount on rooms and premium internet access. Offer ends 10/16/2024.
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, Three 85k CHASE Southwest cards, 5 FREE Nights with AMEX Marriott Bonvoy Business, 15k AMEX Blue Business Plus and many more!
Learn How To Apply HERE to support the blog. Or email me if you have any questions about any cards, I’m happy to help, thank you!
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.
BONUS OFFERS NOTIFICATIONS
Would you like to be automatically notified every time a card comes out with (or is about to remove) an elevated welcome offer? If yes, I highly encourage you to sign up if you haven’t yet. And when you apply for a credit card from a link in these emails you help support the blog (and you don’t have to hunt down the link in my Credit Cards page!)
Elevated Card Offer Notifications
All you have to do to receive these free notifications is:
1. Click on the link above
2. Create an account
3. Subscribe
Remember, you are NOT allowed to ever carry a credit card balance!
Let me leave you with this:
Some of the links are behind a paywall. You can try to read them using Archive.is.
Thank you for reading my blog. If you enjoy it please forward it to a family member or friend. Or Buy Me a Coffee, thank you!
Feel free to contact me anytime at travelbloggerbuzz@gmail.com, all feedback is very appreciated.
George
You can receive each blog post by entering your email address below and then clicking on SUBSCRIBE below, no spam ever!:
This site may receive compensation for sending traffic to partner sites. Travel Blogger Buzz and Your Best Credit Cards may receive a commission from card issuers. This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not necessarily include all financial companies or all available financial offers. The editorial content on this page is not provided by any of the companies mentioned, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone.
Yeah, a post on Monday, where is everybody? Due to the enthusiastic response, cough, leaning to forego Tuesday/Thursday posts this week and stick to M W F. #Developing
You do not want to get an email at 5.45 am on a Monday morning from a subdivision neighbor warning of a water main break. And the address listed was at my house, phuck me! I rushed outside relieved to see an Ann Arbor Water Dept truck there observing the rushing waters. Then I had to go to my dentist appt at 7 am (just like 6 am flights, sounded good when booked) and when I left the water dept guy was no longer there leaving me to wonder will my basement be flooded by the time I came back? Anyway, I rushed back after my appt and now there are at least five huge trucks outside working to resolve the messy situation. No basement flooding issues…yet? I guess no showers anytime soon. There is like a war outside, so noisy.
Oh, I need another phucking crown and no tax deduction with it. Because I tapped out my FSA. And still don’t want to touch my HSA 🙂
To make the posts shorter, I now have a new credit card page with all the details of top offers now here:
https://travelbloggerbuzz.com/blog-reviews/top-offers/
The one page to use to apply is still here:
https://travelbloggerbuzz.com/credit-cards/
I need to get back to work to the job that pays the bills you guys.
See you Wednesday most likely, unless it is Tuesday.
I’m a big fan of the shorter post format! Thanks for keeping the blog going even though you seem a little down about it.
Thanks for the feedback.
After 12 years when there is no cc sale for over a month, wouldn’t you be down spending hours AND paying out of your own pocket to Educate.Entertain.Inspire? The coffees don’t cover the fixed costs of running this blog!
Thanks to P. for the 5 coffees today and the kind words. If there were no kind words over the years this blog would have been long gone.
The water main break is fixed by around 11 am. Big shout out to Ann Arbor City’s Water Main Dept. Glad to see my ridiculously high property taxes pay for something worthwhile 🙂
Uh, yeah, I would have lasted 6 months, tops.
Being west coast, not to mention retired so I sleep until I want to get up, make coffee, eat, etc. Sometimes it is a little while before I open emails, read, comment, etc. That said, I like the changes and do hope for more frequent posts, even if shorter because I know there will always be good stuff. Do not despair, it just takes time for people to read emails due to all sorts of reasons.
Oh, and decided to follow through on the stupid Barclay’s request for a 4506t since I had already incurred the hard pull(s) for the card I applied for but this is the last time with them and depending on how it goes, might just be done with Barclay afterward.
Enjoy the nice weather while you can and don’t go to Florida! Hope your Mom is doing ok, too!
Bronze for the desert of southern AZ…perhaps. Summer here seems never ending as we await with bated breath for Thanksgiving.
Whatever format you decide, I will happily abide.
Got you a cortado or two.
Thanks again Buzz, always greatly appreciated!
Nice photo!
Photo is great! Good times.
Thanks for the link to the Post piece on the Mossad operation. I bet it was part of a sequence in which made in person communication seem the only safe way to communicate. Then when the leadership was gathered the bunker busters came out.
@ Carl: Whoever said something like “When you are in the dance, u just got to dance along”. Or something like that. You started it with Barclay, u have invested some time with it, so might as well dance and win the deal
Or, if they give u more shit, u know this is the last dance lol. And thank you again.
@David: Thanks for the coffees wow. I think u may have covered all the coffees sold last month! When this blog gets discovered, my agent will contact you to share some of the bigly payout 🙂 Thanks, I may give it a go each day this week, I have some excellent material in the queue. Like a Canadian day trader farmer who had $326 Million trading Tesla options and lost it all in the end. I really want to see what happens if I post every day for a week and judge my blog post content quality…because I am my own biggest critic.
I went on, thank you again, much appreciated.
@Nellcat: Thank you.
@DML: Amazing accomplishment indeed. Also, airports started banning walkie talkies and pagers already. What happens if phones start exploding? There was a movie years ago abt a billionaire psycho selling a phone which carried explosives and then he started blowing them and heads up. I wonder if a Mossad dude got the idea from that movie.
Love the durian comment. My wife says it doesn’t smell so bad. I just stare at her in horror when she says such things.
Yeah, wife and son love it, me and daughter can’t stand it, it is weird. When I first smelled it, I thought there was a dog corpse nearby!