T.G.I.F. Friday: Volume 88

Welcome to “Thank God I’m FI” Friday, Volume #88!

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

Financial Independence/Retirement Articles

I Will Never Recommend Crypto (Financial Panther) – “Even if I’m wrong about crypto and it’s actually the best thing around, the simple fact is, investing in crypto is completely unnecessary to a successful investing career.“

When you’re stuck, just write… (Budgets Are Sexy) – “When you’re stuck, just sit down with a notepad and start writing… your brain has things it wants to say even if you don’t know what they are.“

Video

As an artist who might never get over the fact that it feels a bit douchy to refer to myself as an artist and who still struggles with imposter syndrome, I loved this short video about creating from Ira Glass..

THE GAP by Ira Glass from Daniel Sax on Vimeo.

Who’s Inspired Me

The Selfie Bear. 

I have two neighbors who are on far ends of the political extreme in either direction, and who don’t much care for each other. They’ve been in numerous ugly battles on our neighborhood facebook group (sigh…) and only put up with each other because they have to live next door to each other.  Last week I came back from a run to see them chatting on the street, while smiling and laughing.  “Why would they be laughing together, this is weird” I thought.  Turns out they were talking about the Selfie Bear. 

If you didn’t hear the story which went quite viral, a bear in Colorado took a likin’ to a wildlife camera operated by the city of Boulder and wound up being in over 400 selfies.   It’s good stuff, in some of them it looks like he’s checking for cuts on his neck after shaving.  My favorite is when he sticks out his tongue as if to say “I’m trolling y’all, haha, and I don’t have to go to work on Monday!” 

Anyhoo, I’m inspired by the selfie bear because he got my neighbors laughing together, which I thought would have been impossible.  Hell I couldn’t have done it.  So here’s a call to all wildlife – do crazy shit on those remote cameras and give us idiot humans something we can agree on.  

What I’m Grateful For

A new group of running friends I’ve been working out with who are badasses and are getting me out of my comfort zone.

Lyrically Speaking

Sometimes the best map will not guide you
You can’t see what’s round the bend
Sometimes the road leads through dark places
Sometimes the darkness is your friend

From “Pacing The Cage” by Bruck Cockburn

If you’re not familiar with Bruce Cockburn you’re definitely not from Canada.  He’s musical royalty with our neighbors to the north and if you ask me he should be here in America as well.  With 26 studio albums spanning 53 years his catalog rivals the best singer songwriters out there.  I first discovered him as a kid with his 1984 album Stealing Fire, which made him a semi-star in the U.S.  It included the hits “If I Had a Rocket Launcher” and “Lovers In A Dangerous Time” and got quite a bit of airplay on FM radio.  I followed him after that and would buy one of his records from time to time, always finding them enjoyable.  With lyrics like “I’ve proven who I am so many times the magnetic strip’s worn thin” from the same song above, he had me hooked.

And even though his music doesn’t usually highlight it, he’s a virtuoso guitarist as this short video details. 

As for the lyrics above, I’m not in a dark place currently but I have been many times.  It can be your friend, if you let it.

Miscellaneous

Obesity Shown to Affect Brain Aging in Mice – “The effects of obesity on aged mice have also been documented, showing a broad variety of harms to the brain, including gene expressions associated with Alzheimer’s disease.”

Getty sues Stability AI for copying 12M photos and imitating famous watermark – “Getty lawsuit against Stability AI could change how courts view web scraping.”

How did birds survive while dinosaurs went extinct?