T.G.I.F. Friday: Volume 38

Welcome to “Thank God I’m FI” Friday, Volume #38!

Here are some things I really like and that you might too. 

Finance Articles

A Better Alternative to Resolutions and Goals (The Mad Fientist) – “There are probably a lot of reasons your New Year’s resolutions aren’t going to plan this year.”

Safe Passage And Road Blocks (Crispy Doc) – “Why was I granted safe passage into middle age while my crush received an arbitrary road block sentencing her to a premature death?”

Video

I’ve paddled hundreds of miles on my paddleboards over the years, but this has never happened to me.  Goals.

Who’s Inspired Me

Rickey Gates. 

Gates is a professional runner who’s taken a slightly different trajectory in his running career.  While most pros are expected to enter races and compete, Gates got bored with that and in 2017 set off to run unsupported across the country to actually experience it.  He realized that he – like most of us – lives in a social bubble of people who think like he does, and he wanted to connect with more diversity of thought.  His sponsor Salomon produced an awesome full-length documentary of the journey which I highly recommend. 

Then, realizing he also really didn’t know his own city very well, he decided to run every single street in San Francisco in 2019.  That’s 1100 miles of street!  It took him through all of the seedy places that he and his social bubble friends ignore or avoid.  Salomon also has a nice 17 minute film about this project. 

Gates inspires me because unlike so many today who either ignore those who are different or outright bully them and criticize them on social media, he seeks to understand them by meeting them.

What I’m Grateful For

That my local jurisdiction has been consistently choosing to reduce road lanes, reduce speed limits, and add pedestrian safety infrastructure such as bulb-outs and walk lights.  So many of us are sick and tired of dangerous vehicles dominating our public spaces, and we vote.

Lyrically Speaking

Don’t like the direction you are going to
Seems to lack the attention that it used to
Yeah you stay out all night and get high with your friends
Wonder why you don’t get one thing done
And you know I don’t like the direction you are going to

From “Directions” by Josh Rouse 

Change “get high” to “get drunk” and that was me.  I wish I had someone in my life back in the day to blast this warning out to me… 

Josh Rouse is one of my favorite artists, hands down. He rose quickly with his critically acclaimed first album Dressed Up Like Nebraska (<-affiliate link) in 1998. Then Directions off his second album in 2000 was his big breakout.  It landed on the Vanilla Sky Soundtrack, which is still regarded by many music enthusiasts as one of the best movie soundtracks ever.  He performed on Conan Obrien, and was gaining fame. 

But his brand of literate and melancholic rock only had so much potential in the superficial world of music fame.  As the industry was turned upside down by mp3s and file sharing in the early 2000’s he became an “underground” artist, but one with a huge following who still sells out shows today.  He’ll reappear in this section. 

As for me and my drinking, I posted recently about a year with no beer, and I’m actually on 14 months now.  My direction keeps going up, like the stock market 🙂

Miscellaneous

Email Is Making Us Miserable – (possible paywall) “In an attempt to work more effectively, we’ve accidentally deployed an inhumane way to collaborate.”

Think Your Metabolism Is Slow? Here’s What Affects How Many Calories You Burn Daily

Research Could Reset Accepted Timeline Of Humans Reaching North America – “Biomarkers In Ancient Alaskan Lake Sediment Could Influence Thinking About Early Beringian Migration”