T.G.I.F. Friday: Volume 179

Welcome to “Thank God I’m FI” Friday, Volume #179

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

Financial Independence/Work Life/Retirement Articles & Content

Why $100 in Your 20s is Worth $500 in Your 60s (Of Dollars And Data)  “What if I told you that $100 at 25 is worth $500 at 65, even after we adjust for inflation?”

Here’s how much the $40 trillion national debt is costing you — whether you have student loans, a mortgage or Social Security (Fortune)  “The U.S. national debt crossed $40 trillion on Aug. 18, a record high and a milestone that sounds abstract until you convert it into something more familiar: your loan payments.”

Video

As mentioned a few times in this section, if orcas had bigger numbers and they wanted to I’m convinced they could overtake us. Watch this orca ram a sunfish so hard it makes it’s head explode.  A very swift and handy way to get an instant meal that’s in bite-sized pieces.

What I’m Grateful For

That my first cold of any kind in 4 years was a mild one.  I picked up a little bug of some sort traveling back from France.  Not a major surprise since August is the height of tourist season in Europe which meant the train stations were mobbed and CDG airport was a mass of humanity. A day after getting home I had a mild cough and chest cold.  It was my first one in about 4 years, and before that other one I think I went 5 or 6 years without one. When I was obese I used to get sick multiple times a year, usually seriously. I’m not saying that I’m now the epitome of metabolic health or health in general, but I’ve experienced the difference between being obese and eating crap food versus being normal weight and eating healthy. My immune system is just better, period.

Lyrically Speaking

Workin’ 9 to 5, what a way to make a livin’
Barely gettin’ by, it’s all takin’ and no givin’
They just use your mind and they never give you credit

From “9 To 5” by Dolly Parton

I’ll admit I was never really a fan of Dolly Parton or country music for most of my life.  Starting in my 40’s as country music became increasingly crappier I started to appreciate classic country from the 1960’s and 70’s – Willie, Johnny, Merle, Waylon etc.  I realized that stuff was actually good, real songs played on real instruments with real stories.  But I still never dove into Parton’s catalog. 

Maybe it was because I remembered the song quoted above, 9 To 5, as kind of an annoying novelty song that crossed over from country to mainstream.  It was written for a movie of the same name in 1980 and even spawned a TV series.  It was a bit hard to get away from in the early 1980’s and at the time I was firmly a hard rock and metal kid – Zeppelin, Sabbath, Judas Priest, Rush, and the rocker side of things. 

I listened to the song for the first time in probably 40 years to write this section.  Compared to much/most of the auto-tuned and artificial popular ‘country’ music of today it’s not bad. It definitely has a catchy melody, and some of the wordplay is good. It was played by real humans with instruments and she sings it well, long before technology could fix bad notes in a vocal.

After tons of Dolly tributes started getting posted on music blogs that I follow, someone posted this short clip of Dolly, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt on the Dolly show in 1976.  She was a damn good guitar player!  Her fingerpicking in this clip is really really good.  And her long fingernails are an asset on her right hand, but a huge detriment on her left.  How she hits all the correct frets and hammers with those long nails on her left hand fingers is beyond me….  And she sings it perfect – all done live.  R.I.P. Dolly and thanks for the music. 

As for the lyrics above, regular readers know I mostly ditched the 9-5 in my 40s when I went part time and ditched it completely a few years ago. Life couldn’t be better.

Miscellaneous

3 minutes of sprinting does something 90 minutes of exercise does not – “A few minutes of sprinting may reshape the bloodstream far more dramatically than a much longer moderate workout.”  Dave’s Comment: When’s the last time you ran as fast as you can for 100 yards, or even 50 yards? Likely when you were a teenager or even younger. I’ve been doing sprinting workouts occasionally for the past few years. The evidence of their benefits is very strong. But CAUTION – if you haven’t sprinted at 100% effort in 20 or 30 years you should ease into it. Your ankles are likely not as strong as they were, you could damage soft tissue, or pull a muscle.  It’s a great workout, and the feeling of running all-out makes you feel like a kid again, just slower lol.

How Much of the Internet Is Written With AI? – “….we used the Common Crawl web archive to collect almost half a million English-language webpages from the past five years – starting a couple of years before the release of ChatGPT. We then ran the text of those pages through an AI detection tool called Open Pangram to see how many of them were likely written or substantially edited by AI.”  Dave’s Comment: This article is probably best read/viewed on a full PC as it has engaging and interactive graphs that appear as you scroll down. I don’t know if they work on a phone.

How to build trust by saying “I don’t know” – “It’s both easier and more beneficial than you may think.”  .

**Note To My Readers – I sometimes get complaints about ads on my blog (too many).  I’m kind of astonished that anyone browses the internet without an ad-blocker.  I haven’t seen ads in over a decade, and you shouldn’t either.  Please use an ad blocker, your life will improve 500%