T.G.I.F. Friday: Volume 84
Welcome to “Thank God I’m FI” Friday, Volume #84!
Here are some things I really like and that you might too.
Financial Independence/Retirement Articles
A Post-Mortem for a Crypto Exchange: Is FTX worse than Bernie Madoff? (Early Retirement Now) – “I wanted to write a short post pointing out that FTX is worse than a Ponzi Scheme“
Is Now A Great Time To Retire? (1500 Days To Freedom) – “I think most (me included, hence this post) spend waaaaay too much time thinking about our numbers. What if we thought about life instead?“
Video
Watch a vehicle set a world record and go 137.9mph from wind power only!
Who’s Inspired Me
Camille Herron.
Herron broke the women’s 100 mile running record on November in the Jackpot Ultra Running Festival, only to be told she didn’t. She ran 100 miles in 12 hours 41 minutes 11 seconds – a staggering 7 minute 37 second pace – only to be informed later the course distance was wrong and she came up 716 feet short. In the end she didn’t get credit due to a seemingly inexcusable sequence of screw ups from both the race organizers and the USATF. She took the whole thing gracefully if you ask me. She then went out and threw down a time of 13 hours 2 minutes at the Desert Solstice International last week, stetting the women’s 100 mile track record.
Herron mind you is 40 years old. She’s a total badass and an inspiration.
What I’m Grateful For
That after contemplating a move to follow a job offer, one of my closest cycling friends will be staying in the D.C. area.
Lyrically Speaking
Welcome to your life
There’s no turning back
From “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” by Tears For Fears
Those two opening lines…. so simple and true. “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” was released in March of 1985, and became one of Tears For Fears’ biggest hits on their massive album Songs From The Big Chair. I was a teenager and for me life was royally fucked up. I vivdly recall laying on my bed listening to this song (out of my Emerson boom box for those who remember such things) and being depressed at those first two lines – because I wanted to turn back. I wanted out. The lyrics in conjunction with the soothing but melancholic opening notes just filled me with a sense of dread. There’s only forward, there’s only more of this misery. And on top of it they’re informing me in the song that everybody – all of these people who are against you and making your life miserable – they’re going to keep on doing it ‘cuz they wanna rule the world.
When you’re already down on the ground and getting kicked, the last thing you wanna hear is that the people kicking you are getting more determined, and greater in number. Over time as I slowly healed from my childhood and became a somewhat functioning adult, I started to like the song more and more. It reminded me of what I overcame. There’s a psychology to why we love melancholic songs, and when I hear “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” now I understand it more than ever. I recently learned to play it on guitar and it’s not too hard to sing, and it’s my favorite warm up song
Miscellaneous
Twin study links exercise to beneficial epigenetic changes – “If genetics and DNA sequence were the only driver for biology, then essentially twins should have the same diseases. But they don’t.” (Dave’s comment: Yet another study showing that most disease’s and conditions such as obesity are lifestyle and behavior related, not genetic destiny)
The Exceptionally American Problem of Rising Roadway Deaths (possible paywall) – “Why other rich nations have surpassed the U.S. in protecting pedestrians, cyclist, and motorists.“
It’s Official: JWST Breaks Record For Most Distant Galaxy Ever Detected – “Light that has traveled for over 13.4 billion years to reach our neighborhood of space has been confirmed as originating from the earliest, most distant galaxy detected yet.”
Did you read Sequoia’s fluff piece on SBF that ERN linked to in his article? Interesting on many levels.
Congrats on being a somewhat functioning adult! Right there with you man. I remember having similar thoughts in my youth when listening to GNR’s take on “Knocking on Heaven’s Door”, and feeling the weight of what seemed like an inevitable conclusion. It’s good to be past that. A few decades of perspective sure helps.
Do you have any recommended tutorials for playing “Everybody Wants to Rule the rule”?
Did not read the Sequoia piece but might check it out. as for the Tears song, I’m a huge Rick Beato fan and he did a “what makes this song great” episode on the song a while back. I always loved the song but since it has lots of production and keyboards I never bothered to look into the guitar parts. After he showed the basic chords I then went online and looked up different versions of the tabs. This one is a good version to me that’s pretty easy to play. Happy jammin!
Wow I would definitely not handle that debacle the same way as Camille, kudos to her for being a boss!
I’d like to find more cycling buddies for the Spring, did you find them on meetup or just organically on solo rides?
I met most of my cycling friends from just showing up to group rides over the years. As I became a regular and others did too it became impossible to avoid them and next thing you know you’re spending 3 hours with the same folks every Sat or Sun morning. It’s hard to not become friends at that point 🙂
i selfishly love when my friends decide to stick around. we were recently contemplating a move of several hundred miles and the whole thing seems daunting. it’s pretty good right where we are now.
It is kinda selfish but oh well. For me in the DC area it’s a big deal as this is the most transient place in America. More people come here and leave here every day than anywhere else because our job market is so great. But keeping long term friends is hard as the likelihood of anyone moving away is always pretty high.
I think FTX (or at least SBF) was worse than Madoff because of the fact he was (allegedly…still innocent until proven guilty) using stolen money to make campaign donations and attempting to buy influence. It’s still unbelievable that the day before he was to testify before congress, he gets arrested…Hmmm. Was he going to spill the beans on all the politicians who he was greasing the palms of? It all wreaks to high heaven!
At least there are still great people like Camille Herron! Thanks for sharing her story!
Yeah I think we have another massive scandal of Enron/Madoff proportions or larger that books will be written about and movies made. And like you said if politicians are involved it’ll only get worse, and I’m sure they are involved.